Bath Spa to Bradford and back

[whole diary]

[Mark A]

A return trip to Bradford - courtesy of advance standard Crosscountry class tickets upgraded to first for the wriggle room that offers during a three and a half hour leg of the journey.

On the return journey, we were very glad to leave the five carriage Crosscountry service at Bristol because there was a heavy passenger flow in full flight there, the crosscountry train did the usual Bristol thing of running clean through the station to the country end (its apparently done to manage congestion on the platform but created quite a bit of its own - many of said heavy passenger flow pursued  the train and a lot started boarding at Coach 'A' oblivious to the four people who were getting off, with the train manager heroically trying to sort things. After ten minutes or so everyone did get aboard though but I hate to think what it was like on the train.

After which, the last part of the journey to Bath took an hour, with a train cancellation, unexplained engineering works that weren't being well represented on realtimetrains, which was simply getting things wrong, or by staff at the station - the entire network apart from Leeds and Bradford feeling understaffed, probably because they were lost in the crowds - and a platform change from 11 to 0 and back to 11 which, with luggage, was 'Unhelpful'. We finally flew through the barriers at Bath as the crush before the barriers had built up enough that staff there opened them to clear things a bit.

I'm presuming that Bathampton Junction was closed in one direction for engineering works and wouldn't be surprised if some at Bristol heading for Bath, boarded the IEPs^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project - replacement for HSTs.) heading for Paddington via Parkway and ended up travelling back via Swindon.

Mark

[bobm]

On Saturday the line was closed between Bath Spa and Chippenham.   Trains ran from London Paddington to Chippenham and back.   Bath Spa was also served from Paddington via Swindon, Bristol Parkway and Bristol Temple Meads before reversing for the last leg.  Today the closure extends to include Chippenham and the single line to Melksham.

[Mark A]

Thanks for this. I'd read GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s disruption pdf for the week at some stage but hadn't absorbed what Bristol's train service would be.

At the other end, the departure from Bradford was disrupted too - Forster Square to Shipley bustituted, so, an opportunity to walk across to Bradford's second station. On the way, a view of the plinth that supported Exchange station (a well-known fragment of lettering still clings on to a lintel there, photo below).

On the positive side the replacement is integrated with the city's bus station. Yesterday's train services there were complicated by engineering works somewhere, and also a broken down train was disrupting services from Manchester, which was probably awkward for people coming to Bradford for a significant football match.

In the event, the service that *was* running to time was the flow from Blackpool to York, which runs via Accrington and clear of the broken down train, 3 carriages cheerfully and cooperatively full and standing, which isn't too shabby given that its route was pretty much out of use (but fortunately not lifted or singled) for twenty years or so before becoming a core part of transpennine services. We joined it and emitting copious diesel noises, up it climbed the sinuous steep curves to Pudsey and, rather quieter, down it sailed to Leeds, ran through the station, and stopped at the extreme west end (footbridge and concourse are at the east). Off the train, a hike to the concourse and a bite to eat before heading through the barrier with 15 minutes contingency which as it happens we needed.

The Bristol train was displayed as on platform 12a, but the first member of staff I asked didn't know which end of the station that was. (It turned out to be the east end of the station...) Once waiting on 12A, two DMUs^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) arrived, occupied the platforms there and stood roaring loudly at each hand, while 'Do not move' flags were attached to their cabs. No chance of hearing announcements but on walking back to check, sure enough the 5 car Crosscountry train, concealed around the curve to the west end of platform 12 (with carriage 'A' at the far end of that train). Another walk/gallop and we caught it with a minute to spare, looking forward to something to drink once we were aboard (you can guess what happened then...)

Mark

[Image from here is not available to guests]

[Mark A]

Thinking again of that Blackpool - York train that provided the Bradford to Leeds leg, here's a good write-up from the disused stations site of the Copy Pit line it uses and which almost closed. The write-up also notes that the likes of Skipton to Bradford Forster Square and Leeds were slated to become freight-only, with Skipton's passenger service provided via Colne. (The latter closed completely while Skipton's line to Leeds and Bradford is electric). In 1972, enormous Forster Square's station services were infrequent and it wasn't straightforward to access trains north over the Settle and Carlisle, the ticketing was peculiar - BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) were experimenting with discounted travel for students, with each ticket needing to be exchanged for a chit detached from a little pad of them. Early DMUs^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) everwhere, which were fragrant, purposeful but ponderous.

The threat of further decline hung over everything - but the tide was turning, not least when the campaign succeeded to restart passenger services at Baildon Station which had been closed for many years. Amazingly, the station's site was never cleared and since 1973 it's been back to life, and on a line that's now electrified.

Railway development planning is a funny thing. Also, on a smaller scale, comparing West Yorkshire to the Bristol area, is part of it that Bristol's not gained a metropolitan transport organisation to pull things together?

