Aictos
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I had to ask as I've never had the luxury of using Connex so couldn't really compare them.
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Thameslink Services/Timetable from May 20th 2018
- Thread starter blakey1152
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I had to ask as I've never had the luxury of using Connex so couldn't really compare them.
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ChiefPlanner
Established Member
The 700's though do not reach Connex levels of vandalism and engrained dirt - far from it. Well presented in their newness.
class387
Established Member
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- 9 Oct 2015
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- 1,525
A lot of the older 700s are very grubby considering their age, with a thick layer of brown slime caked onto their lower bodyshell. Probably the least of my concerns at the moment though.
ChiefPlanner
Established Member
Internally very decent ...I could bore you all to death with my 0932 off SAC this am , - shall we say it was a farce in 4 parts which clobbered a supposed non stop EMT ?
Please do tell. I do like hearing your stories.
ChiefPlanner
Established Member
Oh all right - off to Folkestone to see the new "High Line" - day out as my son needed the house quiet for study.
Planned for the 0955 SAC to STP for the 1037 HS1 via Ashford.
Steady walk in the heat , and with satisfaction in the park I see the ECS for the 0932 Sutton gently easing out of the reversing siding - great I think - get to the ticket hall and find next train well after 1000 AM , but this brave little 700 is pretty well loaded anyway - walk to the front , sit and await departure. Obviously things have further collapsed in the interim.
Driver says he cannot go as he needs a relief driver , which has been assured to him will come - he had done a shunt from 2 to 1 via the siding as a favour and needed his own break. 15 mins later he says now cancelled - and I politely ask him if he is empty to Cricklewood (as he is blocking the up slow line - not there is much to worry about as any southbound GTR trains are not really doing much at all this side of Luton)
The stressed staff announce a rare Rainham service - on the fast lines - so a posse of hot passengers trail over to join a very busy semi - semi , which of course gets a shocking dwell.
Then - a Brighton is called - on the SLOW lines - Rainham plods off , this presumably tea seeking driver has kindly sacrificed his break to end up in the sidings in NW London - and the very full Brighton loads up with what seems a lot of airport traffic. Staff announce due to a major gap in the all station southbound - the late Brighton will call all stations from Mill Hill Broadway..! ( a new one on me)
We get to the Radlett home signal - stop - my cunning initiative says the Rainham is going fast to slow - behind the ECS (which will delay the passenger further) - this causes an up HST to be very badly checked - we then go slow to fast behind it - the automated PA says we are West Hampstead only.
Off we go on restrictive aspects - and approaching Mill Hill , I confidentally expect the pass com to be pulled , as SAC staff had asked - or been told to call it south of that station. By some miracle we run past all these "optional" stops and get into a very busy STP at 1031.
I walk fairly quickly to the HS1 Platforms and with some superb barrier staff make the 1037 as the Train Manager is about to give it away. Well done chaps.
So there we are - a block of the up slow (but the driver stayed with it) - a double conflicting move at Radlett , a delay onto an up EMT - and more delays cascaded south of the Thames. I can only assume the swear box at West Hampstead SB is over full -almost a text book study on "consequential delay"
Anyway ...Folkestone is a good job ..
Planned for the 0955 SAC to STP for the 1037 HS1 via Ashford.
Steady walk in the heat , and with satisfaction in the park I see the ECS for the 0932 Sutton gently easing out of the reversing siding - great I think - get to the ticket hall and find next train well after 1000 AM , but this brave little 700 is pretty well loaded anyway - walk to the front , sit and await departure. Obviously things have further collapsed in the interim.
Driver says he cannot go as he needs a relief driver , which has been assured to him will come - he had done a shunt from 2 to 1 via the siding as a favour and needed his own break. 15 mins later he says now cancelled - and I politely ask him if he is empty to Cricklewood (as he is blocking the up slow line - not there is much to worry about as any southbound GTR trains are not really doing much at all this side of Luton)
The stressed staff announce a rare Rainham service - on the fast lines - so a posse of hot passengers trail over to join a very busy semi - semi , which of course gets a shocking dwell.
Then - a Brighton is called - on the SLOW lines - Rainham plods off , this presumably tea seeking driver has kindly sacrificed his break to end up in the sidings in NW London - and the very full Brighton loads up with what seems a lot of airport traffic. Staff announce due to a major gap in the all station southbound - the late Brighton will call all stations from Mill Hill Broadway..! ( a new one on me)
We get to the Radlett home signal - stop - my cunning initiative says the Rainham is going fast to slow - behind the ECS (which will delay the passenger further) - this causes an up HST to be very badly checked - we then go slow to fast behind it - the automated PA says we are West Hampstead only.
