Cable theft at Hindley 21.10.11

[callum112233]

A few hours before most of the Southport-Manchester line closes for 9 days, some wise crack decided that to add to the disruption they would steal some cables. This resulted in confusion and chaos. I was on the 18:16 from Piccadilly to Bolton and heard an emergency messege over the drivers radio (I was right at the front) telling the 18:10 from Victoria to Wigan North Western to stop immediatley and await further instructions. I thought it was rather strange but didn't expect it to affect my journey.

On arrival at Bolton, the 18:45 was showing on the screens that it was delayed by 15 mins, so again, thought nothing of it. A few mins later, one of the customer advisors comes out and says the train is running late due to cable theft and things should be back to normal shortly. After this, all the full of self importance people swarm all over him saying it's a joke and all the rest of it that is usually said(it's hardly his fault). In the end, trains to Wigan were cancelled for tor a couple of hours I think and a rail replacement bus was brought it. I went to Wigan NW via Preston because I had to get to work.

Just thought I would share my experience and say the staff at Bolton did great, considering they were mobbed by snooty people who think they are more important than everyone else.

I also wonder how much money these crooks get for stealing and selling this cable? I assume it's a tidy amount of money they get from it.

 

[graham43404]

Sounds like a par for the course reaction from the great British public who always go after the foot soldiers when they want a scapegoat for anything.

Rather than berating some poor person doing there job and trying to sort a mess out why can't they write to there MP about the scrap metal laws in the UK as that would be far more productive.

 

[Nym]

Not to sound harsh or anything, but if someone is that desperate to get to Wigan, walk out to the front door of the station and there's a bus every 15 mins, walk down the road and there's one every 7 mins.

What they can someone on the platforms do about cable theft? Thought that the passengers at BON wern't as much a set of idiots as this, obviously they are...

 

[graham43404]

Not to sound harsh or anything, but if someone is that desperate to get to Wigan, walk out to the front door of the station and there's a bus every 15 mins, walk down the road and there's one every 7 mins.

What they can someone on the platforms do about cable theft? Thought that the passengers at BON wern't as much a set of idiots as this, obviously they are...

If you get really lucky you can get the 575 Arriva service rather than First Manchester if you like white knuckle thrills

 

[Chapeltom]

A few hours before most of the Southport-Manchester line closes for 9 days, some wise crack decided that to add to the disruption they would steal some cables. This resulted in confusion and chaos. I was on the 18:16 from Piccadilly to Bolton and heard an emergency messege over the drivers radio (I was right at the front) telling the 18:10 from Victoria to Wigan North Western to stop immediatley and await further instructions. I thought it was rather strange but didn't expect it to affect my journey.

On arrival at Bolton, the 18:45 was showing on the screens that it was delayed by 15 mins, so again, thought nothing of it. A few mins later, one of the customer advisors comes out and says the train is running late due to cable theft and things should be back to normal shortly. After this, all the full of self importance people swarm all over him saying it's a joke and all the rest of it that is usually said(it's hardly his fault). In the end, trains to Wigan were cancelled for tor a couple of hours I think and a rail replacement bus was brought it. I went to Wigan NW via Preston because I had to get to work.

Just thought I would share my experience and say the staff at Bolton did great, considering they were mobbed by snooty people who think they are more important than everyone else.

I also wonder how much money these crooks get for stealing and selling this cable? I assume it's a tidy amount of money they get from it.

I've had the odd bit of disruption on my commute home from Liverpool, once it was signalling problems and on Thursday it was a host of problems: lineside fire in the afternoon, a 142 dragging an empty 156 resulting in 22 min late arrival at my station and then a train at South Parkway's doors wouldn't shut, so we were sat outside LPY for 25 minutes! The train terminated short at Warrington Ctrl. The EMT behind us was 7 late, arrived at Chinley 28 late and about an hour late.

I think the best thing to do is just laugh about it, disruption is fairly rare, it happens and you can't do anything

Snooty so and sos are everywhere, best ignored as normally a quick flick on NRE can see where a train is and usually what's delaying it!