Cross Country Cancellations

[peter166]

34 cancellations listed on XC Journeycheck today ( 0900 Mon 31/10/22)
Nearly all on the Cardiff - Birmingham -:Nottingham route and due to a shortage of train drivers.
Is this problem spreading from Avanti , TPE & Northern to Cross Country as well & likely to continue for sometime?

CrossCountry JourneyCheck - Train times and live real time delay/cancellation/disruption information.

CrossCountry JourneyCheck provides real time, up-to-date train times and train disruption information keeping you informed about any delays or cancellations on the network and helping you know what to do when your journey is affected. Train Cancellations, Delays, Alterations and Engineering...

www.journeycheck.com

 

[lammergeier]

I'll qualify this be saying I have nothing to do with the 170 routes, but I understand it's currently particularly acute due to the training for the Birmingham resignalling final phase which needs to be completed by December (not sure exact date). The DfT won't allow rest day working which used to help cover work during periods of extra training so drivers are having to be released anyway. It should ease soon hopefully.

 

[43055]

34 cancellations listed on XC Journeycheck today ( 0900 Mon 31/10/22)
Nearly all on the Cardiff - Birmingham -:Nottingham route and due to a shortage of train drivers.
Is this problem spreading from Avanti , TPE & Northern to Cross Country as well & likely to continue for sometime?

CrossCountry JourneyCheck - Train times and live real time delay/cancellation/disruption information.

CrossCountry JourneyCheck provides real time, up-to-date train times and train disruption information keeping you informed about any delays or cancellations on the network and helping you know what to do when your journey is affected. Train Cancellations, Delays, Alterations and Engineering...

www.journeycheck.com

Which when you look at real time trains is most of the Nottingham - Cardiff services with a thereabouts 2-3 hourly service between Nottingham and Birmingham.

 

[The Planner]

I'll qualify this be saying I have nothing to do with the 170 routes, but I understand it's currently particularly acute due to the training for the Birmingham resignalling final phase which needs to be completed by December (not sure exact date). The DfT won't allow rest day working which used to help cover work during periods of extra training so drivers are having to be released anyway. It should ease soon hopefully.

New St goes into the WMSCC over Xmas, starts at lunchtime on Xmas Eve, handed back on the 27th.

 

[peter166]

Seems as though the many cancellations on the Cardiff - Birmingham - Nottingham route are a daily occurence ........a further 30 cancellations today (0830 01/11/22). Surely this is not acceptable & if the DfT is the cause then it is a disgrace.

CrossCountry JourneyCheck - Train times and live real time delay/cancellation/disruption information.

CrossCountry JourneyCheck provides real time, up-to-date train times and train disruption information keeping you informed about any delays or cancellations on the network and helping you know what to do when your journey is affected. Train Cancellations, Delays, Alterations and Engineering...

www.journeycheck.com

 

[ValleyLines142]

Whilst not ideal, there are other options available. TfW to Cheltenham and then the Edinburgh/Manchester service to Birmingham or GWR to Bristol Parkway and then up.

During COVID this would have been a nightmare because from Bristol Parkway the northbound XC services are at xx:44, yet the services from Cardiff don't arrive until xx:53. Thankfully with the re-introduction of the Cardiff to Paddington services this connects well now.

 

[trainophile]

Handy finding this thread, was just about to ask... who to believe out of NRE or RTT? RTT showing 11:45 Bournemouth to Man Picc is running today, while NRE and Trainsplit, to name the two I've checked, have it as cancelled. My sister is booked on it and was going by RTT, didn't find out about the cancellation until it was too late to get the 10:15 from SOU.

 

[Watershed]

Handy finding this thread, was just about to ask... who to believe out of NRE or RTT? RTT showing 11:45 Bournemouth to Man Picc is running today, while NRE and Trainsplit, to name the two I've checked, have it as cancelled. My sister is booked on it and was going by RTT, didn't find out about the cancellation until it was too late to get the 10:15 from SOU.

RTT doesn't always show cancellations immediately, as it uses different data feeds to journey planners (for contractual/licensing reasons - unbelievably, it's not permitted to use both the TRUST/signalling data as well as Darwin).

JourneyCheck is actually likely to be the most reliable indicator.

 

[trainophile]

Thanks. Looks like the 1145 from BMH is starting from New Street due to a shortage of drivers. How confusing.

