The Ticket Collector

Virmin Trains - Customer Service? HAHAHA

Why is it that everytime I travel with Virmin Trains I always seem to get off the train more stressed then when I got on it!

Is it perhaps because their so called new superdooper Pendelinos or Voyagers are crap? Apparently one of them is meant to tilt? The trains permanently smell of a chemical port-a-loo smell, you cannot get away from it, wherever you are sitting. The carriages air conditioning is non-existent (well unless you like temperatures of 30 Degrees Celsius). Oh and they like to mess around trying to make a Train Service like an Airplane Service.

Aha I have got a brilliant Idea, lets confuse all our passengers and change First Class to Club Class
Yes Richard that is an excellent idea, not only can we claim its a premium we can double the fares as its a new class!

You’re now wondering did I have a bad journey today with Virmin? Your damn right I did. What is it with Virmin’s lack of customer service everywhere I go? Yeah I maybe Railway Staff but that doesn’t warrant getting crap service does it?
At the booking office in a Major Virmin Trains station somewhere on their line, there was a short ass man with his small beady piercing eyes who thought he would be clever and try and refuse me my Railway Staff ticket. Nice try didn’t work did it, I just brought it from a different Train Operating Company (TOC) ticket inspector. He proceeded to call me a “twat” and that “I was a disgrace to my TOC”. Ah well shame that Virmin’s staff have to resort to childish name calling.

So I get on the Train now. It was one of those stupid tilting pieces of shit that they use. After a while a Customer ‘Service’ Manager decides to make the major expedition outside of his office. Well done to him that he actually found his passport.
He looked at my TOC card and demanded it was taken out of its wallet, an unusual move for most TOC’s but for Virmin Trains it seems its normal policy. He started criticising it in detail.
Signature went over the lines of the box on my ID card, the ink was smudged, etc. By this time I was starting to get slightly pissed off. He did eventually accept my TOC card after interrogating me in front of the whole carriage for 15 minutes.

Coming back it was the same Customer ‘Service’ Manager, so the same thing happened all over again. It didn’t occur to the Customer ‘Service’ Manager that I was the same person he had pissed off earlier that day.

Now I have spoken to some other Ticket Collectors/Guards/CSM’s/Conductors/Etc from various different TOC’s, and they ALL say they have had exactly the same problem with Virmin Trains. A train driver from Northern Rail said he was told to get off the train at the next stop. One CSM trainer is refusing to accept any form of Virmin Trains ID cards, and is also telling the people he trains to refuse to accept it.

The thing Virmin don’t realise is they have a lot more to loose then what we have to gain. If they refuse any other TOC’s ID cards then those TOC’s will refuse theirs, and there’s a lot more TOC’s out there then just Virmin.

I have decided to keep the names of the various useless Virmin staff anonymous, but if you have any comments please do post them.

Finsbury Park on Tuesday.

Welcome to Finsbury Park.

This was the scene for most of Tuesday when commuters were sent from Kings Cross to Finsbury Park and vice-versa to make their onward connections, due to Kings Cross being closed.
King’s Cross is one of the major transport gateways to London from the north of England and the station’s closure led many passengers to experience severe difficulties in getting to work this morning.

All trains were originally unloading and loading on the same platform which was causing major major overcrowding issues, as when the trains were coming into the platform there was physcially no room for them to get off! And as soon as the doors were opened everyone pushed to get into the train which was already overcrowded.

Someone had a good idea and they brought the trains into one platform to unload and then shunted out a bit and then came into a different platform to load up again.

No one knew what train was going where for a while, so we had to rely on the Drivers to tell us where they were stopping.

Most passengers were actually polite considering the disruption they were suffering. It was also nice to see the directors of First Capital Connect make an appearence and to their credit they did stay there all day.

Tickets dated on Monday 26th June or Tuesday 27th June 2006 will be vaild on Wednesday 28th or Thursday 29th June 2006. They will not be vaild if they have already been used, so dont even think of re-using a ticket. We can tell!

