• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Unrelieable TOCs

Status
Not open for further replies.

AJP

Member
Joined
30 Sep 2005
Messages
1,148
Location
Doncaster
In your experiance which toc is unrelieable.

I think TPE are terrible, They either arrive bang on time or are cancelled :shock: 'We are sorry to announce that 1642 TPE service to Manchester Airport has today been cancelled' <( Also The bogs are always out of order. Especally when you have spent the day at barnetby and bursting for a pee. Always Full.

Also why do the south TPE route (Man-Cleethorpes) get 2 car 158's there are always moped!! Especally from Doncaster-Manchester, When TPE's to York and Leeds 95% of the time get at LEAST 3 <(

Rant over :lol:
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

Galvanize

Member
Joined
8 Jun 2005
Messages
1,100
Location
South East london
Arriva trains fails for me.

Reasons:
Cancelled trains
Late trains
Crowded trains
Poorly maintained Class 158s with Perkins engines
getting delayed at Talerdigg summit
Splitting half the train at shrewsbury, making it a crowded run to B'ham.
Because it's so late, the B'ham service never reaches it, terminating short at Wolves.

I could go on
 

evil_hippo

Member
Joined
9 Jun 2005
Messages
772
Location
Lewisham
Northern rail:

-The station master at Appleby now refers to "the usual 3 or 4 minutes late", frequently this stretches to 10 or so.
-Trains nealry always lose timeafter leaving Appleby
-They can't connect with themselves: on weekdays what would be the ideal train from Newcastle to connect with the last train home has a two minute connection at Carlisle, on saturdays it has an 8 minute connection but they do not wait for their own train (another operator's is one thing...).
-They send 2 or 3 (156+153) carriages on the 0849 ex Leeds to Carlisle when it blatantly needs 4 which arriva always provided and it's nearly always a standing load north of Appleby
 

Guinness

Established Member
Joined
13 Jun 2005
Messages
3,736
Transpennine Express is always late when I use it or worse, cancelled.

Northern Rail seem to run a few minutes or so late but conductress lets you have a piss at Kidsgrove (P2 for you Platform spotters! ;)).

Virgin Trains I've never had a very bad experience. The early morning Pendolinos to London Euston do have a tendency to cock-up early morning then the rest run between 2 - 10 minutes late.
 

Techniquest

Veteran Member
Joined
19 Jun 2005
Messages
21,674
Location
Nowhere Heath
There's a long list of worst TOCs for me, but here's the Worst 3 TOCs by my reckoning, best of them at the top:

SWT
ATF
Northern
 

Jim

Established Member
Joined
11 Jun 2005
Messages
3,398
Location
Wick
My Worst

Wessex Trains:

Always Late
Dirty
Broke (What happpend when you contract ATW to do your maitenence...)
Cancelled
RRB'd (I don't mind though :lol: )


FGW:

Not being able to get home after 2100 from Paddington
A canned train towards BPW, making me miss my connection & be stranded (Thank god for mates Houses.......)
A Canned Train at Paddington, enduring me to take the tube to Waterloo to get home
A HEAVILY DELAYED TRAIN causing me to wait 2 hours on FREEZING COLD Castle Cary
Shall I go o.....???????

(O yeah & 180's being introduced on Paddy - Swansea)
 

960012

Established Member
Joined
4 Nov 2005
Messages
1,892
Location
Parkstone
Mine has to be Wessex train beacuse they terminated my train short at bristol Temple Meads making 2 hours late up the valley dont aska bout the toerh hour!!! (no coments jim)
OTher reasons include dirty trains, and overall a rubbish sevice
 

Jim

Established Member
Joined
11 Jun 2005
Messages
3,398
Location
Wick
feltham2104 said:
Mine has to be Wessex train beacuse they terminated my train short at bristol Temple Meads making 2 hours late up the valley dont aska bout the toerh hour!!! (no coments jim)
OTher reasons include dirty trains, and overall a rubbish sevice

OK, EVERYONE, LISTEN :lol:
 

Techniquest

Veteran Member
Joined
19 Jun 2005
Messages
21,674
Location
Nowhere Heath
Jim, since when do Arriva do "maitenence" for Wessex? I do believe they do "maintenance" at Canton for both their own fleet, Wessex Trains and any stock that comes to Cardiff on a railtour (I'll bet the staff couldn't wait to get their hands on those 50s when they came down!), but 'maitenence', nah that doesn't come under contract for Canton... ;)

As for partly hating FGW for using 180s on Padd - Swansea, you should take note that one service has lost its 180, the 1030 has been running with a HST since winter 2004 IIRC. Only services to/from Swansea for a 180 now, unless it's changed again (which it will probably do in June), is the 1515 off Paddington to Swansea, arriving 1808 or so usually at Swansea. It then sits around in the platform for 2 hours (except if it required basic maintenance, then it would probably go to LE if they can accept 180s in there) or so, running the 2030 to Paddington, the last service of the day. This is certainly an off-peak service, and I daresay is one that doesn't require a full HST set. The 1515 off Paddington, on quite a few days I've seen it, runs heavily loaded beyond Cardiff mind. But that's not all often, these days were ones when heavy delays were experienced all over the GWML.

