A passenger has shared a story of their train journey from Newcastle to Liverpool which, due to a number of difficulties, took seven hours – as long as some flights from the UK to Dubai.
The traveller, who is also a reporter at the Liverpool Echo, intended to travel from Newcastle back home to Liverpool on Sunday 23 October, a journey which normally takes just under three hours.
But when Charlotte Hadfield reached Newcastle station, she found that a number of trains were cancelled, including all Transpennine Express trains to Liverpool Lime Street.
She planned to travel home via Carlisle and Wigan instead, but found that a notice had been placed on Northern and Network Rail’s website to say that there had been a train derailment.
A derailment is an unexpected event which means a rail vehicle has come off its rails, and causes major disruption to the network. This “do not travel” notice had been up prior to the start of Ms Hadfield’s journey.
Northern had tweeted: “Unfortunately we are advising customers not to travel between these stations on 23/10 as we are unable to source road replacement following disruption involving a derailed train.”
The thwarted traveller then decided to travel via York and Manchester, arriving at Manchester Piccadilly at 7.15pm, but a signalling issue meant that the train was delayed by 42 minutes. There were Northern Rail replacement buses running, and Ms Hadfield was advised to go outside and wait. As the crowd waited for the bus, she explained, the original train in question arrived and she wasn’t able to make it.
Ms Hadfield said: “People are in genuine disbelief at the lack of communication or advice from station staff as we try to figure out how we are going to get home.”
Network Rail apologised for the “short notice changes to trains caused confusion and saw some passengers advised to get a rail replacement bus service when their train was in fact running.”
Network Rail had experienced unexpected staff sickness that evening.
Ms Hadfield said another train was delayed at Manchester Oxford Road, but she eventually arrived at Liverpool at 10.16pm – nearly seven hours after her intended departure time.
The journey follows a period of Northern train disruption this year, which led to Metro mayors of Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region calling for emergency funding for…
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