Work has become very busy for a few weeks so I won't be reading / rating / writing for a couple of w...
Work has become very busy for a few weeks so I won't be reading / rating / writing for a couple of weeks. I'm still around so drop me a GB message!!
Member since:23.07.2002
Reviews:27
Members who trust:106
At 26 years old, I am one of the few people my age that can't drive. I rely heavily on public transport and have done ever since I went to university. That's when my experiences with Arriva Trains Northern started - all of 6 years ago this summer. Here is my competition entry opinion, starting with a bit of company background
---Background---
Arriva Trains Northern (ATN) secured their franchise from Northern Spirit in 1997 and run local and transpennine services across Yorkshire and the North of England. They claim to operate around 1,400 services every day, 1,000 of which pass through Leeds City Station. They claim to cover around 80,000 miles every day on a network which stretches from Hull and Scarborough on the East Coast across to Blackpool, Liverpool, and Manchester on the West Coast, and from Carlisle and Sunderland in the North to Sheffield and the North Midlands in the South. Most of their services are focused in and around Yorkshire as they have the franchise for local services in this area and the transpennine services across the country.
Their staff don't just include train drivers and conductors, they also employ the station staff at 242 stations that they run across their network, and all-in-all employ over 3000 staff.
---My experience---
For 3 years at University, I was a regular traveller from Preston to Leeds on the Transpennine Express and from Leeds to Barnsley on the final leg of the journey home - both legs on services run by Arriva. For the last 3 years, journeys have centred upon local journeys from New Pudsey to Leeds, transpennine journeys to Liverpool to visit Claire's parents, local trips to Barnsley to see mine, and frequent runs to Preston when I go to watch the Super North End!! I think I have quite a lot of experience of Arriva and the wide range of places it serves. So here goes, my view on Arriva Trains Northern: -
---Train Stock & Condition---
It mostly depends on which journey you take as to the condition of the train. Transpennine services tend to have the better trains, which are faster and more comfortable. There are usually 2 or 3 carriages to a train, with each carriage having 8 table seats and half of the rest facing to the front of the train and the other half facing the back. A train will usually have 3 toilets on board and at least one payphone, and also half a carriage (usually around 20 seats) that is dedicated as first class. First class has comfier seats (all of which are table seats) and table lamps, but is only separated by a partition. In the numerous years that I have been travelling over transpennine routes, I haven't had a cause to complain over
any aspect around the condition of a train.
Then there are the trains, which are used for the local services, and these are very different. These are relatively old trains that don't make for a good journey. They have no tables, with rows of 3 seats down one side and 2 seats down the other, and again half facing one way and half facing the other. The journey is never as smooth on these kind of trains as you feel every uneven part of the track. Generally the standard of the train is poorer with dirty windows, dry stuffy air when the heaters are on, leaky windows and dirty seating - definitely not fit for 21st century travel and very conducive to my travel sickness problems!! In the past year they have introduced brand new trains on the Leeds - Ilkley line, similar to the ones used by Midland mainline and First North Western for their local services. To be frank, I think it is a slight on the quality of ATN that they have no few local services with trains of this calibre when other companies run them as routine.
Although the trains are old, there are no real safety concerns that ATN can do anything about. They will always be at the mercy of the morons who think it is fun to vandalise the tracks or take pot-shots with an air rifle (I have had a 1 hour delay outside Burnley because some twerp was doing that!!). All trains are equipped with fire extinguishers and the little hammers with which to break the glass if you need to get out in an emergency, and the emergency stop cords. Conductors have first aid kits in their little cabins along with a direct line to the emergency services if needed. All in all, I think that they have done everything that they can to ensure that passengers are safe on their trains.
---Stations---
The stations run by ATN are not necessarily those where services run to. They are mainly situated in Yorkshire and the North-East with Leeds being the flagship station. The bigger stations are very good - Leeds has just had a £165m refit and now does the city proud compared to what it did look like in the early days when it was dark, dingy and cold!! York and Doncaster are also relatively good but Leeds stands out, the only complaint being that it costs 20p to spend a penny. The smaller stations are a bit hit and miss. I frequently visit Barnsley, which is a 2-platform station and is very modern and aesthetically pleasing. Compare that to the ramshackle which is Wakefield Kirkgate which looks like an old train shed without the roof and you will see the 2 extremes of smaller stations. A word of warning though - not all stations have PA systems to alert you of train arrivals / delays, which I'll come to in a later section.