Off we go on restrictive aspects - and approaching Mill Hill , I confidentally expect the pass com to be pulled , as SAC staff had asked - or been told to call it south of that station. By some miracle we run past all these "optional" stops and get into a very busy STP at 1031.
I walk fairly quickly to the HS1 Platforms and with some superb barrier staff make the 1037 as the Train Manager is about to give it away. Well done chaps.
So there we are - a block of the up slow (but the driver stayed with it) - a double conflicting move at Radlett , a delay onto an up EMT - and more delays cascaded south of the Thames. I can only assume the swear box at West Hampstead SB is over full -almost a text book study on "consequential delay"
Anyway ...Folkestone is a good job ..
Failed Unit
Established Member
Reading an article in the evening Standard. Nick Brown is still blaming Network Rail for doing its job and rejecting their plans because they conflict with other services. Going on about they got the timetable too late (but week 7 and things are getting worse). If anyone reads the article it is total nonsense- no wonder the unions are raging.
Finally they are within their contract.
He must think we are stupid.
Meanwhile peak destroyed again as many inners cancelled.
Why can’t the senior management of this company admit they are partly responsible for this shambles and even if network rail had delivered the timetable on time they still would not be capable to operate it?
Finally they are within their contract.
He must think we are stupid.
Meanwhile peak destroyed again as many inners cancelled.
Why can’t the senior management of this company admit they are partly responsible for this shambles and even if network rail had delivered the timetable on time they still would not be capable to operate it?
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Any reason why half the trains at Arlesey these days just have UFL or DFL listed as the platform? Right now three of them are. I understand what the acronym means, but it's been like this for days now. Are they trains with extra stop orders added or something? Plus some of them, such as the lesser spotted 0712 which keeps being teased as stopping on platform UFL, never does anyway, it just drives straight through on the fast. Yet it gets listed on the boards, and TL insist on Twitter it will stop. (To be fair, right now it's not on the timetable, although I bet it'll have found its way back on by tomorrow morning)
OwenB
Member
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- 8 Mar 2018
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- 300
KGX-HAT 18.06, 18.21 & 18.36 all cancelled. Fuming. How is this crap getting worse?
Failed Unit
Established Member
Don’t read the evening standard while you are waiting. You will want to shove it where the sun doesn’t shine on Nick Brown.
I know I did and my train made it out after lots of running around kings cross.
ChiefPlanner
Established Member
Once consolation is that the Evening Standard is showing a reported loss , - will it be around in the future ?
OwenB
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- 8 Mar 2018
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- 300
This is seriously going to break me if this keeps going as it is. I more or less get home and go to bed to get up early in case my trains are cancelled.
thedbdiboy
Member
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- 10 Sep 2011
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- 960
Lest we forget - this is a slightly distorted digital image of a photo I took in 2003 (not 1993 as I wrote earlier...) of a Connex 4CEP that was still in service:
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transmanche
Established Member
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- 27 Feb 2011
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- 6,018
1993?
Class465fan
Member
You mean 2003 right? Connex took over SE in 1995 didnt it?
With all this on going Thameslink disruption, why are Great Western Railway still terminating delayed trains at Redhill. i also thought the reason they terminate them there was to avoid them being delayed by other services to Gatwick Airport.
However many of the other services are not running. Tonight the 20.00 was cancelled at Gatwick as the inbound service was 14 late into Redhill.
The 21.00 is running but was 13 late into Redhill. Surely 1 minute won't make a big difference so I'm still expecting it to be cancelled.
I asked at the ticket barrier but they said they don't know anything. He had a walkie-talkie evice but obviosily he can't use that. So I followed his advice and went to the platform. They asked someone else what the likelihood was. I decided to stay put.
Why can't they terminate them at Wokingham. After all there are other trains from Woking to Reading. Not sure if there is more trains running there than Gatick to Redhill but I suspect there is.
We have just been told the Reading train should be the next one on platform 1. Glad to see it wasn't cancelled.
