Start as you mean to go on.

So this morning was my first day back at work after a nice relaxing Christmas/New Year break.
The first shock I had was the cost of my ticket. I have to put up with a 13% increase. So the service will be at least 13% better wont it. Hahaha.

Then the fun started. My train the 6:57 was delayed by 7 minutes according to the mechanical woman announcement the next train into London was the 7:22 and that was cancelled. a couple of other trains appeared on the board then my train just disappeared from the list. WTF were my words. I strolled off up the platform to find a hi vis wearing womble to find out what was going on. They are hard to find when anything goes wrong they scurry off to their hole very quickly. "Where is my train?" response "Err not sure we seem to have lost it, I think that one there might be it" How the F$*k can you loose a  train. I put it down over there and it seems to have fallen down the back of the sofa..... Good to see that the communication that they were talking about on the news is working. Finally a train pulled in. It was my train, that surprised not just me but the guards running the platforms as well. It finally got into London 28 minutes late. Then on the way home I was delayed another 20 minutes. I dont think they are 82% on time in my book so far this year for me its been 100% delayed, Fail!!!!!

I wrote a complaint on the contact us thing at southeastern shysters web site I doubt I will get a response but I am going to fill one out each time I am delayed and reference each complaint I have filled out.
One thing I would like is to get hold of  Charles Horton's mobile number. I would ring him every time his trains were delayed and ask him if I have pissed him off as much as he pisses me off every day.

Nick

The Twelfth day of Christmas Southeastern

So I think you might have seen this but if you didnt it is worth mentioning again and again.

I thought I was clever setting up a blog to rant at Southeastern but I take my hat off to Adam Helal of St Leonard's. Who created a version of the Christmas carol The Twelve Days of Christmas in a protest at the service we get. Then had a flashmob singing it at Charring Cross.

Also he is showing great restraint in not using any swear words. I would have.
If SouthEastern do not read our complaint letters they might listen to a complaint song.

 http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kentonline/news/2010/december/15/commuter_in_flashmob.aspx

Here is hoping that when the cold snap hits later this week we can survive it.
Nick

Bob and None the hope of a service from Southeastern.

So it's amazing now that the snow has melted and it's just a bit cold the trains are back to normal service, e.g. we arrived at Cannon Street 10 minutes late. No apologies or explanation just a really long talk about being careful on the platform as it could be slippery.

Last week there was what can only be described as an epic fail by Southeastern to provide any service information or just anything really. Even the news managed to get a Southeastern Spokesperson (general liar) on to grill her about how they can call themselves a service. Sarah Boundy was here name and Polly Evans the busty new anchor from South East Tonight did a pretty good job of not taking her flannelling bullshit. Here is a link to the clip

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-11916142

Sarah Boundys main message was that we hope that we are giving a better service. We hope that the website is better.
We hope that we give good value for money and you have No Hope of getting any money back from us thought the thieving bastards.

The main word here is Hope!!! I don't want to get a train and Hope!! that I will make it to the f&*king destination, I want to get there. I don't want to get to the station and Hope!! that the train advertised is going to be there I want it to be there. It is not an unreasonable request you bunch of fuktards!

She was bangin on about the website being nice to look at. It doesn't work and is not fit for purpose but it looks all nice. When she was being questioned over refunds she kept referring to the customers charter on refunds. Why would they give refunds that is almost like taking responsibility for you actions and as its everyone else's fault be it Networkrail, bombader who make the trains or the gods.

If the amount of ranting I have seen on the web is to go by Southeastern have majorly failed to impress anyone.
The journey home was not even on time. I got to Cannon Street ready for the 5:45 to get home only to find that the train was delayed by 45 minutes. So it will get in later than the 6:08. Useless there was not even a bit of snow it was just a little bit cold.

Liar Liar pants on Fire

So this morning I awoke to a bit more snow hanging around. Its not so bad I thought. I have seen krispy kreme donut with a deeper coating of sugar than the amount of snow I am looking at. Before going to the station I will have a quick look on the website to see what is happening. They wouldn’t lie on the website would they? it will show in real time where the trains are. Well it does but it’s a work of fiction depending on where you are. I put in Ashford and it showed that it was on time. I was going to take it at face value but that would have been silly so I had a deeper rummage.


