West Midlands Railway

[mikestone]

Strike action suspended but emergency timetable will still operate this Saturday.
;
https://www.westmidlandsrailway.co.uk/about-us/news-desk/west-midlands-trains-reaches-agreement-rmt-union

[richardjones210368]

I understand Andy Street has been sighted on.Snow Hill Station.clunching a document in.the manner of Neville Chamberlin decreeing Peace In.Our Time.

[mikestone]

Some trains ran to Worcester and Shrewsbury today - although not all the re-instated trains ran.

[Tony]

Class 196 on test

[Sh4318]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/west-midlands-trains-given-ultimatum-17463349.amp

[Trident 4194]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/west-midlands-trains-given-ultimatum-17463349.amp

Good!

[the trainbasher]

Anyone would think there is a mayoral election next year!

Cynical? Me?

[Steveminor]

Our lovely Mayor pretending he has all the power. It's down to the dft to decide franchise awards & if operators should be stripped of franchises. Yes wmt have had some spectacular failures but quite a large percentage of those were out of their control I.e union or infrastructure failures, but Northern have a worse performance rating over a longer period & they still hold their franchise.

[richardjones210368]

Our lovely Mayor pretending he has all the power. It's down to the dft to decide franchise awards & if operators should be stripped of franchises. Yes wmt have had some spectacular failures but quite a large percentage of those were out of their control I.e union or infrastructure failures, but Northern have a worse performance rating over a longer period & they still hold their franchise.

I for one if I was running for an elected office would come out fighting to be fair if my symbol was on the side of the trains and I had limited powers over them as the great British voters can deliever some surprising results at elections now when do I start my campgain to be next Chief Rabbi...........

[Steveminor]

Voters today are much wiser to empty promises (thanks to brexit) maybe he should take a swipe at the heart of the problem which is not enough government money being spent on existing infrastructure to keep the network reliable.

[Trident 4194]

Our lovely Mayor pretending he has all the power. It's down to the dft to decide franchise awards & if operators should be stripped of franchises. Yes wmt have had some spectacular failures but quite a large percentage of those were out of their control I.e union or infrastructure failures, but Northern have a worse performance rating over a longer period & they still hold their franchise.

The excuse of lack of train crew is all too common across the network, LNWR included

[Trident 4194]

Voters today are much wiser to empty promises (thanks to brexit) maybe he should take a swipe at the heart of the problem which is not enough government money being spent on existing infrastructure to keep the network reliable.

You mean training drivers? Because that seems to be where they are consistently failing. Avanti seem to be doing ok from my observations so nothing to do with not enough funding imo

[mikestone]

Avanti are hardly likely to have anything other than a cosmetic effect so far. Much as I deplore all things Branson related it has to be said that Virgin always appeared to be one of the few operators adequately staffed.

WMR problems mainly stem from the utterly moronic decision to link services across New St.
On which subject they have just published a track access application putting back to December 2020 plans for the Liverpool-Eustons to run fast south of Northampton all day.
It has also been mentioned that they plan to reduce splitting at New St, so presumably that either means eight cars to Walsall using UDS or reduction to four cars north of Northampton?

[Steveminor]

That's what was asked for as part of the franchise bid, London Midland would have had to do something similar. The problem with that is that it makes for longer routes with more chance of disruption & delay. When crew are delayed they either go over their hours or cant get to their next train leading to the "shortage of crew". Again it all comes down to politics. I say let transport experts deal with transport & politicians deal with.......
Well standing in front of press taking all the praise for "their good work".

[mikestone]

I'm away from my laptop but I'm 99% certain the only requirement in the invitation to tender was to provide a service from Birmingham to allow the TV  locals to run fast from Stafford  to Crewe to permit eight car working.