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December 27, 2000


No way to run a railway - or a bus service

EVEN BEFORE UK deputy prime minister John Prescott had reached Leeds station, potential travellers were getting more exasperated as the train operating companies showed they could not run bus services either.

Each company seemed to have organised their own buses, so there was no co-ordination or apparent attempt to time services to meet connections at nearby stations at Huddersfield and Wakefield.

The station hall was thronging with "customer service" staff from operating companies GNER and Northern Spirit, but each had conflicting information. Some were telling passengers that even they did not know as they had not been told.

Some travellers missed buses running between departure points - having heard one bus stop on the public address system, been told a second by someone inside the station and directed to a third location by an increasingly-frustrated person outside.

Northern Spirit had more staff at ticket kiosks than on many "normal" travelling days. Five windows were open one time. Frequently, Leeds passengers must at least half an hour to fight with ticket machines that do not work or wait while two or three ticket clerks deal with ever-lengthening queues.

And, yesterday, their work was boosted again - giving refunds to potential travellers who - exasperated at having missed bus connections because of the wrong directions or facing hour-long waits at connecting stations - had decided to give up and go home.

Railtrack had published special timetables for Leeds station for the holiday fortnight. The four volumes - including two days when trains were not running at all - were together an inch and a half thick.