Laura gets tummy ache

Laura the London Midland Engine had tummy ache because she was too full of passengers. She had managed to deposit some of them from Hereford's 709 service at Worcester, but many more were standing in the aisles looking very cross.

"What happened to our fifth carriage in the mornings?" she moaned to her conductor, as he fought his way through the remaining 4 units checking that passengers had paid enough for the privilege of sitting on the floor, squashing themselves into luggage racks or breathing into other people's armpits.

"Not sure Laura. I think the new Costcutting Controller thought he could save a bit by taking it off us."

"What happened to that nice Mr. Banaghan then?', Laura whined through a tunnel. "He gave me my extra carriage which really improved things earlier this year."

"I think he gave up trying to sort London Midland out and went to work on a proper railway in Australia," reported the Guard, reversing into someone's coffee cup and hitting another commuter over the head with his ticket machine it was so crowded. "Perhaps they think railways should put passengers first over there. It'll never catch on here.

Laura groaned quietly as she pulled up at Droitwich Spa, which was heaving with passengers. Hordes boarded, standing in very close fellowship with each other as they endured the cramped conditions for the remainder of the delayed journey to Birmingham New Street.

"I wish I was a cattle truck", mused Laura. "It might be less crowded than being a London Midland engine."

London Midland Leaves Chaos

Laura the London Midland Engine took pride in getting her early morning passengers to work on time. She was very proud when Improving Controller Mr. Banaghan said she had done well over the past year. Unfortunately Mr. Banaghan had escaped and run away to Australia, and she missed him.

Laura was cross this Tuesday morning. She, and her other London Midland friends, had been seriously delayed both yesterday and today, by what she the conductor told her passengers were "adverse rail head conditions". Her conductor told her secretly that this was railspeak for "leaves on the line".

"This is ridiculous!" she moaned to Anegla the Arriva Train when they met briefly at Hereford station. "Every Autumn since I was manufactured leaves have fallen on the line in the Autumn. It seems quite a regular thing. So why does it take our Controller by such surprise each year?"

Angela made sympathetic grumbling noises as she warmed up to go to Cardiff. "You do look worn our Laura. What's been going on?"

"Well, yesterday I was diverted all the way round St Andrews and in to New Street from the eastern side. I get really confused - I don't know if I'm going forward or reversing. I missed University altogether. The incompetence really embarrasses me. Then today I was held up at Worcester for ages because other trains were late and were allowed to go in front of me. It's not fair, not fair at all."

"Why can't the Costcutting Controller plan for leaves on the line in Autumn? I'm fed up of leaving my passengers down!" she grumbled as she set of again for Birmingham.

Safa Arriva?

Reply from Arriva Trains Wales (no response yet from London Midland).

Thank you for your recent email dated 9th October 2009 concerning station access to Hereford railway station.

I was most concerned to learn of the difficulties you have experienced as a result of Vans parking illegally on the pavement and thereby compromising your safe access to the station. Please be assured that I have passed on a copy of your correspondence onto the manager responsible for the station to take up with the offending company.

Once again I would like to thank you for writing to us and if I can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

London Midland: The Science of Subtraction

Dearest London Midland

Passengers were very pleased when the overcrowded 4 unit (2 + 2) train from Hereford at 0708 was upgraded to a 5 unit (3 + 2 unit) earlier this year. Although still busy, passengers could all get seats and were pleased with this improvement.

I’m therefore disappointed that for some reason this train has been reduced back to a 4 unit for the past few weeks.

The train is now frequently overcrowded with lots of people standing from Droitwich onwards.

I was wondering what the justification for this reduction in service quality was and when we could look forward to the previous situation being restored.

Interesting fact of the week: pavements are for pedestrians

Dear Arriva Trains Wales

I have found myself forced into the road on a dangerous corner outside Hereford station several times in recent weeks by vans from Hereford Boiler Services which are parked, presumably illegally, on the pavement outside their offices. This forces pedestrians approaching from Morrison’s to step into the road rather than remaining on the pavement round the corner and crossing at a safer point.

I am sure that ATW wishes passengers to have a safe route to the station and will support the view that their route should not be blocked in this way by illegal parking.

I was hoping that as the station managers you might be able to do something about this situation on behalf of passengers. I look forward to hearing from you.

A volunteer railway

No trains from London Midland on Sunday. An email update I received said it was due to not enough staff "volunteering" to work as it was not compulsory. News sources said that it was due to LM no longer being willing to pay double on Sundays, which are apparently voluntary.

Sundays are an important travel day for many people and LM need to make it a normal day as far as shifts are concerned. Not running trains like this does no-one any favours and the government are right to investigate.

Read more here from The Guardian.

Steve Banaghan left London Midland today

Sat opposite from London Midland MD Steve Banaghan again today. I know who he is, but he doesn't know me! He was chatting to someone and it sounded as though he was leaving the UK. Now he's got off at Shrub Hill, with a large photo (leaving present?) I googled his name and came up with this from http://www.railforums.co.uk.

Shame really. We met him when he updated us at Rail for Hereford and he seemed a genuine bloke who wanted the railways to really improve. Unfortunately the way the Tories messed up the privatisation in the 90s seems to prevent rapid progress, but we felt he listened and was doing his best in difficult circumstances.