Mark


http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/features/copy_pit_route/index.shtml

https://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/BRB_NetworkForDevelopment1967.pdf

[Mark A]

Ticketing: Bath to Bristol on anytime returns. Leeds to Bradford on advance purchase singles (one train only but the train manager was intensely relaxed that we were on the one after, having arrived slightly late into Leeds) and then Bradford to Leeds on day singles.

The Crosscountry leg was more entertaining as I'd not used the Seatfrog app for ages, bought two pairs of advance purchase singles from them, total cost £92 and then a pair of upgrades. Printed the upgrades onto a sheet of A4 as a backup but didn't realise that those don't include the original tickets as well. The seatfrog app of its own accord later decided that it would only show the original tickets when a train manager wasn't in the carriage which led to a bit of... discussion... on both the outward and return trips. More on that when I hear back from the Seatfrog support people, but meanwhile I found the secondary way to ask the app to display tickets and that worked 100%.

Ticketing more generally: multiple tickets on one mobile phone isn't ideal at busy gatelines but it can now be current practice. The next step down is phone-wafting and that can take time depending on whether a visible code is being read or there's a transaction using NFC. Paper printed codes seem to be read quicker by gateline readers. Card tickets with a stripe feel to be the quickest and most fluid. Capping all of this is the number of people who walk right up to the gate line, block it and then start looking for their ticket. While I am an expert at misplacing any travel ticket, I'm not sure what's going on there, in some stations you almost need a training area or something, or perhaps the railways could build a tidy little online resource for this.

Is this perhaps an extension of the thing one sees on buses - the passenger who boards and despite having used buses frequently is suddenly utterly floored by the need to go through some sort of ticket transaction?

Mark

[Mark A]

Crosscountry Trains food, drink, and on-train experience. if I were Crosscountry I'd be considering withdrawing catering completely so everyone knows where they stand - the current offering isn't planned, resourced or operated in a way that can deliver and it must be frustrating for the people working on the trains let alone the passengers. It's shot through with baked-in poor practice.

(Thursday's 9:30 from Bristol started well with coffee/tea & biscuits before Parkway - anything else on offer was a closely guarded secret). After Worcestershire Parkway the carriage alarm made a series of coded 'Bongs' after which the temperature in the carriage slowly fell away to 'Chilly'. (Thursday morning was bright, hazy and cold.) An enquiry about food from one of the other passengers produced the sight of sandwiches and then a small avalanche of orders, after which there was an announcement that the catering had closed to prepare for a crew change at Birmingham, after which they didn't re-appear for the rest of the leg to Leeds. (The train was heading off to Edinburgh).

Saturday's 14:15 from Leeds. After an hour the staff with the standard class trolley took it straight through coach A into standard. Shortly before that, one of the passengers who was travelling with an infant had gone to the front and dug a cup of tea out of him but she was the only person in first class who landed anything until much later. Somewhere before Cheltenham I think it was, there was an announcement that staff couldn't bring the trolley through the train but if passengers made their way to the front of coach 'F' he'd serve them there. I did just that and carried a couple of cups of tea the length of the train back to 'A' - the chap staffing the trolley asked how many people were in carriage 'A'. (It wasn't clear why the trolley couldn't be brought through the train - while it was full in standard, the gangways were clear. Coach A had just four unoccupied seats). Around Cam and Dursley, the trolley chap made his way to coach A and served people there, which made for the third time this trip that I heard the silly crisps conversation.

So, yes, catering. Have a think about it, eh, Crosscountry?

Mark

[Mark A]

Outstanding announcement of the trip: after Birmingham: forceful advice not to put bags on unoccupied seats: the train manager would be coming through the train and would be charging the owners of any luggage occupying seats a single fare for it.

Outstanding passenger of the trip: the two year old who quickly went to sleep on the (unoccupied and spare) seat beside her parent and quietly snored like a little hedgehog for an hour or so.

Mark

[Mark A]

Outstanding quality of the trip: end-to-end in safety and without adding to the traffic on big city roads or the pressure on parking.

Even Portishead and back the other Monday involved the bus picking its way past a four vehicle suburban road traffic collision. Not sure how they managed it but police and ambulance in attendence, vehicle occupants in various states of disarray on the pavement and a chap with a breakdown truck already winching the first vehicle onto the ramp. With difficulty as one of its front wheels was pointing at 90 degrees to the direction it should have been.

On to the train at Bristol and off three and a half hours later at Leeds was a pleasant change.

Mark

[GBM]

It would be good if ToC's would read, note, and take action about passenger experiences on their trains.
Rather than the ToC taking surveys to prove a) Travellers don't want catering b) Travellers are more than happy with what is currently, often shambolically, provided.