As for not being able to get home after 2100 off Paddington, that's quite reasonable I reckon. You'd get to Bath, what, 90 minutes later, and there's usually services to Trowbridge still at that time. You COULD go back via Waterloo, but that is potentially having to leave earlier and go via Salisbury, which is no better a way to go than via Reading on some days. Indeed, I recall doing a 444 from Petersfield to Waterloo last year (March I believe, I'll check my reports later), all the way from west of Wimbledone a points failure at Waterloo was affecting our run. Instead of storming through Clapham Junction at a nice fast speed we crawled through. Not so happy with that. Point is, that's a day which would have created havoc with connections off lines with SWT then I reckon.

I'm not going to discuss this any further anyway, not worth the potential arguments. I've made my views anyway.
 

B37425

Member
Joined
16 Jan 2006
Messages
14
ATW-
The state of its Pacers and 158's
Delays/Cancellations
Crowds
Lack of certain services
Small Units on Large Diagrams
 

Andrew

Member
Joined
7 Jun 2005
Messages
175
Isn't Wessex still on a SRA "cost+whatever" or whatever they're called. In which case there's hardly the incentive to provide a good service, especially since NatEx haven't got Greater Western. Of course it's frustrating, but I (personally) would blame the SRA and the stupidity of the current privatised railway. But that's who I am (and I don't have to endure Wessex very often!).

FGW aren't all bad though their punctuality record is becoming appalling. Hopefully a better (integrated) timetable when Greater Western gets going will improve the current situation considerably.
 

Jim

Established Member
Joined
11 Jun 2005
Messages
3,398
Location
Wick
FGWFan said:
Jim, since when do Arriva do "maitenence" for Wessex? I do believe they do "maintenance" at Canton for both their own fleet, Wessex Trains and any stock that comes to Cardiff on a railtour (I'll bet the staff couldn't wait to get their hands on those 50s when they came down!),



Don't be so fu**ing picky please, I hate it, along with FGW (o already put that :lol: )
 

Sprog

Established Member
Joined
6 Sep 2005
Messages
1,315
Location
SPM
We*sex have been getting right on my t!ts recently!! <( :x
 

Techniquest

Veteran Member
Joined
19 Jun 2005
Messages
21,674
Location
Nowhere Heath
Jim said:
FGWFan said:
Jim, since when do Arriva do "maitenence" for Wessex? I do believe they do "maintenance" at Canton for both their own fleet, Wessex Trains and any stock that comes to Cardiff on a railtour (I'll bet the staff couldn't wait to get their hands on those 50s when they came down!),

Don't be so fu**ing picky please, I hate it, along with FGW (o already put that :lol: )

For crying out loud, take a joke now and again...

Hate FGW if you must, but I still think it's unfair to hate them for not running to Westbury later than 2100 or whatever. You COULD be forced to live with a service connecting you no later than 1700 - 1800. Give them an inch, they demand a mile...Besides, you like SWT so much, why not take their services?
 

Techniquest

Veteran Member
Joined
19 Jun 2005
Messages
21,674
Location
Nowhere Heath
spm_43030 said:
We*sex have been getting right on my t!ts recently!! <( :x

I'm just glad I don't put up with them every day, with only a bus as the alternative. Saying that, I put up with irritatingly bad timings of NB services off HFD, as my bus into Hereford is scheduled to arrive to arrive at the station at xx52 (xx57 if on the 462), which leaves 4 minutes to run up to the platform and buy your ticket in the meantime. As the bus frequently runs late, no chance of making that! Although that said, when ATW is delayed and the NB service is delayed by 10 minutes or more (this does happen a lot), it's quite helpful. Although sometimes the NB services arrive 5 minutes ahead of their arrival time, 7 ahead of departure time! :shock:

EDIT: CT depart at xx50 for most hours of the day (doesn't run at 1150 or 1350 though), so that means a usual 50+ minutes wait for the service to Worcester, Birmingham or onwards. :x . SB ATWs to Newport and onwards usually depart at xx49 too, so that's an impossible connection too. Although every couple of hours you do get the xx09 off Holyhead to Cardiff, which is nice and it gives a potential service opp to Newport and other parts of the world.

