We're trying to persuade Northern Rail to provide sufficient capacity on trains operating Sheffield to Lincoln

Here is the letter that Martin Gleadow wrote.

Single carriage trains at rush hour

Not only was the 1724 Sheffield to Retford train 7 minutes late today (November 14) it was also dangerously overcrowded. The reason? This already busy service normally operated by a 2 carriage pacer was today operated by a single carriage train.

This is totally unacceptable, the services are already overcrowded and to use a smaller train is a joke and insulting to those who pay a not insignificant sum to travel by train.

It is high time all trains on this route are upgraded and a service representative of the fares charged is provided.

Hello Martin,

I don't think this is a satisfactory response from Northern Rail. If you would like to take your issue further, I have a couple of suggestions. You can either click the yellow 'email' button at the top of your campaign page to send a follow-up reply to Northern Rail, or you can contact Passenger Focus. Or both!

Passenger Focus are an independent watchdog who say:

"If you are unhappy with the outcome of your rail-related complaint or you do not feel the train company handled it appropriately, then we may be able to help. Often, we can make representations to mediate with the train company on your behalf.

We can independently review your complaint and judge whether we feel it was handled fairly and appropriately. We may not be able to get you the outcome you were hoping for but if we feel that the train company could do more for you then we will make representation to them on your behalf. "

Good luck!

Myf Nixon

I was fully expecting that response from Northern Rail, they seem opposed to any ideas about engaging with the customers. I have once again e-mailed Northern directly asking for more details as they refuse to give an answer over Fix My Transport but since I have not heard back from them on previous cases I really doubt I will hear anything other than weak platitudes.

I may well take you up on the idea of writing to Passenger Focus.

Hi

I have been a customer of Northern Rail since moving house at the end of August and in that time I have to say there service just about scrapes an acceptable level. I have on several occasions used Fix My Transport to raise issues with them and have not yet had one satisfactory response from them. Bellow is a summary of my issues with them - all these refer to the Sheffield - Lincoln service but I am well aware they are applicable across the areas served by Northern.

* Insufficient capacity. This leads to regular overcrowding of the peak services with standing the norm and people often congregating in the vestibule and connecting corridors - an unpleasant place to travel. On two occasions a single carriage train has been used on the peak Sheffield to Lincoln service, leading to very uncomfortable conditions.

* Frequent lack of ticket checking. This often appears to be directly related to overcrowding since it is not always possible for the conductor to make is way through the train in order to collect tickets and fares. Clearly this increases the chance of fare evasion, unfair on the honest paying members of society

* Long dwell times in stations. Again this is often caused by overcrowding, usually because the conductor is too busy taking fares to make his way through the train to operate the doors. This leads to late running of the service. I understand that Northern conductors are paid commission to encourage 'revenue protection duties', I suspect in some cases this is to the detriment of punctuality.

* Lack of customer engagement. Northern are unwilling to engage with the public on Fix My Transport, insisting on direct communications. This further tarnishes their image to paying customers, and makes it far harder to get information out of them. Only through persistent pestering and repeated emails have I managed to get anything approaching an explanation from them on one of 3 instances.

I have emailed Passenger Focus as suggested

Worth also noting that the dire shortage of trains available to Northern Rail and which the DfT franchise agrees to them using (and DfT paying for) is exacerbated by DfT now refusing to authorise any order for new Diesel trains, and sat on its hands for nearly 1000 days since the last order was placed for any trains - bets are being taken on beating the last gap of 1064 days. Northern might get some diesel trains released when the new trains yet to be ordered are delivered to London and release the older trains to run on the yet to start electrification of the lines around Liverpool and Manchester.

Meanwhile the burghers of Harrogate have seen an option to buy secondhand London Underground sub surface stock and adapt it to run in place of their diesel trains. An interesting idea which might provide some salvation for some routes, if a few details can be resolved. (my option is to add a generator truck to the train to replace the missing conductor rail)

Equally the DfT has relented to pressure from Bristolians and allowed First GW to hire in 2 old-style trains with 40 year old locos and coaches (fully amortised but in this wonderful world costing more to operate than the diesel units) to provide high capacity commuter services. Arriva Northern used to do this for the Leeds-Settle service, so that diesel units from this route could be released for use elsewhere - another way that a rapid fix might be supplied, if DfT will allow the franchise to spend the extra money.

The 2 coach bus bodies on 2-axle adapted freight wagon chassis can carry 102 seated passengers, and the 1-coach units also with a similar pedigree, have 70 seats.

Hello again Martin,

The direct email address for Northern Rail is customer.relations@northernrail.org (our software tends to strip out email addresses for privacy reasons). I am sorry that we have sent you round the houses somewhat - I hope that you can get a satisfactory resolution and that you will come back and update your page so we all know what progress is made.

Great news - the new winter timetable brings more carriages to Northern Rail:

http://www.northernrail.org/news/6947

So far this has resulted in 4 carriages in the morning on the 0801 KVP-SHF service, but I am yet to see extra capacity on the 1724 SHF-KVP service. I'm waiting to see if this aspect of the journey improves too.

On 23 November Passenger Focus said they are 'reviewing this issue [of not accepting complaints sent to FMT] as we are aware that
passengers do want to complain via fixmytransport.com'.

Does any one know how this review is progressing?