 

[peter166]

Cancellation of many Cardiff - Nottingham trains is not good if you want to park at Worcestershire Parkway (WOP) and then travel by train. Perhaps Cross Country could stop their Bristol to Birmingham trains ( & vice versa) at WOP to make up for the shortfall or would that be too much to ask as it would be more convenient for the passenger if not for the operator?

 

[Watershed]

Cancellation of many Cardiff - Nottingham trains is not good if you want to park at Worcestershire Parkway (WOP) and then travel by train. Perhaps Cross Country could stop their Bristol to Birmingham trains ( & vice versa) at WOP to make up for the shortfall or would that be too much to ask as it would be more convenient for the passenger if not for the operator?

They have instituted Special Stop Orders (SSOs) at WOP, to be fair. But obviously that isn't much use for passengers west of Cheltenham.

 

[peter166]

They have instituted Special Stop Orders (SSOs) at WOP, to be fair. But obviously that isn't much use for passengers west of Cheltenham.

I don't see much evidence of that yesterday or today ?

Realtime Trains | Departures from Worcestershire Parkway all day on 01/11/2022

Train information at Worcestershire Parkway all day on 01/11/2022. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

Realtime Trains | Departures from Worcestershire Parkway all day on 31/10/2022

Train information at Worcestershire Parkway all day on 31/10/2022. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[Watershed]

I don't see much evidence of that yesterday or today ?

Realtime Trains | Departures from Worcestershire Parkway all day on 01/11/2022

Train information at Worcestershire Parkway all day on 01/11/2022. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

Realtime Trains | Departures from Worcestershire Parkway all day on 31/10/2022

Train information at Worcestershire Parkway all day on 31/10/2022. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

As per my earlier post, additional stops aren't necessarily shown in RTT because they generally aren't done as alterations to the schedule (which RTT would pick up), but rather a change in Darwin.

JourneyCheck clearly states that SSOs have been arranged - see attached print.

 

[185143]

I don't see much evidence of that yesterday or today ?

Realtime Trains | Departures from Worcestershire Parkway all day on 01/11/2022

Train information at Worcestershire Parkway all day on 01/11/2022. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

Realtime Trains | Departures from Worcestershire Parkway all day on 31/10/2022

Train information at Worcestershire Parkway all day on 31/10/2022. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

Heard a train at Newton Abbott earlier announced as calling additionally.

 

[peter166]

As per my earlier post, additional stops aren't necessarily shown in RTT because they generally aren't done as alterations to the schedule (which RTT would pick up), but rather a change in Darwin.

JourneyCheck clearly states that SSOs have been arranged - see attached print.

Thanks for the update information. At least some commonsense seems to be being used! I suspect some/many passengers would not know where to look to find out that additional stops are being made by other trains to compensate for the cancellations.

 

[Mitchell Hurd]

Do CrossCountry have any intention of sorting out the mess they're in or are they just gonna sit back and wait for it to solve itself?

Sorry but it gets to a point where the same staff shortage excuse for cancellations become invalid.

 

[trainophile]

Do CrossCountry have any intention of sorting out the mess they're in or are they just gonna sit back and wait for it to solve itself?

Sorry but it gets to a point where the same staff shortage excuse for cancellations become invalid.

They sound rather defeated on Twitter. I expect the Twitter team are as fed up as the passengers with all this nonsense.

 

[DDB]

The railway has got itself in a mess with the use of overtime to cover routine work and I fully agree with that practice being stamped out. However this sounds like exactly the type of short term thing that overtime (assuming people are willing) should be used for. If it is DfT doing this I'm surprised we are not hearing louder complaints about it.

 

[lammergeier]

Do CrossCountry have any intention of sorting out the mess they're in or are they just gonna sit back and wait for it to solve itself?

Sorry but it gets to a point where the same staff shortage excuse for cancellations become invalid.

As I said... once the New St resignalling training has been done things should ease. And if we had rest day working, this wouldn't be a problem.

 

[Mitchell Hurd]

Even with the problems on the XC Nottingham routes, they still provided only 2 coaches on the 17:12 from Birmingham.

 

[geoffk]

As I said... once the New St resignalling training has been done things should ease. And if we had rest day working, this wouldn't be a problem.

Does anyone think DfT wants to see timetables reduced to a level that doesn't require rest day working? If so, do they realise the implications, including no weekend service in many areas? I agree with what DDB says but the alternative is to recruit more train crew. Surely dependence on RDW goes back to BR days and maybe before that.

