What is the railway doing well currently?

[yorksrob]

A particular problem on their 376 and 707 fleet…

Yes, but they're suburban trains - like EPB's but much less comfortable !

 

[AlastairFraser]

To be honest, LNWR’s refurbed Class 350s are pretty good.

Comfortable, swift acceleration, useful facilities retrofitted such as the USB/plug tech chargers (probably some of the best positioning I’ve seen too, although the crown goes to Avanti for their aforementioned refurbished Pendos, that seat style is very neat, shame they’re so unreliable and expensive),consistently cheap Advances available close to the day for some of their routes.

On the way back up from the SE, a guard on their Euston to Crewe service delivered some incredible announcements and customer service in general too - informing passengers of reasons for the delay in the general, telling us what was being done to rectify it, announcing connections with comprehensive information about platforms and timing, plus their timing status, and finally contacting control to hold important connections as a matter of course.

I would go as far to say that guard should be modelling the customer service aspects of the role to other TOCs training new starters, 99 percent of customer facing actual TOC/NR staff are great anyway, but this one went beyond the standard I would expect.

Avanti have also been quite helpful recently with Train Manager ticket endorsements permitting alternative routes to compensate for missed connections caused by their delays.

Maybe this should be expected anyway but usually it takes a little persuasion and this kind of customer service should be much more widely celebrated and appreciated as a net attractor to the railway, esp. in times of poor industrial relations when a lot of staff understandably have poor morale, but are sterling representatives for their employer, regardless of actions by senior management detracting from their efforts.

 

[RailWonderer]

I've rarely heard anything bad about Scotrail, but Greater Anglia is the best operator in the UK by far with their rolling stock, punctuality, staff friendliness, and maintenance of facilities.
Delay repay as said upthread is definitely a strong point, through some ToCs are quicker at processing claims than others. LNR's took me a month, Avantis a bit quicker (though this was a bit before pre-driver shortage, pre-strike era). Investment and partial reopening of the EWR and the opening of Portishead and a few other small lines looks promising.
EMR is improving, although the problems with the Connect continue so I hear. The IC operation through sometimes overcrowded still runs reliably and the regionals with more 170s and 158s out and fewer 156s are improving.

 

[DelW]

Running a train service ..... on the Southern Region.

I've spent the last week and a bit travelling mainly around Kent, but also with a jolly to Dorset:

• The trains have run when they've been supposed to. No long lists of cancellations, services largely on time, connections made
• Decent capacity - even a couple of the Coastway services which were shorter, were busy but not uncomfortably so.
• Decent value - I renewed my network card, so was able to enjoy some good and some very good value tickets - and not reliant on this advance purchase nonsense. Walk up fares at my convenience.

It is the railway as it was when I was attracted to it and a different world from the ongoing fiasco in the North.

It's been bliss.

If they want to improve the railway offering, make it all like the Southern Region.

Paint all the trains green !!!

I take it that you weren't on the south-western division very much?

The Portsmouth Direct today had a "service" of one train per hour shuttling between Pompey and Woking only, stopping at all stations. That's all it's had since Christmas, except for Tuesday 27th when there were no trains at all.

Tomorrow's timetable is the same, then there are again no trains at all until Monday 9th January.

Other SWR lines locally are running severely reduced timetables as well.

It's not my idea of "bliss" !

 

[yorksrob]

I take it that you weren't on the south-western division very much?

The Portsmouth Direct today had a "service" of one train per hour shuttling between Pompey and Woking only, stopping at all stations. That's all it's had since Christmas, except for Tuesday 27th when there were no trains at all.

Tomorrow's timetable is the same, then there are again no trains at all until Monday 9th January.

Other SWR lines locally are running severely reduced timetables as well.

It's not my idea of "bliss" !

I was on the South Western division as it happens - between Havant and Weymouth. Everything ran to time and while busy, nothing was overcrowded, including a return journey between Weymouth and Wareham.

Bliss for me, but then I didn't use the Portsmouth direct !

I see that it would have been a nuisance for Waterloo passengers having to change at Southampton Central (can't blame them, there's not a lot there) but the connections and capacity worked.

 

[daodao]

Whilst it may not be increasing as fast as it could be if there were no strikes, rail use is still showing an upwards tend:

Domestic Transport Usage by Mode

www.gov.uk

Your repeated posts about increasing rail use remind me of the phrase "lies, damn lies and statistics".

I really cannot believe that rail use is increasing, from a Mancunian perspective, given the massive disruption on large TOCs such as Avanti, Northern and TPE, leaving aside the actual strikes.

 

[railfan99]

I am agree with the delay repay comments above. Almost all the journeys I make by train are late (excluding the Caledonian Sleeper) and so delay repay gets invoked. Whilst the TOC in question can't seemingly run a railway for toffee, their delay repay is spot on - automated email has often arrived within hours of getting home.

Goodness.

In two weeks of travelling by train and covering much ground between late September and early October 2022, I only struck one cancellation and a couple of trains that were more than 15 minutes late, although 1 and 5 October were strike days. On one of those Grand Central still operated and conveyed me from Bradford Interchange to London.

Overall, quite an impressive railway I thought.

