My worst train Journey

[The_Rail_WAy]

Sorry for my harsh reply.You are entitled to your opinion.Although your points have been taken on board and although I am a train driver I will take more interest in the state of the toilets on my trains.

It just seems for people who take great pride in their work and doing their best that all we receive is criticism.Then again the running late thing took me a few years to just let it go and ignore,but there seems to be a lot of stuff we have to ignore nowadays as well.Plus the media doesn't help either.

It's also dispiriting when it seems we are getting nowhere if you know what I mean.

No worries at all mate, Firstly saying 90% of toilets are unclean is an overstatement, I should have thought more.

I am in no way whatsoever criticising the hard work of railway staff who have the - to be frank - difficult job of cleaning and maintaining platform and on-board toilets. My problem is with the complete and utter incompetence of a small minority of the general public who do not give a stuff about public property, or the people who have to clean up after them.

I do tend to find that on-board facilities tend to suffer more on Friday/Saturday evenings, due to the behaviour of certain drunkard individuals. For example, I recently boarded a Sat eve Virgin Voyager service at Preston (Lancs) when a large group of dunk individuals left empty beer cans, crips packets and other rubbish all over the train, as well as flooding the tables with lager and red wine.

This to me seems almost like a 'British' problem so to speak, I have never noticed it in other countries in the eu.

 

[me123]

This to me seems almost like a 'British' problem so to speak, I have never noticed it in other countries in the eu.

Alcoholism in general is a British problem. You don't see as much of it in Europe or America.

I'd support a full alcohol ban on all trains, not just football-bound services. Being under the influence of alcohol, the people can cause trouble either by acting like yobs, or by just being depressed/angry/violent under the influence.

 

[gordonthemoron]

The worst train toilets I've come across recently were in Holland, they still have those which empty onto the track. German ones tend to be good as do Belgian.

As far as drinking on trains, it would probably be best if only drink bought in the buffet were allowed to be consumed onboard, however many TOCs seem desperate (to get rid of catering).

As far as not seeing people drinking on trains in other eu countries, drinking on trains (and elsewhere in public) is far more common in germany than the UK, but there doesn't seem to be much trouble caused by the drinkers (I suppose they take their bottles with them to get the deposit back ).

Further, Polish trains have BAR cars, not buffet or restaurant, just a bar (even on overnight services)

 

[Failed Unit]

I think my worse journey in recent times was the way Virgin treated passengers to look for good press on when the 125 "upgrade" was completed in Scotland.

I was travelling down to Colwyn Bay from Glasgow with a change needed at Warrington. Planned on catching the 0810 but the set due to work this had failed. A Pendo appeared at Glasgow at 0900 but this was sent to another platform and used to form the 0940. This was the first day of the new timetable and a press run had arranged used to demonstate this using the 0940 Glasgow - Euston service which at the time only stopped at Carlisle and Preston. At 0920 our train came in and departed at 0930, good turn around from Virgin. (why this set could have formed the 0940 is a good question)

Once we got to Carlisle we were put "out the way". A failed unit between Lancaster and Carlisle had resulted in single line working. along came the 0940, passed us as they had cleared the single line for it. We waited and then a following XC service was allowed ahead of us. By the time I got to Warrington I was nearly 2 hours late. The headlines were however of the "on-time" arrival of the 0940 on this new track. Us on the 0810 definately felt the 2nd class passengers.

Due to my late arrival at Colwyn Bay it was do meeting and head off, no time for find any food. Couldn't find anything open at Warrington Bank Quay station or in the direct area on the day (problem with the plumbing so no cold water for the station including the toilets - again it happens), no problem my return service offered the pendolino prime. Got on board but all the food had already been eaten by people from London with no-restock at Preston. Wandered to the shop and got a sandwich. A bad day and I didn't really feel I had value for my £260 ticket.

To Virgins credit they refunded me 100% of the outward portion and the difference between the 1st and standard class ticket of the return (due to the fact I only had standard class service). Still never had the honour of sampling the pendo-prime offer. Living on the East Coast don't really use West Coast that often.

 

[gordonthemoron]

Speaking of first class running out of food, was on the 16:30 St Pancras to Brussels on 2nd Feb, as all london airports were affected by snow, there were rather more passengers than usual, including in first class. Unfortunately E* had only loaded enough dinners for 1 1st class coach (out of 6).

