Trains AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!

[appollo1]

Ok bear with me on this one please....


Yesterday I travelled home from Stafford by train as my wife and kids are staying at her mums for a couple of weeks :D:D:D and she's got the car.

I had 2 changes to make first at Crewe then at Edinburgh. Got on the train at Crewe and headed up the track. At Preston we got delayed for 45 minutes due to "engineering works". Not too bad I thought and was advised to get off at Haymarket to catch a connection. I get of the train at 4.45pm to find that all trains north are cancelled due to signal failure. The station staff are really apologetic and as usual thank everone for their patience and will let us know as soon as possible what is happening blah blah blah..

At 6pm passengers travelling to Perth are asked to get on the bus in the car park. Not the way I'm heading so I wait. I ask what is happening as there has been no announcement for almost an hour. The staff are unable to contact the main office as the phone line is permanantly engaged. I ask about buses and get told that there are none available as they are all getting used for the T in the Park Festival near Perth. :mad:

At 7pm I am starting to get really pi**ed off as Haymarket is a small station with only 4 platforms and hardly any seats. I ask the station supervisor to pay for a taxi to take me home as it's only about an hour away (60 miles approx) and he tells me he can't authorise it. ](*,)](*,)](*,)

Understandably I'm getting more pi**ed off at the lack of information being given. At 8pm I ask for a taxi again and am still told no. I ask the station supervisor to get someone to the station who can authorise a taxi. Nobody available is the reply.](*,)](*,)](*,)](*,):smt021:smt021:smt021

Next minute the police turn up and I'm starting to think that I might get a lift with them for the wrong reasons. :shock::shock:


At 8.30pm I am about to start getting myself in trouble as I have not eaten for a while and should have been home 3 hours previously. I ask again about a taxi and surprise surprise a bus is suddenly available.

Bus departs at 9pm and goes the long way via Perth to Dundee and then finally to Leuchars. I finally walk through my door at 10.50pm almost four and a half hours late. No offer of refreshments or drinks all day and one really pi**ed off traveller.

I am due to make the return journey to pick my wife up in 3 weeks and not looking forward to it. :cry::cry:




Sorry for the rant and rave but I've had a few hours to calm down now and just had to get this off my chest.

[tanis34]

sounds like you had an bad day for sure m8 have a beer and chill

[Neeja]

I'm pretty sure that, as a ticket holder, you're entitled to alternate transport if the rail network cannot provide this. I'm unsure of the timescale that this has to be actioned in - it may be the case that the bus-service counts, even though it took a long time to get there.

I was told this one time when I got stuck at a station which didn't announce a platform change to the train I was waiting for because it was the last train of the evening, and the guys on duty couldn't see anyone on the CCTV cams because I'd gone for a wander to stretch my legs, so assumed nobody was waiting for it. Station gave me a taxi home at a cost of £40 to Northern Rail.

[tigersaw]

I got a taxi from Crewkerne in Somerset to East Grinstead west sussex once, about 150 miles and it actually beat the train I should have been on had they not cancelled it.

[fizzwheel]

I got a taxi from Crewkerne in Somerset to East Grinstead west sussex once, about 150 miles and it actually beat the train I should have been on had they not cancelled it.

Holy cr*p how much did that cost ?

[Camel]

You should be entitled to a refund, at the very least I would have thought. Get printer ink to paper!!

[tigersaw]

Holy cr*p how much did that cost ?

No idea, train company picked up the tab

[Jayneflakes]

Being mildly disabled makes train travel quite entertaining.

My last big visit was to see a medical specialist in Brighton. I booked my train tickets six weeks in advance and turned up at the station.

My train was delayed and it finally stopped at Reading! Platform staff were rude and very unhelpful.

I use a walking stick quite a lot and I was using it a lot that day. The Staff finally started to help me when I just gave up and sat down on the platform and declared I would not move until they ordered me a Taxi.

The Taxi drove me from Reading to Brighton and then got lost trying to find the station, driving past my hotel.

My letter to the Train Provider listed every fault they made, every rude comment made to me and every sexual innuendo made to me by the Taxi driver.

The letter I got back was filled with apologies and a voucher for further travel (the cost of my ticket back again!) which I used to go and see friends a few weeks later.

