Midland Pullman HST (2025)

Its definitely running, heard it go past the house as per https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:U59326/2025-08-13/detailed

 

RTT still showing outwards run as cancelled even thoughit reached Paignton 134 late

 

A mere 29 minutes after it was due to depart. Still there by the looks of it, so going to be a couple of hours late leaving at least. Not much chance of making up time on the way home either, so quite possibly a 1am arrival back at Barrow.

What makes me chuckle is despite being well over two hours late, it still took 5 minutes rather than 3 to detrain passengers at Torquay!

 

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:U59329/2025-08-13/detailed

Left Paignton 152 minutes late, arrived back at Barrow 152 minutes late at 01.26. A very long day when passengers would've been at Barrow at 5am for the tour, which only turned up 30 minutes after it was due to depart. Though at least at Barrow they could've sat on the train when it arrived - it's the passengers sitting at Dalton, Arnside, etc that you have to feel sorry for.

 

That's a day out that the SLOA of old would have been proud of for its duration.....

Just to clarify events at Barrow in the morning, I understand that it actually rolled up on time, people embarked it was then failed whilst they tried to sort the brakes, I assume 'cos the platform was needed it then had to be shunted back out into the carriage sidings so everyone was taken off until it was ready to go at which stage it returned to the station.Not sure if the coffee shop on the station is open that early, but it really isn't a nice station for hanging around on.

Yeah not sure how they would have kept in touch with those at the unmanned stations along the line, Northern are dreadful at communicating with passengers on the line normally.

 

That is some day out, RTT have the ECS from Crewe to Barrow mainly running to time up to Carnforth where for some reason or other it lost over half a hour, it then shows arrival at Barrow at 05.55 thirty minutes or so after it should have departed to Paignton. I wonder if any passengers decided to abandon the train and make alternative arrangements.

 

Passengers waiting at Dalton and Ulverston would've seen the ECS head west about the time it was due to pick them up, then not reappear for another 3 hours. That's pretty galling when you're looking forward to a day out.

 

My error, I assume they hoped they could fix at platform but one it was dragging on platform was needed for northern services hence the shunt out to the sidings.

I suppose what it really shows is the risk of running what is a quite hefty ECS move on the day of the tour rather than the day before.

 

I feel sorry for the catering staff onboard as they'd probably joined the tour at Crewe so for them a day from 02:25 to 03:25 the next day.

 

I wonder how they manage the working hours on these trains taking note of the 48 hour average working week regs, I assume this is why things like the NB have sleepers in the formation to allow for down time away from base?

 

Possibly a change of some onboard staff on this particular trip? Five minutes layover at Crewe outbound, and on the return for staffing reasons, according to RTT.

 

None I suspect with a walk up fares from Paignton of
£172.00 to Warrington Bank Quay
£165.80 to Barrow

So apart from ably showing the "unique" nature of our rail pricing it is a 5 hour 2 change journey to WBQ and 7 hours 3 changes to Barrow. The penultimate train leaving Paignton 14 minutes after the tour arrived. Probably take the booking office longer to find the fare.

 

They'll have used their text messaging system. When you book with LSL you get a text message 20 minutes beforehand telling you what platform to be on, whether it's running on time and what order around the stock is. The TM has the ability from their laptop to send text messages to specific groups of passengers at once, depending on which station they are boarding at.

Update: just looked at the TripAdvisor reviews from yesterday and saw the following: "the train was delayed on the outward journey but train crew were dispatched to our station to explain *in person* the issues, keeping us up to date with the progress. This was a thoughtful and surprising touch which shows their attention to detail."

So there we go.

 

By way of balance, also from Trip Advisor …..

“Why did we do it …

Absolutely awful experience to Torbay from Cumbria. Two and a half hours late starting with very little explanation of why. Destination time reduced to two hours. An hour late on the rearranged return time. Again no real explanation of why. Mechanical problems hinted at.

Shouldn't have been our problem though should it? Still travelling, no idea when we might get home. Well after 01.00 tomorrow morning rather than 22.30 today looking likely as we're crawling along.... Despairing....”

 

My wife and I did Holyhead - Paignton on it last year. We had changes of on-train staff at Crewe in both directions.

 

And there well shown lies the problem with the likes of TA or any review or feedback site. One persons excellent customer service is someone else's view of don't care given by the service provider. Plus of course on any form of travel you probably only ever really come into contact with a handful of people, on something like this issue, maybe the Saphos rep sent to the station (if the customer was in the right place at the time), the couple of folks that served then during the day, and the TM if they were around when they walked through or even bothered to listen to the PA. For example I have often had to stop talking to a pax on a CME approaching Carlisle whilst the announcement about departure times, platform etc was made to instantly then have those pax ask what time we leave. Stand at the door as the pax get off and another 10 will ask you what time is it we leave.