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Our Rail Network


mwilkinson

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Well I can't contain it any longer. I hate our rail network. It's run by the biggest most incompetent people civilisation, past and present has ever known, that's right worse than our government!!!

 

I live near Guildford. I try to get to work for around 0715 every morning. This entails getting the 0600 hours train from my local stop and getting up at 0500 hours. It takes me about 50 minutes to get to Clapham junction where I get an overground train to my next stop. In total my travel time is 1 hour 15 mins approx.

 

Quite regularly my train runs late. No reasons are ever given for this. I just have to accept this.

 

Yesterday though was a total farse. I got my train as usual. The train had been reduced from 8 carriages to 5. No reason given. As a result of this, despite paying around £4000 a year for a season ticket, many customers had to stand. It was like a tin of sardines. It was so cramped that people were literally bursting from the train. So much so that one of the doors registered a fault outside of Woking and the emergency brakes activated. We sat here for about 25 min only to be told they could not fix the problem and the train would limp to Surbiton where it would be cancelled.

 

Eventually we get there to be told there is now a backlog on the line and that most of the trains will bypass Clapham Junction and go straight to Waterloo.

 

I end up waiting awhile for a slow train and eventually get to Clapham and then to work. I left at 0600 hours and got in at 0845 hours.

 

But it does not end there folks...........

 

On my way home I get to Clapham Junction to be told that the signals have failed at Waterloo and Woking. Thus they are operating a reduced service which will likely all bypass Clapahm. To add to my frustration when I ask a member of staff what's going on he gets all upset with me for asking. Being in a foul mood I tell him it's his job to talk to customers and that to save him being constantly questioned he should use the tanoy to tell people what's going on!! He takes exception to this, I sigh and walk away.

 

In the end I left work at 1600 hours and got home at 1830 hours....

 

To top it off it was the my wifes birthday and I managed to miss part of her evening bash.

 

What a dismal day. What makes me laugh is that with services like this the rail companies want more and more money. Frankly they are a disgrace. If I could drive in I happily would.

 

Rant over. For those who stuck with me. Thanks.

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Remember being on the train from Newcastle to Middlesbrough once, 3 hours in total. It's 30 miles! Hate trains at the best of times but would hate to rely on them every day for work. In the winter snow a couple of years ago when the roads were too risky, I was having to get the 7:28 train to get to work for 9:30am 25 miles away.

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And thats why I havent used public transport in years. 4 grand a year for that service is a joke. And surely 8 carridges worth of people in 5 carridges is a massive safety issue. Feel sorry or you mate :(

 

how often do you have days as bad as it was yesterday...?

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The train service through London from anywhere is pretty awful, but you know if you drive it will take longer, at least once a month you will get stuffed in a queue which will take an hour to clear and you just end up stressed and fed up and will eventually die in some awful crash.

 

So when my trains are messed up (Thameslink line) I just smile and sit down and wait for a less packed train to come along while I read my book, watch the passing scenery and just chill out a bit.

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The train service through London from anywhere is pretty awful, but you know if you drive it will take longer, at least once a month you will get stuffed in a queue which will take an hour to clear and you just end up stressed and fed up and will eventually die in some awful crash.

 

So when my trains are messed up (Thameslink line) I just smile and sit down and wait for a less packed train to come along while I read my book, watch the passing scenery and just chill out a bit.

 

Branners, I wish had your chilled out attitude. I spend so long getting in and out every second lost is my own time which I resent sooooo much!! I try to be calm but they push my patients.

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how often do you have days as bad as it was yesterday...?

 

Being honest, not often.

 

But there are delays most days. Today my train home was 15 minutes late. We just crawled along a long stretch of the track past Guildford. No apology or reason given.

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East Midland Trains are crap too, costs me £5.7K per year and parking and tube on top of that and I have to stand most days. But driving in is a nightmare and takes 3 hours + each way and I am so stressed by the time I get into work that its not good for my health. I always like the "late start from the depot" excuse when they can be bothered to give one, or the person making the PA can actually put a sentence together in English. I seem to go through phases of getting stressed over the trains and have to agree to a degree with Branners that the only way to survive is to try and chill, hard sometimes though I know. One of my sons did it for 6 months and decided he couldnt stick at it and moved down to London to avid the commute. I have been doing it now for ten years.

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East Midland Trains are crap too, costs me £5.7K per year and parking and tube on top of that and I have to stand most days. But driving in is a nightmare and takes 3 hours + each way and I am so stressed by the time I get into work that its not good for my health. I always like the "late start from the depot" excuse when they can be bothered to give one, or the person making the PA can actually put a sentence together in English. I seem to go through phases of getting stressed over the trains and have to agree to a degree with Branners that the only way to survive is to try and chill, hard sometimes though I know. One of my sons did it for 6 months and decided he couldnt stick at it and moved down to London to avid the commute. I have been doing it now for ten years.

 

Wow that is expensive. Luckily I get dropped off at the station so no parking costs.

 

I have to agree about the PA system. Often they start a sentenece but never finish it. Or it's crazy loud or so quite you need Supermans ears!!

