The Ticket Collector

18:20 Kings Cross - Newcastle is Canceled (lack of trains)

Ok this was yesterday night, and so is not yet happening tonight (31/OCT/2006).

GNER decided that they had to cancel the 18:20 Kings Cross to Newcastle last night, the reason given to the public, techical problems. The real reason is they didnt have the trains in the station to operate the service.

Seems GNER really is going down the pan, not to even have the right number of trains to run a service!

So where are the Ticket Barriers weve been promised?

Ok so when FCC swooped in and took over the running of the old WAGN route out of Kings Corss we were promised lots and lots of things including lovley new ticket barriers to stop nasty fare evaders.

Ok so why are we still waiting?

I am fully aware that it was a Franchise Commitment to have ticket barriers installed before the end of this year at most if not all of the stations mentioned. I have yet to see any new barriers on the network.

When they do get installed I can just see it, pink barriers with the First ‘F’ stickered all over them and a lovely smiling ticket inspector telling you to “actually bother to get your gold card out and put it in the machine you lazy git”

Oh and GNER are being screwed to pay for the barriers at Kings Cross and Stevenage.

Fatality at Huntingdon

At somtime around 1210 today there was a fatality at Huntingdon Station. This has caused knock on effects to Services on the GN route.

No GNER trains were running between Kings Cross and Peterborough for a while and there was a replacement bus service between St Neots and Peterborough calling at all stations in between.

A deep cleaning team had to be despatched to Huntingdon station to clean the platforms so I shall leave it to yourselves to work out how bad it was.

Delays of up to 2 hours have occured as a result of this incident, and residual delays of up to 60 minutes and cancellations can be expected for the best part of the rest of today.

First Capital Connect services can now call at Huntingdon.

London to Cambridge for £5 Single!!!

You can get tickets for £5 single for ‘one’ railway routes from London Liverpool Street to Cambridge.

The Catch is, it takes a lot longer then the FCC route.

Oh and you have print them out at home and then blah blah fill in a survey or some rubbish about how the site is and how your use of the tickets were.

https://www.printtraintickets.com/one/

Service Disruption on Monday 16 October

The Great Northern route between Finsbury Park and Moorgate was closed during the morning peak on Monday. This was due to a Fire Alarm having gone off in one of the tunels in the Old Street area. Trains normally running to and from Moorgate were diverted to King’s Cross, except for two trains which terminated at Alexandra Palace.

Compensation
If your journey was delayed by 30 minutes or more and you were travelling on a Season Ticket purchased on or after 1 April 2006, or with any ticket other than a Season Ticket, you can claim compensation under the First Capital Connect Delay Repay scheme.

Assault on the 0036 Kings Cross - P’boro (06OCT06)

Admin: This is an Email I have had from a jonmorris with regards to an incident on one of First Capital Connects services.

On board the 0036 First Capital Connect service from Kings Cross to Peterborough, Friday 6th October 2006 (Saturday morning), I was assaulted after getting off the train at Hatfield station. No serious injury fortunately, but I’m more angry with the way it was allowed to happen.

As I walked through the train to use the toilet, there was a serious argument going on with a female (with man and child) threatening to kill nearby passengers that must have said something that she didn’t like. She implied that she had a blade and would cut them, which slightly concerned me. Many people looked on like startled rabbits. It then heated up more, so like a fool (having had some drinks) I told them to calm down. She then turned on me, threatening to stab me. I said I’d call the police and things got worse. So I walked into the next carriage and pulled the alarm.

The train stopped (between Potters Bar and Hatfield) and I expected to speak to the driver (Class 365) but heard nothing. Then two people walked down to ask what was going on. I asked if they were off-duty/plain clothed police and they said they worked for the rail company (no ID, uniform or anything). One had a key and reset the alarm so the train could continue.

During this time, they went to see the people still arguing and pushing. I followed to explain what I’d seen and what had been said, and got taken back to be told that at that time of night, they don’t want a problem on the train. I was asked to leave at Hatfield, which was my stop anyway, and also the others. I specifically made a point of saying that he was ensuring I’d be attacked as soon as the train departed. He didn’t say another word.

No sooner have I gone over the bridge to the taxi rank, the male ran up to me and confronted me, arms out and looking like he was going to head butt me any second. Luckily other people had got off at the station, some knowing what had happened. He didn’t actually touch me (just more threats of violence and swearing), but the woman wasn’t so ‘polite’. She punched me on the head, but I managed to move. Then she walked off, only to come back and smash her can of beer over my head. I got covered, as did someone standing nearby. She continued to threaten me and say that I’m dead if they ever see me again.

I reported everything by telephone to British Transport Police, and await an explanation from FCC. BTP were concerned by this, but I’m not holding out much hope of them getting to the bottom of things. I don’t know who the people were who claimed to be working for the railway, and never got to speak to the driver.

I could easily identify the people on the train, and the can of beer would have fingerprints, but I’m not silly enough to think the police will take incident that seriously. After all, nobody was killed or injured, beyond a soaking wet jacket and season ticket. Of course, I
have to keep my eyes open on any other late night train trips where they might be travelling.

My advice; If you see something happen. Turn your head. Don’t get involved. The people you might expect to help probably won’t because they want an easy life. That makes me very angry, but I don’t fancy being killed to try and do the right thing.

GNER wifi - what a joke

No this blog isnt turning into a GNER bitch blog, but things have to be said about their services.

The webmaster and myself were on a service from Leeds in First Class and trying to access the ‘FREE’ WiFi. We were then told it would cost us £2.50 per 30mins for the so called complimentry WiFi service to First Class passengers.

Obviously we didnt pay it and moved to another carriage, but is this another of GNER’s new revenue streams to try and make that £60m franchise payment in the next two weeks?

We shall see.