Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

The reason why the dispute was continuing was then explained. Yes, the Government had suggested that trains might not be single manned and there would be a second person on them, but that he/she would not be acting as a guard. It should be explained that even though the driver actually is in charge of driving a train, he/she is not normally responsible for the safety of the passengers or the train itself. This is one function of the guard/ticket dispenser, and this second person would not be responsible for the safety of the train itself or its passengers, therefore is not a ‘safety critical’ task, which is the role the Union demands. So the dispute carries on, although I personally feel that it has become futile to hold out when it is only the duties of the second person on the train which is the sticking point. Surely if a second person is on the train he/she could be as before a guard with the responsibilities that the post requires. Despite efforts at some conciliation the RMT had announced that the Saturday strikes would continue to the end of January if some agreement could not be reached. By the end of December there would have been forty-three days without trains. The misery of Saturdays without trains, continued with on the 29 th , with no services going over the Pennines and no trains venturing east of Blackburn. However, the arrangements for those wishing to go to the west were coach from Accrington to Blackburn, where some selected trains were going through to Blackpool without a change in Preston, whilst some still required this inconvenience. By now it was possible that regular or even irregular travellers will have found alternatives to train travel, and may never return. It appears as though this Government was compensating the franchise holder for losses during this dispute, which seemed to indicate it was being politically motivated with still no end in sight. All the investment promised by the franchise holder gave the impression that by the end of 2018 we would be seeing these changes come into being but as yet there was little sign of any improvements, with interim timetables being introduced and even then failing to give a solution. Prices of tickets had gone up, whilst the quality of service has gone down, and it seemed as though it would be towards the middle of the New Year before we could expect to see an upturn. Finally the feasibility study on the re-opening of the Skipton to Colne section, promised by Chris Grayling for the end of the year had failed, not unexpectedly, to materialise. The Northern Powerhouse, once again has plenty of good ideas as far as improved transport links are concerned, but has no money with which to carry them out. The situation on the railways which now seemed to have settled down to a six-day operation is a miserable one. This year had been blighted by the dispute over keeping guards with responsibility for safety on trains. Arriva Northern Rail’s inability to provide a regular service has only made the situation worse. By the end of 2018 there had been no less than 43 days without any services at all, a situation which would continue well into 2019. --------------------- January Arriva Northern Rail had announced a range of compensation payments for those who trains were 15 minutes or more late, rather than as before, over 30 minutes behind time. The amount repayable was up to 25% of the single fare. Since the summer more than 12,000 season ticket and ordinary passengers had been reimbursed through that scheme, to be superceeded by the ‘Delay Repay’ one, costing in excess of £1 million. The Director of Transport Focus wants announcements to be made on Northern’s trains to remind passengers that they were entitled to claim money back for delayed journeys. On the rolling stock front, another five Class 156 2-car DMUs have been cascaded down from ScotRail to Arriva Northern. They are numbers 447, 449, 465, 485 and 496. Meanwhile Class 150 DMUs numbers 150:101 and 150:147 have received Arriva Northern Rail’s livery, ex-First Group blue and Northern’s standard scheme respectively. All will probably work on the East Lancs Line at some point, hopefully in refurbished condition. However, the promised debut of the new CAF Class 195 units will now not take place until the spring of 2019, and a spokesperson has said this will “hopefully” happen in 2019 ( This was possibly the worst year in the modern era of train operation on the East Lancashire Line ).

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