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Branners, I wish had your chilled out attitude. I spend so long getting in and out every second lost is my own time which I resent sooooo much!! I try to be calm but they push my patients.

 

Im an hour each way on the train on a good day so I have plenty of time to read books, reflect on my day and sometimes I will just stare out the window. One New Years resolution was to smile more on public transport and quite often I just smile to myself and that helps. Probably look like a nutter but it works.

 

Try smiling when things are bad with the train and see if it helps.

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I feel your pain. Travelling by train is far too expensive, and far too unreliable. And i'm a train driver!!!! :D

I either use FCC from Bedford, or East midlands trains from Market harborough into London depending on what shift i'm on. FCC is a pure gamble as to wether its been cancelled or not, and EMT's last train home is ridiculously early. Under investment and greedy operators, thats the problem.

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I hate it I hate it I hate it!!

its never going to change. just look at the jubilee line in London. was state of the art etc but it has so many problems they've had to replace it all again.

when you see how other countries run their systems it puts us to shame. if a train is more than 10mins late (due to operational fault) your journey should be free. that will teach them to buck up!

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Its privatisation you know , to make things efficient , what you see is efficiency !! It reduces the burden of the tax payer who subsidise the losses made by the rail companies ,odd , but it also encourages competition ,so one company supplies all the different rail companies with rolling stock , no wait , let me think erm ...it makes fares less , 4000 a year you say ,oh er , lets just sell it to the French , no thats the electricity , well whatever the reason we invented it ...

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I hate it I hate it I hate it!!

its never going to change. just look at the jubilee line in London. was state of the art etc but it has so many problems they've had to replace it all again.

when you see how other countries run their systems it puts us to shame. if a train is more than 10mins late (due to operational fault) your journey should be free. that will teach them to buck up!

 

I was reading a sign at the station where they were publicising the fact that 95%, or there abouts, of all trains were up to 5 minutes off scheduled times. Is it me or is that just bad running? I think in Japan a train is late if 30 secs over its allotted time. Just goes to show the quality of the rail companies in this country.

 

Jezz - so it's even woeful from your side? What do you perceive to be the issues? Under investment, or is it just a case of a captive market and giving a ....

 

I think they should be fined for inefficiency and have rail fares capped. I would be interested to see what profits these companies post.

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I feel your pain - I've just moved out to Southend, and take the C2C into Fenchurch street. It seems a decent service, but still takes (what feels like) far too long for the length of the journey. But funnily enough, it only takes 15 or so minutes longer than my commute from Zone 3 SouthWest London!! Plus now I'm not stuck underground in a hot sardine can :)

 

But unfortunately it's part of the British psyche to put up with the current situation without a serious complaint - if a similar service was offered in Germany, for example, there would be mass protests leading to heads rolling and the service rapidly improved.

 

I personally am staggered that such a tiny country can have such terrible infrastructure.

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Ii took me 3.5 hours (usually takes 1.5) to get home on that day, due to the broken signals. Days like that don't happen that often for me: maybe once every 2-3 months.

 

One New Years resolution was to smile more on public transport and quite often I just smile to myself and that helps. Probably look like a nutter but it works.

I might try that too, but with the additions of a wild expression in my eyes and squirty cream in/around my mouth! Should get a seat to myself then.

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I might be insane but I'd much rather sit/stand on a train for an hour than be in a traffic jam on the roads through Leeds having to deal with other people's attitudes (which all stink first thing in the morning).

 

Commuting is a pain in the neck, and not at all about passenger comfort or consideration. Is there any posibility of driving part way to say Surbiton then using the trains for the rest of the way? My dad drives from Farnham to Surbiton every day but leaves the house at about 7am and doesn't attempt to drive back till 7pm and it seems to work really well for him.

 

Did you see that Richard Wilson programme recently about the trains? He was interviewing people that do the seasonal ticket thing and say they never ever get a seat. Some people were choosing to sit in the toilet! It's all wrong really. Not sure there is any solution for it though.

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Jezz - so it's even woeful from your side? What do you perceive to be the issues? Under investment, or is it just a case of a captive market and giving a ....

Both. All the mainstream operators are greedy, care too much for profit over actually running a good service.

We're slightly different as we're not a franchise, we're a consession. Our services (East London line) are 99.7% punctual, meaning 99.7% of our services run on time to there destination.

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Im an hour each way on the train on a good day so I have plenty of time to read books, reflect on my day and sometimes I will just stare out the window. One New Years resolution was to smile more on public transport and quite often I just smile to myself and that helps. Probably look like a nutter but it works.

 

Try smiling when things are bad with the train and see if it helps.

 

I do the same on train journeys, even long ones with the missus, she doesn't quite get sometimes it's nice to have a comfortable silence and just watch the world go by.

 

A good mantra there too, I think many in the world presently are grumpy for very trivial or invalid reasons. As long as you have your health, your family's health and food on the table you have no reason to not be at a certain base level of happiness.

 

Just look to the French or Japanese as to how a train service/infrastructure should be run - there are no penalties here for breaks of SLAs whereas in Japan they get fined / have to give a refund if the train is sometimes

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