Not a rant at Southeastern per say, but still a rant about trains well train stations.
I catch my home train from Cannon Street as a lot of other sad commuters do we shuffle into the station just wanting to be out of London and back to our cosy happy existence somewhere else in the commuter belt.
Some of us cut it a bit fine to get the train due to having a job that means you get looked at funny if you leave at the correct pack up leg it time. (I am sure I am not the only one in this position, but I digress.)
You have 30 seconds to get through the station navigate the 2 open barriers out of 10 to get to your savour of a train home.
So in their infinite wisdom what do you think they do at Cannon Street.
At the top of the stairs right in front of the barriers they have mounted screens to tell you what platform to get.
Everyone who is not sure what platform to run to stands there looking up in the air as if the spaceship from V is hovering over London. Not something you want to navigate when you are in a hurry I can tell you.
Another sarcastic "well done" to the bright sparks who run the rail industry in this country.
Just makes you wonder what happened to common sense? anyone seen it laying around or found it stuck down the back of their sofa.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Shock horror train in on time scandal.
Last week Southeastern managed to get me into town late on Monday to Thursday on average 20 minutes each time so that's 1hour 20 minutes that I have to make up at work.
As am not a civil servant I cannot just blame it on the trains and leave on time. I have to make up the hours.
So that is four out of five trains late in one week and according to punctuality figures South-eastern hit 98% on time trains.
So I should not have another delay for the rest of the year at least. According to their figures.
Unless they use some dodgy way of making the statistics up. I don't believe that South-eastern is the kind of company that would intentionally pull the wool over its customers eyes.
I want to know how they get these figures anyone I talk to is delayed at least once a week. so how can they possibly be that good.
As Vic Reeves once said "98% of statistics are made up on the spot"
As am not a civil servant I cannot just blame it on the trains and leave on time. I have to make up the hours.
So that is four out of five trains late in one week and according to punctuality figures South-eastern hit 98% on time trains.
So I should not have another delay for the rest of the year at least. According to their figures.
Unless they use some dodgy way of making the statistics up. I don't believe that South-eastern is the kind of company that would intentionally pull the wool over its customers eyes.
I want to know how they get these figures anyone I talk to is delayed at least once a week. so how can they possibly be that good.
As Vic Reeves once said "98% of statistics are made up on the spot"
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Tuesdays
So after yesterdays train sit-in just outside London Bridge. I thought today would be fine, but no.
We got to London bridge 10 minutes late, well I say got to, not actually at the station itself just outside. Waiting for another 5 minutes before getting to the station.
The conductor told us that we "were delayed due to catching multiple points of congestion on the inbound journey" what kind of double speak crap is that. We got stuck behind a slower train that's it nothing special.
In fact I would prefer it if the conductor spoke like the company feels. You know in a really slow single tone voice "we are delayed as its all shit" "but what you going to do we have you by the short and curlys" Southeastern fail again.
We got to London bridge 10 minutes late, well I say got to, not actually at the station itself just outside. Waiting for another 5 minutes before getting to the station.
The conductor told us that we "were delayed due to catching multiple points of congestion on the inbound journey" what kind of double speak crap is that. We got stuck behind a slower train that's it nothing special.
In fact I would prefer it if the conductor spoke like the company feels. You know in a really slow single tone voice "we are delayed as its all shit" "but what you going to do we have you by the short and curlys" Southeastern fail again.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Mondays again
First of I would like to apologise for my last blog on rereading it I rambled on a bit. That is what happens when I don't write my thoughts down in one big lump I lose track of where I was and seem to lose the plot a bit.
Anyway this morning I took the later train to London manly because I couldn't get up, it is Monday after all.
The train arrived at London bridge on time ish (what's 5 minutes when you are Southeastern that isn't late). We sat there for about another 5-7 minutes without a word. I was just contemplating getting off and walking when the train moved.
Ok I thought only about 10 minutes in total late not bad for a Monday on Southeastern failway.
