I was due to meet our volunteer team at the station at 06:15 to help set up for an 06:30 start. But my alarm failed to go off (or I simply slept through it) so I didn’t get to the station until a very disrespectful 06:45. My apologies to the other SENRUG volunteers who were extremely gracious with me with no angry glances or side comments, despite them all having stood around in the rain for 30 minutes since it was me that had all the mince pies and information packs. We had a great time for the next 2 and a half hours, giving out our information, talking about the SENRUG campaigns and getting feedback on the new TPE service and the failure to be able to fully launch on the advertised day. Sadly, however no TPE trains actually ran during our 3-hour presence on the station. Even more of TPE’s services were cancelled than they had pre-advised. This leads us to conclude the problems they are facing are much bigger, and of potentially longer duration, than they are admitting to. But, despite the cancellations, there was no hostility towards SENRUG so Northern’s fears were unfounded’ and Northern themselves should be congratulated for having a strong presence on the station, doing what they could to advise customers whose trains were not running as expected.
