« Reply #1 on: January 09, 2009, 02:45:08 AM »
I've been using the northern service from Huddersfield to Manchester Victoria for some years now. I have a few bugbears.
The first being that they removed Slaithwaite from the 17.27pm service. I've spoken to several people at NR and each time given a different excuse. One was that it had to be removed to allow the express train from Stalybridge to go through. The other excuse was that it was an exercise to reduce the overcrowding! Clearly, that hasn't worked and I'm not sure how removing the least populated station would assist. When I questioned them as to why all the other trains through the day manage to stop at Slaithwaite except the 17.27pm, I got a lot of ums and eerrs down the phone. I'm now forced to either wait around for an hour at Man Vic for the 17.57pm (which I'm not intending on doing as my working day is long enough) or drive to the next station which makes my carbon footprint somewhat bigger.
Secondly, the price of the tickets is disgusting. The conductor comes out like a rat out of a trap to check tickets but only until we reach Greenfield. He somewhat then disappears. Passengers without tickets are then forced to queue up at Man Vic for an age to buy a ticket only to then flash it in the face of a member of staff at the barrier who doesn't look as if he cares whether you have one or not. As for those who escape through the snicket without a ticket at all....no wonder ticket prices are so high. The revenue lost on ticket sales must be sky high.
Thirdly, overcrowding - what more can I say?!? No one likes to be in someone else's armpit first thing in the morning. I'm just glad that I get on early enough to get a seat. A conductor once said that there were plenty of spare carriages in storage collecting dust however NR are reluctant to spend more money on hiring them out.
Delays/cancellations/platform alternations are a re-occurring problem with no real explanation as to why. After a long day at work, no one wants to see the board flashing "expected at..." or that your train is now at another platform which is always the furthest away from where it usually comes in at.
Need I go on ? Clearly the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing and the people that make these decisions don't use the service themselves.