This lack of food carried, does rather suggest that E* load figures are a work of fiction.

 

[Juniper Driver]

No worries at all mate, Firstly saying 90% of toilets are unclean is an overstatement, I should have thought more.

I am in no way whatsoever criticising the hard work of railway staff who have the - to be frank - difficult job of cleaning and maintaining platform and on-board toilets. My problem is with the complete and utter incompetence of a small minority of the general public who do not give a stuff about public property, or the people who have to clean up after them.

I do tend to find that on-board facilities tend to suffer more on Friday/Saturday evenings, due to the behaviour of certain drunkard individuals. For example, I recently boarded a Sat eve Virgin Voyager service at Preston (Lancs) when a large group of dunk individuals left empty beer cans, crips packets and other rubbish all over the train, as well as flooding the tables with lager and red wine.

This to me seems almost like a 'British' problem so to speak, I have never noticed it in other countries in the eu.

No worries I took it badly and should have left it perhaps I was wound up.(not with you)

Ironically I bought a train out of clapham yard this afternoon and had to lock the toilet OOU as it wouldn't flush.I guess the tank hadn't been emptied as the fault came up on the TMS screen.I must admit I was a bit disappointed.

I was actually dealing with another fault when I realised there was a problem there.I found a tripped MCB in the middle cab as indicated by the TMS.

I believe a big problem on the 444/450's are the CET tanks are too small or that's what I've been told but I think they are more worried about running trains and not in the toilets allegedly.

 

[metrocammel]

And its usually 10 or 20p

All the Network Rail owned station I know of charge 30p. Man Pic used to charge 20p until a few years ago, then increased it (mind you, the amount of people you see 'pulling the barrier back' and then going in for free is ridiculous!)
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

The worst train toilets I've come across recently were in Holland,

In all honesty, in many ways, from a toilet cleanliness point of view, toilets that have a pipe directy onto the track (ie, Holland, France & Portugal are ones I know off hand) are generally very fresh smelling, and can't really get blocked very easily - so there are no issues such as effluent coming back into the toilet!

Ironically, it was in Portugal where I experienced possibly the worst smelling, most rancid toilet ever. It was on a 1950s Alan railcar that had been refurbished in 2003 with a retention tank. The contents of this tank appeared to be swishing into the toilet bowl - it was absolutely disgusting.

 

[43021HST]

Can we step away from Toilets, unmentinables and other delights which come out of the Bog and talk about worst train journeys unless they involve a Loo.

 

[GNERman]

Got a train from Newcastle to Sunderland which was a 142 and then found that another 142 broke down in front - then some drunks got on at Heworth and then we waited another 1 and a half hours to get into Sunderland station and the 142 was a disgrace. litter, mess, rotten seats...
Need I say more?

 

[MCR247]

Got a train from Newcastle to Sunderland which was a 142 and then found that another 142 broke down in front - then some drunks got on at Heworth and then we waited another 1 and a half hours to get into Sunderland station and the 142 was a disgrace. litter, mess, rotten seats...Need I say more?

So you're basically describing 142s in general?

 

[spoony]

So you're basically describing 142s in general?

I like 142s, very friendly/homely trains IMO. I always wonder why they need a wooden ladder though. Are they expecting to have to climb ontop the train sometime?

 

[Bayum]

Once I was going to Penzance back in the Virgin days, and we were on a voyager. We left York, all good and on time etc, till we got to Leeds. Ten minutes came and went, then 30, and 40 minutes later we were on our way. Turns out some kids at Crossgates had managed to fire a gun at the train and smashed one of the windows. Delays between Wakefield and Sheffield made us even more late.

Walking between our Coach and the shop, one of the coaches seemed to be stupidly hot - even with the air con on. The train manager who "was aware of the problem" then found it to be a larger problem than he had thought, so we were put onto the slow lines outside Derby before the Driver and TM got off the train to inspect it.

When they got back on the train, we set off at a mere 20mph to Derby station, where we were told to "sit tight" and await further information. Then the TM announced that any passengers for stations further south than New Street were to board the already heavily overcrowded service that was continuing behind ours to Penzance.

Needless to say, about 3/4 of the train emptied and boarded this train - was so bad passengers were having to sit on the toilet floor and on the toilet. Needless to say it got worse and worse as we made our way through the Midlands and Bristol.

