I regularly use GNER and think its one of the one last decent railway
companies. And yesterday they were distrupted because of a gas leak in
Doncaster area which affected trains going to Newcastle etc...
I didn't think it would affect me as trains were going to Leeds as
normal.
However some bright spark had the really great idea of terminating all
north of Doncaster at York. And all trains south at Doncaster or
Leeds. And then have a shuttle train between Leeds and York and let
everyone else fight it out on Arriva's two carriage trains and
Virgin's shiny new ones.
I got a train in the mid evenning. I usually get there about 5
minuites before my train leaves as I always have reserved seat. But
for some bizarre reason I got there 30mins before my train left. It
was already there and Leeds station is freezing cold so I got on the
train. By 10mins before the train was going to leave the carriage was
full. There were no seat reservations (I had sat in my reserved seat)
and so people were fighting and arguing over seats. Then when the
train was due to leave we were told that we had to wait for the
shuttle train from York for connecting passengers. That came in 20mins
later. Then we had to wait another 15mins as a GNER train load of
people left one platform and came to ours. And then we had to wait for
the people who had no idea where to go. Then the people who stood
arguing at GNER infomation desk. So we left 40mins late. The train was
packed. My carriage there was about 20 people standing just in the
carriage let alone the doorways. And they stood all the way to London
which took longer than 2 and half hours suppose to as we stopped at
every station. You couldn't leave your seat as you couldn't move in
the carriage.
I know Sundays are quiet but the lack of trains make them busy.
Especially in the evennings when people are going home. So why stick
two trains onto one? Wouldn't it been better to have another train
waiting at Doncaster or even extra trains? As we kept picking up more
and more people. I felt sorry for the people standing as I can assure
you I wouldn't have stood all the way from Leeds to London.
I hope the people standing get more than a poultry 25% refund for the
train being more than 50mins late.
Even though it takes longer Im trying for Midland Mainline next time.