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Greater Anglia Good and Bad Discussion
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dk1
Veteran Member
Let them carry on & burn themselves out. If you ignore anyone long enough they tend to go away.
The negative publicity appears to have made it to the Daily Mail.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/t...-hitting-Abellio-Greater-Anglia.html#comments
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/t...-hitting-Abellio-Greater-Anglia.html#comments
dk1
Veteran Member
Some unsavoury tweets about the time it took to treat an 'ill passenger' at Brentwood yesterday & how sh*t AGA are at dealing with such issues. The poor soul had died. Shame it wasn't tweeted out to shame those vile individuals who where so vocal.
I find the staff are some of the nicest people I've met when I work on their ticket machines... sad thing is the franchise they inherited has seen sod-all investment for years - I think some of the stations further away from London get away with as few staff members as possible which is a shame, so I'm sure those employees can get just as worn out as the seats on their rolling stock :roll:
I was working at Ilford a few months ago when there was a fatality there, and it must be a terrible thing for the staff to deal with, let alone abuse from the public about the generally patchy service (knackered trains / overhead line damage / breakdowns).
The Daily Fail always exaggerate with those type of headlines, so I don't believe this about Abellio for one bit... how would they have won the Scotrail franchise if they were so terrible? Let's see how they fare once London Overground take over West Anglia and the Metro services to Shenfield.
I was working at Ilford a few months ago when there was a fatality there, and it must be a terrible thing for the staff to deal with, let alone abuse from the public about the generally patchy service (knackered trains / overhead line damage / breakdowns).
The Daily Fail always exaggerate with those type of headlines, so I don't believe this about Abellio for one bit... how would they have won the Scotrail franchise if they were so terrible? Let's see how they fare once London Overground take over West Anglia and the Metro services to Shenfield.
Today a Balfour Beatty tampar failed between Kelevdon and Witham. Yet the usual suspects are saying it is all AGA's fault for not maintaining their trains. Two things about that article. Firstly its in the Daily Fail, secondly at no point is the likes of Delayed_again mentioned let alone interviewed. The have their little social media gang which they feel empowered to troll, bully and knock down anyone who dares to disagree with them. I notice that Delayed_again regularly says that AGA have blocked him which is "North Korean" yet he has blocked others who know what they are talking about and challenge him. He is a hypocrite and clearly someone who gets a kick out of the fact a small group of people listen to him on social media. I'm sure his day job involves something really really mundane and unimportant.
He keeps saying he has 10,000 supporters, which sounds impressive. He also name drops people within Abellio, using their surnames only, as if he's best buds - when clearly they don't/won't engage with him, or meet him out of courtesy but see him as a PITA.
The issue, as I've said many times, is these people have no clear aims on how to improve things, and only focus on getting rid of Abellio. Which, given that isn't going to happen (well, not the way they want) makes their whole mission pointless.
I actually find their staff very friendly too, including RPIs (rare as they are) and I only have the best things to say about their train presentation staff who are extremely dedicated in keeping trains clean that are regularly abused by passengers. Not least the woman based at Stratford that was as interested in the 317 demonstrator as I was when I saw it, and clearly knows a lot about the various stock she works on.
The issue, as I've said many times, is these people have no clear aims on how to improve things, and only focus on getting rid of Abellio. Which, given that isn't going to happen (well, not the way they want) makes their whole mission pointless.
I actually find their staff very friendly too, including RPIs (rare as they are) and I only have the best things to say about their train presentation staff who are extremely dedicated in keeping trains clean that are regularly abused by passengers. Not least the woman based at Stratford that was as interested in the 317 demonstrator as I was when I saw it, and clearly knows a lot about the various stock she works on.
Accord to Twitter his follower count is about a third of that. And you can probably take a good few hundred off that as well with all the various aliases they all have. If he was as important as he thought he was a programme like BBC Look East would engage with him but even they ignore him!
But Abellio trains do have blackened windows... sorry, that's filth. my mistake :roll:
I would have hoped with such a livery they would clean the trains a bit more often... The 379's looked so nice when they were new. It's sad to see them looking so dirty now :cry:
Vinyl seems hard to keep clean, and the carriage design makes it hard to keep the indented parts clean.
The actual painted 317s look a lot better, and will probably look better over time, and be easier to clean.
The white liveried trains on the ECML under National Express looked just as awful in no time.
The actual painted 317s look a lot better, and will probably look better over time, and be easier to clean.
