Southport MP Damien Moore would like to hear from residents about the timetable changes to Northern Rail trains.



Damien commented...

'I'm seeing a lot of complaints about Northern's terrible timetable change. Would really welcome residents getting in touch with my office about disruptions to their commute today.



A spokesman for Northern said: “It has been a difficult morning for some of our customers, in particular on a number of routes around north Manchester extending up to Blackpool, and we are very sorry for the delays and cancellations they have experienced.

The spokesman added: “We will continue to do everything we can to ensure we minimise any service disruption and keep customers informed as quickly as we can through our website and social media. We are working hard to address the issues we faced this morning and are developing plans to help our customers get where they need to be this evening and for the rest of the week.”

“The May 2018 timetable change, which went live today for commuters, has seen around 90% of our services change and an extra 1,300 train services a week introduced across our network, the biggest change to local rail for many years. This remains a significant operational challenge and we continue to expect some localised service disruption, which could happen at very short-notice.”

Northern customers are urged to check their train times before they travel at National Rail Enquiries or on our website, and on twitter at @northernassist, where we will post notification of known disruption as soon as we can.

The May 2018 timetable change, which went live today for commuters, has involved changing the times of about 90% of our 2,600 daily services, in many cases to make room for changes to longer-distance train services.

Some services now depart a minute earlier or later than previously but for other services there have been more fundamental changes to departure times, frequency and types of train operated.

We are also introducing an extra 1,300 train services per week as part of our modernisation plans.

Not all the Timetable it's the shortage of staff which they are losing faster than they recruit also they won't pay overtime as they don't want the staff getting back wages lost through strikes. On Sunday the 17:35, 18:35, 19:35 Victoria to Southport were all cancelled or curtailed at Wigan, a replacement bus was sourced at Wigan at 21:15 after the 20:35 arrived. The driver who was rostered to take over the 17:35 at Wigan had been delayed on a Blackpool Service was available to take over the 18:35 but was sent back to Victoria as a passenger, the driver who was held up for the 18:35 train(19:06 from Wigan) arrived 10 mins late and was sent to Newton Heath in a Taxi. A replacement bus / Taxis could not be found for the passengers including several elderly passengers and a vulnerable young girl who was travelling alone to Burscough without any money and was severely distressed.

I set off 10 to 5 arrived home 5 past 10 5hrs 15mins for a 2 hour trip!

Where is the link to tell Damien?

Makes a mockery of his claim to have "Saved" the Piccadilly/Airport trains from Southport. He brought that worthless lump Grayling to ensure we kept them but as is the norm for Grayling it all turned to crap.

The facts are that Northern are short of drivers but when you have Butchers Bakers and Candlestick makers running Railways nothing will change.

I commute to Manchester daily, the new timetable seems to suit no-one except Northern.
So far the additional morning train has been cancelled both days, the reduce evening train from Piccadilly was dangerously busy at Piccadilly and no hope for any one wanting to board at Oxd Rd, Deansgate or Salford....leaving a 1 hour wait or dash across length of Manchester.


Update 22/05 16.55 passengers told at 17.10 that there was no driver, and to get off and catch the delayed 16.26 on another platform. Left Manchester 17.15, late all the way and at wigan conductor had a discussion with HQ as to whether to cancel/terminate the service, finally arrived southport 18.55

The "additional services" just mean there are more services to cancel. Perhaps if Northern could actually run their existing services that would be an improvement.

Fines for missing or late services would provide some incentive.