In Austria, where I have just been, they had delays, and strikes even, but I didn't notice any cancelled trains. Some replacement buses due to rail works mind you. They of course run less trains than us. Anyway that is going away from my point that during disruption why can't Great Western Railway be more accommodating to passengers at Gatwick Airport.
edit: Train to Gatwick left 14 late at Redhill so I'd have expected the preivous service to leave 15 late, if it hadn't been cancelled.
However many of the other services are not running. Tonight the 20.00 was cancelled at Gatwick as the inbound service was 14 late into Redhill.
The 21.00 is running but was 13 late into Redhill. Surely 1 minute won't make a big difference so I'm still expecting it to be cancelled.
I asked at the ticket barrier but they said they don't know anything. He had a walkie-talkie evice but obviosily he can't use that. So I followed his advice and went to the platform. They asked someone else what the likelihood was. I decided to stay put.
Why can't they terminate them at Wokingham. After all there are other trains from Woking to Reading. Not sure if there is more trains running there than Gatick to Redhill but I suspect there is.
We have just been told the Reading train should be the next one on platform 1. Glad to see it wasn't cancelled.
In Austria, where I have just been, they had delays, and strikes even, but I didn't notice any cancelled trains. Some replacement buses due to rail works mind you. They of course run less trains than us. Anyway that is going away from my point that during disruption why can't Great Western Railway be more accommodating to passengers at Gatwick Airport.
edit: Train to Gatwick left 14 late at Redhill so I'd have expected the preivous service to leave 15 late, if it hadn't been cancelled.
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I feel your pain and I'm a driver based in London, I really feel sorry for you and its embarrassing to work on the railways currently.
Nobody thinks the fault lies with any of you guys driving, guarding or on the coalface man
thedbdiboy
Member
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- 10 Sep 2011
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Yes 2003! Must be the NSE livery confusing me...
Here it is;
richieb1971
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Passengers from Bedford are now at the end of their patience. It won't be long now before some of them start walking out on their jobs.
Upon arriving at Stevenage in the evening peak tonight I noticed two STM security guards on the platform. You only normally see security staff very late at night and then usually only in the booking hall.
Failed Unit
Established Member
That’s not a random number generator.Here it is;
The xx14 departures from Redhill have to leave fairly close to time or they will be obstructed by a Southern train in the platform at Reigate.
If GWR miss peak paths they run into congestion at Gatwick.
Having said that, they also have to be careful about blocking Tonbridge trains in the platform at Redhill if the Gatwick's turn short.
Actually if you need an illustration of how tight the Gatwick turnaround is, look at this with the 1528 Reading to Gatwick / 1700 Gatwick to Reading / 1832 Reading to Gatwick
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/C40411/2018/07/03/advanced
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/C40535/2018/07/03/advanced
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/C40421/2018/07/03/advanced
that led to the 2000 Gatwick to Reading start at Redhill.
Too many trains terminating at Gatwick at similar times in this timetable.
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Failed Unit
Established Member
I really feel sorry for the front line staff. Especially anyone needing to interact with passengers.
A couple of examples.
Tonight Moorgate - Welwyn GC services disappeared so off I go to KX
arrive and the 1706 is “Delayed” and the 1721 is “on time”. Both trains on platform but most passengers on the 1721. At 1720 platform staff announced a driver is now on the 1706 and it will leave shortly. The 1721 has no driver. Mass exodus to the 1706. Off it goes with platform staff rushing passengers onto it to prevent it getting delayed further. Some of these passengers were on it 15 minutes ago and directed to the 1721.
The poor staff on the ground have no clue on what is going on. Upon arriving at WGC all the Cambridge passengers get on to be told that the train is returning to London.
I have sat on trains at kings cross with a 10 minute delay - only to be told at the point it is 20 minutes late the train will get cancelled as the driver is at Royston. How was it ever going to only be 10 minutes late. It never stood a chance.
Sorry Nick Brown. I can’t see how network rail can be held accountable for this. In fact such stupid lies from senior management like yourselves is actually putting your staff at more risk than actually admitting your company is also accountable for this. I wonder how he would feel, if when he arrives at work he is getting abuse from customers, every single day, from passengers just wanting basic information. Information his company can’t provide. The last 2 days are record lows. What rabbits do they have on July 15th?
bramling
Veteran Member
More than likely Nick Brown is trying to do a salvage job on his career. He has been around a bit, but I don’t think he is quite ready to call it quits. The whole thing is a major black mark on anyone’s cv.
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