Northen Rail To Lose Franchise

[thecult 10]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jan/02/northern-rail-to-be-stripped-of-franchise-says-grant-shapps

 

About time

 

 

[Fudbeer 12]

Good have their service is appalling a mixture of late or cancelled services.

[thecult 10]

Barely 50% of services arriving on time (if arriving at all)

[Chaddamp 0]

press are saying commuters having to pay 2.7% increase on tickets,so what..the price they pay for stress due to bad service must be more upsetting?

[the_bloke 17]

2 hours ago, thecult said:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jan/02/northern-rail-to-be-stripped-of-franchise-says-grant-shapps

 

About time

 

 

Good. Give the franchise to someone who can run it properly.

[El Cid 220]

2 minutes ago, the_bloke said:

Good. Give the franchise to someone who can run it properly.

How can a company run a good service when the Government say that they are getting new trains, then say no they are not, yes they are.

Who is to blame for that, Chris Grayling, worst ever transport minister?

[Pettytom 1]

38 minutes ago, El Cid said:

How can a company run a good service when the Government say that they are getting new trains, then say no they are not, yes they are.

Who is to blame for that, Chris Grayling, worst ever transport minister?

The people to blame are Northern, nobody else. 
 

Sadly, Grant Schapps seems to be all bluster and no action, just like many of his fellow Tory backsliders. I very much doubt that he will take the franchise off Northern. 

[tlangdon12 13]

15 minutes ago, Pettytom said:

The people to blame are Northern, nobody else. 
 

Sadly, Grant Schapps seems to be all bluster and no action, just like many of his fellow Tory backsliders. I very much doubt that he will take the franchise off Northern. 

I too have my doubts about whether Grant Shapps has the courage to remove the franchise.

 

They were clearly too inexperienced to run the service that they decide to bid on. 

[Fudbeer 12]

48 minutes ago, Pettytom said:

The people to blame are Northern, nobody else. 
 

Sadly, Grant Schapps seems to be all bluster and no action, just like many of his fellow Tory backsliders. I very much doubt that he will take the franchise off Northern. 

Exactly, why come up with a timetable they can not operate? and then come up with every excuse under the sun blaming everyone else.Their customer service is  non existent  too never even replied to my email about a journey from York to Sheffield where they cancelled at the last minute and expected us to get a bus that would get us in Sheffield at 11pm instead of 8!Can give many other examples of their incompetence.

Absolutely appalling service.

[ECCOnoob 1,049]

I heard this was happening on the radio this morning too.

 

Whilst I I can understand why people are delighted that they have lost their franchise, the question is what happens now.

 

After all whoever takes over, even if it goes back into the much demanded public ownership - it will still be the same knackered old rolling stock, same staff, same fares, same timetable and same troublesome unions.... 

 

One might be able to roll a piece of dung in glitter and shove it in a new uniform but it's still a piece of dung.  

 

I'm afraid to say that if people think a new operator is going to magically improve things they will be disappointed.

 

Take a look at the the ECML.  That bounces between public operation and private ownership several times with each one promising the world about what they're going to do.  In reality the service is still just as chaotic, overcrowded and as expensive as it was in British Rail days.

Edited January 2, 2020 by ECCOnoob

[Pettytom 1]

4 minutes ago, ECCOnoob said:

I heard this was happening on the radio this morning too.

 

Whilst I I can understand why people are delighted that they have lost their franchise, the question is what happens now.

 

After all whoever takes over, even if it goes back into the much demanded public ownership - it will still be the same knackered old rolling stock, same staff, same fares, same timetable and same troublesome unions.... 

 

One might be able to roll a piece of dung in glitter and shove it in a new uniform but it's still a piece of dung.  

 

I'm afraid to say that if people think a new operator is going to magically improve things they will be disappointed.

 

Take a look at the the ECML.  That bounces between public operation and private ownership several times with each one promising the world about what they're going to do.  In reality the service is still just as chaotic, overcrowded and as expensive as it was in British Rail days.

They haven’t lost their franchise though.

[ECCOnoob 1,049]

47 minutes ago, tlangdon12 said:

I too have my doubts about whether Grant Shapps has the courage to remove the franchise.

 

They were clearly too inexperienced to run the service that they decide to bid on. 

Im not sure about that.  

 

Isn't Northern a subsidary of Arriva Trains who have 3 current franchises and used to run exactly the same "Northen" services back in the days of Arriva Trains Northern in the 90s and early 00s.     Im not for defending them but I think there is far more to this failure than inexperience.    The pig headed unions and their keep guards pushing door button nonsense certainly couldn't have helped. Look what its doing to the SWR franchise.

4 minutes ago, Pettytom said:

They haven’t lost their franchise though.

**potentially lose their franchise then. 

 

Edited January 2, 2020 by ECCOnoob