The Ticket Collector

Virmin Trains… Media

PRESS RELEASE - BEARDIE MEDIA CUTS COST OF VIEWING BY UP TO 75%!

Beardie Media is pleased to announce that many viewing charges for its programming are to be cut by up to 75% in the following time bands:
Band A viewers will have a 50% reduction.
Band B viewers will have a 67% reduction.
Band C viewers will have a 75% reduction.

Beardie Media customers are sure to welcome these changes. The company wishes bring the world class standards of service of Virgin Trains to cable broadcasting.

Thank you for trav.. viewing with Virgin Tra.. Media!
In very small print:
Band A - 01:00 hrs to 02:00 hrs Monday to Friday
Band B - 05:00 hrs to 06:00 hrs Monday to Friday
Band C - 02:00 hrs to 05:00 hrs Monday to Friday

Unrestricted viewing (at times outside these three bands) will still be allowed, however the charge for all unrestricted viewings will be increased by 210%. The company reserves the right to raise prices even further at the earliest opportunity and change the names of the service and invent totally new names and add even more different restrictions

Customers must book their viewing slot 7 days in advance.

Anyone subscribing to this service caught passing through Birmingham New Street may be subject to having their contract details inspected by a rival company. Meanwhile, the rival company will open up it’s own network nearby,
allowing you to freely use it, they will say you are meant to pay but do nothing to prevent free access to it, as they are too busy inspecting Virgin contracts, and ensuring that Virgin customers are paying Virgin an amount that the rival company deem ‘correct’.

GNER - Guards from Hell.

I would like to take a moment to thank TheTicketCollector for inviting me to post on this blog about some of my GNER journeys from Kings Cross. I am known as GNER Commuter and will be submitting a few posts every so often.
Tonight was no exception, what is it with staff that dont like you getting on the Train before it is annouced? Apparently its for ‘insurance’ reasons. Well lets put it this way, the train in question the 18:30 to Newcastle (1M14 for those train buffs) had the destination stickers in the window, the cleaners had left the train and the staff were eating/playing cards/chatting on mobile phones in the seats just after the buffet car in first class. Another member of staff was standing outside smoking.

Ok so the staff have to be able to play cards instead of letting me stay on the train? So the moronic asshole of a guard decided he would throw the rule book at me and demanded I got off the train. As I was getting off, the station tannoy system at Kings Cross blasted into action stating the 18:30 was leaving from platform 8. I got back on and told the Guard “well that was pointless wasnt, your just throwing the rule book at me”.

Is this what GNER staff have to do now, yeah we all know their jobs are at risk but pissing off customers? Now thats a sure fire way of getting yourself sacked. The Chefs and CSA’s are being sacked/made redundant as soon as possible by GNER management, prehaps this guard should be included in the next wave of sacking.

Editors Note: The views above are of a guest contributor and are not necessarily the views of TheTicketCollector and should not be assumed as such. Complaints regarding the above posting should be directed to the admin via the usual channels.
Admins Note: Due to several complaints regarding the content of this posting, names have now been removed.

Forecast: poor weather conditions for Tomorrow

There could be some problems with early morning services tomorrow, Thursday. This is due to the predicted cold and icey weather. If you are planning to travel tomorrow, keep up to date with the latest information by looking on the FCC website, National Rail website and this blog.
Ice will be a widespread problem tonight and through Thursday morning’s rush hour across much of central and north-eastern England.

No Problems on GNER??? Cant be right?

Just a little quick posting. Took some screenshots of the Internal GNER Real-Time information page.

“Crowded trains are safer in crashes” - ORR

Was reading somthing of interest to regular visitors of this blog in the Evening Standard yesterday. The Standard/Daily Mail are continuing on there “Campaign” for a seat for every commuter. Well we all know that this will never be possible.
What defines a commuter? Someone who travels every day including weekends? Someone who travels 3 days a week? Prehaps someone who travels on the overnight trains once a week in both directions, are they classed as a commuter?

Now this is what really pisses me off about the Evening Standard, yeah we will moan and complain but what we wont tell you is we couldnt even run a train service, we barley run a newspaper.

But anyway onto the main reason for this blog posting.

The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) yesterday stated that “Packed trains are safer”, “Research in the late 1990’s found that where there was a crowded or overcrowded train carriage there was no detrimental effect to people involved in crashes”. “In a lot of cases people were better off in train carriages where there was overcrowding”

The Evening Standard continued to moan about how commuters are getting a raw deal, but did they mention that fact that most companies offer you a 5% refund on your ticket if you dont get a seat? No because that would go against their unwinnable campaign “a seat for every commuter”.

There is actually no legal limit to how many people can travel in any given carriage at any given time, there is also no safety law regarding the maximum number of people in a train carriage.

