Third class transport links..............

[Straight Talking]

 

[Sunken Ships]

Indeed. It seems odd that the original poster, who I presume has seen the massive waste of space and money that is the interchange, would want even more money to be wasted on re-opening the disused platform when a single platform is more than enough for the amount of trains that run through the station.

Well I suppose the contrast between  one horse Seaham and Seaton (along with I donkey Billingham) having the use of 2 platforms means they are stupid and Hartlepool are very clever in  making sure their station is  out of use whenever there is a mishap-like when the guttering came loose over the SINGLE platform we have and the station was shut down.


I use the train extensively and I know how we stand in comparison to others-at the bottom of the pile.

And of course it wouldn't have cost mush to keep open an already existing second platform. Instead they have systematicaly dismantled it to make sure we can never re-use it.
Who let it happen?

The old bridge got taken down about ten years ago because it was literally falling to pieces. To suggest it could have been re-opened is madness. Take a look at the problems that Billingham station has due to its lack of disabled access, a new disabled-friendly bridge would cost a fortune, money that would be better spent on upgrading Northern Rail's awful trains, or getting trains to run more regularly. Not some crazy building project because of two incidents in however many years, one of which occurred because of the rusty old roof, which has been replaced since anyway.

You must have seen the interchange which has all the facilities and landscaped gardens money could buy, but is basically useless because virtually no buses stop there. Spending money on new ramps and bridges and opening another platform would be an equally large waste of money given the frequency of trains would remain the same.

If you honestly think our station is the worst in the area I presume you've never been stuck on the open platform at Thornaby on a rainy, dark night. Or at Stockton where they don't even have departure boards. To say we're the worst station in the area is laughable.

[mk1]

Thornaby?
Use it quite a lot. The ticket office is open a lot longer (and more frequently) that the Hartlepool office. The only time you  are stuck outside is  late at night- roughly when the trains stop running through Hartlepool, not Thornaby.
I remember the bridge. It wasn't 'falling to bits' any more than any  building denied repairs for years.
The departure boards at Hartlepool are a joke. They run pre-programed information so if your trian is late and comes in just before the next train  the announcement will tell you it is the train that should be there rather than the train that is there.
I have  been on a train where someone going to Newcastle ended up at Thornaby and thus lost his flights because of the delay.
Hartlepool is the only place wher one platform is considered sufficent. Quibblers can pick over the detail as much as they want. Our station has facilities that are not considered good enough at any other station on the line. If our way of doing it is  the 'best' one wonders why it hasn't become the norm everywhere else.

[for fawkes sake]

I think both views are right. A second platform would be handy, even in these days of rare services and it certainly would avoid gridlocking the whole line when a problem such as a broken freight train arose. i also think mk1 is correct in saying that it was sheer lack of maintenance and neglect that led to the footbridge reaching the state when it had to be demolished.
That said, would it be worth now spending a whole wad of money to rebuild it when trains are scarce and incidents like the broken down freight train are scarcer still? I doubt it. Hopefully one day the services will improve to such an extent that the idea becomes viable again.

[brassed off monkey]

It will improve when we get the Teesside Metro... it will be neccessary to carry the 15,000 people who will benifit from the Tees Vally Unlimited employment initiative.

[Sunken Ships]

Thornaby?
Use it quite a lot. The ticket office is open a lot longer (and more frequently) that the Hartlepool office. The only time you  are stuck outside is  late at night- roughly when the trains stop running through Hartlepool, not Thornaby.

I would prefer having a decent service during all hours rather than the situation Thornaby has where you're locked outside in whatever weather once the ticket office closes at half seven.

The departure boards at Hartlepool are a joke. They run pre-programed information so if your trian is late and comes in just before the next train  the announcement will tell you it is the train that should be there rather than the train that is there.

It is annoying, but the same situation occurs at Sunderland and Thornaby where the Northern trains just disappear off the board even if they haven't called at the station. I'd argue pre-programmed boards are far better than having no boards whatsoever like people using Seaham, Seaton, Heworth, Stockton, Billingham etc have to suffer. Again proving your point about us being the worst station on the line is untrue.

Hartlepool is the only place wher one platform is considered sufficent. Quibblers can pick over the detail as much as they want. Our station has facilities that are not considered good enough at any other station on the line. If our way of doing it is  the 'best' one wonders why it hasn't become the norm everywhere else.

It is sufficient because one platform is more than enough for the maximum 3 trains an hour which call at our station. You have named two problems in the ten years since the bridge was removed, one of which could not happen again because the roof has been replaced. To waste hundreds of thousands of pounds building a bridge and bringing the second platform into action again would be a huge waste. Especially as there's no roof on that side either, so you'd either have everyone stood in the rain or would have another expense of building another roof.

[mk1]

So a bridge like the one at Stockton is impossible to build.............but hey there is  one  at stockton so it isn't too costly/impossible...

Thornaby shuts at 19:30?
Remind me again how many trains can you board at Hartlepool between 19:30 and midnight?


I will repeat the salient point.  Every other station on the line has the option of using one platform in its station. Not one of them has taken that path.
I will point out that to make Hartlepool station a one line station you have to do something about it-install switching equipment at each end of the station. It isn't a  no-cost option.

Having  spent 2 hours shivering at York station recently (the waiting room was full because lots of trains were cancelled) I would be  willing to talk about the  facilities of any of the main line stations it you are up for it. I might even share   the appalling way 'customer care' is  seen  by Grand Central Staff who  cheerily tell you  to 'get home yourself and send us the bill' as they abandon you at Newcastle at midnight and then  all  climb board the van  send specificaly for them to get home..........

I happen to have been caught in another F-up on the rail network yesterday (signal failure between Derby and Birmingham and all trains stopped) so forgive me if I see things differently from those who might use Hartlepool once a week..............

[Inspector Knacker]

Public transport in Hartlepool is a joke. We had suits and planners selling us Tumbleweed Junction for years as the facilities they promised got smaller and the car park (cash cow) got ever larger, till we ended up with a long bus shelter used only by Arriva. The dumbest local bus user could have told the planners that no one in their right mind  would cross several dangerous roads and junctions to get a bus from a place that would then drive past the stop they could have got it from in the first place. Then again, why would Stagecoach waste fuel driving into somewhere where few people would be waiting and adding time to people's journey's to satisfy the wishes of planners who've probably never used a bus for years and never will.
As for the classic councillors view that the place would improve people's job prospects, well it's laughable, asking these people to construct a public transport policy is a joke, it's like asking two spinsters to write a sex manual, they have a vague idea but no practical experience.
The drawback to all this, is that once you start making bus services unreliable and disjointed, you make even more people look towards alternative reliable transport, but what the hell, cut away, it's only for the little people who'll vote for us anyway and blame the government when  there's no bus, win win, every time.

[steveL]

I think you could expand that to saying that the transport system in the North East is a joke - ironically, the 'home' of the railways. For a region that is so short of employment, the mobility of the workforce is vital yet no one in their right mind would rely on public transport as their means of getting to work unless they had a very flexible and forgiving employer. It only takes 40 minutes to get to Sunderland on the train but would anyone feel safe taking a job in Sunderland without a car? So many people in Hartlepool are confined to trying to find work in their own town and we all know how likely that prospect is.

[mk1]

It takes less than 30 mins for the train to get to Sunderland but the bus takes 90 minutes. You can only get a bus to Durham and it again takes 90 mins.