 

[markymark2000]

I am agree with the delay repay comments above. Almost all the journeys I make by train are late (excluding the Caledonian Sleeper) and so delay repay gets invoked. Whilst the TOC in question can't seemingly run a railway for toffee, their delay repay is spot on - automated email has often arrived within hours of getting home.

Some of them are good. I tried to claim delay repay through GWR but their site demanded I made an account (I've only ever used GWR that one time and probably only will use them that time as they are the opposite end of the country to me). I tried to do it manually by emailing and they tried to tell me that it wasn't possible to do it manually. Eventually they did but they asked for far more details than were needed for the claim.

I'd say some of that applies to most TOCs though. Demanding accounts for delay repay (why force people to have accounts everywhere, some people want privacy and don't want every system holding onto details for a one off transaction) and demanding more things than necessary for claims. Such as them claiming tickets need defacing or demanding phone numbers (No one ever, ever rings. It's all done through email so why demand phone numbers).
If systems get hacked, peoples data ends up in the wrong hands. Firms need to stop demanding more information than is necessary for claims.


My positives for delay repay though for most firms is how quickly some claims get processed. Extremely quick processing for West Midlands and generally TFW are quite quick too.

 

[The Ham]

Your repeated posts about increasing rail use remind me of the phrase "lies, damn lies and statistics".

I really cannot believe that rail use is increasing from a Mancunian perspective, given the massive disruption on large TOCs such as Avanti, Northern and TPE, leaving aside the actual strikes.

If you look at the data there's significant variation.

If you look at some of my other posts I'm clear that XC, TPE and Avanti are performing badly with 60-65% of service km being run. As such is no surprise that from an individual perspective that things look different from what the overall figure show.

However Avanti had seen growth in passenger kms travelled (5.7% between Q4 of 2021/22 and Q2 of 2022/23).

XC has seen growth of 29% in the same period whilst TPE has seen growth of 22% and Northern 17%.

Yes some have seen some small falls between Q1 and Q2, and it will be interesting to see what the Q3 data shows, however there's always been small changes between quarters, so it's always preferable to look at what the longer trend is (currently Q1 to Q1 comparisons are unhelpful as Q1 of 2021/22 was very low).

That's not too say that performance is better, just that a greater number of people are using services.

The reason I keep posting the same information isn't because I'm trying to use data to create a lie, rather to show that the data isn't showing falls in passenger numbers, or that we're seeing rail use still below the lows in the mid 90's or that now is the time to choose railways as they are under used.

I'm happy for you, or anyone else (as I'm aware that not everyone likes dredging through data and coming toa conclusion), to look at the data to show something other than I'm saying, the data is there for all to look at. The fact that this is one of the first significant negative comment on what I've said (even though I've said it lots) and it's not challenging what I've said having reviewed the data (in that you've sort of questioned whether I'm lying by using statistics to spin what I'd like to be the case) kind of highlights that what I'm saying is likely to borne out by the data. If it wasn't then I'd have hoped that I would have been called out before now.

That's not too say that the data I'm using isn't open to be providing the wrong information - however given that the DfT want there to be cost savings and many would like to be able to justify a low rail subsidy unless there's someone at the ORR or the others who produce (which includes the DfT who's data is used in the graphs on the link provided) the data who I'm not sure that's overly likely, however am willing to listen to why the data my be corrupted.

When I've asked others to look at the data in the past, or to find other data which shows another pattern, I've not had a response. As I've said I'd welcome a response. Not because I know I'm right, but rather as I welcome discussion where there's scope for it.

 

[dk1]

Your repeated posts about increasing rail use remind me of the phrase "lies, damn lies and statistics".

I really cannot believe that rail use is increasing, from a Mancunian perspective, given the massive disruption on large TOCs such as Avanti, Northern and TPE, leaving aside the actual strikes.

Recently staying in both Liverpool, Manchester & York i understand where you're coming from as the performance on many routes was quite depressing. Apart from strike action days though that really isn't the general picture everywhere with some other operators in different parts of the country perfoming very well indeed.

 

[miklcct]

The railway is doing well to start the 2023 for me. 2 segments on North London Line on 1/1 which ran within 5 minutes of of scheduled time, and today 6 segments on Midland Main Line northbound without a single minute of delay.

 

[Bantamzen]

What is the railway industry doing well? Putting people off using the railway. Yesterday both Northern and Network Rail did their up most to make people think about not using them. Not content with running no trains into Bradford from Ilkley and Skipton, even though that is where a lot of fans of Bradford City (who had a home game yesterday) live. But the one train an hour actually running where pathed onto P2 with another unit stabled there. Two empty platforms and they had to use the one occupied, a lovely gesture given that it was tipping it down. Well done the railways...

 

[yorksrob]

Recently staying in both Liverpool, Manchester & York i understand where you're coming from as the performance on many routes was quite depressing. Apart from strike action days though that really isn't the general picture everywhere with some other operators in different parts of the country perfoming very well indeed.

That's an important point to remember.

