What annoys you about railway companies?

[SRPO]

The young persons railcard is available to anyone aged 16-25 irrespective of employment /education status.

It is also available to anyone over 25 who is in fulltime education.

Most good schools will have a bursary scheme to assist with travel costs for students.

[Wriggler7]

Andy makes a comparison between c2c and NXEA trains.

 

Currently, c2c operate the better train, but that is a lot to do with how long trains last. c2c were operating some serious museum pieces long after NXEA, or as it was then, First Great Eastern, introduced sliding door stock throughout it's routes. c2c even operated some 'Great Eastern' 312s for a while which had benefitted from an internal upgrade.

 

No doubt NXEA will get new stock before c2c replace their current ones, and the balance will swing back the other way for a while.

[andydd]

Possible, but C2C have had their 'modern' fleet for at least 7 or 8 years now maybe more so I think it is unlikely that NXEa will be getting new stock soon (they do operate a few on some of their lines, going into north Essex), but none on the busy Southend - Liverpool Street and that fact that their franchise was due to end in March would make it likely that they had no plans to buy new trains, I know now their franchise has been extended but I still can't see tham forking out on trains anytime soon, even if they did I would of thought the even older Shenfield - Liverpool St Metro ones would be replaced, they are truely awful trains !

 

Andy

[Wriggler7]

Trains are not owned by 'train operating companies'. When 'LTS(BR)' became 'LTS(Prism)', the train leasing company ordered the 'new trains'. National Express only took the line over after they had entered service. They then painted them blue.

 

National Express East Anglia certainly operate some old stuff, stand at Romford and you will see a lot of different types of trains, in all sorts of mixed up liveries. The trains running to Clacton are much newer.

[Wriggler7]

The 'c2c' trains have now been in use for 10 years, and will probably be kept going for another 20.

[Wriggler7]

What annoyed me this morning was arriving at the station to find a huge queue, one clerk serving, two clerks standing out the front having a fag.

[Grotesque]

My biggest gripe has to be them spouting off that customer service is their number 1 priority when infact its really profit- at any cost.

 

The voice of truth.

 

And the pressure that Revenue Grades are under= A Milch Cow

[Grotesque]

What's C2C?

 

Anyway, what annoys me about railway companies, from a different perspective:

 

They treat their staff like crap, pay peanuts, as a consequence have a huge staff turnover, which means that they're always short of staff, and that of course ends up with the customer at the receiving end of that. Oh yes, and you do have to wonder about what the union reps are being paid for, because they seem to have a timeshare in 2 braincells between them.

 

They try to change contracts of employment terms and enforce them by custom, and do not like it when confronted with, but will do anything to avoid resolving the situation or work WITH the staff instead of against. Their attitude towards the staff is 19th century style, and you can tell they really miss them good old days, where they had life and death power over their employees!

 

I could go on and on. This is just to remind everyone that when you get a surly employee, more often that not, it's because he has a crap employer. ;-)

 

 

Thank f**k for unions eh

[rebel11]

The lack of common sense, they ask consumers to use common sense, but thats not recipricated by train companies or by some of their staff.

[Wriggler7]

A retired master joiner friend of mine often says 'if the job is crap, look no further than who the boss was'.

[SRPO]

A retired master joiner friend of mine often says 'if the job is crap, look no further than who the boss was'.

Sums the railways up nicely.

[Zubair2.2]

Simply: over priced.

[Wriggler7]

My local line excelled itself yesterday. Stolen wire, delays all over. OK, not their fault, but:

 

Information to passengers was 'sketchy'. Having been told that the train would arrive on 'platform 2', it didn't. It arrived on platform 1.

[infiniteseeker]

Only really the ruthless and unsympathetic way penalty fare guys go about their business.

[Stigy]

My local line excelled itself yesterday. Stolen wire, delays all over. OK, not their fault, but:

 

Information to passengers was 'sketchy'. Having been told that the train would arrive on 'platform 2', it didn't. It arrived on platform 1.

Did they hold the train when they realised their cock-up?...Or did they not realise their cock-up?

