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Transport Minister rants at Greater Anglia due to missed connection

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Sleepy

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GRALISTAIR

GRALISTAIR

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Sleepy said:
It seems George Freeman a newly appointed Transport Minister launched a twitter rant at GA after connection at Cambridge was missed this morning. Great Northern 0812 from King Cross to Ely was delayed and Greater Anglia 0909 to Norwich departed without him. Welcome to the world of privatised railways !
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interested to see if there is any fallout from this
 
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If he was going from London to Norwich he should have gone to Liverpool Street.
 
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Ianno87

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2HAP said:
If he was going from London to Norwich he should have gone to Liverpool Street.
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Should he?!

If you're near King's Cross anyway, the journey time via Ely is more than competitive with heading to Liverpool Street, and it's a Permitted Route.

Luckily, if he stayed on to Ely, he'd have made the following EMT service from Mansfield to Norwich, which only gets to Norwich 10 minutes later.

The benefits of the privatised railway of bringing 2tph between Ely and Norwich!
 
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Sleepy said:
It seems George Freeman a newly appointed Transport Minister launched a twitter rant at GA after connection at Cambridge was missed this morning. Great Northern 0812 from King Cross to Ely was delayed and Greater Anglia 0909 to Norwich departed without him. Welcome to the world of privatised railways !
Click to expand...

What's it got to do with privatised railways ?
 
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Staffordian said:
What's it got to do with privatised railways ?
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It tends to be more likely that one operator won't wait for anothers train, but though there are examples where trains of the same company don't wait (LNER are now bad for this at York) and examples of different companies waiting (I observed this at Newton Abbot)
 
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Ianno87

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Staffordian said:
What's it got to do with privatised railways ?
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It's the reality of a busy railway, not a privatised one. Holding every connection for every other connection is simply not practical, especially when near-universally there is another train within the hour (or, in the case of this example, considerably less than an hour)
 
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GoneSouth

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Staffordian said:
What's it got to do with privatised railways ?
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Sigh, another jumped up individual who thinks his time is more valuable than the rest of us. Missed connections happen, get over it. If he was substantially delayed he can delay repay and put some cash back into his departments coffers. ;)
 
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He just needed to be sharper out of the blocks. There was fully 90seconds between the London train arriving and Norwich departing. It’s not that far from the north end of P1 to P5. Quick sprint, shout and wave frantically at the conductor of the Norwich train, job done.

Unless of course the conductor knew who he was...
 
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Bald Rick said:
He just needed to be sharper out of the blocks. There was fully 90seconds between the London train arriving and Norwich departing. It’s not that far from the north end of P1 to P5. Quick sprint, shout and wave frantically at the conductor of the Norwich train, job done.
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Occasionally actively encouraged via the Cambridge station PA (emphasing making your way 'quickly *and* safely!)
 
MarkyT

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yorkie said:
It tends to be more likely that one operator won't wait for anothers train, but though there are examples where trains of the same company don't wait (LNER are now bad for this at York) and examples of different companies waiting (I observed this at Newton Abbot)
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The minimal three platform layout at Newton Abbot often makes this inevitable. Typically, up branch trains use #1 so #2 often has to be shared by down branch as well as down main trains. Thus, a branch train often has to leave the station in order to make room for an express to enter. Blame Thatcher era economies in the Exeter resignalling scheme for this, not the current operators trying to struggle with todays traffic on a hopelessly lobotomised layout.
 
30907

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Ianno87 said:
Should he?!

If you're near King's Cross anyway, the journey time via Ely is more than competitive with heading to Liverpool Street, and it's a Permitted Route.

Luckily, if he stayed on to Ely, he'd have made the following EMT service from Mansfield to Norwich, which only gets to Norwich 10 minutes later.

The benefits of the privatised railway of bringing 2tph between Ely and Norwich!
Click to expand...
According to Twitter he was going to Attleborough, so unless EMT made a special stop.....
 
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Class 170101

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Bald Rick said:
Unless of course the conductor knew who he was...
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Then I'd probably go without him.

Don't the MPs understand that its comments like his that gets constituents backs up because MPs think they are more important than the rest of us? Just today the BBC has run a report saying MPs describe threats, abuse and safety fears. Well perhaps if they actually behaved in a reasonable manner and didn't try to be our lords and masters as opposed to our representatives they might receive less abuse.

Sorry no sympathy I'm afraid. I've had missed connections happen to me.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49247808
MPs have told the BBC about the threats and abuse they face, including being sent pictures of decapitated bodies, being surreptitiously filmed and having dog mess smeared on their door.
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EE Andy b1

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Try doing it 5 days a week Mr Freeman like plenty of commuters have to affecting there jobs and home life.

Wonder if he would get a rollocking arriving late for work for the 3rd time in a week because of delays and missed connections.

MPs and Ministers need to get a real life! :{
 
Starmill

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30907 said:
According to Twitter he was going to Attleborough, so unless EMT made a special stop.....
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He would have been delayed by an hour.

