In the evening I attended Railfuture’s branch Committee Meeting at Durham. I returned to Durham station for the 20:22 CrossCountry train back to Morpeth only to find it was running over 90 minutes late. So, I took a delayed TPE service to Newcastle, in case the 20:20 local service from Newcastle was running late and I could still get that. But credit to Northern, it had departed on schedule before I arrived. At Newcastle, the barrier gates were wide open and there were no staff visible station except for a group of people in LNER uniform who were in fact the crew ready to take over the next northbound train. LNER’s services were all running late too, and both the LNER and CrossCountry services due an hour or more previously were all starting to arrive. I noticed this meant there would be around 5 Edinburgh trains in the next 15 minutes, all stopping at Alnmouth, though none would stop at Morpeth. So, I made my way to the secret LNER Station Management Office and asked if they had considered letting any of these trains make an additional stop at Morpeth. After all, 90 minutes would be a long time to wait for any CrossCountry passengers at Morpeth station. It was perhaps a forlorn hope, and in my heart of hearts I already knew the answer: “No, we don’t do that.” “Why not”, I persisted. “Because” came the reply, it would cost us £1,500 and we’re not paying that for CrossCountry passengers”. “But have you approached CrossCountry?” I asked – “They might be willing to pay. Can’t you contact their control and ask them what arrangements they are putting in place for their passengers?” And then came the killer blow: “We are not here to look after CrossCountry passengers. They are a different company, and not our responsibility”. My understanding is that LNER, as Station Facility Operator at Newcastle, are technically responsible for looking after the passengers of all train companies that serve the station. To be fair, during my hour wait, I did notice that LNER staff appeared briefly for train despatch duties before retreating back to the warmth of their office, but I do find it unacceptable there are no platform staff on duty during times of significant disruption of several train operators. Northern’s services were also disrupted – their late running Carlisle service was re-scheduled to run non-stop cutting out all intermediate stations. During my hour long wait on the platform I was approached by several other passengers who needed assistance but could not find any staff.
