Buxton crew problems (18/11)

[northwichcat]

So far today Northern have cancelled the

07:49 Piccadilly-Buxton
09:22 Buxton-Piccadilly
10:24 Buxton-Piccadilly
10:49 Piccadilly-Buxton

All due to 'a member of staff being unavailable'

Bullocks Coaches are operating a rail replacement service on the 10:24 Buxton-Piccadilly.

Other Manchester area routes don't seem to be having staffing issues which would suggest to me the issue is an insufficient number of Buxton based crews being in work today.

 

[Southern Dvr]

No other depot signs the road then?

 

[northwichcat]

No other depot signs the road then?

Piccadilly do but not all Piccadilly crews sign all routes out of Piccadilly.

 

[Thomas6187]

So far today Northern have cancelled the

07:49 Piccadilly-Buxton
09:22 Buxton-Piccadilly
10:49 Piccadilly-Buxton

All due to 'a member of staff being unavailable'

Cancelled due to no driver which is a Piccadilly driver

 

[oddiesjack]

Prior to that, the 07:20 Hazel Grove-Piccadilly was cancelled.
It looks like this is formed from a Newton Heath-Hazel Grove ECS service that according to RTT was cancelled due to "a planning error"

In addition, the 06:49 Piccadilly-Buxton was running over 20 mins late

 

[156441]

0720 Hazel Grove is a Vic man

All the above Buxton jobs are Piccadilly men.

 

[northwichcat]

All the above Buxton jobs are Piccadilly men.

http://www.northernrail.org/news/7091

Are you sure about the 10:24? The Buxton bound working ran: http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/Y75324/2014/11/18/advanced so why cancel the return working unless there was a crew change at Buxton?

Northern certainly try to avoid 2 successive cancellations on lines with only an hourly service.

 

[Starmill]

This sounds fairly typical of Northern. They cancelled two successive Hadfield trains one evening last week, and last saturday they cancelled the 2217 Manchester - Chester. Neither of these meet your criteria, but the 2 Hadfields would have been carrying a lot more passengers at around 1900. When the 2217 was cancelled I was at Altrincham and people were waiting for it on the opposite platform. The CIS there is dead atm (as you probably know) due to the refurbishment, so they had no idea there wasn't going to be a train for another hour (yes, I shouted over to them, but one guy really didn't believe me). I meant to make a thread about the final Northern departures from Piccadilly last Saturday (15/11/14) but never got around to doing so - it was a painful shambles.

 

[Mugby]

Would the rail replacement service operated by Bullocks have called at all or most of the intermediate stations?

Surely for through passengers to Stockport or Manchester it would have been quicker to wait for the following train service?

 

[High Dyke]

AIUI The Buxton driving turn was uncovered today, with some crews being stepped up as a result.

 

[northwichcat]

This sounds fairly typical of Northern. They cancelled two successive Hadfield trains one evening last week, and last saturday they cancelled the 2217 Manchester - Chester.

There were quite a few cancellations out of Piccadilly last Saturday and apparently it was the first weekend they started strengthening some services, so the cancellations cancelled out the strengthening in some cases.

The CIS there is dead atm (as you probably know) due to the refurbishment, so they had no idea there wasn't going to be a train for another hour (yes, I shouted over to them, but one guy really didn't believe me).

The CIS is unreliable anyway. It usually shows 'On time' for services that have been cancelled, unless the cancellation is during staffed hours and the station staff update the status (which usually only happens a couple of minutes before the scheduled departure time.) I don't think the PA system at Altrincham can be operated remotely either, there are only ever announcements during staffed hours.

 

[Anchorman_02]

There were quite a few cancellations out of Piccadilly last Saturday and apparently it was the first weekend they started strengthening some services, so the cancellations cancelled out the strengthening in some cases.



The CIS is unreliable anyway. It usually shows 'On time' for services that have been cancelled, unless the cancellation is during staffed hours and the station staff update the status (which usually only happens a couple of minutes before the scheduled departure time.) I don't think the PA system at Altrincham can be operated remotely either, there are only ever announcements during staffed hours.

All the PIS/CIS systems on most of the stations around Manchester have long line PA. They are capable of making announcements at any of the stations at any time. It's a shame they don't do it more often in times of disruption but I suppose it's a question of manpower. It would be particularly helpful when services are stepped up and a late train is required to run express. Just a warning that "the next train will not stop but a stopping train will arrive at" would save a lot of anxiety and bad feeling.

 

[northwichcat]

All the PIS/CIS systems on most of the stations around Manchester have long line PA.

Are you sure about that? The reason is most seem to have automated announcements and Altrincham seems to only ever have manual announcements done by station staff on the National Rail platforms, unlike other stations like Hazel Grove which do get automated and long distance announcements. The Metrolink announcements at Altrincham are part of a separate system. The PA system has been there since BR days, while the LED displays have been fitted during the current Northern franchise.

 

[Anchorman_02]

Are you sure about that? The reason is most seem to have automated announcements and Altrincham seems to only ever have manual announcements done by station staff on the National Rail platforms, unlike other stations like Hazel Grove which do get automated and long distance announcements. The Metrolink announcements at Altrincham are part of a separate system. The PA system has been there since BR days, while the LED displays have been fitted during the current Northern franchise.

Yes sure. It's quite a posh affair with quite a few capabilities but it's left unmanned in most cases (to work automatically).

 

[northwichcat]

Yes sure. It's quite a posh affair with quite a few capabilities but it's left unmanned in most cases (to work automatically).

What you actually said was "All the PIS/CIS systems on most of the stations around Manchester have long line PA." So which lines are the exceptions?

The Mid-Cheshire line only has 3 Greater Manchester stations after Stockport (in the Chester direction) and they are quite a distance from other GM stations (with the Sale line being converted to Metrolink) and only 1 of those has a PA system (Altrincham - which has been there since BR days) so are you sure Altrincham has been connected up to that master system?

 

[Anchorman_02]

What you actually said was "All the PIS/CIS systems on most of the stations around Manchester have long line PA." So which lines are the exceptions?

The Mid-Cheshire line only has 3 Greater Manchester stations after Stockport (in the Chester direction) and they are quite a distance from other GM stations (with the Sale line being converted to Metrolink) and only 1 of those has a PA system (Altrincham - which has been there since BR days) so are you sure Altrincham has been connected up to that master system?

Let me speak to somebody but it won't be this week.