Replacement Bus Shoddiness / Train Delayed

[tractakid]

Title: Rail replacement bus driver getting lost, shockingly bad journey home.

On a rail replacement bus from Euston, we got stuck down a residential backstreet dead end in Wembley. Unbelievably bad show.

It was then concluded that no body on the full bus actually wanted to alight at Harrow and Wealdstone. This took an hour from Euston to decide, so we then headed all the way from Lancelot Crescent to the M1 to get to Watford.

Near Watford Junction, after turning the wrong way again, he cut it fine under a low bridge. This didn't boost confidence.

At Apsley, he sailed past the station, only dropping after shouts from the passengers that we needed to stop.

I then worked out that bailing the bus to catch the late running train(!) (00:14 ex Euston) at Hemel Hempstead would be quicker, I was glad to be off the bus. The lovely man sitting beside me followed my idea.

On the platforms at Hemel, one passenger was waiting for the train, on platform 3. This is what he found from the information point, there being absolutely no information on departure boards whatever. I reckoned the train would arrive P1, using realtimetrains as a source. The forecast arrival time of 00:56 sailed past, with no sign of a train. RTT showed it had reached Kings Langley, but not Apsley. This was the case for ages, the train was stuck. I started to call myself an idiot for alighting the bus, apologising to the lovely man that trusted my idea. Help point was hopeless, all they said was there would be a train at 03:00 something, no clue about our train. Eventually RTT showed the train had reached Apsley, and as I expected, it eventually arrived at P1, no thanks to information at Hemel. The train then stayed 40 minutes late, arriving in Milton Keynes at 02:00, amazingly, simultaneously with the coach, which I saw depart.

This did have a sense of adventure, but I did really want to get home at a reasonable time.

I'm hoping that there is some delay repay in it for me.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Train data: http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/C52922/2013/06/09/advanced

Any clue about reasons for the delay at Kings Langley?

 

[bb21]

"This train has been delayed by a member of train crew being unavailable."

Make of that what you will.

 

[tractakid]

Just trawled through my twitter feed... I think a fight occurred on board at Kings Langley, and the train had to wait 20 minutes for the police to arrive.

It would have been nice to know that at Hemel.

Sent off a delay repay form. I didn't ever anticipate the possibility of arriving more than 2 hours late from Euston. I wonder how long it will take.

One thing I didn't mention, which was good to hear, was a sincere apology from the coach driver when alighting at Hemel.

 

[IanD]

If the train was running what was the replacement bus for?

 

[northwichcat]

If the train was running what was the replacement bus for?

Presumably earlier trains didn't run?

 

[tractakid]

If the train was running what was the replacement bus for?

The 11:04 and 11:44 were replaced with buses, the 00:12 ran as a 12 coach train. The train arrived at MKC at the same time as the coach I was on, so would have beaten the coach to Wolverton and Northampton despite leaving 1h25 ish later, and being held for 20 minutes at Kings Langley due to the on board fight.

 

[BestWestern]

Regarding the bus journey, unfortunately there's not much you can do as a driver if you are given hopelessly poor (or none at all) directions and simply don't know where you are going. That sounds like what happened here.

 

[tractakid]

He was relying on GPS, and then didn't follow it to the letter. The GPS recalculaton was epic fail, giving out impossible instructions. The passengers then took over with directions.

 

[Simon11]

I was in a taxi from Wolverhampton to london and wasn't very confident of the driver after he asked whether Watford was past London, errrr......

 

[BestWestern]

He was relying on GPS, and then didn't follow it to the letter. The GPS recalculaton was epic fail, giving out impossible instructions. The passengers then took over with directions.

Regretfully this happens all too often. The local coach firm send out a motor and a driver, and he is then expected to either follow some very vague directions or fuzzy map, or just find his own way.

I only ever did it once, a ten hour shift I think it was with two runs of only relatively short distance, but it was all stops and not a journey I would ever have driven myself, and I didn't know the way. The bus I had didn't like going backwards, and during a required three point turn on one station forecourt it decided that reverse was no longer going to be on the menu. We got going thanks to a push from some rail staff, but I didn't fancy the next three pointer which was at a shack in the middle of nowhere. Control helpfully gave me an alternative route, which of course was wrong, and we ended up spending a good 20 mins or so helplessly lost, bouncing around the countryside in a Volvo B10BLE, surprising one or two locals who up until then firmly believed that they were the boss in their 4x4's - needless to say they were obliged to retreat when faced with a bus that would only go forwards I had absolutely at no idea at any stage if we were going to make it around the next bend, and if we'd gone around it and been faced with something I couldn't negotiate we would have been stuck there until the cavalry arrived, which might have taken a while given that we could have been anywhere! Thankfully I turned the right way and we eventually made it back to safe ground, but it could have been a rather interesting trip.