Kings Cross - Major Emergency

Kings Cross was today evacuated due to a major fire close to the station. This has resulted in NO TRAINS AT ALL from or calling at Kings Cross Mainline Station. This has also resulted in the Kings Cross signaling Centre being Evacuated and there is currently no estimate for a return to ‘normal’ service.

There are a lot of FCC employees which are misplaced around the network and of course there are trains in the wrong places as well.

I suggest you take the day off tomorrow or call in sick or somthing as theres going to be more people trying to cram themselves on the already crowded trains. Crowd control is going to be hetic and I guarentee you wont get a seat after Cambridge.
GNER’s website says:
“A line side fire near Kings Cross has closed the main signalling centre, which controls the route between London and just north of Stevenage. The route is likely to remain closed until Tuesday afternoon at the earliest. In the meantime GNER services will start and terminate at Peterborough. Passengers should NOT travel today or tomorrow morning unless their journey is essential. Tickets dated for today/tomorrow will be valid for two days from the resumption of normal services. Virgin West Coast will convey passengers for Glasgow via London Euston.”

GNER Emergency Timetable

FCC website states:
“Due to a major fire close to King’s Cross Station, all First Capital Connect’s Great Northern route services have been cancelled. Please travel home as soon as you can and be prepared for delay. We strongly advise that customers do not travel at this time. First Capital Connect’s services between Bedford and Brighton on the Thameslink route are running as normal, however customers may experience overcrowding and therefore we are asking customers to travel early. First Capital Connect is working hard with the fire service and will update customers as soon as we can. First Capital Connect tickets are accepted by all other public transport providers. Evening Peak ticket restrictions have been lifted. There is likely to be disruption tomorrow morning, so please check our website and listen to your local radio station. We will do everything we can to keep customers up to date and get the services back to normal as soon as possible.First Capital Connect Great Northern Services
On the hour from Peterborough to Stevenage, and on the hour return, operated by 8 car trains, calling at all stations.
On the half hour Sandy to Peterborough and on the half hour return, operated by 4 car trains, calling at all stations.
The Cambridge to King’s Lynn services will be operating as per our published timetable between these two locations, calling at the normal stations.
For alternative travel information, please click on the PDF below.
Alternative travel information.pdf

More Problems on FCC

Overhead wire problems between Cambridge and Baldock. So more pissing problems tonight, As if the fatality in Cheshunt wasnt enough or the signalling problem at Sutton (on the TL route) or the attempted suicede at Royston.

So what do they do? The worst thing they can do on a Saturday night, cancel the last few trains to London. Ah well never mind no ones going to care on a Saturday night are they? Oh well looks like a few more drunks in a different gutter then normal tonight.

God im glad I was not working today.

GNER and the Cocked up Train

I went up to Edinburgh today for a visit (and of course I wasn’t paying). Well everything seemed okay on the 08:00 from Kings Cross till I found out the idiot on the cafe-bar decided he wasn’t going to speak English with me.

Me: Bacon Sandwich please
Him: Only available till 11am
Me: Ok so can I have one then.
Him: Only available till 11am, [taps the menu board]
Me: yes I know, so can I have one then?
Him: Only available till 11am [taps the menu board harder and mutters under his breath]
By this point I was starting to get a bit pissed off.
Me: Is it possible to have a Yes or No answer?
Him: Ignored me and served someone else.

But the day just got better! Leaving alnmouth (wherever the hell that is) we slowed down and after about 15mins an announcement said there was a broken down goods train in front of us, No estimated time of continuation to journey.

So eventually we got to Edinburgh about 30mins late, and as typical no apology or anything.

So I had my day out, had a few beers, swore at a few scots for giving me monopoly money in change. Sorry but only Bank of England notes for me.

