Chairman's Blog

Train running reliability and punctuality is currently running at the best we’ve had on the line since we started keeping records in 1998. August was stunning at 93.79% arriving within 5 minutes of timetabled time, when we remember that back in the “dark days” of 2001 it was 46%. That was dire! The target is now 91%, (was 90%), and back in 2001 on the Mid-Cheshire Train Running Quality Improvement Team (QIT) of which I have been a member since it was set up in January 2000, we thought getting over 80% would be a struggle.

We have had a bit of a hiccup in the last month, though.

This seems to be for a number of reasons:

- unit failures. Northern have by far the oldest collection of trains on the National Rail system, and these are mainly diesel. Diesels have far more moving parts than electrics (4 times more I’ve heard said, but I would have thought it was more) and therefore these have more bits to go wrong. Being far older on average than anyone else’s, they’re also more likely to go wrong. Put both of these factors together and it’s no surprise to find the trains break down more often than in other parts of the country. Thinking back though, since Northern have taken over from First North Western train failures are a lot less. It’s just these are more obvious to us now, since many other things that affected the service are much improved or even permanently sorted.

- infrastructure failures (i.e. track, signals, etc). We have had a very good run recently with hardly any failures, though in the last couple of weeks we’ve had a few. The power supplies to Plumley West Signal Box have been giving us grief as you’ll know from another post. Network Rail last Friday signed off an investment project to make these more resilient. Also this week we had a morning where track circuits (a method of the signallers knowing where the trains are on the track) failed at Skelton Junction, about ½ a mile on the Stockport side of Navigation Road station. This was “fixed” by mid-morning, but they failed again late afternoon, thus messing up both the morning and evening peaks. It seems they were fixed more permanently by early evening.

- train crew shortages. There are occasions whether due to sickness or just not enough traincrew when services have had to be cancelled. This has become more apparent since early October. Swine flu has clearly been a factor, with more conductors in particular being off than usual. Since conductors meet far more people than most of the rest of us every day, this isn’t that surprising. There’s a further factor to do with what’s called a “Rest Day Working Agreement”. This is where traincrew, mainly drivers, agree to work on their days off to cover shortages. This agreement was renegotiated for a 12 month period just over 12 months ago. Thus, the agreement has expired. I hear Northern and the unions involved are currently in discussions over this.

- leaf fall. Our line is one of the worst for suffering from the effects of leaf fall in the area. This year has been much better than we can ever remember, with the daily except Saturdays passing of the Rail Head Treatment Train (RHTT) which water jets leaf residue off the line at high pressure. Those using our trains on Sunday mornings and early afternoons will have seen the effects of not running the RHTT. Last Sunday all trains were over 20 minutes late until the RHTT ran in the afternoon, after which they were all on time! The QIT is trying to find a way for next year of getting the worst patches treated before Sunday mornings. This year the leaf fall season should be over within the next couple of weeks.

These seem to be the main reasons. The Train Running QIT, made up of a senior manager from Northern Rail, a senior manager from Network Rail and me as a regular user from MCRUA, continue to monitor these factors closely and do what we can to bring them to the attention of those appropriate.

I hope you find this interesting and hopefully you’re not reading this whilst waiting for a train following a cancelled one like I did last night following the 1758 from Stockport being cancelled (unit failure) or this morning with the 0601 from Chester being cancelled (train crew shortage). Trust me to attempt to catch the only train that was cancelled yesterday, and the only one cancelled so far this today!!