West Midlands Railway

[Stu]

https://twitter.com/WestMidRailway/status/1413830699929505797

[Sh4318]

Yeah they are a complete disgrace. The Williams review can't come into action fast enough. Twice this week the Wolverhampton- Birmingham New Street (originate from Shrewsbury) has been cancelled.

They (London Northwestern Railway) reduced London-Birmingham service to 1tph, and then run some services with 4 carriages only, it's madness

[the trainbasher]

Last Sunday, 4 carriage unit on a Liverpiol to Brum, F&S it was. People were even standing in the one loo!

[mikestone]

You have to wonder if they have a control office - nothing from New St to Rugeley between 19.11 and 21.49, yet the stoppers to Walsall all ran.

[Tony]

You have to wonder if they have a control office - nothing from New St to Rugeley between 19.11 and 21.49, yet the stoppers to Walsall all ran.

For the 20:57 to Walsall they even used the Unit that should have made the 20:47 to Rugeley which was in platform 4c so had to miss Duddeston, Aston, Witton & Perry Barr stops out. If they do have a control office it looks like they always just choose the easiest option

[stephen ford]

It's a disgrace there are more cancelled trains on Stourbridge. line today than there is running, they might as well not bothered.

[dingding]

From bitter experiance of the London to Birmingham route yes they always always will without any communication with their passengers.

[Ian Hardy]

Some of the problems could be they have got staff that are getting pinged to isolate due the world beating track and trace app we have. Also WMR must rely on overtime working at weekends for a high proportion of the services and if none of the staff want to work overtime then with the shortage of the staff due to isolating staff then there is nobody to run them.

Also due to a sporting event going on at 20:00 this evening, I can imagine this will be the reason that lots of services will be cancelled later on today as nobody will want to do overtime:-)

[Stu]

Some of the problems could be they have got staff that are getting pinged to isolate due the world beating track and trace app we have. Also WMR must rely on overtime working at weekends for a high proportion of the services and if none of the staff want to work overtime then with the shortage of the staff due to isolating staff then there is nobody to run them.

Also due to a sporting event going on at 20:00 this evening, I can imagine this will be the reason that lots of services will be cancelled later on today as nobody will want to do overtime:-)

Yes, that is pretty much what it says here:
Rail services hit as England on track to final

[dingding]

I was talking about those almost forgotten pre COVID days! Seems things improved drastically when there were none of those pesky passengers to slow things down! Sadly its not easy to change things on a railway. Where you can regulate and tweak bus services to fill or minimise gaps its almost impossible to react to late notice change on the railway.

[Tony]

I was talking about those almost forgotten pre COVID days! Seems things improved drastically when there were none of those pesky passengers to slow things down! Sadly its not easy to change things on a railway. Where you can regulate and tweak bus services to fill or minimise gaps its almost impossible to react to late notice change on the railway.

My daughter wasn't asking for change, just a train home, not sitting at New Street Station for 2 hours and eventually my wife having to drive an pick her up from Walsall because WMT don't seem to have any management over their staff.

[stephen ford]

I agree Tony the drivers are paid to much compared with bus drivers and do not have the same aggravation to contend with traffic delays and irate or abusive people in your face.

[Steveminor]

It's not all staffing issues. Sunday night was waiting in new street for lea hall line for the 21.38.(Already very late due to how many bloxwich trains were cancelled). We were stood next to the guard & driver when his train was diverted to make a departure to Wolverhampton. Reason our train was cancelled "shortage of train crew". I mean the guys were standing right there!!!!

[Tony]

It's not all staffing issues. Sunday night was waiting in new street for lea hall line for the 21.38.(Already very late due to how many bloxwich trains were cancelled). We were stood next to the guard & driver when his train was diverted to make a departure to Wolverhampton. Reason our train was cancelled "shortage of train crew". I mean the guys were standing right there!!!!

Lea Hall trains leave New Street at xx14 on a Sunday night?

[Steveminor]

Was scheduled for 21.38 international shuttle ended up on the 22.20 that left at 22.30 through to london.
Think there was an amended timetable in place not really sure