Surely they can't get away with this

[JoM]

Our local train 'service', provided by West Midlands Railway (or Failway as they're known) and London Northwestern, will be affected but we probably won't notice.

The service we're getting is dire since the new timetable was introduced in May. We were given an hourly direct train to Euston which is absolutely brilliant, it takes quite a long time but time wise is the same as getting into New St and changing there for a London train. That's being phased out though from next month and will be fully withdrawn next May because delays further down the line mean that it's being terminated early and isn't going through to the final two stations, quite often people aren't notified of this until a few minutes before and no ongoing transport is provided.

Last week was a disaster, it took Tom three hours to get into Birmingham one day and most trains were cancelled or severely delayed. The problems went on all week because of a shortage of train crew due to it being half term and the company acknowledged that it would be a problem throughout the week.

Me and John had a day in London a few weeks ago. The train splits in New St; half goes onto our local line while the other half carries on to Crewe. We hadn't seen a guard at all, no tickets were checked and no announcements were made during the journey (not even the usual "you are on the 19.15 service to...." just before leaving Euston). Just as we pulled into New St it was announced that, due to the fact that there wasn't a driver to take the train onto the Chase Line, it wouldn't be splitting and just going directly to Crewe and all passengers affected were to get off and wait for the next train. I didn't trust them to actually run another train and quickly checked which stations the Crewe one would stop at and thankfully it stopped at Stafford so I asked Joe to pick us up from there rather than Cannock.
Then as it pulled out of New St it was announced that it wouldn't be stopping at the three stations after Stafford so any passengers for those were to get off at Stafford and wait for alternative transport which was being arranged.

[TheOstrich]

I've been aware of the on-going problems on your line, Jo, it's been the subject of much debate on railway forums. The intention of splitting a service from London at Birmingham New Street with one unit going up the Chase Line and the other onwards via Wolverhampton was a good idea in theory - but in practice the knock-on effect of any sort of delays getting up to New Street then completely wrecked the schedules going further north. Basically it was too ambitious; there simply isn't the line capacity to cope if something goes wrong. Similar to Waterloo; somebody sneezes at the wrong time in the morning rush-hour, train disruption will then continue until 21:00 ….. This lack of capacity is, I suppose, one of the biggest arguments for proceeding with HS2.

You're aware the RMT are striking on West Midlands Trains every Saturday up to Christmas, I guess. It's the same dispute as down here - duties of the guards.

[TheOstrich]

A quick update for Jo - just been announced no trains on your route on strike days.

https://www.westmidlandsrailway.co.uk/industrialaction

Although on a positive note talks between the company and the union have resumed, it is rumoured, so you never know ….

[JoM]

Ossie, there are a lot of people really concerned about this on the Facebook group. The rail companies have suggested that local buses can be used on the route but for some that just doesn't work, there simply aren't buses running later in the evening that cover the route, especially for those traveling from Rugeley. Many are people working in retail in Birmingham who don't finish work until later and while they can apparently get a train that'll still be running from New St to Walsall, the last bus from Walsall coming in our direction on a Saturday is at 5.15pm.

I haven't tried it yet although I plan to, but the new(ish) National Express WM limited stop service from Cannock to Birmingham is supposed to be very good and runs every 20 minutes but even that doesn't run much after 5pm on Saturdays.

We're going into Birmingham tonight for a concert and usually we'd get the train. The latest concert curfew is usually 11pm and you can get from any of the city centre venues to New St for the last train at 11.18 but now that can't be relied on to be running so we'll have to drive.

[JoM]

Ha! I just double checked the time of the last train and it only goes as far as Walsall tonight and then it's a rail replacement bus