Worst rail replacement bus you've been on.

[50047]

Again, no. It is not the fault of the railway if the heavens open and crisp virgin snow blocks every road and railway line in and out of the area. As I said before, all that a TOC can do is request road transport, if it can't get through or the operators will not dispatch their vehicles there is not much else that can be done. There are sensible limits to what can be expected of an railway in such circumstances. Would you have complained to the Japanese railway if you'd been trying to make a journey over there when the tsunami hit?! Sometimes it just can't be helped; it's terribly inconvenient, but that's nature for you. If you received crap customer service in other respects then you might well have had reason to chase them, but not just because it snowed. Perhaps you should seek out the Billy Connolly film "The Man Who Sued God"!

Whatever
'Queue the patronising drivel but for the record, I am not even slightly interested..............'

 

[BestWestern]

Whatever
'Queue the patronising drivel but for the record, I am not even slightly interested..............'

I thought that was a pretty reasonable response to your previous post to be honest, nobody was being patronising or had any intention of being as far as I noticed.

Ah well, never mind...

 

[Tomonthetrain]

T308UOX, a Solo, on the Tipton to Coseley replacement when Tipton was closed for works. Struggled along the route. Need I say more?

Even worse was the Transit van the following week!!

 

[Qwerty133]

worst a harry shaw coach during disruption between nuneaton and leicester- the bus itself was fine however the driver was on his phone for half of the journey with it to his ear (this was 2011 when it was illegal). complained to XC and suprize suprize- NO response
Just thought of another one earlier this year a unidentinfiable plain white 'G' reg coach straight off a school contract. between loughborough and leicester there was around 10 standees which is illegal on a coach driver and EMT staff were both aware of this

 

[ATW Alex 101]

T308UOX, a Solo, on the Tipton to Coseley replacement when Tipton was closed for works. Struggled along the route. Need I say more?

I sometimes see that bus operating the route at the bottom of my street

Even worse was the Transit van the following week!!

Better than the rust heap that i got in cornwall

 

[BestWestern]

worst a harry shaw coach during disruption between nuneaton and leicester- the bus itself was fine however the driver was on his phone for half of the journey with it to his ear (this was 2011 when it was illegal). complained to XC and suprize suprize- NO response
Just thought of another one earlier this year a unidentinfiable plain white 'G' reg coach straight off a school contract. between loughborough and leicester there was around 10 standees which is illegal on a coach driver and EMT staff were both aware of this

That is appalling, on both counts. I have to say that on the first occasion I would have been sorely tempted to make a discreet call to the local police en route; anybody who behaves like that has absolutely no place whatsoever holding a PCV license. Though I suppose that would depend on the urgency of your journey! As for the second incident, a camera phone and letter to the area traffic commissioner would perhaps be in order.

I make both of those observations as a PCV holder myself. Idiot drivers like these and the cowboys who employ them are part of the reason why the job is so devalued and the wages so low.

 

[anthony263]

That is appalling, on both counts. I have to say that on the first occasion I would have been sorely tempted to make a discreet call to the local police en route; anybody who behaves like that has absolutely no place whatsoever holding a PCV license. Though I suppose that would depend on the urgency of your journey! As for the second incident, a camera phone and letter to the area traffic commissioner would perhaps be in order.

I make both of those observations as a PCV holder myself. Idiot drivers like these and the cowboys who employ them are part of the reason why the job is so devalued and the wages so low.

Have to say I applaud your suggestion especially as a pcv licence holder myself

 

[Bushy]

My son used to drive for the local bus company. He sometimes did Sunday Rail Replacement services. One weekend the company set a route which included a bridge for which the bus exceeded the limiting height. He had to sort it out with the TOC - passengers were asked to walk from the station to a point that he could access in the bus.

The company expected them to carry a mobile and use it if there was a problem, but when they were driving it had to be switched off and out of sight and reach. There is always the chance that a VOSA inspector could get on a bus, although it's unlikely on a RR service.

Regards

Bushy

 

[Tomonthetrain]

Does a class 139 count?

 

[185]

Not quite sure whats going on, but I've just pulled over on Whitworth St, Manchester at 2250 on Sun 11 Nov.

Opposite side, there's a BTP van with Blues on, and two officers 'leading' the driver of a rail replacement from his coach to their van.

Won't name the little coach company, but I will name the company that chose to hire them - First Rail Support sticker in the window.

