I phoned customer services earlier and EMR have advised me that they have a dedicated team working hard to restore the timetable but due to covid they have had to make some service cuts. They are closely monitoring the situation and are aware that some services are now starting to get a bit busier again. As soon as they can more services will be reintroduced. We should remain patient and allow them to work on it in what to be fair must be a dfficult situation for them.
Yes, and most of have tried to be patient, but Covid has been with us for almost 2 years. Railway issues go deeper than that. We know there are stock cascade issues. Train maintenance and staff training may be in arrears.
On many (most?) routes it's still impossible to tell how busy they really are compared with 2019. When full timetables are reintroduced, all trains actually run, and users report they keep to time, word will get round and many will come back. How many? How soon? Nobody knows.
For business and commuting journeys the timings of outward and return journeys are crucial, also the availabilty of a later reserve train. I never used the last trains of the day from London to Hull or Sheffield but their existence meant I didn't have to rush away. Make either of those main journeys inconvenient and it's not one journey that's lost but two. That all but empty unused late train may be a factor too.
There are two leisure day trips I'd like to make with an old friend from Sheffield. XC aren't running 2 tph to Newcastle so we'd probably have to go via Leeds reducing our time at the desired destination by 40 minutes or so. That trip has been deferred for over a year. A trip from Dore to Peterborough can be done by EMR without changes, or via Doncaster with 2 changes - except the 8.28 departure hasn't been running since June. We won't chance that either.
Chickens and eggs. The marketing departments can come up with as many fancy TV marketing ads as they like, but when my wife and I board an EMR train to Manchester at about 7.40 on a Saturday morning and find ourselves expected to stand it doesn't encourage us to try again. Fortunately good humoured Owls fans volunteered their seats for us but that's not the point.
Give us the full services with facilities that make us comfortable and more of us will return more often. The fact that so many still pile into the overloaded trains shows there is still demand. I hear enthusiasm for trains from all ages. Lets have more of them when they're needed.
To think we wanted rid of Pacers and 153s. Even the able can't get to toilets on many EMR services.
