The Ticket Collector

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!