My daughter is travelling to Nottingham tomorrow, via Newark on LNER, where she is giving a paper at a conference at the university. This evening we received an email from LNER advising of severe weather-related disruption and that an emergency timetable would be in force, and telling her not to travel. In her case, travel was essential, so we clicked on the link for more information hoping to see if the train she was booked on (07:11 from Morpeth) was running as planned or cancelled. But LNER’s emergency timetable was not shown on their website, all that was given was a repeat of the same generalised information as per the email. That’s unacceptable. After much searching, we eventually found a page saying “LNER expected to run a good service”! LNER are not to blame for the weather-related disruption, but I do think they should take steps to publish their emergency timetable, rather than simply give the “don’t travel” statement. Failure to do that is just poor customer service.
Postscript: I’m pleased to report the train did in fact run, and on time, and my daughter got to Nottingham safely and delivered her paper. We then received an email from LNER apologising for the delay, and offering her 30% off her next journey. For which we are most appreciative. But more targeted information avoiding the stress of the evening before would have been much better, and since it was an “Advance” ticket with LNER knowing exactly what train she was taking, surely not that difficult to achieve? PS: Can anyone tell me why railway lines buckle in hot weather in Britain, but apparently not in any other countries? Railways are now being built across the Middle East where my daughter works as a University Lecturer. How will the railway lines there be able to cope with the blistering desert sun?
