Yahoo News Train passengers warned to 'check before you travel' during Christmas period
Northern customers are being told to check routes before they travel due to potential cancellations.
Passengers in the North West are being warned to look ahead for Sundays and over the Christmas period due to planned engineering works and potential short notice cancellations. The news comes as Northern proposes to introduce an amended Sunday timetable in the area next month.
Northern says customers will be provided with more certainty about services it is able to run and reduce the number of short-term cancellations. The amended timetable is hoped to be introduced from Sunday, December 22 and there will be fewer Sunday services in the North West.
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RMT members rejected Northern's enhanced four-month pay offer for conductors to work on Sundays during a recent referendum vote - an offer that would have seen them double the money they get for working on Sundays. Over the Christmas period, the conductor situation is expected to worsen with fewer volunteering to work extra shifts or overtime.
Network Rail has also announced engineering projects will affect services on various routes across the Northern network. If Northern has to cancel services, rail replacements will be offered where possible.
Matt Rice, chief operating officer at Northern, said: "We are disappointed that our offer for conductors to work on Sundays was rejected and we would like to say sorry to everyone in the North West who will be affected by this disruption in the run up to Christmas. We believe the deal that was put to RMT members was fair and reasonable and, if it had been accepted, would have improved reliability in the short-term while we worked with the RMT to secure a longer-term agreement.
"Despite this setback, we will continue to work with colleagues and the RMT union to find a new way forward. Our performance in the North West has not been good enough for some time and we understand the impact it has on our customers."
He added: "Across the rail network, Christmas period is an opportunity for Network Rail to carry out engineering. For those wanting to travel over this time, we are asking them to check their journey as close to the day or travel as possible to see if these works will affect their journey."
More than 2,000 drivers and 1,400 conductors are employed by Northern, enough to run its timetable, according to the train operator. They say like most train operators, Northern relies on some rest-day working and overtime to cover training, sickness, and other unavailability.
Sundays are currently outside the working week for most conductors with a notice period not to work Sundays allowed in the North West due to an agreement which was inherited by Northern Trains Limited when it was set up to run services in 2020.
Northern secured a separate rest-day working agreement for train drivers with the trade union ASLEF earlier this month.