Strikes apart, not everywhere is enveloped in the chaos that the North of England seems to be. I think many passengers from the North would be amazed and quite cross at the difference in service quality

 

[RPI]

I've rarely heard anything bad about Scotrail, but Greater Anglia is the best operator in the UK by far with their rolling stock, punctuality, staff friendliness, and maintenance of facilities.
Delay repay as said upthread is definitely a strong point, through some ToCs are quicker at processing claims than others. LNR's took me a month, Avantis a bit quicker (though this was a bit before pre-driver shortage, pre-strike era). Investment and partial reopening of the EWR and the opening of Portishead and a few other small lines looks promising.
EMR is improving, although the problems with the Connect continue so I hear. The IC operation through sometimes overcrowded still runs reliably and the regionals with more 170s and 158s out and fewer 156s are improving.

I have to say I'm inclined to agree, though my experience with them is limited to a week spent in Sheringham early last year. Every train on time, clean new stock, saw the guard on every train (after nearly every station!).

 

[that1pepfan]

I have to say I'm inclined to agree, though my experience with them is limited to a week spent in Sheringham early last year. Every train on time, clean new stock, saw the guard on every train (after nearly every station!).

Greater Anglia are a great toc
Probably the TOC with the nicest brand new train (no ironing boards also)

 

[Purple Train]

The completion of the Elizabeth Line.

I also concur with those who have nominated Greater Anglia as the best TOC. Punctual, comfortable, and excellent customer service.

 

[TPO]

I think the railway is doing freight quite well. In spite of losing coal traffic- we're still here!

We have new flows (won from roads) and have managed to maintain traffic in spite of COVID and the strikes. The programme of W10 gauge improvement has gone well with container trains on more of the network than ever before and there's that big new inland freight terminal in the East Midlands. Supermarkets are moving containers by rail, there is talk of developing refrigeration-enabled vehicles and there are new innovative operators trialing fast freight services. There is continued interest from potential customers in moving traffic onto rail.

GWML electrification. For all it's ugly, it held up well in the extremes of weather during 2022. Maybe there is something to be said for over-engineering.....!

TPO

 

[M!T]

What is the railway industry doing well currently?

- Selling cars.
- Driving the remaining dregs of high street trade to Amazon.

 

[dk1]

What is the railway industry doing well currently?

- Selling cars.
- Driving the remaining dregs of high street trade to Amazon.

High Street trade is good here in Norwich with recent reports showing it recovering well and only 2% down now on pre-pandemic. The rail dispute is only a minor blip & will all sort itself out.

 

[ar10642]

High Street trade is good here in Norwich with recent reports showing it recovering well and only 2% down now on pre-pandemic. The rail dispute is only a minor blip & will all sort itself out.

Pretty long for a minor blip. It's been going on for months and there is no sign of a resolution.

 

[Thirteen]

Saying the railways are driving people to get cars is a tad hyperbolic. That's like suggesting bus strikes are driving people away from using buses.

 

[dk1]

Pretty long for a minor blip. It's been going on for months and there is no sign of a resolution.

I’m looking on the positive side. More meetings next week so who knows? In my 38 plus year railway career I look at it as a minor blip.

 

[Parjon]

I've read through the pages of this thread, and from a passenger service perspective I've read nothing that I would rate as a tick.

I think it can be concluded the answer to the thread title is "nothing".

 

[dk1]

I've read through the pages of this thread, and from a passenger service perspective I've read nothing that I would rate as a tick.

I think it can be concluded the answer to the thread title is "nothing".

That’s always the way though. People are always happier to criticise or complain about things in life but a little more reserved when it comes to praise. That’s how I see it anyway.

 

[Bantamzen]

High Street trade is good here in Norwich with recent reports showing it recovering well and only 2% down now on pre-pandemic. The rail dispute is only a minor blip & will all sort itself out.

Amazon* seem to be investing very heavily in using railway stations, or more accurately the associated car parks as convenient pick up points. So they appear to disagree.

(*Other delivery companies are also becoming available)

 

[brad465]

Pretty long for a minor blip. It's been going on for months and there is no sign of a resolution.

How long was the GTR/Southern dispute back in 2016? I certainly felt like a long time but once cleared things recovered well, albeit covid has changed the landscape compared to then.

 

[dk1]

Amazon* seem to be investing very heavily in using railway stations, or more accurately the associated car parks as convenient pick up points. So they appear to disagree.

(*Other delivery companies are also becoming available)

That was going on before the pandemic. So many stations on my patch had them put in during the early part of 2020 which was just in time for the lockdown & therefore saw little or no use of them.

 

[Bantamzen]

That was going on before the pandemic. So many stations on my patch had them put in during the early part of 2020 which was just in time for the lockdown & therefore saw little or no use of them.

They seem pretty popular now though, even the ones at my local station seems to have lots of deliveries and pick-ups going on.

 

[dk1]

They seem pretty popular now though, even the ones at my local station seems to have lots of deliveries and pick-ups going on.

I’ve used them a few of times at the station or the work multi-storey & found them good but to be honest I don’t buy very much online.

 

[ar10642]

How long was the GTR/Southern dispute back in 2016? I certainly felt like a long time but once cleared things recovered well, albeit covid has changed the landscape compared to then.

Too long and was a complete waste of everyone's time.