But no we moved just to the end of the platform at London bridge and stopped. Only after sitting there for another 5 minutes did they say "sorry for the delay this is due to congestion at Cannon Street" WTF, we then sat for another 10 minutes.
They must have know before we moved off the platform that we were not going anywhere. So if they had announced at London bridge I would have got off there and hoofed it across the bridge in the sun.
But that would require just a smidgen of organisation and communication that Southeastern completely lack. I just would like the simplest things to be possible e.g. train on time if not on time, why and what they are going to do about it.
I do not care if I feel comfortable using the station late at night or if the staff are well dressed etc as a survey they passed around asked. I just want some kind of service for my extortionate season ticket.
So I finally arrived at Cannon street 20 odd minutes late just a bit annoyed only to be greeted by the sound of the Cannon street cretin announcer telling me the train was late due to congestion in the London bridge area double WTF!! was I stuck in some kind of train station Bermuda triangle is it still Monday 12/07/2010 ? have I lost 20 years was that a world war two fighter pilot sitting next to me?
So Southeastern set the bar of failure very low but again have managed to slip in under it again.
Anyway this morning I took the later train to London manly because I couldn't get up, it is Monday after all.
The train arrived at London bridge on time ish (what's 5 minutes when you are Southeastern that isn't late). We sat there for about another 5-7 minutes without a word. I was just contemplating getting off and walking when the train moved.
Ok I thought only about 10 minutes in total late not bad for a Monday on Southeastern failway.
But no we moved just to the end of the platform at London bridge and stopped. Only after sitting there for another 5 minutes did they say "sorry for the delay this is due to congestion at Cannon Street" WTF, we then sat for another 10 minutes.
They must have know before we moved off the platform that we were not going anywhere. So if they had announced at London bridge I would have got off there and hoofed it across the bridge in the sun.
But that would require just a smidgen of organisation and communication that Southeastern completely lack. I just would like the simplest things to be possible e.g. train on time if not on time, why and what they are going to do about it.
I do not care if I feel comfortable using the station late at night or if the staff are well dressed etc as a survey they passed around asked. I just want some kind of service for my extortionate season ticket.
So I finally arrived at Cannon street 20 odd minutes late just a bit annoyed only to be greeted by the sound of the Cannon street cretin announcer telling me the train was late due to congestion in the London bridge area double WTF!! was I stuck in some kind of train station Bermuda triangle is it still Monday 12/07/2010 ? have I lost 20 years was that a world war two fighter pilot sitting next to me?
So Southeastern set the bar of failure very low but again have managed to slip in under it again.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Mondays
So Southeastern have surpassed themselves to create a truly crap day of travel for me on Monday.
First off I had to buy a ticket for the week as I wasn't going to use a full month up there was a bit of a queue.
I thought I will use the ticket machine. Wrong that machine is so complicated that I lost my rag with it pretty quickly. If you want a day ticket no problem but a weekly you have to go through 10 steps only to be told there is no valid ticket for the area you selected. Sod it I will get in the queue. So I queue up with the rest of the poor souls who will have their wallet fleeced any second and buy my ticket.
I rush to the platform thinking I might just make it. As I run up the steps I cannot see the train WTF it should still be here but it's not. The just the train is half the size it usually is. I didn't get on that the trains are sweaty and crowded enough without it being half the size.
So i sat back in the cafe thing on the platform had my tea and waited for the next train. That will get me in on time if I hurry and it is on time. Guess what that didn't happen. 20 minutes late into Cannon street due to signalling problems. So got into work late but as everyone else commutes most were late anyway.
So I was about to leave when my mate Andy rang me to say don't bother coming to Cannon Street is closed but he didn't know why. Everyone was just stuck outside filling up the street and wondering what was going on. You have to love the communication from the rail companies. He wandered off to London Bridge to try his luck there. I had a look on the nationalrail.co.uk website and found that Cannon Street was closed due to a fire. How can a website be more up-to-date than the station itself.
