Disillusioned with london Midland

[DavidTO46]

For last few months i have become really fed up with london midland the main reason is that my local station at Tyseley. Back in July is was broken into and since then it has been boarded up and anyone using the station has had to purchase tickets on train or at there destionation. My first gripe about this is that the posters at the station havent even got the correct date when the incident happened.

When I use the station I always buy a ticket and will always ask the guard if I can buy a ticket on the train half the guards always give me the same answer no i havent got time on one occaison there were RPI's on the train and the guard lied and said i hadnt spoke to him. When i have been able to purchase a ticket i was told to get a cheaper ticket i would have to buy it at the station.

Back in August I was travelling home from villa park on a thursday night as i was walking up the ramp at witton a train was pulling in and the guard wouldnt open the as she didnt one no trouble on the train.

Then my theres my final gripe with them that was on Monday night. I was coming back from the football at Aston Villa when i got back to new street i realised that I had missed my train at moor st and had half hour wait which i didnt mind so i walked over to snow hill instead to kill time. When i got there i couldnt see there being a problem my train was listed as being on time and sat down to read my programme. about five mins later there was announcement to say that there was signalling problems which i nothing to worry about then i realised the train that I thought i had missed hadnt even got to snow hill!! I saw two LM staff in the office and banged on the door and they didnt answer so banged on the window and yet still ignored me!! so i when up to ticket office and asked there and was told to make my own way home. I was then told road trainsport would be provided and would everyone make there way outside. 15 mins after this when everyone is outside the staff turned up to be told three buses and two mini buses are on there way but they would have to wait till the train at the jewellery quarter would get in before going and they werent sure on how long it would be. I suggested to the woman well couldnt u put them on a tram and she said i hadnt thought of that. By about midnight still no sign of the buses and all that turned up was a taxi. The LM woman said to me and three others you take them. so i eventually got home at half twelve.

I dont know who is worse them or cross country as i have had problems with them as well.

Sorry for the long message but I have had enough of them

 

[Max]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

I would like to politely draw your attention to a couple of rules we operate. Firstly, posts should be 'consistent with normal writing'. In other words, no text speak is permitted, and full, appropriate grammar should be used. Secondly, self promotion isn't allowed, unless appropriate to the discussion (you are free to plug your fotopic here). I would recommend that you read our full rules: http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=16234

Many thanks!

 

[DavidTO46]

didnt realise this place was a dictatorship either

 

[Max]

didnt realise this place was a dictatorship either

Well, I think you'll find that most online forums aren't democracies! :roll:

We have a few simple, perfectly reasonable rules. It's not so much to ask!

 

[ivanhoe]

To get back on topic Its always interesting how different persons experiences can result in contrasting opinions. I travel about once a month upto Liverpool using London Midland from Nuneaton or Brum and have rarely had any problems. Decent trains and good staff. However , I've heard different stories on other routes but not experienced them myself so my general opinion based on actual journies is positive towards LM

 

[thefab444]

didnt realise this place was a dictatorship either

It's not, but it does enforce rules that enable other people to actually understand your posts.

On the subject of London Midland, have they sorted out the 350/1 and 350/2 diagrams yet?

 

[Pumbaa]

It's not, but it does enforce rules that enable other people to actually understand your posts.

On the subject of London Midland, have they sorted out the 350/1 and 350/2 diagrams yet?

In theory yes, in practice no.

If a /2 gets sent out on a Crewe run, there is finger-wagging to be had. It's more and more unusual to see a /2 out when it shouldn't be now. The Brum - Liv service hasn't seen a /2 for a while now.

 

[furryfeet]

so if the ticket office at tyseley is out of use, due to the vandalism, why are the guards allowed to refuse selling discounted tickets ?

Should the regulatory authorities be informed of this ?

 

[driver9000]

A 350/2 made it to Liverpool on Tuesday afternoon. There are quite often 350/2s at Lime Street on London Midland services. I seem to see the newer sets more than the older 350/1s. On the whole I think LM are doing a good job and are a hell of an improvement over Central, no company is perfect but there are worse out there than LM. This sounds like a bad bay rather than an endemic problem in the company

 

[Drsatan]

I've looked on the National Rail website and it says that there's no ticket machine there (though it doesn't say whether there's a Permit-to-Travel machine), so tickets should be sold on the train. Chances are the guard who refused to sell him an appropriate ticket had either forgotten or hadn't been told that the ticket office at Tyseley was closed and there was no ticket machine.

However, the guard who refused to let DavidTO46 on the train at Witton because she didn't want any trouble on the train was probably breaking railway bylaws.

 

[DavidTO46]

There used to be a permit to travel machine on the station but theres nothing there whats so ever. her other reason was when the guard wouldnt allow football fans was there train was 15 mins away

 

[Mudbeast]

If you are fed up with LM, then get on to their new MD, attend one of their regular "meet the manager" sessions and complain direct to them!

 

[87015]

If you are fed up with LM, then get on to their new MD, attend one of their regular "meet the manager" sessions and complain direct to them!

Oh right because everyone has spare time in the morning commute and wants to leave earlier to get fobbed off? Always thought its funny how they don't hold them in the evenings when people will actually be hanging around Euston and the like.

LM are truly crap. Bring back Silverlink.

 

[snuk]

I apologise if my comments aren't particularly relevant to the thread but personally I've never thought much to the customer service staff who work for London Midland. Perhaps it's just me but there is a station that I use fairly often and the staff always seem miserable to me.

On the other hand, there is this lady, not sure who she works for but it could be London Midland, maybe Virgin, who I've spoken to twice this year - both times in the customer service box on platform 1 at Rugby. She could not be more helpful, polite and happy - she always seems to be smiling - I'm convinced it's the same lady I've spoken to twice this year.

I think that there is no such thing as a bad TOC, customer service wise, I think most people have had both good and bad experiences with all TOC's, I know that I have.

Steve.