Following 6 months of commuting from Colchester to London, and countless year’s waiting on platforms in Lincoln/Nottinghamshire I’ve decided it’s about time to share with the world my experiences on the trains. As the weeks progressed from Christmas I have found it increasingly more challenging to find a seat on a train leaving Colchester at peak times, thankfully a Poundsaver shop delivered a solution – a fisherman’s stool. This stool has empowered me no end, with the ability to sit outside the toilet’s in between carriages, allowing me enough space to get through the Metro (ok so that’s occupied 6 minutes of my journey) and of course a trusty paperback (noting the lack of wi fi on the train or the desire to become impotent by having a laptop on my lap). Now we all understand that from time to time there are going to be technical issues or even the tragic suiciders which can cause delay to our journeys but of late I’ve noticed an increasing trend in National Express’ inability to offer clarity over the problems and solutions, let alone some contingencies. This evening I had to endure a two-hour wait on the concourse of Liverpool Street due to ‘overhead power line failure’, one would have thought a bus service to some of the larger destinations such as Chelmsford, Colchester, Ipswich and Norwich wouldn’t have been hard to organise, especially from a company whom’s main business is buses! Over the last 6 months there have been countless delays, noting two occasions straight after a bank holiday – again no bus contingencies arranged. On one occasion, after a fatality near Witham, there were buses arranged but no one had communicated this to us chaps waiting on the platform. I was quite comfortable cutting some video on a powerbook for around half an hour, until I noticed the temperature had dropped to a level where I could no longer feel my fingers. I strolled into the waiting room and loudly boasted that I wanted to get back to Colchester and would any stranger(s) like to share a taxi with me. A man stepped up to the mission and together we walked with a pugnacious stride over the tracks and outside of the station; to our amazement we were greeted with a small collection of single decker buses all of which travelling to our preferred destination of Colchester (and beyond). Quite how this couldn’t have been communicated to those of us waiting on the platform is beyond me. Stratford station and the tube lines from it where at virtual stand still the other day when a bridge had collapsed over the tracks near Liverpool Street, god only knows what will happen when the Olympics arrives. People will come from Beijing to London with seamless effort, sadly for them getting from London to Essex might prove more of an effort – I can hear the tannoy announcements now “We are sorry for the delay in the 2012 Olympics Mountain Bike race two of your contestants are stuck on a National Express Train” …. Its 10:15 and a fellow comrade in the struggle to get home has just departed my company to get out at Witham – sadly she has to take a hit on a taxi journey to Kelvedon. Finger’s crossed I will arrive in Colchester within 15 minutes, where a cup of hot lemon will be consumed. I do hope my greenhouse plants are coping without their anticipated water feed.
Monday 9 June 2008
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1 comment:
Sing it, DGL! It needs to be communicated.
I had no idea the spend pcm was so great. That said, even as an infrequent train user I could rant at length on the horrors of the Central / East Midlands franchise.
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