[Wriggler7]

Being a part time anorak, I can explain some of the 'issues'. At that time of day, because of noise abatement issues, the PA system does not make the 'automatic' anouncements. The staff that were on duty have to rely on information coming from the one and only 'signal box', or from a display system that can be watched in the ticket office. The running time from the previous station is very short, and so if, when the train gets to the previous station, it is on 'the wrong line', 'SIMBIDS' to you, wrong road to an old trainspotter, but is put across to right road between stations, there is not time to pass the information by phone/pager/e mail. So all the passengers are on platform 2, and suddenly, the train comes round the bend, running into platform 1.

Yes, the driver allowed time for the assorted guitar playing nuns and disabled kiddies on life support machines to go down the stairs and back up again, but it is still a comedy routine that annoys me. The company does not see fit to employ platform staff at that station.

[Wriggler7]

The company manages to run a service that generally meets the timetable, but when it all goes wrong, it can be a comedy. Or a farce. I accept fully that the start of the stuff up was down to theives, for whom Saudi justice would seem appropriate, but the 'recovery' to these events always seems a tad 'hit & miss'. From previous, similar, experiences, few staff actually understand how to run a railway, and fewer managers seem to arrive and 'take charge'.

Infiniteseeker will be pleased to know that some of the Inspectors do assist, although this week, I only saw the back of one as he locked his bike in the shed.

[Wriggler7]

Only really the ruthless and unsympathetic way penalty fare guys go about their business.

From your other thread, they seem to do a good job.

[Stigy]

Being a part time anorak, I can explain some of the 'issues'. At that time of day, because of noise abatement issues, the PA system does not make the 'automatic' anouncements. The staff that were on duty have to rely on information coming from the one and only 'signal box', or from a display system that can be watched in the ticket office. The running time from the previous station is very short, and so if, when the train gets to the previous station, it is on 'the wrong line', 'SIMBIDS' to you, wrong road to an old trainspotter, but is put across to right road between stations, there is not time to pass the information by phone/pager/e mail. So all the passengers are on platform 2, and suddenly, the train comes round the bend, running into platform 1.

Yes, the driver allowed time for the assorted guitar playing nuns and disabled kiddies on life support machines to go down the stairs and back up again, but it is still a comedy routine that annoys me. The company does not see fit to employ platform staff at that station.

The Siggie usually communicates with station staff if they are close enough, by radio...Is it not like that in your neck of the woods?

[Wriggler7]

The 'Bobby' doesn't talk with the TOC staff at all. Network rail sit alongside TOC staff, who feed information out to stations using pagers, phones, e mails.

 

A large chunk of the problem is that the line is effectively a branch line, with stations 2 to 8 minutes apart, and no quick way for one station to talk to another, except the telephone. Which is often busy with calls from both directions.

 

No 'block instruments' any more, no simple and effective communication, and if a mere passenger should mention that it worked better in 'the good old days', he will be offered a seat becuase he must be very old to remember them.

[Stigy]

The 'Bobby' doesn't talk with the TOC staff at all. Network rail sit alongside TOC staff, who feed information out to stations using pagers, phones, e mails.

That's how it is with most TOCs I believe, but is more of a widespread message delivery service I guess. More locally it's up to station staff to monitor the PIS and when the "correction" comes up, they should direct passengers, surely? You can't miss the "correction" message on the PIS as it goes "bing bong"

[SRPO]

Anoraks...[sVIEW][/sVIEW]

[Wriggler7]

Part time, haven't got a Thermos flask.

[Wriggler7]

I made a study of all sorts of train delay issues, and failure to provide 'good service'. A lot of fare dodgers try to use such stuff to try to get away with 'not paying'. And the fascinating thought that a rail replacement bus is for the purpose of the Regulation of railways act a 'train'. Had to look into that one after a claim by a passenger (who was 'as a newt' at the time of the incident) that he should not have been asked for a ticket by a railway inspector. Despite our best efforts, he was duly convicted of railway byelaw offences and railway fare evasion. On a bus.

[dannysport]

the RPI's on C2C dont have to pay as I get a london underground staff pass

I have used it 1000's of times from Upminster to fenchurch street station

the odd time i get a RPI that dont know what the Ticket is errrrrr

 

and call to make sure i cant get done an given a fine

and they never say sorry