My advice is if you want to see were your train is don’t put in the station you are at but put in the next smallest station up the line.

See the picture

The question is how can the train be on time everywhere before and after a station but be Delayed at the station. According to the Southeastern spokesman on the radio the site is a great improvement on last year where they had a text based single page of information. I don’t care if its written in pink on a pink background with flashing animation. If it’s wrong there is no point to it. You cannot defend it by saying its better looking than last year but don’t believe what it’s telling you we are just making that up.


If you haven’t seen this http://railfail.epetitions.net/ fill it in.

It a petition “Southeastern Rail should putting all fares down, not up!”

It’s by a site that is like mine but much more of a professional and less ranty than mine.

Snow stops play already! FFS

So this Monday morning I was delayed for a foot numbingly 40 minutes getting into work.
The reason for this delay was due to inclement weather. FFS (For F*&ks Sake) this is England its all inclement weather with 4 days of sun a year.

Standing there looking at the announcement board it said "Please look at Timetables" or "works of fiction" as I like to call them. The automated announcement did kindly tell us every minute that the 6.57 is 10 minutes late at 7.07 just in case maths is not your strong point. It did get tricky when we got to 7.10 I had to think hard then. There was no real information until the natives started to get restless, when the next lot of commuters turned up on the platform to see us all standing around looking cold and pissed off more than usual.
There was an announcement that due to the inclement weather there are problems with the signalling in the Ashford area and engineers are working hard to rectify the problem.

So I took pictures of the blizzard that managed to bring Southeastern to a standstill.

Its not exactly heavy is it. I am so glad they are putting up the costs to maintain and upgrade the rail network.
Oh no that's what has been happening for the last 10 years. So when are we going to start seeing any improvements? not in my lifetime I think you bunch thieving mother fluffers.

Nick.

Dick Turpin is alive and running Southeastern.

So the fare rises for January are published in the press today. Last year the average rise for the commuter was 1.2% except for Southeastern which managed to get away with 8%.
The reason for this bigger than national average rise, was that we were paying for the new fast train service. OK now it’s up and running why are we still paying extra for it? Should it not be paying for itself?
Another thing the new line which was built for the train has been sold off to some Canadian consortium.
Where is my cut then? Huuu I part paid for it I was one of the original backers like one of the Dragons I want my cut… I knew I should have said “im out” when they put the fares up.

So what sort of rise are they going to give us this year 8% maybe 9% to really give me some pain? No they are going big this time they are looking at 12.7% are they taking the piss. There is always news about a double dip recession well I believe Southeastern are trying their best to create it in my household.

I think these prices are being hiked to pay for the lack of people on the high speed train. The HST has been shortened by 3 carriages because there are not as many people on it as Southeastern thought and who can blame them. I don’t use it as I feel like I am being ripped of already without paying an extra £1,000 per year + tube ride for the privilege.

The problem is what can you do about it. I am not using the trains for pleasure rides I am using it to get to work. The other option is to drive which at the cost of travel for me going to be over £100 per week it is looking to be the cheaper option even with my planet killer car and the price of petrol. I this what you want in these times of green-ey-ness-ness? Is me to kill baby seals with my car, because that is what I am considering doing Southeastern and it’s your fault.

Mojave Desert

Did you know that Britain has been as dry as the Mojave Desert?
No well it’s the only explanation that I can think of as to why Southeastern have been so consistently shite this week.
The first rains in a thousand years have completely codsed up the rail system.
It is Thursday any I have not yet this week been on a train that isn’t late.
On Wednesday they even cancelled the morning train due to the biblical floods we have been having. Or that they could be bothered why give a service when you have a monopoly that is subsidised and well you customers are not likely to go anywhere else.
This is England the only place damper in winter is Ireland for fecks sake.
When a Southeastern guard was asked why the trains are so bad his brilliant explanation was “well it is winter” is it? That crept up on us I didn’t see that coming. Did we have this winter thing last year?

This week we were warned by some government committee that the trains in 2014 are going to be overcrowded and provide a terrible service. I think southeastern are ahead of their time. It’s the first target they have beaten without fudging the figures.
Maybe they should change the company tagline to something like.
“Don’t wait until 2014 for your crap rail service. Travel with Southeastern and get it now.”
Guess what this mornings train in was over 10 minutes late so only one more train to make a perfect score for the week.