---Cleanliness---
Overall, ATN isn't too bad at cleanliness levels. Although the stations don't have rubbish bins for security reasons they are usually kept tidy. As for the trains themselves, they are cleaned and all rubbish taken at the end of each transpennine journey, and when there is a trolley service on board, the sales guy / woman will come down every so often to clear away and unwanted rubbish. Most carriages will have bins between the backs of the seats which most people use, so all-in-all you can't really complain - except for one thing, the toilets. I have never seen a clean toilet on an ATN train. They all smell, have toilet roll strewn around and are the worst places imaginable. If at all possible I try to avoid them and wait until I get to the station. This is one thing that doesn't get cleaned at the end of every journey, and to be honest it shows.
Things are the same on the regional services, except they have no bins in the carriages and no trolley service to clean up. The standard of cleanliness is relatively good though except again for the toilets.
---Punctuality / Reliability---
This used to be my biggest bugbear, and one shared by many a commuter. 2 years ago I commuted from Halifax to Leeds daily on a direct train which was due 4 times per hour. At one point you were lucky to get 1 per hour at peak times and on the return journey, one service didn't run for an entire week. The official excuse was a lack of driver - there would be times that the train turned up, everyone piled on, waited for upto 20 minutes to be told that they didn't have a driver and we would all have to get off - things like that were commonplace. Recently though, things have improved dramatically from my experience. Things are almost back to the level of the pre-ATN days when Northern Spirit ran a decent service with low numbers of cancellations and high punctuality rates.
The main problem that ATN now suffers is with its ability to cope with industrial disputes. When either the conductors, drivers or station staff decide to strike (usually over pay) the whole network grinds to a halt - bringing in the dreaded replacement bus services. I have been hit by numerous strikes which happen to fall badly for me, but apart from that have been hit by just 1 cancellation and 3 delays of 15 minutes + in the last 12 months. This is not bad going for a company whose reliability, punctuality and service was so bad that a consumer website was spawned to host the horrendous journey descriptions called www.arrivasucks.com. Unfortunately this brilliantly funny site is no longer live, possibly due to the vast improvement in ATN services over the past year.
The problem is that the Strategic Rail Authority fines a train company more for being late than not arriving at their destination. Hence the fact that 3 times in 2001 I was on a journey to Liverpool and the train stopped at Warrington to throw everyone off and we had to get a regional train just so that ATN wouldn't be fined as much as they were going to be for being over 15 minutes late (they were actually running over 45 mins late each time). I still don't believe that this rule has changed and is a major disincentive for rail companies to provide reliable services.
A quick note here - if you are delayed on a ATN service by more than 1 hour, the staff are supposed to offer you complimentary drinks, and I have had this once when the conductor told me this was standard policy.
---Customer Service (On-board Staff)---
Not too many complaints with this really - generally all of the on-board staff are friendly, helpful and good at their job. The one thing that I would pick up on is the lack of information. Over the years, my major problem has been with the amount of information given to passengers. When trains are delayed due to a range of problems and you are stuck in the middle of nowhere staring out of the window going nowhere fast, you need to know how long it is expected you will be there, what the problem is, etc, at the very least to make plans at the other end of your journey. ATN have always been poor at this and things haven't improved. I acknowledge that they conductor or driver may not know how long it will take to start moving again, but frequent updates informing the passengers that they don't know but will tell us as soon as they do, are more helpful that 30 mins of silence and a train full of passengers wondering what the hell is going on.
---Customer Service (Station Staff)---
I think that this is one of the major faults with ATN. In the smaller stations, the station staff who deal with customers are usually limited to ticket offices only. Although helpful, they are only as helpful as they have to be, and sometimes a company can portray a good image by the little extra pleasantries that their staff say or do. A please or thank you here and there wouldn't go amiss, and would certainly enhance the customer experience of a ticket office from my point of view.
Larger stations also have staff on platforms on which ATN trains will arrive and depart. The purpose of these staff is to help the train leave on time, give the relevant signals and act as a source of information for a customer. Personally apart from a few horrendous experiences around 4 or 5 years ago, I haven't had any problems with them. However, I have very rarely asked them something or needed any information at a station run by ATN. Last week at Leeds I got talking to a woman on my train to Barnsley who had been told that this was the train to Sheffield by the platform assistant. Nothing wrong there as it was going to Sheffield except that she should have been directed to the express train that took 30 minutes and not the slow regional train she was on which took almost 1.5 hours! She was to miss her connection and was none too pleased but I have heard of others.
