“We will not accept passengers being left without a service for more than two hours” That’s the view expressed by Peter Morris, the Chair of the Shakespeare Line Rail User Group.
In a letter sent to the train operator, West Midlands Trains, Mr Morris says that “We will not accept Short Notice Cancellations being applied to consecutive services, leaving the passengers at affected stations with no trains for 2 hours (or more!), and if this practice continues, we will not hesitate to escalate complaint levels on behalf of our line’s users.”
SLRUG wrote to the Train Operator after receiving numerous complaints from rail users about the practice of Short Notice Cancellations (SNCs’) of train services. The concerns arise when consecutive train services run non-stop between an originating or major station to terminating destinations to claw back time for the rolling stock and crew and subsequent services they are diagrammed to form.
The Director of Customer Experience at West Midlands Trains has responded in detail to the points raised by SLRUG. Jonny Wiseman said, “Wherever possible, we will always seek to avoid cancelling two consecutive services, particularly at stations with an infrequent service pattern.” Mr Wiseman also set out other factors and issues that are being managed to improve reliability and performance.
See the entire correspondence and detailed comments by SLRUG and West Midlands Trains by becoming a member of SLRUG and accessing our members’ section…