Damn train companies and the managers deserve to burn in hell, covered in turds.

Did I mention the fight I had with the Station Manager at Plymouth when I had to wait for over an hour to buy a ticket? He told me that I should buy my ticket from a machine and proceeded to show me how until I told him it was an advance ticket. The machine did not do advanced tickets. He just sighed and slumped. It would have been kinder to put a bullet between his eyes! :smt011

[the_runt69]

I'm pretty sure that, as a ticket holder, you're entitled to alternate transport if the rail network cannot provide this. I'm unsure of the timescale that this has to be actioned in - it may be the case that the bus-service counts, even though it took a long time to get there.



Being a Control Manager the railway Bylaws say we have to get you to your destination, there is no time limit on it, but the passenger charter means we have to make reasonable alternatives if advertised(or wrong information is given) to get people to their destination. Have had to authorise all sorts including overnight accomodation for people who have missed connections or flights due to problems with our service, some of which have been outside our control.

Janey if you have those problems again please contact ATOC as they have all sorts of ways of penelising for train comp[anys that act that way.

[Jayneflakes]

Janey if you have those problems again please contact ATOC as they have all sorts of ways of penelising for train comp[anys that act that way.

Thank you for the tip. However once I pass my DAS, I am planning to never use a British Train again...

Ever ever again.

I would rather crawl! :smt075

[the_runt69]

Thank you for the tip. However once I pass my DAS, I am planning to never use a British Train again...

Ever ever again.

I would rather crawl! :smt075

Why do you think I use the bike for work when I have a free train pass

[timwilky]

No where near my record by rail I am afraid.

Caught the train from Preston to London. Got on it at about 6:30am and paid about £140 for the ticket. By the time it should have got to London I was less than a mile out of Preston and later trains had passed by etc. 11 am we get towed into Wigan. I got off, paid for a single return to Preston to pick up car and demanded a refund.

That was 12 years ago and I now fly down to London. Rail is too unreliable for business use. I had one seriously ****ed off client with that one

[yorkie_chris]

(rant warning)

Right then trains are supposedly so squirrel and fluffy thing friendly because they pollute less and reduce congestion, according to all those hippy ar$eholes... so the train in to leeds from halifax, you would think would be a pretty good idea, reduce the traffic on a58 and M62 etc etc... so why is it that the train is always so packed it's like being in a catering sized barrel of sweat and stale farts, and it costs nearly 6 quid to buy a ticket in a morning! WTF? I mean who would ever need to go into leeds for 9am eh?

Now personally that seems like a bit of a bad deal there, especially as it takes 40 minutes, as well as getting to the train station and getting up to uni from the train station. F### that! Can do the trip in 35 minutes when I'm on proper form and it's dry, that's about £5 of fuel a day..

[Speedy Claire]

What an awful journey for you. My son regularly has this trouble coming from Aberdeen to Liverpool each month..... can be a total nightmare and there`s been times when there`s been no train at all due to engineering works.

[Gazza77]

Sometimes trains are a pain; I use them daily as part of my commute. Having said that, they are within a couple of minutes of published times 9 times out of 10, and there is no other way I could get an extra 30 -45 mins sleep each way whilst travelling to work.

Now I've changed route (Hebden Bridge to Leeds rather than Normanton to Leeds), I find no problem getting a seat each day and crowding is far lower too. For £80 a month I can travel anywhere within West Yorkshire on any bus or train at any time of the day, making it far cheaper to commute 300 miles a week than by any other method too. :)

[grh1904]

Why, oh why, do these posts go up now, just AFTER I shell out £78 on advance tickets for a trip from Darlington to Aviemore in September.

Having read the posts, I'm now a bit dubious that the 23mins I have to wait/make my connection at Edinburgh for the Aviemore train might not be long enough, indeed what about the even less 17mins I have at Newcastle on the way back.

I want a bullet train like wot they 'ave in Japan. On Top Gear on Sunday the average delay was only something like 7 seconds.

In light of all these post I'm now gonna have to source myself a Roy Cropper shopper/man bag, and fill it with thermos, sandwiches, spare sandwiches etc.