FCC are planning to increase their services between Cambridge and London to 12 carriages, this is dependant on Network Rail and the DfT upgrading the power supply between Cambridge and Letchworth. Some platforms are going to have to be lengthened.
Also there are rumors and these are only rumors at the moment that FCC will be getting some new trains to replace the extra carriages which will be taken from other routes to lengthen the Cambridge - London services. These could be HST’s, 180’s or the trains which silverlink use.

Back to Normalish

It just seems that anything that could have gone wrong yesterday did. However I note with interest that FCC did get a few services out of Kings Cross in the later evening last night.

The following services are operating today:
A shuttle between Moorgate and Alexandra Palace
Buses between Alexandra Palace and Welwyn Garden City
1 train per hour in each direction between Moorgate and Hertford North, departing Moorgate at xx54 (return to be advised)
xx06 King’s Cross to Cambridge will be diverted via Hertford North
xx21 King’s Cross to Peterborough will operate as per timetable
xx36 King’s Cross to Peterborough will be diverted via Hertford North
xx45 King’s Cross to King’s Lynn will operate as per timetable
xx52 King’s Cross to Cambridge will operate as per timetable

Severe Delays to FCC services tonight.

Final Update: 2156
Information for traveling tomorrow is limited and patchy at the moment. The Hertford loop remains closed due to Overhead Lines needing replacing. Hertford Loop line will remain closed until approx midday.

TL Route is expected to run to a timetabled service.

GN Route is still suffering delays, and the last trains tonight on FCC are as follows:
LAST TRAIN TO CAMBRIDGE LEAVES KINGS CROSS AT 22:30
LAST TRAIN TO PETERBOROUGH LEAVES KINGS CROSS AT 22:40

Next time I have any information will be tommorrow morning so please do check back in the morning.
Update: 1836
FCC are slowly opening up the GN route this evening, but customers are still advised to seek alternative means of travel if they can.

The services FCC are currently aiming to operate are:
One train per hour King’s Cross to Peterborough. (Stopping at Finsbury Park, Stevenage, all stations to Peterborough).
One train per hour King’s Cross to Cambridge (Stopping at Finsbury Park, Stevenage, all stations to Royston, then Cambridge).
Two trains per hour between Welwyn Garden City and Cambridge.
Two trains per hour between Welwyn Garden City and Peterborough.
Moorgate to Bowes Park two trains per hour.
King’s Cross to Bowes Park two trains per hour.
Cambridge to King’s Lynn shuttle operating.

If you can delay your journey on the GN route, pelase do. Your FCC tickets are valid on LUL tubes and trains.

Update: 1730
It is unlikely that FCC will be able to operate any trains for the majority of this evening on the GN route.

FCC are working as hard as possible with Network Rail to open the main line and we may be able to operate something later this evening.

If you can delay your journey on the GN route, pelase do. Your FCC tickets are valid on LUL tubes and trains.
First Capital Connect have decided that there will be no service between Watton at Stone and Bowes Park this evening. The entire Hertford Loop branch is closed due to Overhead Line problems.

Update: 1603
First Capital Connect have now issued an Emergency Statement on their website, timed at 15:54

FCC Emergency Announcement
Last Update: 18/01/2007 15:54:23
Nature of Incident: SEVERE WEATHER CONDITIONS

First Capital Connect services are badly affected due to the severe weather conditions today, we are working closely with Network Rail to restore services as soon as we can.

There are currently no services operating on the GN route, but we are confident services will be restored in the near future.

On the TL route, there are 2 trains operating per hour:

Bedford - Brighton
Departing Bedford at xx25 and xx57

Brighton - Bedford
Departing Brighton at xx07 xx37

Luton to Sutton: full service

Update: 1542
I have been told that the bits of Huntington Station on the line has now been cleared and services can run as far as Stevenage
It is confirmed that Kings Cross station has had some of its station building fall down, it is not known if this has fallen on a track, taken down overheads, or not.
The Overhead wires at Huntingdon which were flapping loose have now been ‘fixed’.

There are still trees on the line in the New Barnet area, these have taken down the Overheads with them and NR are trying to restore power. ETA 17:00hrs

Leeds to Doncaster on the East Coast Mainline is blocked, at the moment we do not know the cause but belive this is due to Overhead Line problems.
At York a train has gotten its pantograph stuck in one of the side platforms.
The Signal Box which has caught fire and blown up somewhere on the East Coast Main Line remains unconfirmed.

And to top it all the A1 main road is now blocked due to an acident.

15:21
Services are suspended and at a stand due to various operating incidents.

I have edited this blog entry a few times and as such have lost some of the original content I am afraid.