Northern Rail

[St Helens Rider]

RE: Northern Rail

(10/11/2015 19:49)wirralbus Wrote:  Northern has been struggling with the information systems for a few days off and on now .

It wasn't just Northern, it appeared to be a problem with all the screens at stations including Wigan North Western and information on National Rail.

[SK15 GZG (Moderator)]

RE: Northern Rail

(14/11/2015 21:26)Dentonian Wrote:  I try to keep clear of discussing Rail matters in a bid to retain sanity, so apologies if this is something widely known in some circles - which logically, it will be:

Can someone advise when the winner(s) of the new "Northern Trains" franchise is to be announced? I believe its supposed to start next April, so I would have thought a decision would be imminent.

The winner is due to be announced next month (was supposed to be last month) if I remember correctly. Arriva, Abellio and Govia are the three shortlisted bidders

[SK15 GZG (Moderator)]

RE: Northern Rail

(15/11/2015 13:09)Dentonian Wrote:  Thanks. Actually, I must admit I don't know who is responsible for what with rail franchising. Being very much a bus man, I assume that the TOC is responsible for everything except the basic timetable and fares. But specifically, can someone advise who is responsible for:

1. Detailed timetables/running times.

2. Capacity allocation ie. which (peak) trains get 4-cars and which get 2.

3. Revenue protection ie. where/when and how many staff at the platform exit

Also, are the works of fiction that pass for punctuality performance percentages placed at stations every 4 weeks, independantly assessed - and are they meant to cover all journeys/stations or just peak hour departures from the initial station?

No problem. I'll answer your questions to the best of my knowledge

1) The National Timetable is devised by Network Rail

2) Allocation of units to services is down to the operator. Any units that are spare are allocated to extra services or service strengthening as and where needed. As a result of the first batch (more are expected in the future) of Class 319s transferring to Northern there were supposed to be six Class 156s freed up to strengthen other services. However - as five of the First TPE Class 170s have gone to Chiltern those spare 156s have had to go on loan to TPE to replace the 170s. To free up capacity for other routes Northern have introduced loco hauled services on the Cumbrian Coast and I believe these will be continued by the new franchisee for the foreseeable future

3) Generally operators carry out their own revenue protection - although I have heard of operators using another company's RPIs at stations (i.e. if the station in question is managed by another company) in the past. This is done either on the train when the conductor does ticket checks or by RPIs at the platform exits. I've noticed that RPIs are generally at major termini (Lime Street, Piccadilly etc) rather than suburban stations such as Mossley Hill or Huyton

I'm not sure on your last point - but I hope the above is useful

[T42 PVM (Moderator)]

RE: Northern Rail
A Class 144 caught fire a few days ago, Does anyone know what one it was and how bad the damage was? Before anyone starts the Article clearly states everyone was fine

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/n...r_facebook

[jtd508110]

RE: Northern Rail
The date of the Article is November 2013. It is now very rare to see a 144 in Manchester Victoria although they occasionally do pop up.

[T42 PVM (Moderator)]

RE: Northern Rail

(15/11/2015 17:38)Dentonian Wrote:  It also happened nearly two years ago!

Did not notice that, The person who shared it on Facebook made out it had happened the other day

[Sprinterdriver]

RE: Northern Rail
Going back to an earlier post the amount of services that run is included in the franchise agreement, this lists the minimum level of train service, an operator can run more. The new franchise gives a large increase in services on some routes, especially at the weekends.

The type and length of trains in PTE areas is generally specified by them in conjunction with the operator.

The puntuality figures are calculated the same way for all TOC's, the DfT came down hard on First Great Western when they tried to masage the figures. I'm not 100% sure but I think all services are included.

Northern employ a private security company for barrier checks at a lot of stations. More recently they have recruited on train revenue collectors themselves in Greater Manchester and Merseyside.

SD.

[Sprinterdriver]

RE: Northern Rail
An educated guess is that the windy & wet weather will be having an impact with some nice slippy rails.

SD.

[wirralbus]

RE: Northern Rail

(16/11/2015 22:06)Dentonian Wrote:  I wonder what the primary cause over the Spring and Summer was. For some reason, Wednesdays were particularly bad, with the 5 minute target only being met twice on the 8 occasions in Apr/May/Jun when I caught the 0903 from Marple

The very complicated Piccadilly station throat .

[T42 PVM (Moderator)]

RE: Northern Rail

(16/11/2015 18:52)Sprinterdriver Wrote:  Going back to an earlier post the amount of services that run is included in the franchise agreement, this lists the minimum level of train service, an operator can run more. The new franchise gives a large increase in services on some routes, especially at the weekends.

That fits in with what i got told as apparently the Sunday Service on the Liverpool - Wigan Line will go from Hourly to half hourly during the next Franchise