Bus solution for rail disruption.

Solution

Rail replacement services were the ideal solution to offer an alternative means of travel for customers. As Stagecoach is responsible for the alternative transport solutions for LNER we took an active role on a multi operator project team including other key stakeholders such as Network Rail, London North Eastern Railways, Great Northern/Thameslink and Go Ahead.

Planning started twelve weeks in advance of any disruptions to agree where the rail replacement would operate from and to. A rail replacement service was then designed to ensure customers could still connect, for example from a train at Peterborough to a bus going towards Bedford and vice versa. Numbers of vehicles were agreed, as well as resource planning to ensure that we had an adequate number of controllers to assist passengers and ensure that vehicles depart on time from their location. All staff levels were agreed within the project team with all spend authorised accordingly.

Once the station operational plan had been agreed we also ensured that a further contingency plan was in place, in case any operational issues arose on the day or other instances outside of our control such as traffic. Closer to the time, we worked with the project team to study the reservation numbers. Where customer numbers were slightly higher than expected we were able to provide additional bus resource with standby coaches.