Northern's new electric trains will enter service before 2021
Not the most eye catching of titles I grant you, however it is (I hope) accurate. Because, as far as things stand the new class 331 EMUs which are being introduced by Northern will begin to enter service this year. This is despite yesterday's announcement that longer platforms at Leeds station will not be completed until 2021. This means unfortunately that Northern will not be able to operate 6 car formations formed of 2, 3 car trains working in multiple. However Northern will be introducing it's new trains as they complete testing, which means that the first new units should start to enter service this year.
I wrote on Wednesday how I feel that the mainstream media usually only ever seems to focus on the negative and this story certainly wasn't any different. What drove me to write this blog though is the choice of wording used, headlines like “Longer six-carriage trains won't be arriving” and “Northern's long six-carriage trains delayed by two years”, I feel seemed to suggest that Northern's new trains won't be coming into service until 2021.
I don't think I can hold the mainstream media fully responsible for the misleading headlines however, as “6 car formations formed of 2, 3 car trains working in multiple” would not make for a catchy headline, and to be honest it took several attempts for me to get it to read correctly. What's more organisations who's job it is to represent the rail industry, or at least those who work within the industry didn't help the situation with their response either.
The train driver's union ASLEF chose to start the title of its response with “Failing Grayling“. Now come on! ASLEF is supposed to be a professional organisation who's job it is to represent train drivers. Rather than explaining why Northern will not be able to work 6 car trains in or out of Leeds until 2021, ASLEF General Secretary Mick Whelan instead used his response as an excuse to attack Grayling, the DfT and at one point almost seemed to suggest it was somehow Northern's fault. Not once was Network Rial mentioned, despite the organisation being responsible for carrying out the platform alterations.
The DfT also appeared to try to shift the focus to Northern by stating that Network Rail had informed Northern as early as 2017, that it would not be able to operate 6 car trains until 2021. I'm not sure how this helped to bring any clarity to the situation, but it does underline the fact there seems to be a culture of finger pointing within the DfT and the unions.
So perhaps in this instance the MSM can be forgiven for slightly misleading headlines?
I wrote on Wednesday how I feel that the mainstream media usually only ever seems to focus on the negative and this story certainly wasn't any different. What drove me to write this blog though is the choice of wording used, headlines like “Longer six-carriage trains won't be arriving” and “Northern's long six-carriage trains delayed by two years”, I feel seemed to suggest that Northern's new trains won't be coming into service until 2021.
I don't think I can hold the mainstream media fully responsible for the misleading headlines however, as “6 car formations formed of 2, 3 car trains working in multiple” would not make for a catchy headline, and to be honest it took several attempts for me to get it to read correctly. What's more organisations who's job it is to represent the rail industry, or at least those who work within the industry didn't help the situation with their response either.
The train driver's union ASLEF chose to start the title of its response with “Failing Grayling“. Now come on! ASLEF is supposed to be a professional organisation who's job it is to represent train drivers. Rather than explaining why Northern will not be able to work 6 car trains in or out of Leeds until 2021, ASLEF General Secretary Mick Whelan instead used his response as an excuse to attack Grayling, the DfT and at one point almost seemed to suggest it was somehow Northern's fault. Not once was Network Rial mentioned, despite the organisation being responsible for carrying out the platform alterations.
The DfT also appeared to try to shift the focus to Northern by stating that Network Rail had informed Northern as early as 2017, that it would not be able to operate 6 car trains until 2021. I'm not sure how this helped to bring any clarity to the situation, but it does underline the fact there seems to be a culture of finger pointing within the DfT and the unions.
So perhaps in this instance the MSM can be forgiven for slightly misleading headlines?
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