Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Hottest day of the year since records and time began

Last night I got to Cannon street and guess what all the trains into Kent were cancelled. Any announcements no any idea when they will be moving again. Nope that would be remotely useful to the hot and sweaty commuters. I gave up turned round and went down into the depths of hell (or the London underground as it’s known).   The Tube was free as the rail service was all cocked up.  So me and my intrepid travel buddy Andy made our way to St Pancras for the HS1.
When we got there we demanded a free upgrade as we bought a ticket of southeastern to get us home and again they were failing to do so. Why should we have to shell out £5 for their incompetence? The poor lady selling the tickets said we cannot do that we are not allowed. “That’s not good enough” was Andy’s response. “I can get the manager you can talk to him”. The call went out for Tony Ellis the train line manager at St Pancras and guess what he was not there. He chose the time when angry commuters were turning up at the station to go off and see how things were running at Stratford station. His job is to support the passengers and staff. How can he possibly do that if he is not there?

£5 later we were on the train heading home to get in 20 minutes later than we would have if the service was any good. To upset me some more that Southeastern PR machine stepped into high gear. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-13935739 “Commuters forcing Southeastern train doors cause delays” The gist of it is on the hottest day of the year so far a train stopped outside Dartford for 3 hours. 

After three hours the people opened the doors and went along the tracks to get some water and stop themselves from dying. If you locked a dog in a car on a summers day for three hours without a window open the RSPCA would be called. So maybe we should stop Southeastern from keeping any people for 5 years they obviously cannot look after them properly. The other thing is how bad is the line that having one train rail turned off in Dartford breaks every bloody train coming in and out of London.

I have my complaint form and will update the blog if I get any response from SouthEastern gobshites 

Nick.