Anyone else suffering with First Capital Connect at the mo?

[tomtom]

Half the services cancelled, those that are running now seem to all be slow services stopping everywhere. Took me 1.5hrs to get home today; their overstretched business model is adding 2hrs to my working day at the moment. I want my £2700 back.

Lack of drivers due to many on 'long term sick leave'... Utterly useless.

I saw Ann Main moaning about it in parliament the other day but is anyone actually doing anything about this st?

Edited by tomtom on Tuesday 17th November 00:28

[anonymous-user]

tomtom said:

Half the services cancelled, those that are running now seem to all be slow services stopping everywhere. Took me 1.5hrs to get home today; their overstretched business model is adding 2hrs to my working day at the moment. I want my £2700 back.

Lack of drivers due to many on 'long term sick leave'... Utterly useless.

I saw Ann Main moaning about it in parliament the other day but is anyone actually doing anything about this st?

Edited by tomtom on Tuesday 17th November 00:28

I sympathiose TT, as I have a similarly frustrating situation with National Express/NCP.

NCP took over the Harlow Stn Car Park some time back - price rises quickly followed. Now they want extra capacity, so have decided to shut it for 6 months (except to Season Ticket holders) whilst they build a multi-story extension.

There are therefore no pay and display spaces for the next 6 months

As I don't go into the office more than 1 or two days every week an ST is not worth it. So for the next 6 months I have to use Bishops Stortford Stn. One good thing is that it's closer to home for me, but the car park is a hefty walk from the station, it's not clearly marked so parking is a bit random, it has a history of car theft and break-ins, and the journey into Liverpool St is 10 mins longer and a few quid more expensive.

Why is it that the management of any company associated with the shambles that is rail travel in this country seemingly incapable of making even the most basic management decisions, and why is it that 'customer service' seems to be the last thing on the agenda?

Brain-dead ignorant tts, the lot of them.....

[plenty]

Yes it's absolutely miserable at the moment. When you finally get on a train it is of course jam packed to the rafters. I sympathise with the poor folks at St Albans on the southbound line to St Pancras in the morning as the trains are often too crowded to let people on there.

[tobeee]

plenty said:

Yes it's absolutely miserable at the moment. When you finally get on a train it is of course jam packed to the rafters. I sympathise with the poor folks at St Albans on the southbound line to St Pancras in the morning as the trains are often too crowded to let people on there.

Long time ago when I used to do the grim St.A to London commute, I can recall one day the train being so packed that not only could nobody from St.A squeeze on, but a couple of people already on the train got squeezed out and had to wait at St.A for the next train! Not moved on much has it! FFS! How I enjoy my drive to Luton each morning, watching the poor commuters rushing to the station!

[tomtom]

Normally it's fine, I get a seat every day to and from work and I live in St. Albans.

At the moment, however, it's fking awful.

Edited by tomtom on Tuesday 17th November 23:42

[Zippee]

I use FCC daily to commute from St Neots to Kings Cross (£3840 pa) and have to say the service is pretty good for me. 07:40 train is 12 coaches long and I always get a seat, though the next stop (Stevenage) often means some will stand.
Coming home either the 17:40 or 18:10 again both 12 coach and always a seat unless I get to the train a couple of minutes before departure.

However, it's one of the main reasons I live/commute from where I do as I'm at the start of an express line. Any closer to London and especially on a stopping service and I believe theres often little chance of a seat. Always spaces in the station car park as well, though NCP IMHO take the piss at £6.40 a day.

Edited by Zippee on Wednesday 18th November 11:12

[tomtom]

I take a train at 0744 most days. There's one which starts at St. Albans, so is empty, then stops at Radlett and Elstree, before West Hampstead and St Pancras et al, or there's a fast train at the same time. The fast train only saves me about 10 minutes so I don't usually bother as either train has me at the office before 0830, but I can get a seat on the fast train too if I stand in the right place on the platform. Or, I could, until this current 'situation'.

Strangely, I sometimes take the 0614 from St Albans and always have to stand.

[CedGTV]

A very tired Radlett to either West Hampstead or St. Pancreas passenger here.

Parking a joke at £5.30 a day or £25 a week, currently on a £66.00 weekly Travelcard while i'm waiting for a company loan for a yearly ticket @ £2640 add to that a £800 bill for the 12 months parking, so up to three and half grand to suffer this st at the moment.

Generally getting in on a early just pass 8 train depending how late I am. Mainly get a seat in but hardly ever get a seat back while trying to get a train around 6-ish from either St. P. or W. H.

However at the moment it is a joke with trains just disappearing off the screens when terribly delayed *, the jam packed carriages, the whole fking sorry business.

• I'm sure I smell a rat there but just can't be arsed to work out how they are massaging the figures.

It is really getting too much now, I've looked at a job in Woburn just to get away from this daily grind.

[tomtom]

I've noticed the vanishing trains too. That and adding stops to fast trains after you leave St Pancras.

Total s.

[Zumbruk]

I used to commute from Bedford to Canary Wharf. After 12 years of that I finally got sick unto death of it (I doubt PH would publish my opinions of FCC and EMT). Now I work from home, which is *much* nicer.

All time record journey time home; 5 hours.

[cottonfoo]

I do the Hertford <-> Moorgate run every day. Have to say FCC haven't actually been too bad the past few days in this snow and ice. Although the destinations changed a few times on the way home last night, it did get me home, and only about 10 minutes late.

It's the other people on the trains that I hate. I mean, I really do hate them

[tomtom]

Last night was a shambles. All cross-London trains cancelled because something broke down somewhere.

Utter pish.

[Gun]

They've been a joke over the last few weeks, I feel sorry for people living past St Albans, 2 trains an hour really isn't good enough. What I don't understand is they've agreed a pay deal (was agreed at the beginning of December) so why aren't all the work-shy fker back at work?