The white liveried trains on the ECML under National Express looked just as awful in no time.
dk1
Veteran Member
Reliveried INTERCITY sets & locos are looking spotless & staying that way.
Richard1960
Member
I got on one of the refurbished trians at Norwich to Liverpool Street last week pleased to see i can plug a lap top/I phone in now there is a socket.
Pleasantly surprised.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Expect the toilets on the Sheringham,Lowestoft,Yarmouth trains to be busy in the toilet dept before they pull out in that case.
Pleasantly surprised.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Expect the toilets on the Sheringham,Lowestoft,Yarmouth trains to be busy in the toilet dept before they pull out in that case.
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Trainfan344
Established Member
- Joined
- 13 Oct 2012
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- 2,305
I payed 20p to utilise the gents loo at Bury Interchange on Friday. One cubicle was broken, the other disgustingly dirty... Needless to say I felt a bit peeved...
dk1
Veteran Member
A lady I know in Derby paid 30p at the Bus Station & they where awful. Refused to flush in protest. Bit childish but her stance made me smile.
samuelmorris
Established Member
Been a rough month for punctuality all-round. My personal journey stats:
2015 so far:
C2C: 39 journies, 44% right-time, 87% on time, average delay 2m13
AGA: 101 journies, 33% right-time, 80% on time, average delay 3m16
GTR: 16 journies, 6% right-time, 56% on time, average delay 8m24
May 2015 so far:
C2C: 6 journies, 1 right time, 4 on time, average delay 4m18
AGA: 10 journies, 1 right time, 5 on time, average delay 11m05
GTR: 2 journies, 0 right time, 0 on time, average delay 12m00
For better or worse the same trends rermain. AGA are clearly behind C2C on punctuality, but nothing compared to the spectacular Thameslink. That said, an average delay in double figures over 10 journies in May is a pretty poor performance from AGA. Also worth pointing out that I escaped the 90 minute delays due to the dead passenger a few days ago, so that figure could quite easily be higher still. This is pretty much all infrastructure / rolling stock-related delay.
Given that I understand Thameslink is supposed to have some timetable padding at the moment though, I'm a bit concerned. It's not hurting me too much as the service frequency means 15 minute late trains every day do not actually see me being 15 minutes late, but even so, if this is what it's like now, what is it going to be like with the new timetable?
2015 so far:
C2C: 39 journies, 44% right-time, 87% on time, average delay 2m13
AGA: 101 journies, 33% right-time, 80% on time, average delay 3m16
GTR: 16 journies, 6% right-time, 56% on time, average delay 8m24
May 2015 so far:
C2C: 6 journies, 1 right time, 4 on time, average delay 4m18
AGA: 10 journies, 1 right time, 5 on time, average delay 11m05
GTR: 2 journies, 0 right time, 0 on time, average delay 12m00
For better or worse the same trends rermain. AGA are clearly behind C2C on punctuality, but nothing compared to the spectacular Thameslink. That said, an average delay in double figures over 10 journies in May is a pretty poor performance from AGA. Also worth pointing out that I escaped the 90 minute delays due to the dead passenger a few days ago, so that figure could quite easily be higher still. This is pretty much all infrastructure / rolling stock-related delay.
Given that I understand Thameslink is supposed to have some timetable padding at the moment though, I'm a bit concerned. It's not hurting me too much as the service frequency means 15 minute late trains every day do not actually see me being 15 minutes late, but even so, if this is what it's like now, what is it going to be like with the new timetable?
When will people accept this is not a valid comparison? The only similarity is Southend, other than that they are worlds apart.
Ignoring the new uniform fleet and self contained route of C2C look at off peak services from their terminals, Fenchurch Street has a whopping 8 tph off peak, Liverpool Street has 31 tph off peak. That's effectively a train every 2 minutes verses one every 7.5. Even a delay of a minute or so will cause mounting delays out of Liverpool Street.
The c2c route is less than 40 miles long, any single service can only stop at a maximum of 18 stops. The GEML metro alone has 13, the GEML is 133 miles and the WAML 55 miles long. There is a lot more to go wrong there! Plus the freight.
The c2c vs AGA comparison ignores so many other variables and issues that are faced on the GEML and not on the LTSR that it is really only useful to "prove" how bad AGA are.
