Northern Rail

Northern rail unilaterally and without consultation altered the train time of the Sheffield-Adwick 22:15 to 22:34 last December thus making it almost an hour and twenty minutes after the preceding 21:15 train.
I have written to Northern rail, SYPTE and the department of transport to notify them that Northern Rail is in breach of it's service level commitment to provide a train at least once an hour on this line.
The only replies I received from Northern Rail told me that I should catch another bus and train home or travel 8 miles out of my way to Doncaster both of which would incur further cost to myself! Their final 'choice' for me was to go on using the 'service' and sit around in Sheffield station for over another hour after just finishing an 8 hour shift! In other words 'like it or lump it!'
Needless to say I told them what to do with their 'choices' and I have since bought a car - so much for public service and better public transport!

People with hearing problems cannot hear tannoy messages. Need for written communication for important changes such as engineering works.

Last Saturday(8-5-10)we booked tickets for Liverpool. There was an announcement for platform change and also an announcement to tell us to break our Journey at Earlestown for a coach to Huyton. Both were muffled .No written message, as a result journey took 3 hours. We were starving by the time we got to Lime Street!

Northern Rail only provided 2 carriages in place of the usual 4 at the peak time resulting in horrendous overcrowding and people being left behind at Victoria, unable to get on.

Once again, no apology or explanation from the guards

Once again, poor customer service.

the train coming into the wrong platform may not sound like a big deal - but when reaching the other platform involves leaving the usual platform and climbing down the metal steps which are impossible for prams/wheelchairs to navigate with a guard requiring ppl to run and not offering a singl word of apolgy, despite there being no announcement of the platform change, what could be a minor inconvenience becomes another example of appalling customer service from Northern Rail.

When is the government going to wake up to the appalling service that this company is providing to voters?

Hi,

due to the recent snow, i've been forced to get the train from Marsden to Manchester victoria and back for work. Imagine my horror when i was asked to cough up £9.40 (!) for a return ticket. This is far more than it costs to run my mx-5 to and from the office for a day! This is a crazy price and was quite happy when i found this topic, at least others are as annoyed as I am! But unfortunately it seems that nothing has been done with the matter since last year.

Also, is it only me, or has anyone else noticed the ticket conductors only seem to show themselves before the tunnel leaving Marsden towards Manchester and after departing Greenfield towards Marsden? It's almost like they are told to collect as much cash as possible from the unlucky few that have to cross the border while literally hundreds of people ride to Ashton/Stalybridge/Mossley/Greenfield for free. I always buy a ticket anyway, but regardless, if EVERYONE was charged a fare, then maybe us few wouldn't have to pay ridiculous amounts.

Rik

On the train arriving into Lincoln Central at 13.06 the woman selling tickets exhibited a generally bad attitude toward many of those on board the train, using a condescending, unfriendly and demanding tone that made several people feel uncomfortable and actively inconvenienced others, without any provocation or attitude from any persons using the service.

On a busy service such as this one where the train is crowded there was an aggressive sense of entitlement in her voice and actions that made the journey unduly stressful. It should be noted that while no abusive language was used, the argumentative and accusatory tone, body language and volume of speech gave that impression.

I recommend she be sent on a retraining course for basic customer service.

This past Friday, I was in a bit of a rush from my cycle to the train at Hornbeam Park Station, and so jogged a bit to the train.  A few steps into the road, my feet flew out from under me.

I thought at first that this was black ice, but actually, it appears that the road is just slippery despite being a relatively rough surface.  There is something greesy coating the road - someone should look at this.

Also - they just designed a new quite nice and modern walkway (probably quite expensive), except for connecting the cycle racks - why did they leave this out???  It's silly that we have to walk in the road to join foot traffic to the platform!

New suit trousers = £60.   

(Cuts and bruises only, luckily!)

Both restrooms on this morning's 7:44AM train from Hornbeam Park to Leeds were 'out of order'.

Sort of like John Cleese out of Fawlty Towers, conductor gave the sort of response in a tone of voice that came across as "typical, I know - you think it's bad, well I have to work on this train!"  Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating, but he didn't express any surprise or apology for the appalling situation.  (I guess this is 'small potatoes' relative to other problems Northern Rail has.)

He offered kindly to let me use the nearest 'out of order' restroom, and guard the door for me once he got down to that carriage.  I said fine.  Surprise, surprise - he never reached that point!


 

This is a comment on discourteous behaviour, a complaint and a suggestion all in one.

I’ve been travelling to Leeds for the last 4 months and have always shown my monthly season ticket to the staff at the barriers, who have let me pass with no problem. However, recently one operator has been saying that I should remove my pass from its wallet and put it through the machine. I don’t want to do this, as over time the printing on the pass can be become faded and through general ware and tear the pass could get damaged.

The operator claimed that it’s not his job to let people with passes through and that he is there to let people who haven’t got ticket onto the platform. I found this odd, since surely their job is to refuse people entry who don’t have a ticket and send them to the ticket office? Surely their job is to assist the public? The last time I experienced this problem it was quite late in the evening and the two barrier operators were standing around like stuffed dummies with nothing to do, so I really can’t see the problem in letting passengers through. The operator was impolite and arrogant.

Has anybody else had similar problems?

Was the operator right that it’s not his job to let passengers with passes through the barriers?

In connection with the above, wouldn’t it be better to introduce barriers that could read a code on the tickets? This way, we wouldn’t need to take our tickets out of their wallets and things would be much easier. At the moment, I don’t see why, when I’m paying over £100 a month for a season ticket, I should shove it through a machine and risk it being damaged or deformed.