I knew things were going to be bad on the way back when the GNER 225 came into platform 20 of Edinburgh, being pulled by two locomotives. (we’ve had a failure thought me). So after the train was held for a connection from Aberdeen for 10mins we finally started off towards London.
After a while the train started rapidly slowing down (100-0 in about 6 seconds) and then coming to an abrupt stop. Shit I thought, that’s an emergency stop what or who have we hit.
After a short while of worried looks, the train manager came over the tannoy and said he didn’t know why we had stopped and would tell us more later. Hmmm great reassure the passengers.
He came back on the tannoy after a while again and explained that one of the two locos on the rear of the train decided not to talk to the other one and thus this invoked a safety break application. Personally I call that a cock-up.

However once we had got going again, happy in the knowledge our breakdown had fucked up Vermin/Virmin Trains timetable, the train manager did everything he could. He checked onward connections and made regular announcements telling everyone what was going on.
The new Train Manager that got on at Newcastle was just as good and actually walked up and down the train constantly (other then in stations) and was saying what connections were available on approach to stations. He even got a different TOCs service held for a few minutes for a load of us at Peterborough.

But still, a loco failing. It’s not good is it GNER!

Response and Result from LUL

I got my supervisor to send a snotty letter to London Underground about my hours wages on Friday. I had a fax via the internal rail telephone system, today from some MD of finance basicly giving me my money back. I havent yet to get the cash, and Im not expecting it soon either.
Was nice of TfL to thank me for my help on that day. I guess this will keep the RMT happy, who I involved yesterday morning basicly to get the ball rolling.

Would be interested to hear about other TOC staff on similar incidents having pay docked.

Trapped on the Tube

Todays Mood: F**king Pi**ed Off and Hot (oh and an hours pay lighter).

Well what an utter rubbish day, no seriously it has been. After being trapped on the Central Line for an hour, in a tunnel because a train broke down on the approach to Bank in front of us, it couldnt get any worse.

So what exactly happened in the tunnel I here you ask?

The driver came on the PA to say something about a Traction Problem? We were not able to move, but hopefully it would be sorted soon.
5 mins later “there is a track inspection at Liverpool St, hopefully when they are done they will switch the power back on again.”
A further 5 mins or so later he came on to say “Ok ladies and gents, it seems that an object has fallen off the train in front of us, and we have run-over that stuff. Now we are sitting on the debris and so the power can’t be turned on, so we may have to de-train - stand by”.

I identified myself as Surface Railway Staff, which did seem to calm most people down for some reason!
I started to try and assess the situation, who was pregnant, who was elderly, who would need more care, young children, etc. I was lucky that in the carriage I was in there was only 1 elderly person which I identified would need to be looked after. I then delegated this ‘job’ to a young business like lady.

Then the power completely went, No more battery power. Yippee sitting in the dark with some tunnel lighting. Most people were calm and getting the mobile phones out so they could have light. Boy was it funny seeing people using mobiles as torches!

The PA spluttered into action again and we were told we would have to de-train towards Bank station, this confused a few people and they started asking “whats de-training”

We carried on chatting and talking about each others holidays and joking about anything that popped into our heads, just to keep everyone calm and relaxed as from my training I know that Panic is the worst thing you need when your de-training.

I saw someone in the next carriage trying to force open some doors but I don’t know if they succeeded or not.

Around 20 mins later, after being told 3-4 times that help was on the way , we were told if anyone was ill, medical staff would be coming thru the train to help.

I did see some hi-vis people coming thru the carriage which did re-assure a lot of people, One of them had a folded chair in his hands.
After a while they came back through the carriage with a woman who was in serious trouble and looked very very stressed and was definitely in a panic attack.

10 at a time we were allowed off our train and up into another train and then into Bank station platform. At this point I identified myself and assisted with the de-training of the further few carriages.

I cant remember exactly when LUL confirmed the whole train was empty as I was told to go to the surface and give a statement to LUL.

I am wondering should I try and claim the 1 hour pay back off LUL or just think ’sod it I was on free travel anyway’.

Comments are welcome. If you want to quote parts of this please put a link to this site.