 

[Qwerty133]

im guessing this will be more serious that anything already mentioned- did you remember to phone the daily mail.
what state was the veichle in, are the company known for being dodgy

 

[jon0844]

LeeLon travel?

 

[185]

Quite an elderly silver coach, and it's a small, independant company from the North of England.

Bottom line is if First Rail Support want to pay the absolute least they can to cream off as much profit as they can, this kind of thing always happens. Does the driver have a proper license? Has he perhaps just hit something on the station approach, such as BTPs vans & driven off?

I might be prejudging things here, but it really didn't look good.

 

[BestWestern]

LeeLon travel?

Very good!

Though I think it was universally agreed that any chance of them actually operating a coach was very slim indeed!

185, was the coach loaded at the time? Would have to be something fairly significant to nick him and strand a load of pax I would imagine, either a fairly serious driving offence or some other noteworthy complaint.

 

[causton]

Using a mobile phone? A very common occurrence of drivers of small coach companies IMO! (more and more are becoming smart and getting headsets though...!)

 

[jon0844]

Not likely to cause a driver to be taken away though, surely?

 

[185]

Coach wasn't loaded, before they stopped, it looked from the driving that the vehicle wasn't being intercepted, they had spoken somewhere else and agreed to pull up on Whitworth Street.... I may be wrong though.

Asked someone in the know if any replacement buses had gone missing from the duty plan, but all he knew is one was withdrawn at the small bus company's instructions at very short notice.

Totally baffled now lol.

 

[Tomonthetrain]

Could have been something serious then

 

[deltic1989]

If my knowledge serves me correctly the only driving offences, where a fully intact vehicle is likely to be present are drink driving and driving whilst disqualified. I stand to be corrected though.

 

[Tomonthetrain]

Unless the driver is up for another offence?

 

[BestWestern]

Interesting one this. Surely if it were a serious driving offence a traffic unit would likely have been summoned and made the arrest, even if BTP did the initial 'pull'. Do BTP officers carry breathalysers; I would imagine probably not? And they are unlikely to be dealing with an unlicensed or uninsured driver I would think?

 

[MattRobinson]

Do BTP officers carry breathalysers; I would imagine probably not?

Is it not the btp who are responsible for breathalying in the event of railway incidents? Surely that would suggest they would (or would have access to them).

As an aside, surely traffic police should be part of btp?


Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using Tapatalk 2

 

[BestWestern]

Is it not the btp who are responsible for breathalying in the event of railway incidents? Surely that would suggest they would (or would have access to them).

As an aside, surely traffic police should be part of btp?

Any testing following an operational incident is generally carried out by an outside contractor, as it also involves drug screening. I'm sure BTP would obviously have access to breathalyser kit if they need it, I'm just unsure as to whether they would routinely carry it.

I fail to see why there would be any need for BTP to include road policing units; the BTP do not cover the highways.

 

[Clip]

They used to have ancient buses on replacement duties between sittingbourne and Ramsgate not so long ago - was agony.

They have however bought new ones.

 

[MattRobinson]

I fail to see why there would be any need for BTP to include road policing units; the BTP do not cover the highways.

Just that the roads are a form of transport.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[jonbyrne]

Worst for me was not the journey or the bus but the amount of time it went on for.

Back in the Summer of 2004 when the WCML was having alot of work for a month or so Stockport Station was closed and I at the time commuted from Mobberley to Stockport on the Mid Cheshire Line. So a replacement bus would take us between Stockport and Altrincham due to my work timings and the changes in time table due to this replacement it added about 2.5 hours onto my day.

Good point to that summer was when Midland Mainline where offering £10 1st Class return Manchester to St Pancreas.

 

[Lewisham2221]

Crewe to Abergavenny (was supposed to be Cardiff, then the station staff at Crewe tried to tell us it was Swansea!) in a bus seated Leyland Lynx, setting off from Crewe at around 1am. It was an 'emergency' job due to the line being flooded in several places all along the route (was around 2007/2008), so drivers hours rules did not need to enforced. I went along with the driver to act as navigator (or rather, trying to find the least direct route between each station as there were road closures due to flooding all along the route too) and we eventually arrived at Aber, where I spotted a Cardiff bound train sitting in the platform, at about 8am.

The pax weren't too impressed at the general lack of facilities, but we eventually won them round when we pointed out that we'd initially turned down the job and only accepted it when the rail replacement company called us back, begging, because everybody else has refused it to. At least they were happy for us to invoice at a higher than usual rate for that job!