TPE was a fine idea and brand when BR created it thirty odd years ago. Since then it has got worse, and worse, and worse, and now - after the changes of the last few weeks it is a steaming pile of ordure not fit for a supposedly sophisticated transport market like the UK.
I finally rode the new offering yesterday - a day which had its own problems for me, and my verdict is that we have been totally absolutely and beyond any contradiction shafted by a shambles, a disgrace, an insult to its users and the sooner this lot is in the bin and replaced the better - until then the M62, with all its faults wins hands down.
To catch the 08.05 from Piccadilly to Thirsk I now have to drive all the way into Manchester and pay city parking rates, leaving home a full hour before I would have done had it still been a Stalybridge stopper. I have to walk about a quarter of a mile to my train. At my destination I have a fifteen pound return taxi fare to pay and a thirty minute added journey and fretting time, hoping my cab appears to make my connections.
Whilst there I got an urgent call requiring me to return home. Luckily this co-incided with the one train an hour south so I made it and concerned myself with trying to resolve the problem that had occurred as we headed west. Usual nonsense of no telephone contact - please visit our website! My God 21st Century business administration and they have the cheek to tell you not to swear at their staff!
So we are just passing Ashton and the guard comes by and tells us that we are to be terminated at Victoria. The next connection to Piccadilly will be over half an hour! I tell my fellow passengers the tram will get them there while they would still be waiting at Victoria but it goes right over their heads! I did - they didn't!
I retrieve the Tbird from Piccadilly, fly home and check that we have indeed been conned by the event managers encountered but that last admission is five p.m. so that's that £245 up the swanee!
Conclusion - drive - it would have saved me two hours. I may have got home in time to rescue my friends'day. It would have cost no more, even for a single traveller. TPE will now cost me two hours more every time I travel North East. The Ordsall curve is indeed the biggest waste of resources and failure to address the problems it was meant to cure as was predicted all those years ago when the saddo rail community was calling me a Luddite. Well you have got it now - hope you like it! And standing on Platform 14 to head east and looking over to the wasted asset that is Mayfield - what a future we have allowed ourselves to be subjected to! Failing Grailing - CBE Man - Andy "all things" Burnham - you would laugh out loud if you were not already crying!