At least it's easier to remember the time of services with ATW now though, previously it was hard to remember when the trains departed. But then at the same time you get services that mean an hour's wait or more. :x .

Still, that's what I get for not living somewhere near a railway line... :cry:
 

yorkie

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Administrator
Joined
6 Jun 2005
Messages
67,429
Location
Yorkshire
evil_hippo said:
Northern rail:

-The station master at Appleby now refers to "the usual 3 or 4 minutes late", frequently this stretches to 10 or so.
-Trains nealry always lose timeafter leaving Appleby
-They can't connect with themselves: on weekdays what would be the ideal train from Newcastle to connect with the last train home has a two minute connection at Carlisle, on saturdays it has an 8 minute connection but they do not wait for their own train (another operator's is one thing...).
-They send 2 or 3 (156+153) carriages on the 0849 ex Leeds to Carlisle when it blatantly needs 4 which arriva always provided and it's nearly always a standing load north of Appleby
You're right on the connections and short-formed trains points, but you can't blame Northern for the many TSRs on the N&C, as this is caused by heavy coal trains which use the route, NR need to upgrade the track (and have plans to do so, but whether it's enough is debateable).
 

Nitro

Member
Joined
20 Nov 2005
Messages
475
Location
London
I think Silverlink is the worst of them all. Yeah you may say the NLL has a pretty good service with little deleys (apart from the odd cancellation) but ever tried doing the GOBLIN Line? For one thing trains are almost always late. Then when the late train is supposed to come it then gets cancelled! Then the next trains seems to be on time but yet again after 5 minutes gets deleyed for like 10 mins so you could stand in the cold for a very long time :roll:
 

jonb

Established Member
Joined
8 Jun 2005
Messages
1,607
Location
Essex
Nitro said:
I think Silverlink is the worst of them all. Yeah you may say the NLL has a pretty good service with little deleys (apart from the odd cancellation) but ever tried doing the GOBLIN Line? For one thing trains are almost always late. Then when the late train is supposed to come it then gets cancelled! Then the next trains seems to be on time but yet again after 5 minutes gets deleyed for like 10 mins so you could stand in the cold for a very long time :roll:

Totally agree with you there the service is a shambles, but you have to realised that the GOBLIN is heavily used Freight line with all the freight out of Dagenham and now using the Temple Mills connection at South Tottenham, things must get a bit congested at times.
 

ChrisCooper

Established Member
Joined
7 Sep 2005
Messages
1,787
Location
Loughborough
For me, it has to be Central. They again seem to be a TOC that either runs fine, or they are cancelled. The fact that most services are hourly makes cancellations very inconvienient. The trains themselves are often quite dirty both internally and externally, and in partiucular the 158s seem to be well past a good refurbishment, with the 170s not far off, especially those that have come from MML and are getting on for 10 years old now (they first started to be introduced in 1998). Stations are not very good at all, with little work being done (the fact that most of the East Midlands station are still in RR colours says something). Staff are variable, with some being excellent, others being awful, but all being hampered by poor support from above, especially when things go wrong. Services themselves are quite poor, in particular on weekends, even when they have managed to persuade some staff to work, with a good example being the that their are no train from Birmingham to Cardiff on sunday mornings. When rail replacements are on, things tend to be even worse, since they tend to cover large distances, e.g AFAIK at the moment their is a rail rpelacement all the way from Sheffield to Liverpool, and at one point their was one from Leicester to Stanstead (it shows something when time I worked out it would be almost as quick to use service buses from Norwich to Loughborough as the train and rail replacements, and probably cheaper). Overall, you get the feeling that they are just keeping the franchise ticking over until 2007 (if they don't get yet another extension).
 

class 313

Established Member
Joined
10 Dec 2005
Messages
6,477
Location
St Albans
Nitro said:
I think Silverlink is the worst of them all. Yeah you may say the NLL has a pretty good service with little deleys (apart from the odd cancellation) but ever tried doing the GOBLIN Line? For one thing trains are almost always late. Then when the late train is supposed to come it then gets cancelled! Then the next trains seems to be on time but yet again after 5 minutes gets deleyed for like 10 mins so you could stand in the cold for a very long time :roll:

Meh i dont know the GOBLINE line but when i go on the abbeyflyer (silverlink country) it is always on time. i suppose that because the line only has 1 train on the line it cant really be delayed much.
 

