Friday, January 15, 2010

Back to Normal: Trains cancelled!

A broken line at Newark caused long delays Chaos on the East Coast Main Line yesterday, but this morning's Peterborough Evening Telegraph quotes an official reassuring us that it was quickly fixed and the service was 'back to normal'*

What he failed to say was the service was already on a 'revised time-table' due to the 'adverse weather conditions'.

And that means cancelled trains and long delays.

The official went on to hint that the broken line was no big deal as East Coast has lots of experience in dealing with long delays!

When I heard about yesterday's problems, I checked East Coast's website where there is notice of the 'revised timetable due to adverse weather' with a referral to another page for train times.

But up to midnight last night, that page was a blank!

This morning a list of affected services appears...and if you know where your train originates, you might get a clue whether it's running to time, running at all, or cancelled.

All too late to help me, as I was already at the station waiting for the 8.33 which never came!

* Sorry no link, the PET story is not on line yet - wonder if the adverse weather conditions are to blame?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the Rail Network under Labour!

fairdealphil said...

Good try Geoffrey...

A couple of points to think about...

1. The rail network was starved of investment for years under Thatcher/Major with rickety rolling stock, long past its sell by date which the Government refused to renew, causing unneccessary job losses in the rail industry...

2. It was the Tories, not Labour who scandalously fragmented our rail network in a dogmatic dangerous privatisation which left a poor maintenance regime and no-one responsible for safety and inevitably led to a number of fatal crashes - only solved when Labour took Network Rail back into public ownership.

3. For the first time in over half a century, we know have a fully funded plan for rail which will allow for double today’s level of passengers and freight over the next 30 years.

4. Labour is investing an extra £1 billion in major transport projects to stimulate the economy, by accelerating Government plans to cut congestion and significantly increase rail capacity. Dsavid Cameron would halt this investment.

5. Labour will deliver over 1,300 new carriages for our rail network between now and 2014 – nearly 100,000more train seats.

Not perfect, but getting there.

We also have a Prime Minister who actually uses trains - unlike Thatcher of course who never went on one!

Hope you are well Geoffrey...