In the bad old days of cancellations at short notice due to driver shortages, I felt really sorry for these guys. There were angry commuters asking for information and when they couldn't give any they got a load of verbal abuse. They couldn't hide behind a door as a conductor does. Still, ATN didn't equip them with radios or others mean by which to pass information on, and it was a failing of the company rather than of the staff.
When travelling from a smaller station the cancellation or delay of a service may never be known as only a few smaller stations have PA systems which tell you or arrivals and delays - another problem which ATN would do well to pick up on.
---Customer Service (ATN HQ / Complaints Staff)---
I have complained about ATN in writing around 5 times in the 6 years, but not at all for about 2. At one point the service was so bad that I could have complained about almost every journey. Any complaints were always replied to, and were given a blatant automated apology and a £5 rail voucher against ticket purchases. Nothing was ever mentioned about possible reasoning or if they were going to improve things to ensure that same things I complained abut never happened again. It was as though they had taken the attitude of 'oh, another one, just put some vouchers and an apology letter in - that'll do the trick'. Not a good feature of the company or their public image!!
---Prices & Booking Tickets---
Booking of tickets can be done at any staffed station immediately prior to your journey, although it is advisable to get there early as there may be queues. You are also allowed to purchase a ticket from the conductor on board if you get on at an unstaffed station. If you board at a staffed station without a valid ticket, then the conductor is unable to give you discounted tickets such as cheap day returns as you should have purchased those prior to your journey.
As for prices they are pretty reasonable. ATN accepts all of the usual railcards such as family, senior citizen or young persons which will entitle you to discounted tickets. I have experience of travelling from Leeds mainly, and tickets to Manchester will cost around £12, Liverpool £20, Barnsley £6, York £9, Preston £12 and Halifax £2.50. If you live within the West Yorkshire region you can purchase season tickets on either a weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual basis which are reasonably priced at around £60 per month maximum (for travellers on the far edge) with prices lowering for tickets of a longer duration. The Strategic rail Authority is looking to remove the cap which states that train tickets have to be linked to inflation with their increases which means that prices could rise dramatically in the near future.
---Comfort---
I wouldn't exactly say that the trains themselves are comfortable. Being 6ft 5in means that leg room is vital and most of the seats don't have enough. The table seats are big enough, but only if no-one sits opposite. A particular problem is on trains with trolley service as the aisles are just wide enough for the trolley meaning that I have to bring my legs in for it to get past. Things are just as bad on the regional trains. Being tall also means that the shaped seats can be uncomfortable as the shape isn't moulded on you.
Air conditioning is hit and miss (definitely not standard on regional trains) and the windows on transpennine trains can only be opened by the conductor which is a severe pain on a hot day.
As for the ability to accommodate disabled passengers, it is a bit hit and miss. Transpennine services usually have space in one of the carriages for wheelchairs (or prams for passengers with small children)and larger stations have provision to help people on board. On smaller regional trains and at smaller stations the facility can only be used by booking in advance and the 'disabled' area is the back of the train by the conductor or drivers area - not ideal in the 21st century to say the least. If you are disabled and planning to use ATN's service then it is advisable to book travel or to get there in plenty of time and alert station staff to your needs.
And the other aspect of comfort that I look for is the smoothness of journey, which is a major problem on some of the rickety old trains that run the regional routes.
---Overall view---
Overall, I would have to say that the current state of ATN is much improved on what they were like for the first 4 years after they secured the franchise. Punctuality and reliability are much better and it is something that ATN have been working on. However they still have problems within employee relations with the reasons for recent strikes still not fully addressed. Recent journeys have been a pleasant experience, and again at the risk of sounding like a broken record, are an improvement on past journeys and confidence in them is now much higher. I have a sneaky feeling though that their past reputation as a poor service carrier and with employee relations will seriously hamper their chances when the franchise comes up for renewal and we could soon see these services run by a different company.
If anyone is interested, they have a website at www.arrivatrainsnorthern.co.uk
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Brilliant review, but my favourite trains & company are the Virgin Voyagers & Pendolino's. Read my review about Voyager's if you want. Ian
rfmoon82 03.05.2004 19:52
A comprehensive account, its crazy that as a country that pioneered travelling by rail we lag behind many other countries today! And those arriva local trains are scruffy with the rancid water running along the window ridge!! Good review!
matties_bitch 22.04.2004 01:01
Good op. The last time I was at a train station I spent ages looking for the bin. I didn't consider there wouldn't be one for security reasons. Luv Sue
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