[timwilky]

I had to change trains in Zurich and my connection was 1 minute late leaving. The apology for the delay was made in German, French, English and Italian. In this country you don't get any apology even if hours late.

Although another classic of mine was yet another delayed train from Preston. After eventually leaving, the train stopped for 10 minutes a mile outside Preston when we got.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the guard speaking, we would like to apologise for the 2 hour delay at Preston, and the subsequent delay, This was due to the guard being left behind at Preston". He obviously could not bring himself to say, despite this train being 2 hours late, I still missed it.

To compound things by Stafford we got, "Ladies and gentlemen, My shift has now finished and the buffet is now closed, if we had left on time, I would have been open for the full journey"

[yorkie_chris]

I had to change trains in Zurich and my connection was 1 minute late leaving. The apology for the delay was made in German, French, English and Italian. In this country you don't get any apology even if hours late.

Lol the apology sounds like it took longer than the delay!

[Filipe M.]

Lol the apology sounds like it took longer than the delay!

Not if they did them all at the same time. ;-)

[Jayneflakes]

I once caught the night train from Enbrun to Paris (back in the day when I used to enjoy travelling with a back pack the size of an Alp!) and arrived just in time for th eopening of the Ben & Gerry's ice cream cafe in Paris Station.

The Guard was polite,spoke three languages and told me that I had no rush for my platform, because my train was on time.

Being used to British trains, I still rushed over and found it sat silently waiting. I found my seat and waited for it to leave.

Now you are thinking I was on the wrong train aren't you. But this was the French railways and everything was perfect, apart from the English Student sat in my seat with my back pack who looked a lot like me. Yes, I hardly spoke a word of French and I still managed to get around the whole country. Enbrun - Paris - Brive.

Once back in the UK, I was sat in Brighton Station being told that if I left my bag, it would be blown up, being harassed by ugly pigeons and trying not to sit in the chewing gum stuck to the bench!

Rail travel is great in this country. I once heard on Radio Four that Indian Trains, the old Steamers that Britain left behind, run better and to schedule more often than British trains...

[Ceri JC]

They're expensive, gash and make Ducati 888s look reliable. I bloody hate trains in the UK, the only place they work properly is in London. Considering the size/population distribution of the UK it's insane that we don't have a decent rail network.

[missyburd]

I mean who would ever need to go into leeds for 9am eh?
quote]

Erm most of the working population? :p

[quote=grh1904;1568903]
I want a bullet train like wot they 'ave in Japan. On Top Gear on Sunday the average delay was only something like 7 seconds.



Lol that was a good watch :smt045 And I agree, we should definitely have one. Don't know where it'd go like :lol: If I was paying tax - which fortunately I'm not for one more year :D - I'd much rather it went toward that than some other pointless exploit.

[yorkie_chris]

I mean who would ever need to go into leeds for 9am eh?


Erm most of the working population? :p

It was a sarcy comment that one, clever girl :-P

[CoolGirl]

i hope everyone that's suffered serious delays havbe used the passenger charter to claim their money back. you can usually do it online. and if it's over a certain period of time you get the cost of your fare back and some.

One day I went ot catch a silverlink train. Dozens of other people were waiting too. After an hour I went home and rang the company:

Me"what's going on"
Silverlink: "Planned engineering works"
Me: "How are we supposed to know?"
SL:"there are signs up at the station"
Me: No there aren't, and the indicator board says the train's coming, and there's no staff to ask"
SL: "Oh. Didn't you see the replacement bus, it goes from x road?"
Me: "that's 2 streets away. I was waiting on the platform for the train."
SL:"Oh"

no wonder they lost the operating contract. I got £50 back for a £3.50 fare (but missed seeing a friend off:().

[sinbad]

I want a bullet train like wot they 'ave in Japan. On Top Gear on Sunday the average delay was only something like 7 seconds.


We don't need a Bullet train, but we really do need to steal whoever set up their transport network and trains the people that run it.

How can something so basically simple be so poor and inefficient, and expensive to boot?

It's not like money isn't spent on the railways. It's a total joke really. Trains should be as predictable as the tide.

[yorkie_chris]

We need to get some of the older generations of ze germans running the trains...