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Post by Bradford Traveller on Dec 5, 2017 23:57:40 GMT 1
This year's offer is not offered to MetroCard / mCard holders, so I won't provide details here.
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Post by gooderson1 on Dec 6, 2017 11:23:43 GMT 1
It is however available to anyone holding a WYMetro issued ENCTS bus pass.
It is at this point that I possibly begin to smell a rat. I read in one of the railway magazines some issues ago that Arriva Northern would like to reduce the number of passenger services using the line at sometime during the franchise. If they have reduced the use of this winter ticket they could turn round and say "less people are using the service in winter therefore we would like to reduce the service"
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Post by biroguy on Dec 6, 2017 22:17:02 GMT 1
Arriva Northern are doing a fantastic job of wrecking the franchise so far, the words Arriva and Trains together stand for poor service, everything they`ve run on rails has got worse!
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Post by davopazza on Dec 8, 2017 6:11:08 GMT 1
Arriva Northern are doing a fantastic job of wrecking the franchise so far, the words Arriva and Trains together stand for poor service, everything they`ve run on rails has got worse! What have they done to wreck the franchise? |
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Post by biroguy on Dec 8, 2017 8:59:58 GMT 1
Staff morale has collapsed, bad public relations in the press. Local MP has raised questions in parliament about them being stripped of the franchise, ticket machines that dont work, penalty fares. The list is endless! New rolling stock from Spain that is unable to work in unison! I had high hopes of Arriva, I was at the launch. Hugely disappointed with them so far.
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Post by adam on Dec 8, 2017 14:55:51 GMT 1
Agreed. As Northern Rail morale was slowly climbing it was a reasonably happy workforce. Management seemed open to talk about future plans and ideas. Alex the M.D. was an open bloke and would talk to you. As soon as Arriva took over all plans and ideas were shut down no management interaction, Alex soon jumped ship to Scotrail, then proposed job cuts reared their heads leading to strikes and staff morale plummeting to a low with no sign of it getting better
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Post by davopazza on Dec 8, 2017 17:06:32 GMT 1
I wonder if this is the start of the future for the industry then, point of view as a complete outsider from the industry though.
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Post by biroguy on Dec 8, 2017 20:30:28 GMT 1
It is a real shame that Northern had gone from the "No Growth" franchise to a real success story under Alex Hynes, I was at the launch of Arriva Trains North and I`m frankly disappointed at where we are at now. We hear about new trains but my main concern is that Arriva don`t seem to care about their staff. DB the owner of Arriva have big issues in Germany with staff morale, regular strikes. They were booted off the Tyne & Wear Metro by Nexus before the end of their contract. I`ve been upset by the brutal tactics at Leeds Station fining people who were queueing to buy tickets, usually women in their twenties. As a staunch rail user I`m dismayed by what is going on.
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Post by westyorkshirebus on Dec 8, 2017 23:47:58 GMT 1
Stuff like Driver only operation and penalty fares are franchise requirements that any new operator would have introduced, so I always find it funny when MPs say they should be stripped of the franchise.
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Post by deerfold on Dec 9, 2017 16:01:13 GMT 1
Stuff like Driver only operation and penalty fares are franchise requirements that any new operator would have introduced, so I always find it funny when MPs say they should be stripped of the franchise. They are being cack-handed about the way they're introducing the PF scheme though - they're supposed to post 3 weeks' notice of its introduction at every station on the line, then have signs prominent at every entrance to every station in the scheme. They've not been very good on either. |
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Post by biroguy on Dec 10, 2017 10:27:18 GMT 1
The driver only franchise requirement has been handled very poorly by Arriva, their public relations spokeswoman never actually puts across in the media that it is a DFT requirement! Instead she comes across all high and mighty inflaming the situation further.
Then there`s the reality that most of the Northern fleet will actually be cast off`s from elsewhere and never suitable for driver only operation anyway. Sprinters/158`s will still run the majority of the network indefinately.
On the subject of penalty fares, if they haven`t given the correct amount of notice then the lawyers of affected passengers will have a field day. I pity the guards on trains who will have to deal with confused passengers, having to get a "Promise to pay voucher" before boarding! This is all rather tragic and reflects badly on the notion that you should leave the car at home and go by rail. Can we have Alex Hynes back?
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Post by gooderson1 on Dec 10, 2017 12:17:41 GMT 1
FROM THE BBC WEBSITE.
A train passenger's lengthy fight for compensation from a rail company got to the stage where bailiffs were "pursuing them at their registered office".
Phil Davies was on a Leeds to Barnsley service which "abandoned" him and 40 other passengers in Wakefield due to a signal failure.
He claimed for compensation and won a legal case, but said he was left waiting for about £300 from Northern.
Northern apologised and said the "matter had been resolved".
On an evening train on 10 June, Mr Davies was travelling to his home in Barnsley when the line suffered signal problems.
The passenger said they were left on the platform of Wakefield Westgate with no access to toilets, with a promise of a Northern representative arranging their onward journey not kept.
British Transport Police eventually advised passengers to walk into Wakefield and find a taxi.
Mr Davies said he complained, but was still waiting for a response after four weeks so began a small claims court case against the company.
'Public fobbed off'
In October, a court ruled in favour of his claim for £283 plus £25 court fees, as Northern did not attend the hearing.
After two weeks, Mr Davies said the bailiffs "automatically stepped in" as no payment had been made.
"It's frustrating when a big corporation just snubs a consumer - we're small and insignificant." Mr Davies said.
"Too often, the public are fobbed off by big corporations and they simply can't be bothered. It's about challenging poor standards so they're improved."
Northern train
Northern said it was reviewing its procedures after the legal wrangle
A spokesman for Northern said: "We apologise for any distress and frustration experienced by our customer following the incident and his subsequent contact with Northern.
"We fully accept the judgement of the court and have made contact to ensure the matter is settled. We have also made a significant offer of compensation to our customer - which is over and above the figure set out by the court."
He added: "We are now undertaking a review of our processes to help ensure such situations do not happen again."
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Post by northerner on Dec 10, 2017 19:07:20 GMT 1
Arriva Northern are doing a fantastic job of wrecking the franchise so far, the words Arriva and Trains together stand for poor service, everything they`ve run on rails has got worse! When it was announced Arriva had won the franchise I thought things would continue on the upward trend Serco/Abellio started. Whilst the strikes are outside Northern's control and would no doubt have occurred whoever was running the franchise, just about every aspect of the service has declined. Carillion running the customer services is a really bad idea - they are about 6 weeks behind on Delay Repay claims and appear to have limited knowledge / training on how the franchise works. Train faults and short formations is currently at a very high level, a few weeks ago there were dozens of services cancelled daily as there weren't enough trains available to run them. And the performance statistics are the worse there have been in at least 5 years, so something has gone wrong somewhere. It has a feel of a bus company at the moment, but the current MD has only been in place a few weeks so hopefully he'll be able to turn things around |
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Post by gooderson1 on Dec 10, 2017 23:10:36 GMT 1
Northerner above quotes "It has the feel of a bus company at the moment". Not surprising as some of the stock are based on the Leyland National bus which now only operates as a preserved vehicle.
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