Anyway, it was a crap journey for the punters, who could very easily have made a similar complaint to yours. And that was because it was badly planned, using drivers who didn't know where they were going. Buses instead of trains is never a good thing, but it could be a lot better with a bit more planning and effort.

 

[tractakid]

Gosh, how much must that taxi have been?!

I'm not angry about what happened, in truth, I quite enjoyed the adventure (perhaps aided with hindsight). It was fascinating seeing the stations along the top of the circle line from a new perspective, and talked to a lovely gentleman on the way. It was also satisfying to have an idea what was happening with the train, during the absence of knowledge at Hemel. It's a shame that my clever thinking didn't actually pay off.

Another benefit, is that once the delay repay comes through it should all have been free! Helpful when I don't yet have an income.

The biggest negatives... keeping my parents awake for longer than necessary, and me being very tired after reduced sleep!

 

[34D]

Hmmm, I sometimes drive rail replacement coaches, and I would say that I know the location of all the stations within a reasonable distance from the yard/my home.

For those I'm unsure of, there's googlemaps and streetview.

 

[455driver]

Hmmm, I sometimes drive rail replacement coaches, and I would say that I know the location of all the stations within a reasonable distance from the yard/my home.

For those I'm unsure of, there's googlemaps and streetview.

Not much use when you are sat spare and are told to-

"get that bus over there and run from A station to F station calling at B,C,D and F"

as I had a few times when I was a bus driver, no sat nav or anything available then either.

 

[34D]

Not much use when you are sat spare and are told to-

"get that bus over there and run from A station to F station calling at B,C,D and F"

as I had a few times when I was a bus driver, no sat nav or anything available then either.

My point is that (without blowing my trumpet) I could drive to all of the railway stations where I live (west yorks) without a satnav or map, and I'd expect you are the same in your local area.

 

[Antman]

My point is that (without blowing my trumpet) I could drive to all of the railway stations where I live (west yorks) without a satnav or map, and I'd expect you are the same in your local area.

So could I in my local area but I wouldn't have a clue in West Yorks

RRB drivers are often found from wherever and sent out to areas they are totally unfamilair with, usually passengers will help out but it's not very professional

 

[Haywain]

And the fact that a driver knows his way around south-west London doesn't mean he's going to have the faintest idea of where stations are in north London and Hertfordshire. Which is usually the root of the problem in the south-east.

 

[34D]

Hmmm. I did a couple of days on the RRB's at the start of the Hatfield collapse.

I knew the night before where I was going, so looked at the locations for the relevant intermediate stations. Also had satnav running on the first round trip.

It's surely about preparation. If you are a musician who normally plays the saxophone, but tomorrow night you're going to play the flute, then you practice.

 

[notadriver]

Rail replacement work typically pays just £9 an hour to put up with irate, disgruntled and potentially abusive passengers. It's not going to attract the best bus drivers.

 

[tractakid]

The atmosphere on the coach was fascinating. Mostly friendly, noisy, and shouting out instructions (not angrily) to the driver. Plenty of sarcastic cheers when things finally did go right, such as completing the 180 degree turn in the cul de sac, and turning off the air on after popular demand.

Also making me think was the situation at Euston. The passengers being desperate to get bums on seats didn't give the solitary rail employee to give clear instructions. Myself included. I wonder what would have happened if the passengers had listened to the explanation before boarding. Things would have been much simpler with better crowd organisation present.

 

[Deerfold]

Hmmm. I did a couple of days on the RRB's at the start of the Hatfield collapse.

I knew the night before where I was going, so looked at the locations for the relevant intermediate stations. Also had satnav running on the first round trip.

It's surely about preparation. If you are a musician who normally plays the saxophone, but tomorrow night you're going to play the flute, then you practice.

That's fine if you know you're doing it in advance. This incident sounds like a last minute thing, presumably with no driver available who knew the area well.

 

[Antman]

That's fine if you know you're doing it in advance. This incident sounds like a last minute thing, presumably with no driver available who knew the area well.

Indeed, drivers often turn up not knowing where they're going to be sent. I've taken wrong turns in a lorry before and had to go a mile or two to turn around, obviously its far worse with 50 odd passengers behind you

 

[Deerfold]

Indeed, drivers often turn up not knowing where they're going to be sent. I've taken wrong turns in a lorry before and had to go a mile or two to turn around, obviously its far worse with 50 odd passengers behind you

Surely some of the passengers are likely to be fairly normal