On 27 Jun 2005 06:00:21 -0700, "Boltar" wrote:

Well Midland Mainline, Virgin, Central Trains and Network Rail are all
on my hit list after an utterly shambolic weekend of travel of which the
above tale is but one example. Awful, awful, awful.

Some staff on the railways do a good job , however they seem to be few
and far between these days. It seems to me that professionalism on
the railways has long disappeared , whether it be Virgin, LU or some
other
**** poor excuse for a TOC. These days most of the staff seem to be a
lazy bunch of overpaid morons who don't give a stuff about the
passenger
or anything related to the job they're doing. Add that to the rip off
prices of
rail travel and is it any wonder that the roads are so crowded.

And yet again we get a typical post from you. Where did I criticise any
of the staff involved? Answer - nowhere.

They and I, and many others, were simply let down by a hopelessly
ineffective system and poor management. Crews waiting to take over
trains looked as fed up and bemused as the rest of us as their days were
being ruined as well. For what's it worth most of the staff did at
least try to help and those in charge of trains tried to be as helpful
and understanding as possible in face of trying circumstances like
failed / failing trains and endless delays courtesy of lunatic safety
rules that require trains to pass work sites at 5 mph despite the
workers being metres away from a moving train and regulation decisions
that put freight trains in front of Inter City trains.

Short of cancelling a train altogether I'm not sure what a train manager
is supposed to do when faced with a full train and defective toilets and
air conditioning. What would you do?
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!