Buses replace trains on Sunday 27 December ….
Posted on December 24th, 2009, by The Chairman
Northern Rail will be operating a bus replacement service on our line on Sunday 27 December due to a shortage of conductors. We hear a large number of conductors in the North West have made themselves unavailable to work this Sunday meaning an amended timetable will be in operation on some routes in Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Derbyshire, Cheshire and Lancashire.
We understand full details will be published on the Northern website and through the National Rail Enquiry Service (NRES) very shortly.
3 comments 
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December 26th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
I presume this is because Sunday working is still voluntary on the railways. I think this dates back to when train crews were poorly paid and Sunday was a voluntary ‘overtime’ day. There was no problem manning trains as crews needed to work Sundays to make up a decent wage!
Now train crews receive reasonable salaries shouldn’t Sunday be just another ‘rostered’ working day so the railway can offer what we pay for – a full 7 day service?
December 27th, 2009 at 10:24 am
It seems the replacement bus timetables for our line didn’t make the National Rail website. Currently the Northern Rail website refers users to the National Rail website which shows the earliest trains on the line as being on Monday.
Andrew tells me there is a poster with replacement bus times at Navigation Road station. I imagine there are posters at our other stations as well. You could try ringing National Rail Enquiries on 08457 48 49 50, though they may not know.
Sorry we can’t help any more.
If you have difficulties caused by today’s revised service, please let us know via the Blog or else email me directly on john.oates@mcrua.org.uk
December 28th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
We’ve had a number of email comments on this.
It seems there was some confusion at Piccadilly about what was happening, especially in the evening when the Customer Information Office was closed.
For those who feel their journeys were unacceptably delayed, we suggest they complete a Northern Rail Customer Comments Form obtainable from any staffed station or ring 08457 000 125 for a copy, then sending it in with the related travel ticket. For journeys in excess of one hour late, rail travel vouchers to the value of at least 50% of the ticket value should be provided. To the gentleman with the pre-booked ticket from Harrogate to Greenbank who was sent to Warrington due to the last bus having left and being advised to get a taxi from there, we suggest you also send in your taxi receipt.
Hopefully, if this type of disruption happens again, Northern will have more time to plan for it and to advise travellers appropriately.