I hadn't realised WAGN (Wait Allday Get Nowhere) was being taken over
by First Capital Connect on the 1st April. My first reaction is that it
explains the hobbyist running of Wagn of the past few months.

Lets hope the new lot finally fix the broken doors on some units that to
my knowledge have been out of action since Moses was a lad :-)

Seriously, the service can only get better, so good luck to them.

--
Edward Cowling London UK

Edward Cowling London UK wrote:
I hadn't realised WAGN (Wait Allday Get Nowhere) was being taken over
by First Capital Connect on the 1st April. My first reaction is that it
explains the hobbyist running of Wagn of the past few months.

Management might have been taking less interest in the line, but bear
in mind that it's mostly the same staff on the ground so there wasn't
much of an incentive to let things go completely, only to have to work
twice as hard from the changeover! I think most Wagn staff were VERY
happy about the new management too.

The Wait Allday Get Nowhere bit is funny, but by and large they've done
a good job and the services are pretty reliable. FCC has inherited a
pretty good route in my opinion.

Lets hope the new lot finally fix the broken doors on some units that to
my knowledge have been out of action since Moses was a lad :-)

I know problems on the 313's into Moorgate have increased, but the
other stock seems reliable. The only time I've had a door fail on a 317
was when someone held it open to let a mate on. The driver did comment
at the time, and at the next stop he couldn't close the doors properly
- leading to a delay. The 365's now seem to say 'stand clear of the
doors' frequently, whereas they said nothing before. Part of this might
be due to the death of a man at Huntingdon after getting his coat
caught up, saying goodbye to his girlfriend.

Jonathan

In article ,
(Edward Cowling London UK) wrote:

I hadn't realised WAGN (Wait Allday Get Nowhere) was being taken
over by First Capital Connect on the 1st April. My first reaction is
that it explains the hobbyist running of Wagn of the past few months.

Timekeeping on Cambridge trains dipped slightly this week from an
excellent final WAGN record IME.

Lets hope the new lot finally fix the broken doors on some units that
to my knowledge have been out of action since Moses was a lad :-)

On which units? Hornsey had a very good record in the industry under WAGN.

Seriously, the service can only get better, so good luck to them.

You may be lucky there.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On Sat, 8 Apr 2006 14:05 +0100 (BST), (Colin
Rosenstiel) wrote:

In article ,
(Edward Cowling London UK) wrote:

I hadn't realised WAGN (Wait Allday Get Nowhere) was being taken
over by First Capital Connect on the 1st April. My first reaction is
that it explains the hobbyist running of Wagn of the past few months.

Timekeeping on Cambridge trains dipped slightly this week from an
excellent final WAGN record IME.

I happened to check the performance figures recently and they looked
pretty decent given that the main line route is not that easy to run
well given the risks of delays caused by GNER, Hull Trains and Freight
operations never mind Network Rail.

Lets hope the new lot finally fix the broken doors on some units that
to my knowledge have been out of action since Moses was a lad :-)

On which units? Hornsey had a very good record in the industry under WAGN.

Exactly - WAGN may not have been very "sexy" as an operation but it did
seem to have rolling stock stuff pretty well sorted out. Hornsey always
came out well in the Roger Ford "golden spanner" awards in Modern
Railways.

I'm afraid I am somewhat dubious about what First will actually be able
to deliver by way of improvements. There are too many issues on the
Thameslink part of the franchise which they have to deal with that I can
see the WAGN part becoming neglected. The issues around Kings Cross and
how they will ever deal with Thameslink 2000 (hah!) threaten to divert
attention.

I'll confess that I don't particularly like the way First run their
businesses as they seem to adopt the "sweat the assets until they break"
philosophy all too readily and then disguise this as "transforming
travel" or whatever their slogan is. I'd love to be proved wrong
though.

--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

In article ,
(Paul Corfield) wrote:

Exactly - WAGN may not have been very "sexy" as an operation but it
did seem to have rolling stock stuff pretty well sorted out. Hornsey
always came out well in the Roger Ford "golden spanner" awards in Modern
Railways.

I'm afraid I am somewhat dubious about what First will actually be
able to deliver by way of improvements. There are too many issues on the
Thameslink part of the franchise which they have to deal with that I
can see the WAGN part becoming neglected. The issues around Kings Cross
and how they will ever deal with Thameslink 2000 (hah!) threaten to
divert attention.