I am pretty sure that the web site is an easily measurable way to inform without really doing it.
So the managers can say "well the trains were all ballsed up but the website told people within 2 seconds" like that is any help when you are standing outside the station wondering what the F%^k is going on, tossers.
I left work a bit later no point in rushing to the station to stand around I thought give them a hour to sort it out. I got to Cannon street and it was still closed people still just standing outside not a message on any board anywhere no staff visible we were just left to stand around. I was just about to slope off to London bridge muttering mother f%^kers not so quietly under my breath. When they opened the gates and everyone rushed in like there was a sale of iphone 4's.
I managed to barge my way in knocking nuns and old ladies over as I went to fin my train was at the platform already.
Result I thought its not as bad as it could be. I got on sat down and waited. In the heat (summer time its either minus 10 or + 30 sometimes even in the same carriage ). I was sitting there reading the paper when the driver announced "would the guard please contact the driver" never a good sign that. so 10 minutes past the leaving time of the train we were still sitting there. when the driver said the guard should be here soon he has been stuck at cannon street. Why oh why do we need a guard anyway, the doors shut on their own you either make it on the train or not the driver can stick his head out to make sure no muppets are stuck in the doors. Anyway the guard took 15 minutes to make it so we left late and got to Ashford even later.
SouthEastern fail again.
First off I had to buy a ticket for the week as I wasn't going to use a full month up there was a bit of a queue.
I thought I will use the ticket machine. Wrong that machine is so complicated that I lost my rag with it pretty quickly. If you want a day ticket no problem but a weekly you have to go through 10 steps only to be told there is no valid ticket for the area you selected. Sod it I will get in the queue. So I queue up with the rest of the poor souls who will have their wallet fleeced any second and buy my ticket.
I rush to the platform thinking I might just make it. As I run up the steps I cannot see the train WTF it should still be here but it's not. The just the train is half the size it usually is. I didn't get on that the trains are sweaty and crowded enough without it being half the size.
So i sat back in the cafe thing on the platform had my tea and waited for the next train. That will get me in on time if I hurry and it is on time. Guess what that didn't happen. 20 minutes late into Cannon street due to signalling problems. So got into work late but as everyone else commutes most were late anyway.
So I was about to leave when my mate Andy rang me to say don't bother coming to Cannon Street is closed but he didn't know why. Everyone was just stuck outside filling up the street and wondering what was going on. You have to love the communication from the rail companies. He wandered off to London Bridge to try his luck there. I had a look on the nationalrail.co.uk website and found that Cannon Street was closed due to a fire. How can a website be more up-to-date than the station itself.
I am pretty sure that the web site is an easily measurable way to inform without really doing it.
So the managers can say "well the trains were all ballsed up but the website told people within 2 seconds" like that is any help when you are standing outside the station wondering what the F%^k is going on, tossers.
I left work a bit later no point in rushing to the station to stand around I thought give them a hour to sort it out. I got to Cannon street and it was still closed people still just standing outside not a message on any board anywhere no staff visible we were just left to stand around. I was just about to slope off to London bridge muttering mother f%^kers not so quietly under my breath. When they opened the gates and everyone rushed in like there was a sale of iphone 4's.
I managed to barge my way in knocking nuns and old ladies over as I went to fin my train was at the platform already.
Result I thought its not as bad as it could be. I got on sat down and waited. In the heat (summer time its either minus 10 or + 30 sometimes even in the same carriage ). I was sitting there reading the paper when the driver announced "would the guard please contact the driver" never a good sign that. so 10 minutes past the leaving time of the train we were still sitting there. when the driver said the guard should be here soon he has been stuck at cannon street. Why oh why do we need a guard anyway, the doors shut on their own you either make it on the train or not the driver can stick his head out to make sure no muppets are stuck in the doors. Anyway the guard took 15 minutes to make it so we left late and got to Ashford even later.
SouthEastern fail again.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)