There are some Thameslink trips that are just so bad they are worth documenting for posterity.
So - Friday night just gone. One train had been cancelled, so a few more than normal caught the next train going North from London around 23:20. It was slow and a relatively trouble free journey...apart from being busy and y'know only one in three toilets working.
We leave Luton and then get an announcement that the lights are off at Leagrave and so we won't be stopping. The driver sounds lovely and helpful and super confident, telling us not to get off at Harlington either because it's not staffed. But there will be staff and a fleet of taxis waiting for us at Flitwick.
Being Thameslink, of course, that turns out to not be true.
- Arriving at Flitwick, 20 of us de-train, and the sole member of staff at the station hasn't been told anything. We're told to use the information button thing to contact someone ourselves, there is nothing he can do.
- We contact the information helpline thing. They are really really useless. We're cut off. They don't seem to know the station we're calling from (Smethwick?) or retain anything they are told. We're put on hold. And only vague promises of something. Maybe a bus at an unspecified time in the future. By now it's around half midnight. (We later discover the helpline button is basically timetables and not provided by GTR at all. And they don't have much more luck that we do).
- We can see a fleet of taxis for hire outside the station. But for whatever reason, GTR in their wisdom don't hire them.
- Usually, we could try to get a train back south - most of us are within a cheap taxi ride from Luton town centre. And if we'd known, we'd have got off there (and of course GTR wouldn't have provided taxis from there either). From Flitwick it's quite a trek. But no, any south bound train is cancelled too. It's a 90 minute wait for the next train south.
- An HOUR later, our taxis arrive. For reasons unknown to us, GTR has booked Luton taxis to drive up to Flitwick to collect us - making passengers wait for ages in the middle of the night. Instead of, say, booking from Flitwick.
- I arrive home 2 hours later than I should have done...
It's not the worst GTR journey by some way...but it's the one it should be have been so easy for them to fix with proper comms and an effective response. Based on GTR's track record, I imagine I'm going to have to do multiple delay repay as they'll claim the train actually did stop at Leagrave...
So - Friday night just gone. One train had been cancelled, so a few more than normal caught the next train going North from London around 23:20. It was slow and a relatively trouble free journey...apart from being busy and y'know only one in three toilets working.
We leave Luton and then get an announcement that the lights are off at Leagrave and so we won't be stopping. The driver sounds lovely and helpful and super confident, telling us not to get off at Harlington either because it's not staffed. But there will be staff and a fleet of taxis waiting for us at Flitwick.
Being Thameslink, of course, that turns out to not be true.
- Arriving at Flitwick, 20 of us de-train, and the sole member of staff at the station hasn't been told anything. We're told to use the information button thing to contact someone ourselves, there is nothing he can do.
- We contact the information helpline thing. They are really really useless. We're cut off. They don't seem to know the station we're calling from (Smethwick?) or retain anything they are told. We're put on hold. And only vague promises of something. Maybe a bus at an unspecified time in the future. By now it's around half midnight. (We later discover the helpline button is basically timetables and not provided by GTR at all. And they don't have much more luck that we do).
- We can see a fleet of taxis for hire outside the station. But for whatever reason, GTR in their wisdom don't hire them.
- Usually, we could try to get a train back south - most of us are within a cheap taxi ride from Luton town centre. And if we'd known, we'd have got off there (and of course GTR wouldn't have provided taxis from there either). From Flitwick it's quite a trek. But no, any south bound train is cancelled too. It's a 90 minute wait for the next train south.
- An HOUR later, our taxis arrive. For reasons unknown to us, GTR has booked Luton taxis to drive up to Flitwick to collect us - making passengers wait for ages in the middle of the night. Instead of, say, booking from Flitwick.
- I arrive home 2 hours later than I should have done...
It's not the worst GTR journey by some way...but it's the one it should be have been so easy for them to fix with proper comms and an effective response. Based on GTR's track record, I imagine I'm going to have to do multiple delay repay as they'll claim the train actually did stop at Leagrave...
