Northern Ingenuity

[Smylers]

Passengers for the 17:15 from Leeds to Ilkley yesterday arrived at the platform to see the train already there and doors open, only to be told by a member of staff not to board because the service was about to be cancelled, and we'd have to wait for the 17:33 instead. Just at that point, there was a station announcement of a platform change: the 17:15 to Ilkey was now on platform 1A.

Scurrying round, platform 1C had the 17:29 to Harrogate on it. Further along, 1B had the 17:18 to Skipton, and then at the front 1A had the 17:15 to Ilkley. Skipton passengers could board, but the Ilkley doors were locked. Then the Ilkley train appeared to set off without us ... but only moved a few inches, and then we were allowed on.

The conductor explained that the original Ilkley train had failed just before departure, but there had been a 6-carriage train going to Skipton, so they'd split that into two 3s (hence the front train pulling forward a short distance) and sent one half each way, thereby avoiding cancelling the Ilkley service.

I was very impressed both with whoever had the idea to do this, and the speed with which the teams put the plan into place. It's also an advantage I hadn't previously considered of the 6-carriage trains being made up of two 3s joined together: better to have two crowded trains than one cancelled. Thank you to Northern and everybody involved.

 

[GordonT]

Sounds like the antithesis of Great Northern's non-recovery from failures of whatever sort as frequently reported on the forum.

 

[Peterthegreat]

Now the cancellations due to non availability of train crew have been substantially reduced (at least on the east side) I now find Northern are actually quite good in making alterations to services to the benefit of most passengers.

 

[Bantamzen]

Passengers for the 17:15 from Leeds to Ilkley yesterday arrived at the platform to see the train already there and doors open, only to be told by a member of staff not to board because the service was about to be cancelled, and we'd have to wait for the 17:33 instead. Just at that point, there was a station announcement of a platform change: the 17:15 to Ilkey was now on platform 1A.

Scurrying round, platform 1C had the 17:29 to Harrogate on it. Further along, 1B had the 17:18 to Skipton, and then at the front 1A had the 17:15 to Ilkley. Skipton passengers could board, but the Ilkley doors were locked. Then the Ilkley train appeared to set off without us ... but only moved a few inches, and then we were allowed on.

The conductor explained that the original Ilkley train had failed just before departure, but there had been a 6-carriage train going to Skipton, so they'd split that into two 3s (hence the front train pulling forward a short distance) and sent one half each way, thereby avoiding cancelling the Ilkley service.

I was very impressed both with whoever had the idea to do this, and the speed with which the teams put the plan into place. It's also an advantage I hadn't previously considered of the 6-carriage trains being made up of two 3s joined together: better to have two crowded trains than one cancelled. Thank you to Northern and everybody involved.

To be fair to Northern, to the east of the Pennines at least, over the years they have been pretty good at resolving issues with failures, late runners etc, particularly on the Aire / Wharfe Triangle. Often services to / from Bradford Forster Square were cut short at Shipley, to allow recovery time for the next service the unit was working, and apart from some having to change trains it did allow quicker recovery of the timetable. Obviously this was subject to there being no ongoing disputes.