 

[The_Rail_WAy]

I like 142s, very friendly/homely trains IMO. I always wonder why they need a wooden ladder though. Are they expecting to have to climb ontop the train sometime?

I may be wrong but I thought they are evacuation ladders which are found on most trains?

On the subject of 142's the are a bit like marmite - you either love them or hate them so to speak. My opinion of them has become a little more positive over the last couple of years - although I still prefer sprinter units, such as a 156!

 

[TGVDUDE]

these stories are just embarrising as a british citison!

 

[Pumbaa]

these stories are just embarrising as a british citison!

So is your spelling.

 

[me123]

Then the TM announced that any passengers for stations further south than Penzance were to board the already heavily overcrowded service that was continuing behind ours to Penzance.

Needless to say, about 3/4 of the train emptied and boarded this train

3/4 of the train were travelling further south than Penzance? Was the train terminating in The Azores or something?

 

[Bayum]

3/4 of the train were travelling further south than Penzance? Was the train terminating in The Azores or something?

Hahaha

Yes it was...

Oooops....

I meant to say people who were travelling south Of New Street

 

[Daimler]

If I had to choose a 'worst train journey' experience then it would have to be a few years back when we were supposed to be taking 35005 Canadian Pacific on a Cathedrals Express from Victoria to Canterbury & return.

We set off from home hoping to drive to St Albans and take Thameslink (as it was) into London. However, we stupidly decided to stop off at the post office to collect a parcel. This, unfortunately, took ages and we arrived at St. Albans too late to catch the train we needed. However, as we'd paid for our journey we decided to go into London and make our own way to Canterbury - at least we'd have the return. Having got to Victoria we set off, and on our way out of London several drunks got on the train (this was a Saturday morning!) with large amounts of beer. They began to behave extremely aggressively - most people (including us) moved out of that carriage. Then, it turned out the line was shut and we would have to get on a rail replacement bus! We did so and eventually arrived at another station (my details are a bit sketchy ) where we boarded another train. After eventually arriving at Canterbury we saw the Cathedrals Express parked up - sadly we didn't see Can Pac at that time, but a '37' was on the stock. We spent a while looking round the town before making our way back to the station.

When we arrived, expecting the Merchant Navy to be on the front of our train, we found instead the 37 waiting to take it out (I appreciate at this point that some would see this as an additional boon! We, however, did not!) It turned out that 35005 had broken down on the way to Canterbury, and we'd suffered the whole unpleasant journey for nothing! :cry:

 

[The_Rail_WAy]

That sounds like a typically nightmarish journey - drunken youths, rail replacement services and a 37 taking the role of 35005 Canadian Pacific!

Where is she nowadays - still on the Watercress?

 

[whoshotjimmi]

This one is easy.

I was heading to Leeds from London on the day that both the ECML and MML had been closed due to overhead line faults. Thankfully, my knowledge of the rail network and my not standing around waiting to be told what to do helped me somewhat!

I took a semi fast to Peterborough where i connected with the (2 car 158) Central service to Liverpool. That service was hopelessly delayed leaving Peterborough but luckily I was able to find a seat. I say luckily as when we pulled into Grantham there were about 2,000 people wedged on the platform. A large number of them got on my train and it was literally full - no more room for anyone or anything. This made the train very slow between Grantham and Sheffield where I agonisingly then missed a connecting train by seconds. I watched as it pulled out of the platform and sighed as the next train was not due for 45 mins (this was before the days of Voyagers and semi fasts between Leeds and Sheffield). I eventually found myself pulling into Leeds 6 hours after I left KX. I thought the situation was not helped by Virgin's decision not to allow passengers from the ECML and MML to use the WCML. Would all have been much easier via Piccadilly, but there you go.

 

[Golden Gripper]

About twelve years ago I had a meeting in London, then wandered back to Euston about 1600 looking for a Crewe train. No sooner got there than a fire broke out (I think it was in the roof above the platforms) and all movements halted. I thought about it for a bit and decided that if they were terminating incoming trains short of Euston it would probably be at Watford Junc.

So Circle to Baker Street, Bakerloo to Queens Park where to DCs were being turned back. Got to Watford Junc. just as the sun was going down, and it was getting cold. The down main platform was heaving. After about half an hour trains started arriving from Euston, full and standing. Even then it was about the eighth train before something arrived that stopped at Crewe. Of course, no catering. Got home about 2200. Knackered.