No wonder travelers between Marsden and Greenfield feel hard done by.

At a time when the rail companies and government should be doing everything in their power to encourage more people to use the railways in preference to cars, the high fare on this route is actually causing commuters to drive across the Pennines and then catch the train, rather than use the nearest station.
The reason given in the past has been that the section of line that crosses the border falls between the sections of line subsidized by the bodies on the East and West sides of the Pennines – so neither subsidise it. However, speaking in the Manchester Evening News last week, a Northern Rail spokesman has stated that they are aware and are looking to address anomalies.

After years of suffering infuriatingly high prices and having to watch fellow passengers being charged a fraction of the fare they were paying, there may at last be a light at the end of the tunnel for cross Pennine commuters on this route.

Royce Franklin, a Saddleworth Parish councillor, added his support in the article, stating that he: ’knows of people who drive from Saddleworth to Marsden and from Marsden to Greenfield to get on the train to avoid the exorbitant costs’.
According to Mike Keegan of the Manchester Evening News,  a Northern Rail spokesman has revealed that Northern Rail are: ‘aware of the issues’ and were looking to ‘address anomalies’. He went on to say: ‘we want to encourage as many people as possible to use our services from Marsdn and Greenfield, and we will continue to offer affordable fares from both stations, and address anomalies where we are able to do so’ .
Passengers on this journey have been paying unfairly high prices compared to their fellow passengers on this route for years and the Northern Rail needs to address this anomaly as soon as possible.

Do you use the Marsden/Greenfield cross Pennine route and feel you are being overcharged?

Help raise the profile of this issue by adding a comment below or post a complaint in our Marsden-Greenfield unfair fares section in the Northern Rail forums.

• accuse the companies of making money but having no obligation to serve the public

• say the companies don’t give a toss about the needs of passengers

• are disturbed how the companies have blatantly put up fares six or seven times the rate of inflation

• note that a bit like some local property developers and finance companies here, the UK rail companies have set  up their company franchise so they protected from any financial fallout or legal threat

In short when it comes to private rail: “There is no point in involving the private sector if it simply takes the profits in the good times, leaving the taxpayer to pick up the tab in bad times

The official Government report pulls no punches with statements like:

A short-term approach and insensitive attitude towards passengers will damage train operators’ relationships with their customers in the long-term. The system encourages and allows train operators to take their passengers for granted.

Passengers have been living with for years. The franchises need re negotiating with real performance incentives that ensure passenger needs are put first and foremost. Only this way will the revenue return to the railways through increasd passenger usage.

Does anybody in the Government have the vision, intelligence, common sense and drive to get this sorted?

Again thanks to the Telegraph, disruption is a:

result of a joint strike by both RMT and ASLEF.

Presumably, fare paying customers will be told what is happening as soon as possible.

One of the passengers explained that he had called Northern Rail there and then to report this, and was assured by the customer services representative at Northern Rail that the electronic timing recording that Northern Rail utilise clearly showed that the train had left on time.

This was despite at least 10 or 15 people being witnesses to the contrary.

There are 2 possibilities:
1.That the system used by Northern Rail to record departure times is flawed, throwing doubt on all the performance figures for punctuality.

2.That the Northern Rail customer services representative did not check.

However, most concerning is the way that Customer Services at Northern Rail persistently appear to initially dismiss complaints made by customers rather than undertaking to investigate them.

I have personal experience of a response from Northern Rail where it was quite evident that the actual complaint was not going to be investigated. Another fellow traveller recently got resolution of a complaint again after Northern Rail initially attempted to dismiss his complaint.

Northern Rail need to learn that giving a first response to customer complaints that ammounts to a dismissal without them looking further into the facts is short sighted and totally unacceptable. It’s also a very risky practice in these days of internet feedback.

The report highlights how a combination of poor reliability, staff shortages, last minute delivery of new trains, a ban on rest day working and the introduction of a new timetable created a situation in which 123 trains were cancelled on the first day alone and over 4 times more complaints were received in the four weeks ending 3 January compared with the year before.

The most disappointing feature about the report are the recommendations. It’s all good and well listing the problems - Northern Rail passengers experience the poor reliability and effects of staff shortages virtually every day - we want to know what’s going to be done to improve the services.

It’s insufficient to know that things are settling down - we need to know that Northern Rail are going to improve their project management skills to ensure that in future, passengers are not subjected to such poor service every time changes are introduced.

Most passengers would hope for some fairly significant undertakings and serious recommendations for specific actions given the importance of the rail services to the smooth running of Manchester.

The recommendation of the report is:

Members of the (Transport Network) Committee are recommended to note the contents of the report.

That’s it - simply note the contents!

Nothing about specific actions that are going to be put in place to ensure that passengers do not have to go through such an experience again.

I can only hope that this report is only the first part of a fact finding exercise that is going to lead to those specific recommendations.

First up are Lee Wasnidge & Matt Beeton who will have responsibility for the operation of train services and stations. They will lead on relationships with Northern’s key stakeholders including GMPTE, Merseytravel, Nexus and local transport authorities - presumably this also includes the Rail Passenger Committees - those bodies charged with ensuring passengers voices are heard by the railways.

Lee Wasnidge - Area Director West (Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire and Derbyshire)

Matt Beeton - Area Director North (North East, Lancashire and Cumbria)

Finally, Adrian Thompson has been appointed Human Resources and Change Director and will lead the company on all people management issues including employee relations. Given the staff problems that seem to be quootd as the cause of many late/cancelled trains and the changes that are needed in customer service ethos, this is a role wih plenty of challenge.

Lee’s background is logistics and managing supply chains for companies including Iceland Foods, Asda and PepsiCo where he was General Manager, Northern Logistics.

