(14 Oct 2014, 6:55 pm)Dan wrote The fact that on a 12-15 minute frequency, three were bunched up together and platforms on the opposite side of the line had quite a substantial amount of passengers due to the no-show of two or three trains?
If that's not poor, I don't know what is...
Without looking I do not know the comparable journey times, but I note the same set which had departed North Shields on Platform 1 towards Newcastle/South Shields actually got there at the same time as I did, using the train from Platform 2 (which is supposedly a shorter journey time).
The rain would surely affect all trains and not just one - and given there was no issues with 'low rail adhesion' on the train we got passed on to at Manors, or on the train I got towards South Hylton...
I wasn't referring to the decision to withdraw the train as 'poor'; after all, it's the only way a train can make up time (which will forever be a reason why I prefer travelling on the road opposed to by track). The situation in general is a rather poor performance though - but then again, it's also the typical fun and games to be had on the Tyne & Wear Metro network.
Well I can't talk whether there was trains missing on the other side too much but being a bit of a train enthusiast, I noted newly refurbished 4043 was on train 124 so i decided to try and catch it after its journey around the coast and I was on train 121 heading to the coast from St James, which was on time, whether the trains before that were delayed/missing then unless you are 100% sure there was 2-3 trains missing then you can hardly justify your wording "poor" for that.
So onto the set with the poor rail adhesion, my speculation(and it is that) was that with set 4043 being just recently refurbished and with nothing below the sole bar(e.g wheels) apparently being touched, I suspect they could be a bit worn and more suspectable to wheel spinning. The other train which we got on after was an extra peak train to St James(train 151 i think) and the other one would of been the usual South Shields to St James'. I'm not saying the delay is acceptable but what else could be done here.
This is one reason why I don't add any bus/train companies on fb because of all the constant moaning about situations which is not totally controllable or just plain petty.
I would understand your complaint and your word of "poor" more if it was a train failure or fault rather than something that is sadly hard to deal with anyways.