RJ

Established Member
Joined
25 Jun 2005
Messages
8,383
Location
Back office
The GOBLIN's timetables aren't loose enough. Either that or the service is slow due to freight ahead.
 

AlexS

Established Member
Joined
7 Jun 2005
Messages
2,886
Location
Just outside the Black Country
Not a problem with Central Trains recently - trains are all booked to be at least a 150/2 but generally always 170s or a 158, the trains are generally only fouled up by Arriva running badly, only time I've been late in the past 6 months was when a 170/6 died after a day of working Stansteds. No complaints compared to other services I've seen.
 

Dave A

Member
Joined
7 Jun 2005
Messages
1,161
Thameslink in rush hours are a nightmare. They seem to have so many cancellations to trains heading out of London!
 

jonb

Established Member
Joined
8 Jun 2005
Messages
1,607
Location
Essex
Hi all,

Just about getting used to this new forum now!

Anyway I would put ONE right at the top of your unreliable TOC list for several reasons. Since National Express took over what was First Great Eastern owned by First Group many factors have become worse.

Firstly the state of the trains which NE are running. The majority of the Great Eastern Fleet are 321's serviced at Ilford depot. Of recent many of these units have been vandalised and been let out into passenger service! Both internally and externally. Even though a vandalised train is better than no train at all, these units are being run about on diagrams all day surely these should be admitted to the depot for cleaning. Over on the West Anglia fleet the main class are the 317's. Having not travelled on these units a lot im assuming they have their ups and downs and I believe they are being refurbished and repainted at Ilford now. Then there are the 315's the mainstay of ONE's various Metro services into and out of the capital. These units are the poorest of the lot, obviously because they are used on Inner London routes however something should be done as these units are appalling. I dare sit on these units nowadays because of the internal condition they are in. Some people might think the refurbs are an improvement? The main difference is the new door mechanisms which is a good idea as this improves reliabilty. However the refurb is poor. No CCTV which is essential in cutting crime these days. Also the fact that ONE decided Highback seats were not such a good idea, another cost cutting shortcut. Finally the Norwich Intercity trains operated with Ex Virgin 90's and Stock displaced from the West Coast. These locomotives are by far the most unreliable because of the lack of a heavy overhaul. Locomotives were rushed over and vinyled ready for the launch in March however it did'nt strike to anyone that these locos had just a few days earlier been rushing up and down into Euston. The stock is just as bad internally. Again with no pre-refurb and just more vinyl for the ever important press release on March 1st the Mark 3's suffer from: Broken External Doors, Broken seperating doors, broken panels and toilets.

Moving on to the stations and staff. As many of you know my local station is Brentwood (Unfortunately) and this station of all in my opinion is a disgrace. When questioned about what was going to be done and above all why the ticket office was being locked up at 4PM ONE claimed that staff were on long term absence and they would not be hiring any staff until further notice. The major problem especially on Weekday afternoons is the lack of Platform staff to deal with the school children catching the trains home.

As you can see its a disgrace and ONE are not interested. In my opinion good riddance to National Express!

*Rant Over*
 

Z12XE

Member
Joined
30 Sep 2005
Messages
876
Have the toilets at Brentwood been fixed yet?

I was at a meeting where these were mentioned and it turns out the sewer has collapsed and the excuse for not fixing them was the "hole" in the off peak revenue due to a decline in off peak business over the Summer.

:D
 

jonb

Established Member
Joined
8 Jun 2005
Messages
1,607
Location
Essex
Toliets are open (If you're lucky!) between 0645 - 0945. Utterly pathetic.

Also noted today that Shenfield toilet on Platform 3 has been broken for quite a while now with a serious leak!
 

andel

Member
Joined
8 Feb 2006
Messages
173
Allow me to shed some real light on toc's...

Sunday (for an example) i took a train from Aylesbury->Princes Risborough-> West Ruislip where they have no wheelchair ramp, man-handled off a train, cabbed over to Reading where the Duty Manager (!) helps me upstairs and leaves me on a cold platform, not asking if i want to go to the toilet or get a hot drink before heading on to Didcot.

Yes, you've guessed it... i'm a wheelchair user.. let me go on with other examples:
Derby Station (MML) are unwilling to assist unbooked additionals, Central have willingly left me at a station after their own delays without transportation because my own (pre-booked) transport has been missed, Luton Airport Parkway still do not have ramps for Meridian Trains... oh yes and Central Trains (Nottingham, who have the worst record for me) have told me to crawl up bus steps because they will not pay for a cab.

People may complain about Virgin, but to be honest, I'd rather travel in their plastic and feel human.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top