Matt’s background is Sales and Marketing Director for Bombardier. Prior to that he was Sales Director for the aerospace division of Rolls Royce.

Adrian’s background is in HR, working in senior roles for companies and organisations in the public and private sector including Express Dairies, British Coal and Arla Foods plc where he was Group HR Director.

As a Northern Rail passenger, I’d like to welcome Lee, Matt and Adrian onboard and express the hope that with their capable assistance, Northern Rail will make genuine headway in addressing the real problems that real passengers are enduring on a daily basis as they use their trains.

It would be a tremendous shame if the momentum and debate caused by the whole process was to simply dissipate because of this.

Once the dust has settled following the Manchester Congestion Charge No Vote, it’s important that we get on with the task of improving the transport systems in Manchester regardless.

Throwing an enormous sum of money at the problem would, in all likelihood, have resulted in more consultants and vested interests with knowledge of how to exploit grant funding applications pocketing hard-earned tax payers money.

What needs to happen is that the bodies awarding the lucrative contracts to the transport operators like Northern Rail need to get tough.

They need to set ambitious targets that are set at levels that ensure the operators have to make continuous improvements, year in, year out on all aspects of the services they provide.

The people setting these targets need to be as informed and dogged in their approach as the companies they deal with are in focussing on their profits.

Failure to hit these targets should be met with real penalties and eventually the contracts being put out to tender to other companies.

After years of observing people travelling on Northern rail trains without having their tickets checked, morning or night, there is undoubtedly a large untapped source of revenue to be had simply from ensuring all rail travellers are charged for the services they receive.

Genuine improvements to the public transport systems would achieve the same objective as the congestion charge by making public transport so attractive that commuters choose for themselves to use it.

Currently, what commuter would willingly choose overcrowded trains, poor service and the genuine possibility that they can’t actually get on the train at the time they choose even tho they have a ticket over their own car?

As Sephton points out in a blog post on the manchester congestion charge:

There are many unexplored alternatives to reduce congestion and fund transport improvemens that would not require a charge, we must explore them fully.

The Manchester Congestion Charge No Vote is a massive opportunity to grab the bull by the horns. Just like the city centre bombing, can an apparently negative event once again galvanise the leaders of Manchester to achieve something extraordinary?

I, together with thousands of fellow Manchester commuters, am hoping that he answer to this is a resounding Yes!

Most companies these days are working to continuously improve their performance and it would certainly be expected that companies awarded contracts to run rail networks such as Northern Rail would be no exception.

So I was really suprised when i compared how the Northern Rail Mission statement has changed over time. Below are the 2004 and 2008 mission statement paragraphs from Northern rail’s passenger Charter:

2004 Northern Rail Passenger Charter:

Our mission is to be a reliable, co-operative and customer focussed operator
that will turn a journey into a straightforward, enjoyable and hassle free
experience.

2008 Northern rail Passenger Charter:

Our mission is to deliver local railway services that really work for everyone.

I don’t know if this is just me, but the 2008 statement seems a lot less customer focussed and I’d like to understand how it is that Northern Rail can be allowed to downgrade their commitment in this way.

I’d also like to know why the Rail Passengers Committees (RPCs) and PTEs allowed this to happen - according to this page , the RPCs are:

an independent public body set up by the Government to protect the interests of Britain’s rail passengers. We are funded by the Department for Transport but our independence is guaranteed by an act of Parliament.

Our mission is to get the best deal for Britain’s rail passengers. With a strong emphasis on evidence-based campaigning and research, we ensure that we know what is happening on the ground.

We use our knowledge to influence decisions on behalf of rail passengers and we work with the rail industry, other passenger groups and government to secure journey improvements.

As a regular passenger, it seems to me that on this occasion, the RPC has not got the best deal for me as a rail passenger by allowing Northern Rail to water down their commitment to providing customer service.

If Northern rail were delivering on their original commitment to provide a journey that is a ’straightforward, enjoyable and hassle-free experience’ then there would be no need for this site.

With the recent news that Northern rail plan to increase fares in the New Year by at least 6%, I think it’s right that passengers should be asking what they will be getting in return and to ask Northern Rail to re introduce their commitment to providing hassle free journeys.

If you would like Northern Rail to provide journeys that are a straightforward, enjoyable and hassle-free experience, please add your complaints, however small, to our Northern rail complaints forums - together, we can help improve our rail service!

In a new report titled: Reducing Passenger Rail Delays by Better management of Incidents, The Commons Public Account Committee (PAC) has criticized Northern Rail for only making compensation forms available on request rather than handing them out automatically.

Northern Rail is among 9 companies criticized.

The MPs have recognized that this practice makes it less likely that compensation is paid.

The Chairman of the PCA, Conservative MP Edward Leigh, said: “there is no incentive for train operating companies to help passengers claim the compensation for which they are eligible”.

Quite amazingly, Mr Leigh reveals that “The Department for Transport does not monitor how much train operating companies pay out in compensation for delays, nor does it monitor how effectively they advertise their compensation arrangements.”

This report helps highlight the difficulties Northern Rail customers face when trying to get improvements from Northern Rail. One of the main reasons Northern-Rail.co.uk was launched was to impove customer service at Northern Rail by making it easier for people to make complaints about the service provided by Northern rail.

Rather than having to find, complete and return a form, all a passenger needs to do is register a complaint online. We believe that by making this process easier, this will help ensure Northern Rail also addresses the ‘low level’ problems like overcrowding, poor attitude and late arrivals that passengers have grown to accept without question.

If you have experienced poor service from Northern Rail, have your say right now!

Visit our forums and post details of your experience – all you need to include is the service, time and details of the nature of your complaint. It’s completely free and confidential.

Northern-Rail.co.uk
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