 

[Watershed]

Does anyone think DfT wants to see timetables reduced to a level that doesn't require rest day working? If so, do they realise the implications, including no weekend service in many areas? I agree with what DDB says but the alternative is to recruit more train crew. Surely dependence on RDW goes back to BR days and maybe before that.

It's not the case that there would be no weekend services at all - but yes, it would lead to a severe reduction in services for most TOCs, of the order seen at Avanti under its current reduced timetable.

 

[Jimini]

There has been a wonderful selection of four and five car services available today on the Bournemouth <> Reading <> Brum <> Manchester route, today.

 

[irish_rail]

There has been a wonderful selection of four and five car services available today on the Bournemouth <> Reading <> Brum <> Manchester route, today.

Ah right now you know how folk on the Plymouth to Scotland corridor feel.

 

[Jimini]

Ah right now you know how folk on the Plymouth to Scotland corridor feel.

Strange reply. I was merely pointing out that what is usually (in this current timetable / allocation) doubled up Voyagers on a certain route, that today's services have been short formed compared to their usual standards.

 

[Dr Day]

Doesn't appear to be any 170s running to/from Cardiff today. Leaves some big gaps in commuter services eg Chepstow-Cardiff first TfW train doesn't arrive into Cardiff until 0905, whereas normally there would be two XC services providing the peak time arrivals.

 

[sprinterguy]

There has been a wonderful selection of four and five car services available today on the Bournemouth <> Reading <> Brum <> Manchester route, today.

One diagram on the route was shortformed as a result of a lack of available Voyagers at Central Rivers in the morning, affecting two Southbound services and one Northbound. Overall, 10 out of 17 Southbound services and 11 out of 18 Northbound services still operated as double sets.

Ah right now you know how folk on the Plymouth to Scotland corridor feel.

Yeah, that route's seemed like the poorer relation in terms of capacity provision since 2020, which seems a bit perverse given the number and regional importance of the cities it connects. Potentially harder to resource such a long route, I suppose, in Crosscountry's continued efforts to wring a quart out of the pint pot they have to work with.

 

[peter166]

Doesn't appear to be any 170s running to/from Cardiff today. Leaves some big gaps in commuter services eg Chepstow-Cardiff first TfW train doesn't arrive into Cardiff until 0905, whereas normally there would be two XC services providing the peak time arrivals.

This appears to be the reason according to National Rail enquiries

Today, Friday 4 November


Due to West Midlands Trains maintenance staff striking there will be no CrossCountry rail services operating between Cardiff Central - Birmingham New Street - Nottingham and between Leicester - Cambridge - Stansted Airport. Road transport will be in operation on certain routes.

Travel Information | CrossCountry Trains

www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk

Some SW & Bristol - Birmingham & NE/ Scotland services are stopping at Worcestershire Parkway

 

[irish_rail]

One diagram on the route was shortformed as a result of a lack of available Voyagers at Central Rivers in the morning, affecting two Southbound services and one Northbound. Overall, 10 out of 17 Southbound services and 11 out of 18 Northbound services still operated as double sets.

Yeah, that route's seemed like the poorer relation in terms of capacity provision since 2020, which seems a bit perverse given the number and regional importance of the cities it connects. Potentially harder to resource such a long route, I suppose, in Crosscountry's continued efforts to wring a quart out of the pint pot they have to work with.

Indeed, if anything you'd think the Sw to Ne route would be prioritised with by far the longer journey times and lack of reasonable competition. At least on the Reading route passengers can go via London or use Chiltern.

 

[Watershed]

Indeed, if anything you'd think the Sw to Ne route would be prioritised with by far the longer journey times and lack of reasonable competition. At least on the Reading route passengers can go via London or use Chiltern.

Just because the end-to-end service takes longer doesn't necessarily mean that average passenger's journey is also longer. XC's traffic is largely made up of shorter journeys, so whilst those making long journeys constitute the minority of overall passenger numbers.

As for reasonable alternatives/competition, it's half a dozen of one and six of the other. Both routes have sections with no reasonable alternative (between Bristol and Birmingham on SW/NE, between Oxford and Banbury on S/NW) as well as others with plenty of alternatives (between Penzance and Bristol, or Coventry and Stafford).

It's not a competition for who is worst off, nor is GWR/XC/the world out to get Plymouth. Everyone is being affected in some way by these cutbacks.