Hopefully he has lodged his Delay Repay claim with Thameslink.
 
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Class 170101 said:
Don't the MPs understand that its comments like his that gets constituents backs up because MPs think they are more important than the rest of us?
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Mr Freeman, using a quick Google search (not beyond the DfT, I'm sure) I found that in the last 100 days, that train was (over 5 mins) late 10% of the time (including 4 days in the last 10). So if it was essential that you make the connection, don't you think it was worth catching an earlier train like thousands do on a daily basis.
This is the man who, on resigning from the No. 10 Policy Unit wrote
the Tories risked alienating young voters if it allowed itself to be "defined as narrow party of nostalgia, hard Brexit, public sector austerity and lazy privilege".
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(The Independent 20/11/17 - my emphasis).

I've got some sympathy for the guard who is going to get all the blame here, when, if he had held the train, there would doubtless be some knock on effect further down the track.

I don't suppose there is a video clip of the MP sprinting to the train?
 
306024

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Guard will be fine, not their fault at all. Once the decision had been made to run the Norwich train ahead of the train from Kings Cross the die was cast. The station staff couldn’t possibly hold the train for anyone from platform 1 (especially the London End) to make their way to platform 5 in the time available. In fact how would you even know they wanted the connection unless they were running and waiving.

Looking at RTT it appears the Kings Cross train detaches at Cambridge, which is probably why the GA train was given the road first. Just one of many difficult regulating decisions Cambridge signallers have to make every day.

National Rail enquiries show this journey from Kings Cross to Attleborough as change at Cambridge. Not that it would have helped here but changing at Cambridge North saves a walk from platform 1 to 5 at Cambridge if you are in the know.
 
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LNW-GW Joint

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GoneSouth said:
Sigh, another jumped up individual who thinks his time is more valuable than the rest of us. Missed connections happen, get over it. If he was substantially delayed he can delay repay and put some cash back into his departments coffers. ;)
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Don't you realise he's "on your side" on enforcing the contracts DfT has let?
So far all we've heard from the new DfT is a tirade about punctuality.
It also diverts the media and public from the meatier investment issues they are supposed to be getting on with.
Expect more of the same.
This lot also seems more "twittery" than the last lot, much like Boris and Trump.

George Freeman is not the rail minister (that's Chris Heaton-Harris and Paul Maynard).
These are his rather vague responsibilities:
  • transport technology and innovation
  • Future of Mobility Grand Challenge
  • decarbonisation and environment
  • Office for Low Emission Vehicles
  • Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles
  • spaceports and freeports
  • devolution and housing
  • East-West connectivity
 
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I see the politics is alive and well. Because he’s not your preferred sort of politician. Or funded by those you support.

If he’s had a ‘mare, he’s had a moan. Same as most of us do. Social media lets you do it. The narrow connections are frustrating. Many operators do it. Some do it deliberately to prevent people train hopping (SWT/SWR do it with surbiton trains, holding trains back/not unlocking doors/allowing the stoppers to leave/retiming trains just as the faster trains out of WAT arrive). I do get it. But it remains frustrating.

It’s actually worse when you see bus operators allowed to run services that deliberately miss train connections - they are after the subsidy, not the passengers.... and that happens a lot.
 
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Ianno87

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30907 said:
According to Twitter he was going to Attleborough, so unless EMT made a special stop.....
Click to expand...

The OP only made reference to Norwich, ao based my judgement on that.

Besides, that makes using King's Cross instead of Liverpool Street even more reasonable!
 
DarloRich

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Sleepy said:
It seems George Freeman a newly appointed Transport Minister launched a twitter rant at GA after connection at Cambridge was missed this morning. Great Northern 0812 from King Cross to Ely was delayed and Greater Anglia 0909 to Norwich departed without him. Welcome to the world of privatised railways !
Click to expand...

perhaps if his party hadn't privitised the railway in such a cack handed manner I might have some sympathy for him. He and his ilk created this mess so welcome to our world chum. You created it.
 
TheEdge

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Interesting to see the vast majority of the replies seem to be calling him out.

Most are either "welcome to the privatised railway your party created", "transport minister doesn't understand how trains work" or "you run the DfT, fix it". Probably not the responses he was expecting.

Personally I'm not really sure publicaly attacking a member of staff like that on Twitter is not the sort of behaviour we should expect from an MP. This isn't America...
 
DarloRich

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TheEdge said:
Most are either "welcome to the privatised railway your party created", "transport minister doesn't understand how trains work" or "you run the DfT, fix it". Probably not the responses he was expecting.

Personally I'm not really sure publicaly attacking a member of staff like that on Twitter is not the sort of behaviour we should expect from an MP.
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In the Brexit obsessed, assumed privilege, political world we live this is exactly what I expect, especially from Tories who see working people as inferiors to be bullied and abused.
 
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