Typical lack of thinking - late night connections

[yorksrob]

The railway does not do connections at all well. End of. Was travelling from Manchester to Whitby last month and TPE cancelled a Saltburn service at York leaving us and plenty of others with a four hour wait. Fortunately we weren't in a hurry and sampled some of York's hostelries.

Whitby connections are a disaster zone at the moment, as I've pointed out on other occasions (resulting in being shouted down by the industry apologists).

 

[riceuten]

An alarming number of TOCs just completely abandon passengers late at night and assume a relative/taxi/bus service will replace the train they haven't run, with (seemingly) zero consequences for them. This has happened to me more than once, and at stations with no (visible) staff - Hemel Hempstead Station, and their customer care line had long since closed for instance.

 

[MikeWM]

An alarming number of TOCs just completely abandon passengers late at night and assume a relative/taxi/bus service will replace the train they haven't run, with (seemingly) zero consequences for them. This has happened to me more than once, and at stations with no (visible) staff - Hemel Hempstead Station, and their customer care line had long since closed for instance.

It is notable (something I've commented on here a few times in the past few years) that there seems to be alarmingly little regard to running last trains anymore.

10 years ago the railway seemed to do everything possible to run last trains, even if it meant running very late and/or cancelling some of the previous trains in order to have stock available to run the last one. Nowadays they just don't seem to think that is important.

For example, whatever other criticisms I had of First Capital Connect - and I had many! - they always seemed to go the extra mile to make sure the last trains ran. GTR don't seem to care at all.

 

[riceuten]

It is notable (something I've commented on here a few times in the past few years) that there seems to be alarmingly little regard to running last trains anymore.

10 years ago the railway seemed to do everything possible to run last trains, even if it meant running very late and/or cancelling some of the previous trains in order to have stock available to run the last one. Nowadays they just don't seem to think that is important.

For example, whatever other criticisms I had of First Capital Connect - and I had many! - they always seemed to go the extra mile to make sure the last trains ran. GTR don't seem to care at all.

Yes, as an FCC customer - a company who had many faults (including phone lines that closed quite early, as I recall) and about 20% less staff than they should have, they did run the last train.

I always recall an evening in Manchester where the line I was on was blocked by a broken down train and being told by a Deansgate ticket office staff member to "get a taxi and we'll pay the bill"...which they then refused as I had "not sought the correct authorisation to take alternative transport"

 

[MrJeeves]

For example, whatever other criticisms I had of First Capital Connect - and I had many! - they always seemed to go the extra mile to make sure the last trains ran. GTR don't seem to care at all.

I wouldn't say that's true. Recently I was delayed on SWR meaning I missed the last GTR connection back home. SWR lines had shut by this point (almost 1am), but GTR Twitter called SWR control on my behalf and worked out the best option to carry me home -- a later GTR connection, then a taxi for which SWR would reimburse me for.

I will say that I have also (almost) been left stuck at Farringdon after the last train southbound has been cancelled, after which GTR offered me a taxi from Farringdon for the full 42 mile long journey home. I managed to kick myself into gear and get the train 15 mins earlier which was running fine, in the end.

GTR have always been very eager to help me in the past, no matter what the issue is. Well, maybe besides PRO alternative transport during strikes...

Then again, I was 11 when FCC was taken over so I never got to experience their customer service first-hand (at least not in any way I can remember).

 

[riceuten]

I wouldn't say that's true. Recently I was delayed on SWR meaning I missed the last GTR connection back home. SWR lines had shut by this point (almost 1am), but GTR Twitter called SWR control on my behalf and worked out the best option to carry me home -- a later GTR connection, then a taxi for which SWR would reimburse me for.

I will say that I have also (almost) been left stuck at Farringdon after the last train southbound has been cancelled, after which GTR offered me a taxi from Farringdon for the full 42 mile long journey home. I managed to kick myself into gear and get the train 15 mins earlier which was running fine, in the end.

GTR have always been very eager to help me in the past, no matter what the issue is. Well, maybe besides PRO alternative transport during strikes...

Then again, I was 11 when FCC was taken over so I never got to experience their customer service first-hand (at least not in any way I can remember).

My own personal experience was substantively different, on 3 separate occasions, at London Kings Cross. TSGN Twitter were not operational or did not respond to any of the hundreds of tweets they received. One one occasion, a single member of TSGN staff was on the concourse for less than half an hour and then walked off in tears. People were advised to take taxis (to Peterborough?) and "send us the bill" when he did appear. There were very few taxis prepared to go to Peterborough.

 

[MrJeeves]

TSGN Twitter were not operational or did not respond to any of the hundreds of tweets they received.

Ah, I always choose to DM which might help my case.

 

[riceuten]

Me too. Zero response

 

[MikeWM]

I wouldn't say that's true. Recently I was delayed on SWR meaning I missed the last GTR connection back home. SWR lines had shut by this point (almost 1am), but GTR Twitter called SWR control on my behalf and worked out the best option to carry me home -- a later GTR connection, then a taxi for which SWR would reimburse me for.

I will say that I have also (almost) been left stuck at Farringdon after the last train southbound has been cancelled, after which GTR offered me a taxi from Farringdon for the full 42 mile long journey home. I managed to kick myself into gear and get the train 15 mins earlier which was running fine, in the end.

I cant say much about their reaction to being stranded - fortunately I've only been in that situation once after the train I was on was sadly involved in a fatality fairly late in the evening, and while it was a GTR train the situation was sorted (very well and efficiently) by GA staff at Cambridge who managed to quickly rustle up taxis to take the 50 or so of us to all the various places we were trying to get to.

But your latter point is relevant to my point about last trains. In previous times in my experience they would have held the '15 minutes earlier' train to run in the path of the last train. Not anymore. I'm quite certain that if I was doing now what I was doing weekly in the period between 2008 and about 2015 - when I was very often reliant on last trains but never ended up stranded - I'd be stuck multiple times a year.

 

[mpthomson]

Wrath of Khan, IIRC. Although the actual quote starts with 'Logic clearly dictates', so going by normal railway attitude to things logical, that maxim would be in the bin sharpish...

Its actually a quote from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (without the 'Though logic dictates'), although it obviously also appears in the Star Trek film. It's in the film because Spock gives Kirk a copy of the book for his birthday.

 

[zwk500]

Its actually a quote from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (without the 'Though logic dictates'),

I obviously should reread the book, it's been a few years since I did.
Although it sounds more Benthamite than dickens