northern rail
 

what a useless company.attempted to travel to lincoln today wanted to visit my daughter and see a deltic special.the christmas fayre is on so i was expecting a crowded train what i was not expecting was a 1 car unit that not unexpectedly was crammed to the gunnels.guard refused to allow anyone (and rightly so)on.so myself and 60 odd more passengers were left behind.surely this company employs at least 1 railwayman,one that could see loads of people wanting to travel and diagram attaching more units at sheffield.oh for the days of british rail run by railwaymen and not bus drivers and snotty little kids from university with no experience what so ever.

The same thing happened when the Tall Ships were on the Mersey in 2008, most of Northern trains are two car units and there was standing room only on most services during the 'sailaway day'. In contrast Merseyrail strengthed their day services from 3 car to 6 car on the routes that most pax would be using and ran them every 15 minutes with plenty of staff at all stations along the way. Even so all seats were taken and passageways crowded.

You have me puzzled Northern Run Leeds - Nottingham using 158 2 cars

their Nottingham to Lincoln I don't know what runs it but how could they attach units at Sheffield when the train originates at Nottingham

But not taking that away from your original thought

Northern are not a competent TOC but at the same time they get last pick of traction available

northern rail runs adwick -lincoln via sheffield and retford, a well organised company knowing the christmas fayre was on would plan in advance to ensure units are available.same thing happened today wanted to see the steam specials at lincoln,train turns up at worksop nobody could get on......you just couldnt make it up.

Wasn't aware of the Sheffield via Retford service as I hardly ever go to Sheffield now

Guess what ?!

Drove to Lincoln today

LOADS of EMT 156/4's stabled there and not a Northern Rail unit in sight
problem was had SWMBO with me so only enough time to look memorise numbers and head on to the absolutely stuffed last day of the Christmas Market

1) Were there spare units at Sheffield? (and I mean actually spare, as in not needing maintenance, repairs, cleaning or anything else)
2) Could the actual level of passengers be predicted. (I don't just mean were more people likely to travel that day, I mean actual numbers)
3) If there were 'spare' units, did none of the other routes in the area need any of those units?
4) Can you be certain that they had not planned for it? Is it possible that infact a train may have failed, preventing it from being used?

complained to northern rail and recieved a reply.didnt know whether to laugh or cry. the usual bull untill the last paragraph in which they imply it was all lincoln city.s fault for having the audacity to run a christmas fayre and not pay northern rail to put on extra trains.i haved forwarded it to lincoln city council.come back british rail.

I went to the market last Friday and it was not too crowded. I drove there from Derby and it took just over an hour on the new duel carrageway! total cost to me was £11.60 fuel (approx) £4.50 parking fee (not the horendus £15.00 park and ride rip off!) this was for two people and had the comfort of good seating and plenty of room.
This is for many the reason why we no longer use rail if fortunate enough to have a car!
I agree with Poggie Man bring back British Rail and pricing that ordinary folk can afford!!
Regards
Phil

Your right Phil, lets get back to a propper railway system where theres only two prices for a journey 1st and 2nd class, not all this confusion over fare prices, if you pay on the day or buy your ticket in advance to get it cheaper it costs the train operator the same to get you from A to B.

I went to Lincoln market on Friday parked the car at Market Rasin station no problem. A 1 car unit arrived there was about 10 of standing to Lincoln. I think we should let Northern Rail know that Lincoln is having a market for christmas next year so they will have a lot of time to plan for it.

However there is one Lincoln diagram which is booked for a 153. The rest are 142's and 144's. But surely they always have a spare unit at Sheffield?

Anyway,Northern Rail is not that bad. They help the local community.

Sadly they cannot spare a single unit. the heavily used commuter lines around Yorkshire and Manchester/ Liverpool have seen to that.
This is no fault of theirs of course, it is the useless DFT.
They cannot even take a unit out of service unless it it for urgent repairs.
last autumn I was on a 150 unit that had a top window missing.

I thought Huddersfield always have units in the sidings?

Interesting today I read that Britain has the oldest and priciest railways in Europe. Operators who receive large state subsidies spent on average more than 90% of their profit on shareholder dividends. £1.9 billion was spent on rolling stock between 2008 and 2012, compared with £3.2 billion between 1989 and 1993. So it is no surprise that in the UK we seem to have an issue with the provision of stock fit for purpose!!!
The railways of Britain should never have been privatised and then maybe we could have a railway to be proud of.
Regards
Phil