Rail passengers faced delays once again on Tuesday morning after a new timetable was introduced on many local services.
Services between Huddersfield and Manchester from 7.20am were running between eight and 10 minutes late during the morning commute, while one service the 8.22am between Huddersfield, Marsden and Manchester, was cancelled.
It comes after Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman dubbed the service offered to customers as “shocking”. The May 2018 timetable change involved changing the times of about 90% of Northern's 2,600 daily services, in many cases to make room for changes to longer-distance train services, run by TransPennine Express.
Colne Valley MP Thelma Walker said she'd be speaking to passengers this week to understand their experiences.
The Slaithwaite & Marsden Action on Rail Transport group, which has been campaigning to protect services from Colne Valley stations, said: “It’s not been an auspicious start.
“Sunday 20th saw multiple cancellations of trains serving Marsden and Slaithwaite, including a three hour gap in the service at Marsden.
“One of the supposed advantages of TPE taking over the services was that adapting to disruption was supposed to become a whole lot easier.
“SMART was led to believe that in the event of a cancellation it’s more likely that an express will make additional stops, rather than passengers being abandoned or left to try to work out where when and if a replacement bus might appear. You can guess what happened – yes, it was a replacement bus taking four times as long as the train.”
Reports from passengers highlighted issues they faced:
- TPEs delayed trains missed out Mossley and Slaithwaite in order to make up time.
- Some of the Stalybridge to Victoria connecting services were cancelled, and some connections missed at Stalybridge because of delays.
- Two Colne Valley services made it as far as Stalybridge before being terminated.
On Twitter rail users said:
@Examiner so following Rail "improvements" there is now no direct service between Huddersfield and Wakefield westgate and so no link to the east coast line #NorthernFail -
— Cookie (@Bluehorseshoe66) May 21, 2018
mine was delayed by 1hr last night from leeds to hudds, i love than standing at a stop with limited seating & told every 5 mins that it was being pushed back... till it came and we all had to change platform and then wait an extra 10 mins for it to set off.
— Cityofdelusion. (@cityyofdelusion) May 21, 2018
Hearing reports about how local people are being affected by the train chaos. I'm working with @Debbie_abrahams and @jreynoldsMP to make sure our constituents aren't impacted. I will be out talking to commuters on Friday about how their week has been. @Examiner
— Thelma Walker MP (@Thelma_WalkerMP) May 21, 2018
It's great to see there are a lot more trains first thing in the morning, but annoying when the trains can't stick to the new timetable and still cancel services. I had to set off earlier this morning because of the cancelled 8am train.
— JessicaLouise (@JessycaLouise) May 21, 2018