When I discovered there was a train straight from Crofton Park to St. Pancras (and back) I cannot express how happy it made me. It seems to be some sort of semi-secret that plenty of people just don't seem to know anything about, probably because it's too useful.
Of course nothing is so simple.
So whilst it is theoretically so, so useful the fact is that it never seems to be running when I actually need it. First it was the weekends. Nothing. Then it was the snow, delay, cancellation and just plain disappearing act. Third, on a snow free weekday, gone again.
I'm not sure whether it's actually worse to have a phantom train or just get it simply removed from the timetable. Certainly transport for London does not seem to be a 100% reliable guide as to whether it's running or not.
A few days ago I was waiting on the platform at St Pancras and the announcement came that the train had been cancelled. I'm now so convinced of the company's incompetence I actually decided to stay where I was. What happens? Yes, it actually turned up, after everyone on the platform had been told to find an alternative route about five minutes before.
This cannot go on. If the train companies cannot run a reliable service where do they get off increasing the fares at a time when inflation is below zero? Time to stop messing about and renationalise the lot. Well, that's my view anyway.
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6 comments:
Jim, this is fantastic!
I hadn't heard about direct services to St Pancras along this line, either. Nunhead, the next station along from Crofton Park, is only 10mins walk from home.
I regularly travel up North from either St Pancras or King's Cross, and the journey through London can be a real hassle sometimes. I'm jumping with joy at the thought of direct services from sleepy old Nunhead! No more scurrying through London Bridge station, or changing buses on the Old Kent Road. Next time I go up North, I'll catch your 'ghost train'. I'm optimistic that connections should be more reliable now that the weather has improved.
BTW, All services along the central part of this route (Blackfriars, St Pancras etc.) are suspended on weekends and evenings for a year or more, whilst Thameslink rebuild Blackfriars station and do their other improvement works. It's not just Crofton Park and Nunhead that's missing out - people are affected from as far afield as Brighton and Bedford!
Let's hope the wait is worth it...
Apparently, you're not the only one who's noticed the less-than-brilliant service on the Thameslink route; see this BBC article... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8485360.stm and, appropriately enough, there's talk of provatization. That would be a /second/ franchise back in state hands, then, counting (ex-National Express) East Coast. Here's hoping...
There's been a direct train for several months now. Not at the weekends - so no use all the times I've had lots of luggage and kids to lug up and down the stairs en route to my parents in the North or to Luton airport...
I spent well over an hour on a freezing platform at Elephant last week. When a train finally came, it was half as long as usual, as the carriages had apparently been damaged (how?) by the bad weather the previous week. What I minded most was no information.
Yes, nationalise the lot. But as a shorter term measure abolish Boris Johnson.
I got that 'damaged carriages' announcement - I assumed it was something to do with the weather, maybe they can't get wet or something.
At least it didn't get stuck in a tunnel for half a day, small mercies.
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