Hah.. well following my blog yesterday about going out for a few drinks in London, the night ended on a rather negative note.
We arrived at Liverpool Street at 22.45 ish, usually the last trains to Chelmsford are 00.20 – so we had bags of time. Looking at the big sign with all the train departure times, nothing was going to Chelmsford, or indeed anywhere close, I wondered if there had been an incident of some description that had halted the trains. Loz went over to the information point, which had swathes of angry looking people around it. She was told that Greater Anglia stop trains heading to Ingatestone, Chelmsford, Witham etc after 22.30 Mon-Wed to do maintenance.
This meant a train journey to Shenfield and a 35 minute ‘rail replacement’ coach to Chelmsford. Fucking marvellous.
We got on the train at 23.10 and it slowly chugged it’s way to Shenfield. We were in two minds about getting on the coach, as it would be rammed, as the train was, with drunk people and their stinky food. When we got off the train we had to go slowly, as a 7 month pregnant lady doesn’t move all that fast, by the time we got out to the coaches, they’d actually all gone. Great! I got out some cash and we hailed a taxi, it was a quick drive, but expensive at £30 (As it was after midnight), but at least we were home.
I’m a bit narked at Greater Anglia for not being so forthcoming with their maintenance. How much effort would it be to have a sign up at the gates at Chelmsford saying :
‘Travelling back to Chelmsford tonight? Try and do it before 22.30 as we’re doing line works after that’
Maybe even get the ticket staff to mention it when you purchase your ‘day return’? Or have a pop up message on the ticket screen when you use those? Don’t just have a sign up at Liverpool Street AFTER the line has closed, it defeats the purpose and upsets a lot of people. Also if you are laying on coaches, why not let them wait to ensure everyone is on them? What if there was someone in a wheelchair who couldn’t speed down the platform to get to them before they disappear into the night?
Fucking idiots.
There probably are no intelligent beings working in the public transport industry. And those that do tend to have no power or say on how to improve the services.
As a seasoned traveller, every station should display a “Planned Engineering Works” poster showing times and stations affected. Saying that, my line has works most evenings and I rarely check the boards, and I know they are there, so quite how someone who uses the service once every few months should even know about them I don't know!
I agree it's very scary when the boards show no trains to your destination, although good apps / websites that show timetables should show when the train is replaced by a bus; again, it's still an additional thing most people wouldn't think needed doing beforehand.
As the coach left without you (I'm surprised the station was unmanned as ours are normally swarming with additional staff in this situation), I would write to their Customer Services department, as the delay you then faced may be covered by the Delay Repay compensation scheme (won't get back taxi fare, but may get you at least a sorry)
You might get the taxi fare back. When I had a major problem with First Great Western in 2007 and we had to get a taxi from Swindon to Castle Cary (very expensive but split between six of us so it was alright) they refunded the cost. That was a bit of a different situation because it was due to the line flooding and a complete clusterfuck of false information and lack of buses, but still.
i could write lots here. suffice to say…. i hate all trains with a passion. ALL OF THEM. That is all.
GA are certainly at fault for not providing enough coaches, but they do tweet about the works every evening:
https://twitter.com/#!/greateranglia/status/177487678311378944
And the replacement buses are shown in the timetable:
http://www.greateranglia.co.uk/timetables/download/70
But obviously not everyone is on Twitter, or has the internet, surely a good idea as well as that is just to put up a sign next to the turnstiles, or get staff to tell people when they get their tickets.
And yes, they failed massively with the coaches.
You can write whatever you like Ella 🙂