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Northward Ho! In which divers misadventures befall our correspondent..

rockershovel

Entry posted by rockershovel

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Well, that was fun. For family reasons, a long and difficult journey at a difficult time, in which some showed to better advantage than others.

 

First leg, Cross Country, Plymouth to BNS. Cross Country consistently fail to impress, and this was no exception; a crowded, short-formation train (4 car Voyager instead of 7-car HST; reservations in disorder, charging sockets not working despite the new overhead reservation displays). The diversion for the incident on the line was just one of those things that happen, but the train was already late and the announcement about “not stopping at Westbury or Bath, due to not having the necessary insurance paperwork” was downright unprofessional - don’t train crews get set announcements for such circumstances?

 

Next leg, LNWR to Stafford. New-looking 3-car DMU with plenty of seats, good timekeeping.

 

Return journey was made on Sunday, on storm conditions. Skipped the Stafford-BNS leg, which proved to be a mistake. No 2 Son became hopelessly entangled in Birmingham traffic due to road closures for the half-marathon (this brings me to an earlier theme, the constant delays encountered almost everywhere at any time, when travelling by road).

 

BNS was ... unhelpful. No identifiable Cross Country presence, no useful information from Virgin, information on the boards not really helpful either. Had I come in in the Stafford train, I could probably have spoken to the platform dispatchers, caught the late-running 15:12 and saved around 90 mins on my journey; as it was, although I was on the station, I missed it and had to wait until 17:12.

 

17:12 was another short formation, heavily overloaded. Sat in First, no attempt to check tickets so no problem. Anyway I did have a First Class Upgrade for my scheduled train... various confusing and at times, contradictory announcements along the way. Missed the opportunity to abandon the journey and hire a car at Bristol, due to the general confusion and it wasn’t really feasible after that. Somewhere around Bath, the Conductor made a notably fatuous announcement about “passengers who broke their journey, would be able to travel tomorrow” - not tremendously useful at that time of a Sunday evening, with the most likely stopping points already behind them.

 

Taxi transfer from Exeter to Newton Abbot, due to flooding damage. Quite obvious that GWR staff were receiving no useful information from Cross Country. GWR were doing a good job, given that they were obviously running out of options (apparently the coaches had been running since 07:00 sonthe drivers were running out of hours) and had little idea what was still incoming. Plenty of GWR staff at NA, straight onto a train and in Plymouth by 23:00.

 

Again, a solid 8/10 for the LNWR service. A bouquet for GWR, for rising to the occasion, but none for Virgin for playing no useful role. 6/10 for Cross Country on Friday, 5/10 for Sunday with a resounding “NULL POINTS” for their information.

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milkman matt

I wonder if the employees of the current incarnation of the GWR are asked to reach for the standards of the original? Would certainly seem that they are trying. 

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rockershovel

I've just seen South West taking a slating in the Grauniad for various misdemeanours involving abandoning a number of passengers on an unspecified, remote station on a rain-lashed night. These stories are often months to years old,  being the outcome of complaints investigated without haste, and I wondered if it was another leftover from that weekend's misadventures? 

Edited by rockershovel
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DK123GWR
4 hours ago, rockershovel said:

I've just seen South West taking a slating in the Grauniad for various misdemeanours involving abandoning a number of passengers on an unspecified, remote station on a rain-lashed night. These stories are often months to years old,  being the outcome of complaints investigated without haste, and I wondered if it was another leftover from that weekend's misadventures? 

The Guardian article states this occurred at Yeovil Junction, on the 18.27 London to Exeter St David's train.

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rockershovel
3 hours ago, DK123GWR said:

The Guardian article states this occurred at Yeovil Junction, on the 18.27 London to Exeter St David's train.

Oh right. I don't actually read the Graun so I only read the article as far as the paywall/registration pop-up

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