I'll confess that I don't particularly like the way First run their
businesses as they seem to adopt the "sweat the assets until they
break" philosophy all too readily and then disguise this as
"transforming travel" or whatever their slogan is. I'd love to be
proved wrong though.

Their flying start is to scrap the refreshment trolleys on the Cruisers.
Cost-free to the TOC they were, too. Hardly in line with their policy of
encouraging off-peak travel.

At first we thought they were scrapping the lat night security guards
too but it now appears they have been taken "in-house".

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Their flying start is to scrap the refreshment trolleys on the Cruisers.
Cost-free to the TOC they were, too. Hardly in line with their policy of
encouraging off-peak travel.

Seems a bit silly and illogical.

At first we thought they were scrapping the lat night security guards
too but it now appears they have been taken "in-house".

Seems like a good idea. The ones hired to 'patrol' the stations between
Potters Bar and Stevenage are a joke, and either know the chavs that
are causing trouble (and start talking to them about whether there's
going to be a ticket check or not), or simply aren't willing to do
anything more than hope their hi-vi vests will deter any troublemakers
as they sit down and chat on their mobiles. They had all but
disappeared in the last few months anyway.

Jonathan

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:


Their [FCC's] flying start is to scrap the refreshment trolleys on the Cruisers.
Cost-free to the TOC they were, too. Hardly in line with their policy of
encouraging off-peak travel.


They also seem to have scrapped the phrase "Cambridge Cruiser" in
favour of the phrase "Cambridge Express", according to the new pocket
timetable. Sensibly the description doesn't seem to be restricted to
the non-stop services but to all the fast trains that Cambridge people
would want to use.

PaulO

In article .com,
(Paul Oter) wrote:

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:

Their [FCC's] flying start is to scrap the refreshment trolleys on
the Cruisers. Cost-free to the TOC they were, too. Hardly in line
with their policy of encouraging off-peak travel.

They also seem to have scrapped the phrase "Cambridge Cruiser" in
favour of the phrase "Cambridge Express", according to the new pocket
timetable. Sensibly the description doesn't seem to be restricted to
the non-stop services but to all the fast trains that Cambridge people
would want to use.

Only if you go by the title of the pocket timetable leaflet. I don't
think the WAGN predecessor used the Cruiser name either. I have to say
WAGN seem not to have used the Cruiser branding much recently anyway.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:
In article .com,
(Paul Oter) wrote:

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:

Their [FCC's] flying start is to scrap the refreshment trolleys on
the Cruisers. Cost-free to the TOC they were, too. Hardly in line
with their policy of encouraging off-peak travel.
They also seem to have scrapped the phrase "Cambridge Cruiser" in
favour of the phrase "Cambridge Express", according to the new pocket
timetable. Sensibly the description doesn't seem to be restricted to
the non-stop services but to all the fast trains that Cambridge people
would want to use.

Only if you go by the title of the pocket timetable leaflet. I don't
think the WAGN predecessor used the Cruiser name either. I have to say
WAGN seem not to have used the Cruiser branding much recently anyway.

The departure boards at Kings Cross used the term. I've not been up to
London (down from Cambridge) since FCC took over.

Robin

In article , (R.C.
Payne) wrote:

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:
In article .com,
(Paul Oter) wrote:

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:

Their [FCC's] flying start is to scrap the refreshment trolleys on
the Cruisers. Cost-free to the TOC they were, too. Hardly in line
with their policy of encouraging off-peak travel.
They also seem to have scrapped the phrase "Cambridge Cruiser" in
favour of the phrase "Cambridge Express", according to the new
pocket timetable. Sensibly the description doesn't seem to be
restricted to the non-stop services but to all the fast trains that
Cambridge people would want to use.

Only if you go by the title of the pocket timetable leaflet. I
don't think the WAGN predecessor used the Cruiser name either. I
have to say WAGN seem not to have used the Cruiser branding much
recently anyway.

The departure boards at Kings Cross used the term. I've not been up
to London (down from Cambridge) since FCC took over.

Sometimes only, IIRC. Not used a down Cruiser since 1st April and my
intention to do so this afternoon is fast receding.

--
Colin Rosenstiel