The Ticket Collector

Notwork Rail York to strike Easter Weekend

Update: We are now currently hearing reports that Notwork Rail have been told to make an 11th hour agreement. Furthermore if the strike does go ahead NXEC do not have an Emergency timetable ready.

Staff in Network Rail’s electrical control room at York are to strike for five days from 18:59 next Wednesday, March 19, over the company’s plan to cut the number of operators there by a third, from 18 to 12.

The union’s ten members in the control room, who voted unanimously to take action, will not book on for shifts that commence between 18:59 on March 19 and 06:59 on Monday March 24.

The electrical control room controls the current from York to Doncaster so services through that area will be effected. It also controls the current from Bedford to Moorgate West (TL). So FCC and EMT services could be affected.

NXEC cockup continues.

So another really bad day for the new owner of GNER, National Express. NXEC seems to have a serious problem at admitting when they are doing rubbish and further more pretend that everything is hunky-dory when it obviously isn’t.
Take today for example. Notwork Rail slapped 50 MPH Emergency Speed Restriction on all lines between Stevenage and Berwick. First Capital Connect knew this around 12hours before it came into effect. So it sent text messages out to all the staff pagers and mobiles. It also sent out text messages to its text alert service. It updated its website admitting a problem and possible delays THE NIGHT BEFORE.

National Express East Coast however did nothing, even though it knew of the speed restriction. It could not even be bothered to update its website. Apparently according to their customer fob-off centre they added a message at 0616 this morning. Well theticketcollector.co.uk never saw it when leaving the house this morning while checking the NXEC website. The fob-off centre goes on to say they updated it at 0900 to state delays. Well done, sod the commuters which had to be into work by 0900. But where is the amended timetable it promised? No where to be found. Good old National Express purveyors of information distribution.
AN HOUR later a major botch up of an ‘amended’ timetable was added on the National Rail website, it took NXEC until 1100 to update its website to state there even was a timetable to be downloaded, but it did not admit they cancelled half the services. At 12:45pm they admitted there was a revised timetable and half the normal services were running.
Archived ‘amended’ timetable.

As at 2000 NXEC updated the website to say they would not be running a through service from London to/from Scotland, there is no reason for this stated on the site. However National Rail states this is due to overhead wire damage at Doncaster. Why the hell can’t NXEC say this on their own site? Maybe because it was one of their trains that took the wires down in the first place?
We are still waiting for the promised amended timetable. Perhaps there is a timetable already but its not going to be made public until half way through the day or maybe NXEC are so incompetent that they cant be bothered about customers?

NXEC to axe 95 jobs.

RAIL operator National Express East Coast, which took over from GNER in December, revealed today it was to cut almost 100 jobs in its York HQ to ensure it was “fit for the future.”

Company Spindoctor Alan Hyde said the cutbacks followed a review of its organisational structure. “The review will ensure that we have the right people in the right roles doing the right things,” he said.
He said in some areas, such as finance and payroll, there would be some “consolidation” with National Express Group, following a programme to integrate the coach, bus and rail businesses.
But he reiterated the company’s commitment to keeping the rail HQ in York, and said it expected to recruit more frontline staff as it runs more services over coming years. He said 95 managerial and clerical posts in “back-office” areas were expected to be cut - just under a quarter of the company’s total York workforce of about 400 people. “The actual number of people affected is likely to be fewer, due to current clerical vacancies and use of agency staff.”
A UNION leader claimed today that National Express East Coast might be breaching franchise rules with some of the job losses.
Brian Brock, senior regional organiser with the TSSA union, which represents many of the people losing their jobs, said that the merging of staff roles between the company’s railway, coach and bus operations appeared to breach Clause 25.
He said the clause stated that it should be possible for someone to take over a franchise immediately at any time, but this would be impossible if staff were integrated across more than one business.
He said the point had been argued yesterday with management. “They said: It’s all right. We’ve cleared it’- presumably with the Government. But if that is so, it raises questions about the Government’s position.”
He said the matter had been passed to TSSA’s lawyers to look into.

50 MPH speed restriction on East Coast Mainline

Notwork Rail have issued a 50MPH Emergency Speed Restriction for all trains between Stevenage and Berwick, and Between Stevenage and Royston as from 0900 to 1500hrs”A blanket 50mph ESR will be imposed from Stevenage north to Peterborough and from Stevenage north to Royston on Wednesday 12th March from 09.00 to 15.00hrs. National Express East Coast and First Hull Trains will be further affected by the restriction which runs as far as Berwick. ”

The following trains have currently been confirmed as Cancelled on Wednesday 12 March.

09.15 Kings Cross to Cambridge
10.15 Cambridge to Kings Cross
10.15 Kings Cross to Cambridge
11.15 Kings Cross to Cambridge
11.15 Cambridge to Kings Cross
12.15 Kings Cross to Cambridge
12.15 Cambridge to Kings Cross
13.15 Kings Cross to Cambridge
13.15 Cambridge to Kings Cross
14.15 Kings Cross to Cambridge
14.15 Cambridge to Kings Cross

Very bad day for NXEC

NXEC have had a really bad day today. At the last count they have had 5 separate trains fail.

