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New West Midlands Franchise - Standing Room Only?


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I was on the 1713 & we were also told Bletchley.

Why did they cancel trains to Tring then? With its terminating platform, Tring is an ideal place to turn trains around. I am not referring to all Virgin services, but just the trains which should have stopped at Tring anyway. There was no need to cancel these & there were loads of trains in Euston which could not have got to their destination (Northampton, Birmingham, Crewe) which could have been used so LM should be fined heavily for messing travellers to Hemel, Tring etc about unnecessarily.

They have done this before when there was a cow on the line in Milton Keynes (maybe a concrete one?). I had my bike with me at the time & would have been quite happy to try cycling back to MK from Tring.

 

This reminds me of when I used to travel home on the Cobbler MK1 set from Euston to Bletchley in the early 80's. I used to take my bike in the guards van and cycle to/from Holborn as it was quicker than the tube or bus. One night the Cobbler failed at Leighton, so I cycled back to Bletchley, getting home before other family members who were stuck on the train waiting for the delay to be sorted out!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Go-Ahead boss takes parting shot about franchise awards after losing London Midland routes - http://www.cityam.com/276794/go-ahead-boss-takes-parting-shot-franchise-awards-after

 

 

He possibly has a point but don't EU rules prevent past track record from being taken into account when assessing bids.

 

On the not unreasonable grounds that if you have never been an incumbent, you can't have a track record, so therefore you could never get a fair bid.

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I was surprised to see that other than on the LM 139 units when I was in the WM area the only time I had my ticket checked were on the ones operated by Chiltern.  LM staff seem to open doors, close doors and hide in the rear cab.

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Yup. Many is the time that I get on a train from Snow Hill and get all the way to Kidderminster without having the chance to buy a ticket at all (no staff at office, broken ticket machine, no guard on train selling tickets) 

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Fully agree with the ticket check comments. The number of times I have caught a train from Hednesford to New Street and back and never had my ticket checked. People getting on/off at a lot of the intermediate stations are aware of this and get their trips for free - unfair and mildly frustrating.

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The senior conductors on their WCML services in/out of Euston are more visible but I'd estimate a less than 50% probability of a ticket check on the trains I use.

Doing better than some Northern services at least, where the odds of being able to buy a ticket at all are less than that, if it's busy and the ticket offices are closed.

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My earlier post regarding the time of changeover of franchisees was in error - the handover is at 01.59 on Sunday morning (not 02.01) meaning that the last LM service to be moving will be the 2254 New St - Northampton arr 2355, and the five 02.00 buses from Euston the first operation of the new franchise.

One hopes that LM won't behave like bad losers and are helping the incomer to do such things as meet up with staff beforehand and make sure that details (such as the replacement buses for  Crick tunnel closure on Sunday) are handled in the best interests of its staff and customers...

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We never had the "incomer" meeting up with us before the handover! Why would they need to? The timetable is the same, the management up to a very high level is the same... So no changes... When they take over then they can tell staff what they intend to do! Quite frankly it makes damn all difference to the staff at the sharp end initially, it's only later that things start to change (if they do!)...

Edited by Hobby
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We never had the "incomer" meeting up with us before the handover! Why would they need to? The timetable is the same, the management up to a very high level is the same... So no changes... When they take over then they can tell staff what they intend to do! Quite frankly it makes damn all difference to the staff at the sharp end initially, it's only later that things start to change (if they do!)...

 

Even the new very high ups, they do bring in, will have probably done this kind of thing before.

 

So, day one, say hello to everyone, familiarise yourself with the map and the timetable then get straight down to work chasing up the new vinyls, the new uniforms and all the new branded material such as the station signs.

 

Oh and split the office in two, build a partition (one side for LNW and the other side for West Midlands trains) then organise some office politics so everyone knows who they must blame.

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Even the new very high ups, they do bring in, will have probably done this kind of thing before.

 

So, day one, say hello to everyone, familiarise yourself with the map and the timetable then get straight down to work chasing up the new vinyls, the new uniforms and all the new branded material such as the station signs.

 

Oh and split the office in two, build a partition (one side for LNW and the other side for West Midlands trains) then organise some office politics so everyone knows who they must blame.

 

P.S. Also find something very minor and inconsequential to change but guaranteed to get right up people's backs just so everyone knows the new broom has arrived and that they do things differently.

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We never had the "incomer" meeting up with us before the handover! Why would they need to? The timetable is the same, the management up to a very high level is the same... So no changes... When they take over then they can tell staff what they intend to do! Quite frankly it makes damn all difference to the staff at the sharp end initially, it's only later that things start to change (if they do!)...

Well maybe LM is different but it has staff on fixed-term contracts that coincide with (quelle surprise) the end of the contract. They need to be contacted otherwise they'll not be there any more. 1 1/2 working days left...

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Well maybe LM is different but it has staff on fixed-term contracts that coincide with (quelle surprise) the end of the contract. They need to be contacted otherwise they'll not be there any more. 1 1/2 working days left...

 

That is because the incumbent franchisee cannot offer a contract beyond its franchise term, I mean how could it - where could it re-employ these people on Day 1 of the new franchise - it no longer has a business, or this business or a new business the same shape as the existing one, to run in the West Midlands?

 

The existing employees will TUPE across to the new franchisee, i.e. Abellio, as they do with every change of franchisee - unless of course they have taken the decision to leave voluntarily, in which case they will have advised their employer of their intentions and handed their notice in accordingly.

 

 

 

EDIT: with the obvious normal exceptions, usually of the MD, FD, Head of Retail those sorts of positions.

Edited by 'CHARD
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That is because the incumbent franchisee cannot offer a contract beyond its franchise term, I mean how could it - where could it re-employ these people on Day 1 of the new franchise - it no longer has a business, or this business or a new business the same shape as the existing one, to run in the West Midlands?

 

The existing employees will TUPE across to the new franchisee, i.e. Abellio, as they do with every change of franchisee - unless of course they have taken the decision to leave voluntarily, in which case they will have advised their employer of their intentions and handed their notice in accordingly.

 

 

 

EDIT: with the obvious normal exceptions, usually of the MD, FD, Head of Retail those sorts of positions.

The fixed-term contract employees will not, of course, be entitled to TUPE.  I did not say that I was surprised that the present LM had fixed-term contracts that ended at the end of the franchise. What did surprise me was that, allegedly, the new franchisee was not allowed to communicate with these staff and the suggestion also is that many are leaving, possibly as a result.

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What staff? I'd be surprised if it included drivers guards and dispatch staff...

 

 

I agree. Human assets like traincrew tend to be associated the franchise. How else would you have enough drivers and conductors to operate the timetable from 10th December ?

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What staff? I'd be surprised if it included drivers guards and dispatch staff...

Indeed.

Drivers, guards and despatch staff are essential.

But think about it; there are other staff equally essential (but not so obviously visible) to running trains and other ancillary operations...

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How long will it take passengers to stop talking about London Midland and use the new franchise name? I am that interested I haven't even bothered to remember the name of the new franchise. No doubt I will be bombarded with train and station announcements to remind me of of whatever they're called.

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I went out for a ride around the network yesterday, a lot of their units had already been de-branded

Which network is that?

The one that currently is running hardly any trains due to snow? :scratchhead:

 

No doubt some wag will complain that WMR has got off to a poor start on it's first day. :jester:

 

Well they don't seem to have a website up and running yet, least I can't find one, or is the two websites.

 

Might be an idea though.

https://www.westmidlandsrailway.co.uk/

 

https://www.londonnorthwesternrailway.co.uk/

 

Keith

Edited by melmerby
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