What is wrong with the trains? A good question!
A 2 page leaflet I have seen a copy of ( they were given out yesterday but I didn't get to meet any managers due to, guess what, a train failure) was given out yesterday during the abortive meet the managers event. One page is give to the LNWR Customer Experience Director ( oh how I would like to direct him where he can shove his passenger experience!) with much of his section given over to bland platitudes. However he says :
The Class 230's previously worked on the London Underground District line , but were rebuilt..... This included the installation of power generators and door locking systems..... it is the poor reliability of this equipment which is causing trains to be taken out of service so often for repairs.
That doesn't tell us much of any use. However the following paragraph really annoys me:
Things aren't going to change overnight, and invetiably that means we'll sometimes have to run buses on the Marston Vale instead of trains. However we know that rail replacement replacement services need to run more smoothly, and were therefore devolving much more decision making to the local station team at Bletchley. That should mean buses turn up quicker, and taxis are more readily available when things go wrong.
No apology, no acknowledgement that the service is poor and they are failing to deliver yet taking our money, no acknowledgement of the delays and inconvenience, no acknowledgement that the bus service often doesn't turn up at the intermediate stations just a glib, almost smug, acceptance that buses will run. It is very poor and maddening. But hey, they have made it easier for the buses to turn up. FFS. Point missed.
The second page of the leaflet is given over to the chairman of Vivarail. Firstly, there is not one word of apology from him for his company failing to deliver a train that works, failing to rectify the relability problems between introduction at Easter and today nor any timescale when we can expect to receive the service we pay for. Disgraceful. Perhaps he simply doesn't care. Perhaps he isnt feeling any pain. Us mere passengers are.
He goes on to say that the difficulties we have had are primarily with the gensets ( power generators). Most issues relate to the cooling of the units, although some faults ( no examples given) have only become evident with longer-term use.
The following paragraph says:
performance to date has been hampered by having insufficient gensets to support failures. However, we are pleased to report that our maintenance team in Bletchley now has access to additional, Gensets with four spare units avialable.
So that tells us something at least. What it doesn't tell us is why insufficient spare capacity was provided or why it has taken this long to obtain extra spares! Perhaps they are unavailable in the market, perhaps sub contractors have let them down, perhaps there have been contractual arguments over funding. How about telling us this?
The next paragraph says: These spares, together with the team we have in place to effect repairs, are expected to have a significant impact on performance. In addition, we will bring extra support for the team at Beltchley whenever necessary.
No indication of when we can expect to see a "significant impact on performance" or the % increase to be delivered. It is worth noting that the trains are broken today. I wonder what the criteria for delivering extra staff to Bletchley are? One wonders how much worse it has to get before those criteria are met? I suggest they were needed months ago!
The final paragraph says: We have also set out a further medium-term plan to make additional resources available at Bletchley & Seaham ( our base where Gensets are repaired) and have started a programme of re-work on all Gensets, utilising the additional spares that are now available.
That is nice information. There is no indication when we will see the benefit! On what date will Vivarail be able to provide a working product to allow LNWR to deliver the whole Marston Vale timetable to us now extremely pi$$ed of passengers?
Further, this page suggests the only faults are with the Gensets. As a regular users I know there have been more failures than gensets yet no other failures are mentioned. I wonder why?
he signs of all the best. Thanks - we need it.
PS on the back cover of the leaflet is a route map. LNWR have spelled the name of one of their stations, Ridgmont, wrongly. That should tell you all you need to know about how much of a $hit they give about our line.
