Could the railway do better during Huddersfield blockades ?

[yorksrob]

It seems that there are no TPE trains between Leeds and Manchester today.

The only route available is via Bradford interchange and needless to say, the two carriage stopper is full and standing from Leeds. Good luck to anyone wanting to catch the train at Bradford !

Surely even if TPE ran an hourly shuttle between Leeds and Manchester with some of its long trains this way it would hugely alleviate crowding on local services !

It will presumably be down to route knowledge, however these are planned engineering works - surely they've had time to either train some drivers or hire a few as pilots from Northern.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 20 Jun 2026 ==

Lots of bemused would-be passengers wandering around the platform at Interchange.

 

[Kilopylae]

Some extra carriages on the Leeds to Bradford also wouldn't have gone amiss.

 

[yorksrob]

Indeed - although I'm relieved to see that the direct Wigan - Leeds 158's are still running through !

 

[sportzbar]

It would appear you were very unlucky to have a 2 car service as it looks like it was booked as a 5 car. Virtually every service between Chester/Victoria and Leeds yesterday were 5 cars with one 2 car and a 3 car being the exception on the circuit. On top of that the Wigan to Leeds service made of a mix of 3 and 4 car were also operating via Bradford.

In an ideal world every train would've been 5 car but sometimes unforeseen maintenance issues arise and the question obviously has to be asked, cancel a service or spilt a 5 car into a 2 car and a separate 3 car to at least keep the service running.

On top of all that though there was a ridiculous amount of events going on in Manchester yesterday including Take That at the Etihad and Parklife festival, the main station for festival goers being Victoria. Add on an event at the Piece Hall in Halifax and yesterday was extremely challenging.

I don't really see what more Northern could have done considering every available asset was out running yesterday....

 

[Fokx]

It seems that there are no TPE trains between Leeds and Manchester today.

The only route available is via Bradford interchange and needless to say, the two carriage stopper is full and standing from Leeds. Good luck to anyone wanting to catch the train at Bradford !

Surely even if TPE ran an hourly shuttle between Leeds and Manchester with some of its long trains this way it would hugely alleviate crowding on local services !

It will presumably be down to route knowledge, however these are planned engineering works - surely they've had time to either train some drivers or hire a few as pilots from Northern.

No Transpennine Express conductors or drivers sign the route via Bradford so Instead there is a 3bph replacement service Huddersfield - Dewsbury - Leeds.

The priority is for diversion training is the Calder Valley and via Methley.

In addition, Transpennine are covering the local stations between Todmorden and Brighouse with a Manchester Victoria to Huddersfield Calder Valley service, directly replacing the Leeds to Leeds via Brighouse and Halifax service to allow for Northern to strengthen ALL their Leeds to Chester services to be booked as 5 carriages.

 

[yorksrob]

No Transpennine Express conductors or drivers sign the route via Bradford so Instead there is a 3bph replacement service Huddersfield - Dewsbury - Leeds.

The priority is for diversion training is the Calder Valley and via Methley.

In addition, Transpennine are covering the local stations between Todmorden and Brighouse with a Manchester Victoria to Huddersfield Calder Valley service, directly replacing the Leeds to Leeds via Brighouse and Halifax service to allow for Northern to strengthen ALL their Leeds to Chester services to be booked as 5 carriages.

If the one I was on yesterday had been five carriages, it would have made a big difference.

 

[YorkshireBear]

If the one I was on yesterday had been five carriages, it would have made a big difference.

Certainly the plan is that all of them are 4-6 cars. And on weekends they've achieved this it's not been too bad at all and I've been impressed with TPE picking up local services to give northern more units.

Seems here the plan was reasonable, the short forming was the issue.

 

[Ballyheigue]

What would help is for all Leeds to Bradford and vice versa passengers to be directed to use the Forster Square service which takes only a little longer, it would free up a few seats.