After last weeks Wolverine/X-Men debacle, Virgin once again inflicted the FU effect on rush hour passengers by running 390 047 on 1R05 ex Liverpool calling at Runcorn, Crewe, Stafford, Rugby, Milton Keynes Central arriving into Euston at 07:52.
390/0 stock is adequate for such runs that avoid calling at MKC even though all seats can be taken on 1R11 that calls at Runcorn, Crewe, Stafford, Lichfield Trent Valley, Tamworth arriving into EUS at 08:22. However, the absence of /1 stock for peak time services that call at MKC is simply unacceptable.
This morning led to severe overcrowding at MKC to the point where first class was declassified and the Train Manager was pleading with people to leave coach B as apparently the train was indicating that the coach was overloaded. This is particularly poor when /1 stock is carting fresh air on northbound services and since the timetable change the Scotland services via Birmingham New Street seem to be running with a lot of Pendos.
It is a good job that FU gate has occurred on 1R05 on Mondays otherwise the impacts could have been even more severe on busier commuting days. Many Milton Keynes Central passengers will go to great lengths to board VT services and attempt to secure a seat, it was fortunate that there weren't any crushing events given the uncivilised behaviour MKC passengers engage in. You only have to observe the slow line platforms and stampede through the shortcut tunnel to the underground when an LM service arrives at Euston to witness such behaviour.
If VT persist with such poor stock management, what should happen? Should 1st continue to be declassified and people be squeezed into the vestibules and coaches overloaded for 40 minutes?
My view is that if a /0 is utilised on this service, it should not stop at MKC for safety reasons. There are umpteen LM services which take a similar length of time to reach Euston which pax can use.
390/0 stock is adequate for such runs that avoid calling at MKC even though all seats can be taken on 1R11 that calls at Runcorn, Crewe, Stafford, Lichfield Trent Valley, Tamworth arriving into EUS at 08:22. However, the absence of /1 stock for peak time services that call at MKC is simply unacceptable.
This morning led to severe overcrowding at MKC to the point where first class was declassified and the Train Manager was pleading with people to leave coach B as apparently the train was indicating that the coach was overloaded. This is particularly poor when /1 stock is carting fresh air on northbound services and since the timetable change the Scotland services via Birmingham New Street seem to be running with a lot of Pendos.
It is a good job that FU gate has occurred on 1R05 on Mondays otherwise the impacts could have been even more severe on busier commuting days. Many Milton Keynes Central passengers will go to great lengths to board VT services and attempt to secure a seat, it was fortunate that there weren't any crushing events given the uncivilised behaviour MKC passengers engage in. You only have to observe the slow line platforms and stampede through the shortcut tunnel to the underground when an LM service arrives at Euston to witness such behaviour.
If VT persist with such poor stock management, what should happen? Should 1st continue to be declassified and people be squeezed into the vestibules and coaches overloaded for 40 minutes?
My view is that if a /0 is utilised on this service, it should not stop at MKC for safety reasons. There are umpteen LM services which take a similar length of time to reach Euston which pax can use.
