Transport for Wales Rail

[knutstransport]

RE: Transport for Wales Rail

(03/07/2020 20:04)Gordon V Wrote:  Answer here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-53276751

Yet Leeds-Chester trains are calling at Earlestown. Won't TfW's decision to not call at Earlestown make it harder to implement social distancing if there's fewer trains to/from Chester/Manchester from there?

[iMarkeh]

RE: Transport for Wales Rail
Missing Earlestown is just useless. All doors are always used and the platforms are long enough. They are just making up bull**** excuses. TFW on the Chester to MAnchester route are awful. I wish the route was taken off them and given to Northern but I know it won't happen.

Arriva Trains Wales was the best thing the Wales and Borders franchise ever had and now it's being ran by plonkers with no clue what they are doing. TFW is certainly an example of 'monkeys could run it better'.

[wirralbus]

RE: Transport for Wales Rail

(05/07/2020 21:01)iMarkeh Wrote:  Missing Earlestown is just useless. All doors are always used and the platforms are long enough. They are just making up bull**** excuses. TFW on the Chester to MAnchester route are awful. I wish the route was taken off them and given to Northern but I know it won't happen.

Arriva Trains Wales was the best thing the Wales and Borders franchise ever had and now it's being ran by plonkers with no clue what they are doing. TFW is certainly an example of 'monkeys could run it better'.

if im being honest TfW seem to be more interested in the services in Wales and any connections to the airports of both Liverpool and Manchester.

[knutstransport]

RE: Transport for Wales Rail

(05/07/2020 21:01)iMarkeh Wrote:  Missing Earlestown is just useless. All doors are always used and the platforms are long enough. They are just making up bull**** excuses. TFW on the Chester to MAnchester route are awful. I wish the route was taken off them and given to Northern but I know it won't happen.

Arriva Trains Wales was the best thing the Wales and Borders franchise ever had and now it's being ran by plonkers with no clue what they are doing. TFW is certainly an example of 'monkeys could run it better'.

Be careful what you wish for. Northern are still only running 2 hourly services on some routes, including both of their routes which go to Chester. If Northern did run the service I wouldn't be surprised if they interworked it with Mid-Cheshire services meaning 3 car 175s get replaced by 2 car 150s and 156s.

[DVG526]

RE: Transport for Wales Rail

(05/07/2020 21:01)iMarkeh Wrote:  Missing Earlestown is just useless. All doors are always used and the platforms are long enough. They are just making up bull**** excuses. TFW on the Chester to MAnchester route are awful. I wish the route was taken off them and given to Northern but I know it won't happen.

Arriva Trains Wales was the best thing the Wales and Borders franchise ever had and now it's being ran by plonkers with no clue what they are doing. TFW is certainly an example of 'monkeys could run it better'.

There is a specific safety issue at Earlestown preventing TfW trains calling there at the moment. It’s not bull****.

[iMarkeh]

RE: Transport for Wales Rail

(06/07/2020 08:24)wirralbus Wrote:  if im being honest TfW seem to be more interested in the services in Wales and any connections to the airports of both Liverpool and Manchester.

That is a fact. All of the fares which they controlled in Wales got reduced while those which they control in England got increased in January. They have no will to improve any of their services into England and thus I believe they should be taken off them.

(06/07/2020 08:38)knutstransport Wrote:  Be careful what you wish for. Northern are still only running 2 hourly services on some routes, including both of their routes which go to Chester. If Northern did run the service I wouldn't be surprised if they interworked it with Mid-Cheshire services meaning 3 car 175s get replaced by 2 car 150s and 156s.

I'm not too fussed what trains get used as long as the service is ran properly by a company who actually wants the service. Since TFW, there has been more overcrowding on the line (as a result of less carriages), fares have gone up quite a bit. I think for all Northerns faults, I don't think they would mess up the Chester to Manchester route similar to some of their other key routes since Chester to Manchester is a decent money maker. IF they interworked it, I would expect it to be with the Leeds run so the delays are kept to the routes.

(06/07/2020 13:41)DVG526 Wrote:  There is a specific safety issue at Earlestown preventing TfW trains calling there at the moment. It’s not bull****.

Care to expand then since no one else has found any actual reason as to why Earlestown can't be used and more so since Northern are still stopping there (albeit irregularly) on their Chester to Leeds service.
The only possible excuse which can be found is that for Chester bound trains, a guard has to pass through the vestibule to open the doors. Guards are walking through the train on many other services. If the risk is that high, create a temporary blocker thing which redirects people to the next door.

The excuse of

Quote:we need to be able to operate two train doors. Unfortunately due to the short platform length at these stations, this is not possible.

is bull since more than 1 set of doors can open and the platform isn't short.

[wirralbus]

RE: Transport for Wales Rail
I would also like to hear the official reason , im sure the passengers of Earlestown would as well.

When the Northern service started that was operated with 158 units , so that in theory would have fallen foul of the same rules.

Something smells fishy like TfW wanting to remove Earlestown from there service as the service will still call at the station at Newton le Willows.

[knutstransport]

RE: Transport for Wales Rail

(06/07/2020 18:51)iMarkeh Wrote:  I'm not too fussed what trains get used as long as the service is ran properly by a company who actually wants the service. Since TFW, there has been more overcrowding on the line (as a result of less carriages), fares have gone up quite a bit. I think for all Northerns faults, I don't think they would mess up the Chester to Manchester route similar to some of their other key routes since Chester to Manchester is a decent money maker.

I'm not sure usual revenue comes in to it. The 07:40 Manchester-Altrincham-Chester is usually rammed on arrival at Knutsford, the same with the 08:00 Chester-Altrincham-Manchester but Northern don't think they need to operate either of those two services at the moment and when people have told Northern they need those services to run for getting to work Northern's response is earlier/later services are being operated with 4 carriages so you can just use one of them instead.

Given that Buxton line services are normally quite busy at peak times and are usually very quiet at off-peak times and everywhere on the Buxton line has alternative public transport options you'd think perhaps Northern would try to run half-hourly at peak times and 2 hourly at off-peak times but no they're running hourly all day with some extra services at peak times. The only logical explanation for that is that Northern are short of train crews and a higher proportion of train crews sign the Buxton line, meaning the risk of a cancellation due to staffing shortages would be higher on the Mid-Cheshire if they were running an hourly service, than it is on the Buxton line.

Quote:IF they interworked it, I would expect it to be with the Leeds run so the delays are kept to the routes.

Interworking it with Leeds services would mean more 195s are needed or some Chester-Leeds services would get Sprinters instead of 195s (unless another route got 15xs instead of 195s.)

The morning service which runs Victoria-Chester only is booked as a 150 and does a Mid-Cheshire working afterwards, before going on to the Buxton line.

[DVG526]

RE: Transport for Wales Rail
Theres nothing fishy or suspicious or whatever else you want to say about it. Theres a safety issue at Earlestown and numerous other TfW stations preventing trains calling at present.

[wirralbus]

RE: Transport for Wales Rail

(07/07/2020 12:42)DVG526 Wrote:  Theres nothing fishy or suspicious or whatever else you want to say about it. Theres a safety issue at Earlestown and numerous other TfW stations preventing trains calling at present.

It Would have been very interesting for Earlestown passengers if the TfW was the only service To Warrington Bank Quay and beyond .

It would interesting to know exactly the issue at Earlestown though.