Train chaos again!

[jamimmi]

Ok so dd and I ment to be going on long planed and expensive trip to London this week. Unfortuatly most of it paid and non refundable. Just seen both Northan and avanti are saying travel north of preston tomorrow and Monday will be cancelled, changed etc. Last time I travled to london same thing happend. Why exactly do we not have a trainline in Northan England that can cope with the entirely predictable weather! We keep being told to use public transport but its totally unreliable

There's a 'danger to life' weather warning in force for Cumbria. If you dgaf about your daughter's life, then you have a point.

The weather is not something over which the train providers have any control. If it's unsafe to travel, it's unsafe.

Trains being cancelled due to severe weather conditions is pretty standard in many countries. Could the rail network be upgraded to withstand more extreme weather events - probably. But the cost of doing so may not make economic sense.

There’s no threat to life in Manchester and despite living only 7 miles from the city centre I have the choice of only one Northern train every two hours tomorrow, when I need to get into the city centre for a Halle concert. Can’t chance that as it’s very possible one of the return journeys will also be cancelled. No rail replacement buses. So it’s a 5 mile drive to the nearest tram stop that has a park and ride. Northern is an utter shitshow. I know it’s down to conductors not working Sundays but this has been going on for over a year - why can’t they put new hires on a new 7 day rotation?! At least I have the choice of the car - this shitty service puts women’s safety at risk if they only have the choice of one train every two hours, not to mention people who rely on these services to get to work on a Sunday.

Sorry I should.have added we are not travlling though Cumbria, and yes care about safety but as @PauliesWalnuts says Northan cancel everything frequently and avanti are the same. If they know there will be issues.north of Preston maybe plan to start trains from there now rather than delaying/ canclling the whole west coast line. Out of the last 5 journey i have made on this line only one has not been cancelled or delayed more than 2.hours .

It's been like this since the days of the LMS!

Employing seven days' worth of staff costs money. It's cheaper to employ six days' worth of staff and use overtime to cover the seventh. Obviously this isn't a very reliable way of working but the Government won't pay the cost of sorting it out.

If your trains are cancelled or delayed by more than hour (I think it’s an hour) you can apply for and get a full refund for any ticket price

Isn't that exactly what Avanti have done, according to your OP? Cancelled stuff north of Preston - i.e. in the Amber zone.

@jamimmi it’s because Preston is where the staff on Avanti change shifts and also they have more platforms and areas for the trains to wait and/or shuttle back.

It is shit though!!

Avanti is the best service though, Northern & Transpenine aren’t worth considering using.

Northern have just followed the weather advice for the Cumbria area. I live here and I can assure you, it is bloody awful out there now. There have been a couple of landslips recently on the Furness line and I suppose they don't want to risk another.

@BobbinThreadbare123 I hope everyone remains safe, so far it’s relatively ok here but with all the rain we have had recently it’s nerve racking that we’re getting more rain 😭

You clearly live near me. It’s a total f**king disaster on Sundays I have no idea how anyone thinks it’s acceptable

we just drive into the city on Sundays. We’re lucky for this to be an option but it’s bloody ridiculous that that’s the only option

The weather may be predictable but it’s also fucking dangerous, particularly to trains. Please be happy to be safe.

Getting to and from Manchester is a 7 day a week issue from north of Lancaster. Bloody joke.

And this is the root cause. The Met office and their weather warnings are out of control. It’s done to justify their existence -
look at us we’re saving lives and boosting the economy by allowing businesses to plan ahead - when in fact it’s the complete opposite. The country must be losing millions each year as a result of cancelled events and disrupted travel such as this. It’s ridiculous now.

There are huge timetable changes coming in today which is probably not helping. People and trains in the wrong places, no doubt.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd9zek4e493o

Exactly. It’s the timetable/weather combination.

I appreciate most people don’t think about travel insurance for UK trips, but do you have any with a packaged bank account or anything like that, which might cover this?

I travel regularly from London to the midlands and around 75% of my journeys have issues; signalling, leaves, late, obstructions on the track, last minute cancellations. It’s shambolic and I get really fed up with it. Why can’t we run efficient services like Germany or Japan?

I'm in Cumbria and everything has been cancelled but honestly, the weather is fine. A bit wet and wild but nothing out of the ordinary. All a massive overreaction, IMO.

Rubbish. The weather warnings exist for good reason. Exhibit A:

Have you ever tried travelling through Germany? DB is a national joke. Believe me, they make Avanti look reliable (everything highlighted in white on the right hand side was disrupted, some by more than two hours):

I live in Devon, Ive had two delays repay payments this week. Interestingly it is nearly always the Manchester train that is cancelled or very delayed.

Generally I'd agree but the weather in Cumbria has been fine today - just a normal, wet, winter day, yet everything has been cancelled (and for tomorrow too) and they've not even put on replacement bus services.

It's daft. Trains could easily have run today (and have operated fine in worse weather).