Northern (Arriva Rail North)

[Gordon V]

RE: Northern (Arriva Rail North)

(30/01/2020 12:03)ant17612 Wrote:  195021 involved in a derailment at Edge Hill this morning, looks a mess!

Was actually yesterday it derailed

[T42 PVM (Moderator)]

RE: Northern (Arriva Rail North)
142023 and 142041 are now Stored bringing the total number of in service 142's to 13.

142004, 142011, 142035, 142036, 142043, 142045, 142047, 142051, 142055, 142058, 142061, 142078 and 142090

[Penny Return]

RE: Northern (Arriva Rail North)
Edge Hill this morning had

195020
331025

+ another 1950xx with the shunter

[mikestone]

RE: Northern (Arriva Rail North)
May timetable now in realtime trains - at present Sunday services withdrawn due to crew shortag, like Liverpool-Wigan stoppers, remain so. It will be interesting to see if they reappear.
;
York-Scarborough service is shown, leaving York at xx.15 - presumably when they bid for them in the last timetable they didn't know TPE were moving to xx.00 from York, and it would cost a set to move them

[Metroline1511]

RE: Northern (Arriva Rail North)
Given that Arriva parent company Deutsche Bahn are so long established as a rail operator, it seems odd that they could not manage Northern timetables and staff rosters effectively.

[wirralbus]

RE: Northern (Arriva Rail North)
Its more than just staff rosters and timetables , its been like a perfect storm.

As many people have said Network rail and CAF have an equal portion of blame as well.

I think Arriva will just be glad to have got rid of Northern even if there is a major finance penalty in it .

I also wonder whether this is a pathway to leave the railway franchise set up in there other franchise Cross Country, leaving the government with less operators to play with .

[knutstransport]

RE: Northern (Arriva Rail North)

(03/02/2020 15:34)wirralbus Wrote:  Its more than just staff rosters and timetables , its been like a perfect storm.

Although, ignoring other issues what excuse do Arriva have for the frequent 'ticket office closed due to staff shortages' excuse? OK they'll happen from time to time if someone phones in sick at the last minute but it seems Arriva don't have enough ticket office staff and unlike with drivers and CAF trains it's not a case of we may have the staff but they may not be trained on the right type of equipment.

I don't know about all ticket offices but my local one (which has 13 shifts across the week) often seems to be closed for around 3 of them - sometimes (Mon-Sat) someone opens the ticket office late i.e. around 8am and the same person locks up early around 6pm, instead of one person doing a morning/early afternoon shift and another doing an afternoon/evening shift so it's like it's been planned in advance. I'd never seen that happen prior to Arriva taking over Northern.

Like Metroline1511 alluded to that's one of the basics that anyone running a franchise should get right.

[wirralbus]

RE: Northern (Arriva Rail North)

(03/02/2020 19:47)knutstransport Wrote:  Although, ignoring other issues what excuse do Arriva have for the frequent 'ticket office closed due to staff shortages' excuse? OK they'll happen from time to time if someone phones in sick at the last minute but it seems Arriva don't have enough ticket office staff and unlike with drivers and CAF trains it's not a case of we may have the staff but they may not be trained on the right type of equipment.

I don't know about all ticket offices but my local one (which has 13 shifts across the week) often seems to be closed for around 3 of them - sometimes (Mon-Sat) someone opens the ticket office late i.e. around 8am and the same person locks up early around 6pm, instead of one person doing a morning/early afternoon shift and another doing an afternoon/evening shift so it's like it's been planned in advance. I'd never seen that happen prior to Arriva taking over Northern.

Like Metroline1511 alluded to that's one of the basics that anyone running a franchise should get right.

How many of the said station stations have a metal ticket issuer in a TVM , these days the proliferation of online tickets is slowly dwindling real ticket issuing staff to the bone as you can pick these tickets up at said TVM as well .

[knutstransport]

RE: Northern (Arriva Rail North)

(04/02/2020 16:08)wirralbus Wrote:  How many of the said station stations have a metal ticket issuer in a TVM , these days the proliferation of online tickets is slowly dwindling real ticket issuing staff to the bone as you can pick these tickets up at said TVM as well .

That's not the point. Arriva can apply to the ORR to reduce ticket office opening hours, like Govia did with the LM and Southern franchises. If they don't do that then they have a franchise requirement to staff the station for the number of hours set before the franchise started. It's not unreasonable for someone to turn up at a station at an hour it is advertised to have an open ticket office and to expect to be able to get a new railcard/season ticket photocard/season ticket smartcard straight away. TVMs also don't sell every type of ticket which can be sold in a ticket office and they only accept card transactions. I've also had to go to the ticket office window on numerous occasions when TOD isn't working on the TVM but it's working fine from the ticket clerk's machine.

There are also times when the options presented on the TVM may not be what passengers expect and they need to ask staff for clarity e.g. when TfGM changed Metrolink stop names to zones or someone needs the complex PTE evening peak restrictions explaining to them.

[childwallblues]

RE: Northern (Arriva Rail North)
There is a photograph on WNXX of 158848 minus decals on transfer from Heaton to Bristol Barton Hill. Has this unit left Northern I wonder?