West Midlands Railway

[Tony]

The UK already has the most expensive set of rail fares in Europe so I know it's an uncomfortable reality but do things like ticket offices really need to stay open when they sell a single ticket a day? Network Rail know that passengers need a reliable service and I am sure that despite the unions' opinion, they will not compromise on safety. I am all for unions but someone really needs to think hard if holding the country to ransom is the way to win public support especially when the railway is crying for passengers to return.

I think you will find stations like Birmingham New Street sell a lot more tickets from the people behind the desks (not the automated machines) than more than 1 a day. 

For instance I buy an annual "Hednesford - Network 52 - wk add on" to add to my nNetwork Ticket. This ticket is not available on-line or via station ticket machines, so where am I supposed to buy my ticket from without ticket offices?

This post isn't pro or anti the strikes and one thing that amuses me about the union is they have been wanting the railways nationalised since they were first privatised, but are now complaining about government intereference in this dispute. I'm sorry but if you want a nationalised industry then the Government of the day, which ever colour people have voted in are your bosses!

[don]

There are lots of reasons why ticket offices should remain manned - not least because as you say, it's often impossible to buy an appropriate ticket on line or on machine - at my local station there are two ticket machines - they are regularly oversubscribed with big queues and are often out of order.

Unfortunately the current Secretary of State is either hopelessly ill informed or deliberately trying to mislead - he stated recently 'the Government doesn't own the railways you know', when of course it does and the arms length companies simply run it to the Government Department's requirements - dictated by the aforementioned SoS. He undoubtedly hasn't got a clue about ticketing complexities and although TfL managed to de-staff theirs on the Tube, their system for travel is very automated and doesn't carry the complexities the national rail system does in terms of journey complexity - and in any case they have to man each barrier to deal with faulty tickets (a regular issue with national rail tickets and travel cards) or leave it open. 

I can see where the unions are coming from - allegedly offered 8% pay rise but over 2 yrs (so really 4% against inflation exceeding 10%, per annum).

It's about time the Government offered some consistency and explanation - what appear to be reasonable pay demands are claimed to be inflationary whilst record profits by energy companies part of which are against a backdrop of record charges to consumers are somehow not considered as inflationary......the SoS sitting there making smug remarks about not getting involved in the disputes and leaving it to management is very rich, if not amounting to downright deception when it is he who has to approve any changes (it's written into Network Rail's legislation for instance). I suppose it's what you get when career politicians with no working knowledge are given SOS roles!! 

[888DUK]

https://www.expressandstar.com/news/business/2022/08/25/new-ownership-for-west-midlands-trains/

[BK63 YWP]

https://www.expressandstar.com/news/business/2022/08/25/new-ownership-for-west-midlands-trains/

Dominic Booth and other management have brought Abellio out and established the Transport UK Group. Deal should be completed by the end of the year. 

Don't know if Andy Street will try his luck to gain WMR from the new group. 

[DJ]

Dominic Booth and other management have brought Abellio out and established the Transport UK Group. Deal should be completed by the end of the year.

Don't know if Andy Street will try his luck to gain WMR from the new group.

If my memory serves me right, WMR should be split off from the West Midlands Trains 'franchise' once it expires, with the WMCA having the power over the 'franchise', rather than the DfT.

[Ginger66]

Looking at the strikes of WMT who picking random days striking to that of the WMM who are pretty much out on full strike from the start of November.

It seems WMM know how to strike and cause disruption to services.

[ellspurs]

Looking at the strikes of WMT who picking random days striking to that of the WMM who are pretty much out on full strike from the start of November.

It seems WMM know how to strike and cause disruption to services.

When the trains do it, they cause disruption for 2-3 days whilst only technically being on strike for 1.

I honestly don't think the trams being on strike are going to do much, unless the buses don't put on extra capacity to accommodate it. They've spent a lot of this year not operating, so people will be pretty used to it.

[JIM H]

A replacement footbridge was installed yesterday at Kidderminster. It crosses S.V.R. & Network rail main lines but is not yet open to the public.

[mikestone]

A Cl196 entered service on the Shrewsbury route this morning.

[windy miller]

  Is/was this likely to be repeated on a daily service or a temp measure?

[Tony]

Is/was this likely to be repeated on a daily service or a temp measure?

They are slowly taking over all duties on the Shrewsbury line

[mikestone]

Workings are posted on

https://partimespotter.wordpress.com

[Ginger66]

Regarding the strikes, just seen the news about the latest pay offer and it seems 36.4% are happy with the latest offer,. Staff are realising at the end of the day they have bills to pay, mortgages ext.

Network Rail, which owns and maintains the railways, had offered a 5% pay rise this year and a 4% rise in 2023.
But RMT union boss Mick Lynch described the deal as "substandard", as 63.6% of members who voted rejected the deal.

You can see Mick not getting the deal he wants as staff will vote for the deal they want not what Mick wants I can see a 10% pay rise been accepted by the railway staff

[markcf83]

Regarding the strikes, just seen the news about the latest pay offer and it seems 36.4% are happy with the latest offer,. Staff are realising at the end of the day they have bills to pay, mortgages ext.

Network Rail, which owns and maintains the railways, had offered a 5% pay rise this year and a 4% rise in 2023.
But RMT union boss Mick Lynch described the deal as "substandard", as 63.6% of members who voted rejected the deal.

You can see Mick not getting the deal he wants as staff will vote for the deal they want not what Mick wants I can see a 10% pay rise been accepted by the railway staff

I did wonder what the split was in this regard. The gap will shrink over the next few weeks.....

[Ash]

323221 now out in the old centro livery, photos on flickr.