‘Chaos’ on the trains in timetable switch
BUT NORTHERN RAIL SAY ‘SMALL’ NUMBER OF DELAYS AND CANCELLATIONS NOT CAUSED BY CHANGES
COMMUTERS were left frustrated on the first working day of Northern Rail’s new timetable.
Bosses said the schedules would remain largely unaltered.
But scores of travellers complained of ‘chaos’ across the network.
The ‘Northern Fail’ app said 38 services across the north have been fully cancelled yesterday morning, with 12 ‘part-cancelled.’
A large number of delays were also been reported.
One passenger, Michael Gleeson, tweeted from Bolton station: “I’ve literally been at the train station for 30 minutes. First train cancelled, next train had two carriages.
“Unable to get on. Absolutely unbelievable. Cannot wait until Northern Rail are stripped of their franchise. How it hasn’t happened already is beyond me. #NorthernFail”.
Damien O’Keeffe said: “Another train rammed with passengers, another cancelled train. Another day of misery.”
Lucy Yeatman said: “Come on, if you are going to run a rubbish service at least try not to insult your passengers be constantly changing your story.
“Is the 8.39 from Tod to Manchester delayed because of a fault being investigated or staff shortages? Make your mind up.”
Manuel Cortes, general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staff Association, said: “Northern is beyond a joke and needs to be put out of its misery.
“The company said the timetable changes would bring reliability and stability – but as usual what we get is chaos. Millions of people are being badly let down,” he said.
Northern said the disruption was due to operational issues. The operator said the new timetable was ‘working well so far.’
The spokesman added: said: “The small number of delays and cancellations are due to operational issues including driver sickness, signalling failure and train faults.”