The Ticket Collector

FCC Cleared of Peak Restrictions

The Moaning people at London TravelWatch decided somtime ago to make a complaint to the Rail Regulator about First Capital Connects new peak restrictions and also somthing to do with the Restrictive Trade Practices Act.

Well it didnt take the ORR long to decide that FCC were not and are not breaking the rules and promptly returned a “no case to answer” verdict.

London TravelWatch responded by saying somthing along the lines of “its not fair” and vowed to “fight the restrictions”.

FCC Train Splits at 90 MPH.

This is what most of the visitors to this blog are expecting to see news about considering its all in the media at the moment.

One of First Capital Connects modern 365 unit trains de-coupled early afternoon on Thursday night while it was traveling at speed, reports from fellow staff are saying that it was traveling close to speeds of 90 MPH.

This train was 8 carriages long, (2 trains of 4 carriages each) and it de-coupled (split) while it was in motion. Whenever a train looses communication with the drivers cab it automaticly applies the emergency brakes.

FCC have launched an internal investigation as to what happened and it should be reporting back soon. Im sure the HM Railways Inspectorate have also launched a more probing investigation.

As soon as either reports are published I will try and get my hands on them and put them on this blog.

GNER have until 15 October 2006.

Sea Containers, GNER’s parent company which has no money and is still in debt has been delivered a deadline of 15th october 2006 by the good old DfT to (and to quote) “Sort the hell out of GNER”. The threat was that they would loose the Franchise on Breech of Contract grounds.

I suspect the Government are not happy that GNER had to borrow yet more money to pay the staff last week.

Staff cuts are also rumored to be happening and as per normal the usless managers will get the golden handshake for there ‘good’ work. But of course the golden handshakes are a must even though that would pay for more frontline staff which are the most important staff at the end of the day.

GNER also cant afford to even run the trolley service in standard class, and have techical problems everytime. They have also drasticly cut down their resturant service.

Give it a few months and I suspect it will either become ‘two’ (after national expresses ‘one’ franchaise) or First North Eastern.

Any opinions expressed are that of The Ticket Collector and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of other Train Companies.

Writing this on a GNER train.

Yes I reliase this blog is ment to be all about First Capital Connect but I thought I would write about GNER’s so called ‘free’ WIFI service.

Well it would be nice if I actually got a connection which was faster then an ant competing in the Ant Olympics. It has taken me 30 mins just to write this post.

Anyways I am about to have to get off this train to get home and WOW I still havent had a download of more then 3kb/sec.

Oh and surprise suprise there is no trolley service today due to a “techical fault”, oh and passengers in Coach F please move to coach B as this coach is a lot cooler, and you wont continue to boil due to the coach Air Conditioning system packing in.

London Kings Cross Closed - 27th August till 07:00 28th August

Owing to major engineering work, no services will operate into or out of King’s Cross Mainline station from the start of service on Sunday until approximately 0700 on Monday morning.

GNER services will terminate at Peterborough with a Rail Shuttle service between Peterborough and Finsbury Park (which will call at Stevenage).

First Hull Trains will terminate at Finsbury Park instead of Kings Cross.

First Capital Connect services will start/terminate at Alexandra Palace. For travel between King’s Cross and Alexandra Palace passengers should use Piccadilly Line services between King’s Cross and Turnpike Lane. A rail replacement bus will link Turnpike Lane station with Alexandra Palace. Alternatively, Wood Green station is a short walk from Alexandra Palace. Rail tickets to/from London will be valid between Wood Green/Turnpike Lane and King’s Cross, St Pancras therefore you won’t have to buy a separate tube ticket. First Capital Connect tickets will also be valid at all stations to Cockfosters.
More Details

Traveling on FCC to Airports this weekend?

Advice from First Capital Connect with regards to traveling to Luton or Gatwick Airports in the next few days.

First Capital Connect is warning all customers using its services to and from Luton or Gatwick Airports, to be prepared for long delays today in light of new security measures.

Regrettably, significant delays at airports are inevitable. Customers are being asked to allow themselves plenty of extra time and to ensure that other than the few permitted items listed below, all their belongings are placed in their hold baggage and checked in.

These additional security measures will make travel more difficult for our customers, particularly at such a busy time of the year. But they are necessary and will continue to keep flights from UK airports properly secure.

With immediate effect, the following arrangements apply to all passengers starting their journey at a UK airport and to those transferring between flights at a UK airport.

All cabin baggage must be processed as hold baggage and carried in the hold of passenger aircraft departing UK airports.

Passengers may take through the airport security search point, in a single (ideally transparent) plastic carrier bag, only the following items. Nothing may be carried in pockets:

• Pocket size wallets and pocket size purses plus contents (for example money, credit cards, identity cards etc (not handbags));
• travel documents essential for the journey (for example passports and travel tickets);
• Prescription medicines and medical items sufficient and essential for the flight (eg diabetic kit), except in liquid form unless verified as authentic.
• Spectacles and sunglasses, without cases.
• Contact lens holders, without bottles of solution.
• For those travelling with an infant: baby food, milk (the contents of each bottle must be tasted by the accompanying passenger) and sanitary items sufficient and essential for the flight (nappies, wipes, creams and nappy disposal bags).
• Female sanitary items sufficient and essential for the flight, if unboxed (eg tampons, pads, towels and wipes).
• Tissues (unboxed) and/or handkerchiefs
• Keys (but no electrical key fobs)

All passengers will be hand searched, and their footwear and all the items they are carrying will be x-ray screened.

Pushchairs and walking aids will be x-ray screened, and only airport-provided wheelchairs may pass through the screening point.

In addition to the above, all passengers boarding flights to the USA and all the items they are carrying, including those acquired after the central screening point, will be subjected to a secondary search at the boarding gate. Any liquids discovered must be removed from the passenger.

There are no changes to current hold baggage security measures.

If any First Capital Connect customers have any questions on their travel arrangements or security in place at airports they should contact their airline or carrier.

Railway Threat Level at Level 4

Due to the Government saying it has foiled a terrorist attack and imposing lots of new restrictions on hand baggage on Flights Leaving UK airspace we were all given Security Briefing 3 today.

Basically said the Railway Threat level remains at level 4 (whatever that means) and to continue to keep a look out for bags and such other suspicious activity (isn’t that every Commuter anyway?).