• Broken down train near Leeds - trains were delayed on other routes as well because this train was stopping trains from leaving a depot near Leeds.
• We were receiving reports of a fatality near St Neots. However this later was confirmed as another NXEC broken down train.
• Later on that morning there was a “fault with a train” near to Glasgow. This again was a broken down NXEC service.
• Around lunchtime another NXEC broken down train was stuck at Huntingdon. Services were disrupted and terminated short at Huntingdon.
• Just at the start of the peak another “fault with a train” developed on a train at Hornsey . This again was an NXEC service.

Just what the hell are National Express playing at is anyone’s guess! Perhaps its the first stage of NX’s cost cutting? They cant claim bad luck, as since when do 5 services fail in one day?

Yes trains fail and you may even have two failure’s in one day, but to have 5 in one day shows how bad the maintenance is getting. There was never this many failures in one day when GNER was around.

If you count up all the delays which National Express have caused and tot up all the fines they will have to pay to Notwork Rail and the other train operators for the trains messing up, it is going to be a lot of money.
Don’t forget that NXEC will also have to pay compensation to their customers and pay for the compensation given by other operator’s because of their failures.

NXEC HST broken down at Sandy

Update: Normal Services have resumed.

We are currently receiving reports that an NXEC HST train has caught fire between Hitchin and Sandy. This has now been confirmed as a MTU engine fire

There were several NXEC cancellations due to this:
10:35 London Kings Cross to Leeds due 12:54
11:10 London Kings Cross to Leeds due 13:41
11:35 London Kings Cross to Leeds due 13:55
12:40 Leeds to London Kings Cross due 15:05
13:40 Leeds to London Kings Cross due 15:58

10:30 London Kings Cross to Aberdeen due 17:38
11:30 London Kings Cross to Newcastle due 14:47
Both started from Peterborough

NXEC takes down the wires at Biggleswade AGAIN.

What was it NX promised when they took over GNER? A new era in train travel?

Well they certainly exceeded expectations today!!

Shortly after 12pm this afternoon reports came through of several sections of the overhead wires on the ECML tripping out.

Another train was sent to investigate and reported that the wires had come down and were wrapped around an NXEC pantograph.

The Notwork Rail overhead line team gave an ETA of 1 hour to arrive to check the lines. Shortly after this the slow lines in both directions were reopened to diesel traffic at 20mph.

NX as per normal decided in their infinite wisdom that everything was hunky dory and perfect until at 13:10 they finally added a message to their website. Though what that message was is anyone’s guess as it was just blank. At 13:15 the blank message turned into something of sense.
At the time of writing this entry the website is still showing the same message timed at 13:15. Nice to see that the people at NXEC know how to update the site.
NX also refused to add extra stops on their diesel services, stating that they would run to the timetable as normal.

Buses were ordered by FCC to take passengers between Stevenage, Hitchin and Peterborough. Services towards Cambridge were not affected at first. However after a while due to the trains being in the wrong places and NXEC trains hogging up the lines other operators services were delayed and then cancelled.

Eventually the go ahead was given to allow electric trains back on the slow lines at a maximum “coasting” speed of 40mph.

Services still had huge delays, due to their being only one line working instead of two and again due to the fact that NXEC trains were hogging up the lines.

Credit must be given to First Hull Trains for having the decency to stop at the little stations on the ECML such as Arlesey when they did not have to and could have run straight through these stations. NXEC could have so easily stopped at these stations but more then likely would have stated “that they would run to the timetable as normal.”

Compensation will be paid out as below.
First Capital Connect Claim Form

• Customers delayed on First Capital Connect services between 30 and 59 minutes will receive compensation of at least 50% of the cost of a single ticket or at least 50% of the cost of either portion of a return ticket (by ‘portion’ we mean either the outward or the return part of a return ticket).
• Customers delayed on First Capital Connect services over 60 will receive compensation of at least 100% of the cost of a single ticket or at least 100% of the cost of either portion of a return ticket (by ‘portion’ we mean either the outward or the return part of a return ticket).
• FCC Claim Form

NXEC Claim Form

• Customers delayed on National Express East Coast services between 30 and 59 minutes will receive compensation of at least 50% of the cost of a single ticket or at least 50% of the cost of either portion of a return ticket (by ‘portion’ we mean either the outward or the return part of a return ticket).
• Customers delayed on National Express East Coast services between 60 and 119 minutes will receive compensation of at least 100% of the cost of a single ticket or at least 100% of the cost of either portion of a return ticket (by ‘portion’ we mean either the outward or the return part of a return ticket).
• Customers delayed on National Express East Coast services for 120 minutes or longer will receive compensation of at least 100% of the cost of a single ticket or at least 100% of the cost of a return ticket (i.e. both ways, not just one way).
• NXEC Claim Form