But the problem with the above is that C2C is a Toy Railway, and AGA with the Metro/GEML/WA and FL/GB/DRS/DBS added to the mix, it's like chalk and cheese ! it's like comparing the M25 with the M45 !
dk1
Veteran Member
Or to quote The Daily Mail a few years back "Why don't other train companies learn how to run a railway from Island Line"?
Give me strength :roll::roll::roll:
Apologist.
Do you work for Abellio?
Maybe, and I'm grounded with a sense of reality.
In other news in tests a tennis ball got from A to B faster than my Skoda. Therefore a tennis ball is a more effective form of transport.
scott118
Member
Island Line = long shunt
dk1
Veteran Member
scott118
Member
Language Scott
sorry boss, ding ding, carry on...
Perhaps you've done some contract work for Abellio?
(Seriously, this is what I was asked after saying I didn't work for Abellio - which would seem rather easy to surmise from looking at my Twitter profile, as surely anyone on Twitter would do?).
So you're saying Abellio should be replaced by Slazenger or Dunlop?
Perhaps you've done some contract work for Abellio?
(Seriously, this is what I was asked after saying I didn't work for Abellio - which would seem rather easy to surmise from looking at my Twitter profile, as surely anyone on Twitter would do?).
So you're saying Abellio should be replaced by Slazenger or Dunlop?
Imagine that...
The tabloids have pounced on this story - seen in the Daily Fail this morning :roll:
Well, there we go. The logo on the 321 does look ugly though..:roll:
samuelmorris
Established Member
Look, I do my bit to stand in the middle-ground here - the continuous s**tstirring on various twitter feeds wondering in disbelief why the TOC don't reply to tweets calling them various names simply off the back of an innocuous announcement annoy me just as much as the next man on here - they're purposeless and detrimental to the cause of anyone seeking changes. However, this page is exactly why the term 'apologists' has come about.
I've placed two straight facts there and my post has been selectively quoted to entirely ignore the TOC whose stats I also provided, stats which are worse still than Abellio's - stats that therefore paint AGA in a somewhat positive light. Not one person has even mentioned the fact that I put Thameslink's punctuality stats in the post. There's another complicated railway, and it's even less punctual than AGA. Nobody seems to have noticed. They're too busy having a fit at the fact that I used the word 'c2c' in my post.
I'm every bit as aware that c2c is a simpler operation to run than AGA and as a result is going to be a bit more punctual. No argument here. The fact that another better-performing TOC is a simpler operation is not free license to run trains as late as you like.
AGA is far from the disaster that some of the twitter campaigners proclaim it to be in terms of punctuality, as you can see I've used their services a hundred times already this year and only this weekend had my first delay over 30 minutes - incidentally 30.5. Nonetheless, the dismissive attitude of this forum thread is really little better than the 'doom & gloomers' on twitter, just the polar opposite.
There's a problem. Some on twitter would posit that it's the worst disaster to hit the railway industry, when it clearly is not. Conversely, some on here clearly seem to be of the opinion that AGA's operation is entirely faultless and anyone that believes otherwise is wrong. People do like to make a fuss about nothing (have any of you even read c2c's twitter feed during minor delays? It's disgusting) but complaints don't just appear out of thin air.
I've placed two straight facts there and my post has been selectively quoted to entirely ignore the TOC whose stats I also provided, stats which are worse still than Abellio's - stats that therefore paint AGA in a somewhat positive light. Not one person has even mentioned the fact that I put Thameslink's punctuality stats in the post. There's another complicated railway, and it's even less punctual than AGA. Nobody seems to have noticed. They're too busy having a fit at the fact that I used the word 'c2c' in my post.
I'm every bit as aware that c2c is a simpler operation to run than AGA and as a result is going to be a bit more punctual. No argument here. The fact that another better-performing TOC is a simpler operation is not free license to run trains as late as you like.
AGA is far from the disaster that some of the twitter campaigners proclaim it to be in terms of punctuality, as you can see I've used their services a hundred times already this year and only this weekend had my first delay over 30 minutes - incidentally 30.5. Nonetheless, the dismissive attitude of this forum thread is really little better than the 'doom & gloomers' on twitter, just the polar opposite.
There's a problem. Some on twitter would posit that it's the worst disaster to hit the railway industry, when it clearly is not. Conversely, some on here clearly seem to be of the opinion that AGA's operation is entirely faultless and anyone that believes otherwise is wrong. People do like to make a fuss about nothing (have any of you even read c2c's twitter feed during minor delays? It's disgusting) but complaints don't just appear out of thin air.
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