worthingseagull123
Well-known member
- May 5, 2012
- 2,598
Do any other firms suffer as many difficulties with power supply issues?
Why are signals failing week after week?
Clearly they are not doing something right.
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Thinking Of Commuting To London Tomorrow ?
- Thread starter Beach Hut
- Start date
Do any other firms suffer as many difficulties with power supply issues?
Why are signals failing week after week?
Clearly they are not doing something right.
HawkTheSeagull
New member
Yes, especially in poor weather where power cuts have been affecting the country for the last 2 weeks !!
You cannot blame them today when it was really not their fault. Questions need asking generally why power has been unreliable recently.
worthingseagull123
Well-known member
- May 5, 2012
- 2,598
Thats true, but then again energy companies, well arent profits more important than reliable service?
The joys of privitasation.
Tom Hark Preston Park
Will Post For Cash
- Jul 6, 2003
- 70,653
They're just reminding you that they OWN you.
I know they have external suppliers but people are handing over £4-5k a year to Southern Railway to get them from the coast to London. If I walked into a restaurant and ordered a steak and chips and got served a plate of chips due to issues with the local farmer, I would blame the restaurant.
Will hold off buying my monthly pass for Monday unless they can prove they are capable of getting me to London and back without calling a COBRA meeting.
Will hold off buying my monthly pass for Monday unless they can prove they are capable of getting me to London and back without calling a COBRA meeting.
Absolutely. Or if I got a rusty nail in my M&S salad do you really think the supermarket would say "Nothing to do with us, it's the supplier"? As E77 says, we're paying good money to the rail companies to deliver a service and it's just not good enough to say that signalling or track repairs are nothing to do with the company. I have to make my first journey of the new year tomorrow and I'm dreading to think what excuses they'll come up with
HawkTheSeagull
New member
On an aside for the loss of signalling tonight, it wasnt solely the Railway affected. Was a substation fault by UK Power Networks which knocked out the power to a large area in North Crawley. Signalling was lost between Horley and Billingshurst/Balcombe via Gatwick.
You cannot run a railway with no signals at all especially in an area as big as affected today - its a minefield. 1 or 2 signals without power, then its fine with extra safety measures. Some people really need to gain a basic knowledge of rail operations before moaning about it and saying its just "excuses". (If it is an excuse, the term "operating incident" may be used, though that covers a wide range of incidents, derailments, safety incidents etc.)
You cannot run a railway with no signals at all especially in an area as big as affected today - its a minefield. 1 or 2 signals without power, then its fine with extra safety measures. Some people really need to gain a basic knowledge of rail operations before moaning about it and saying its just "excuses". (If it is an excuse, the term "operating incident" may be used, though that covers a wide range of incidents, derailments, safety incidents etc.)
No way don't, we pay a train company to do it for us.
Problem is the train service is a hybrid of a nationalised industry and a profit seeking entity and you get the worst of both worlds. Sadly we can't vote out the politicians running it or (with a few exceptions) go to another company with our business.
beorhthelm
A. Virgo, Football Genius
- Jul 21, 2003
- 35,414
if the restaurant went dark while you sat there, and the street is dark too, would you still blame the restaurant when they served your food 20 minutes late? do you blame your petrol station when your delayed on the motorway? i know we pay the money to Southern (or FCC) but really, why do we keep blaming them for issues with weather, jumpers, signaling or power? i reverse my ire for shortage of staff and defective trains.
British Bulldog
The great escape
- Feb 6, 2006
- 10,908
In fairness passengers have been getting a rough shunt for quite a while now so I think they're fully justified in having a moan about the shambolic service they've been getting.
Tom Hark Preston Park
Will Post For Cash
- Jul 6, 2003
- 70,653
It's just been reduced to train roulette recently. It gets so that every time your train stops between stations, or stops at a station for more than a couple of minutes, then you're braced for a crackly announcement of random bad news from the line up ahead.
Agree with this . You can't text anyone to let them know time be home as nothing is certain until you arrive .
Also got to the point if you need to be somewhere you have to plan several trains ahead due to inevitable delays .
Excuse just heard on my train was train ahead has hit a plant pot so delays 40 mins
Edit a ceramic pot not plant pot . Engineers on site though so never fear
mikeyjh
Well-known member
If the restaurant regular suffered a power cut, staff shortages, microwave failures and had constant communication problems between front of house and kitchen then yes you would blame the restaurant and it would quickly go bust. The problem is that we don't have a choice but to use the trains and their operators are effectively guaranteed profit so they don't go bust.....
Tricky Dicky
New member
I know I've said it before, but I've been doing this now for 25 years and I would say (as would many others I know) that the service now is far worse than it was when I started, and I don't think that's looking at the old days through rose-tinted specs. I remember after I'd been commuting for about 3 years we had a fall of snow one morning and I remember saying that was the first time that the trains had been responsible for me not getting to work. I would estimate last year alone there must have been more than 10 days when I didn't get in at all, and many others when I was significantly late.
Was quite nice this morning, though - on-time, and half-empty !
Scoffers
Well-known member
I put a claim in just now for last night's 45 minute delayed train, first time I have bothered. It was pretty easy to do.
HawkTheSeagull
New member
More issues with the power supply this morning at Croydon caused today's problems. Again a UK Power Network issue.......
On the subject of "they make all the profit" - for every £1 of a fare - train companies get 3p of that as profit - so if you pay £3000 a year - the company only gets £90 of that.
Would be easier if you could prevent 3rd party incidents screwing up a service but it's impossible and it happens to every railway in the world.
On the subject of "they make all the profit" - for every £1 of a fare - train companies get 3p of that as profit - so if you pay £3000 a year - the company only gets £90 of that.
Would be easier if you could prevent 3rd party incidents screwing up a service but it's impossible and it happens to every railway in the world.
Bought a car before Christmas (having been without one for nearly four years) and have been using that for commuting. Absolutely no problems whatsoever and it's knocked a good 80 minutes of my commute. This contract finishes in a fortnight and I'm not sure whether to keep on driving for the remainder (although I accept the M25 will be much, much busier after the holiday) or go back to Train Hell.