"MK Rail Users have learned today that London Midland Managing Director, Steve Banaghan is leaving his post this month to take up a new position overseas

In an e-mail received today, Steve Banaghan says “I would like advise you that I will be leaving London Midland this month to take up an international position. After a long career working predominantly in the rail industry in the UK I am now taking up an opportunity to work abroad once again, working in a different transport system. Whilst the last few months have been challenging for everyone involved with London Midland, the business has begun to improve performance and I have no doubt that London Midland has a successful future ahead.”

Steve Banaghan has presided over probably the worst period of travel experienced since the new city of Milton Keynes was founded. Whilst Network Rail can take a large portion of the blame for the misery imposed, London Midland, from the very early days of the new franchise to the present day, can take a majority of that blame aimed those who run the West Coast line with such ineffective consequenses.

Following pressure from rail user groups, MPs, ORR and local and national press, London Midland have improved considerably over the last few months but whether the improvements made bring lasting benefits, remains to be seen.

The Go Ahead Group, owners of London Midland, has announced that the new MD for London Midland will be Mike Hodson, currently the Operations Director at Southeastern, the appointment taking effect from Monday 20 July. MK Rail Users will be seeking early talks with Mike Hodson."

http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=24961

The good and the lazy

Conductors are one advantage trains have over buses. The best conductors reassure passengers by their presence and make them feel safer, provide useful information and advice, sell tickets more conveniently than in the rush of a station, tidy the train and generally improve the passenger experience, providing excellent customer service. They also, of course, protect passengers from higher fares by ensuring that fare dodgers are caught.

But this is only the best of them. Some conductors are somewhere in the middle, and a few provide none of these services. They provide no or minimal information over the intercom, which is difficult for blind people, or for those of us who fall asleep. And on many journeys you never see them at all. What are they doing? Presumably this minority of lazy conductors get paid the same as the ones who work hard?

So I'm going to keep a log of the customer service I experience over the next couple of weeks and then send this to London Midland for their comments!

Monday 6th AM: I didn't see a conductor at all from getting on the train at Hereford until I arrived at work. So my tickets were not checked at any point in either my hour and a half to Birmingham, not at New Street (as I didn't leave the station), not on my short connecting train to Duddeston. 0/10
Monday 6th PM: Tickets checked twice by two separate conductors who passed through the train. On board information was OK. 7/10.
Tuesday 7th AM: TBC!

Rail stations to become ‘cycling hubs’, but not in Hereford

The ETA reports that ten major railway stations will have the opportunity to improve their cycling facilities under government plans to create a network of ‘cycling hubs’ around the country. A £5m fund will provide extra bike racks and repair shops in a bid to encourage rail passengers to cycle more.

Lord Adonis, the transport secretary, is seeking to emulate the Netherlands, where cycling accounts for one in three of all trips to and from stations, compared with just 2 per cent in Britain. The Dutch city of Leiden, has 4,500 station racks and is planning to add a further 1,500 spaces – more than the total in London.

A spokesperson for the Environmental Transport Association (ETA) said: “There are still major rail stations such as Charing Cross in London that have no parking for cyclists so extra racks are welcome, but there are many other issues that need addressing such as rail operator intransience and inconsistency over when and how cycles can be carried onboard trains.”

Dim thinking

The possibility of dimming street lights to save energy, with a trial in Hinton, might sound like green thinking from the Council, but you'd be wrong. This is simply about cutting costs. A sustainable travel plan for the city, greater emphasis on smaller scale localised production of food and goods, reducing and re-using waste, and energy efficiency measures in buildings, would have a far greater impact on energy consumption than fiddling with the lights, with the concerns over crime and community safety that this brings. Such real green measures would also create local jobs and save money in the long run. But the long term thinking is not a strong point of Hereford's planning. Dim thinking on street lights is more like it.

An interesting story is at http://www.lighting.co.uk/news/show/49

"This is all we have left"

Down from 4 to 2 units this morning. Conductor says: "Apologies for the short train this morning which will lead to overcrowding. This is due to an accident yesterday and I'm afraid this is all we have left of our train."

Monty Python eat your wheels out.

Just had email saying that 0849 cancelled 'due to an earlier train fault'. They really do have no spare capacity, no Plan B, and cancel trains far too easily.

8am update: Guard says rest of train damaged during cleaning by a 'collision', whatever that means. The plot thickens...

Barriers to customer service

I can see the point of barriers on the Underground. Hundreds of people pouring through every minute and you can see how massed ranks of automated barriers make sense. But Hereford? With 3 barriers? What actually happens is that half the tickets don't work, or won't work - my season ticket for example. So then a smiling chappie - who is clearly very proud of his important looking barriers - has to spend precious moments unlocking them by hand. This causes a lot of delays at times. If he is there already, why can't he just check tickets manually? A lot faster. This would save the railways money: those barriers can't be cheap. Sometimes, if technology is the answer, you have to wonder what on earth the question was. And of course quite often the staff are hiding in their staffroom and the only way in is to vault the barriers. But then you might get shot because you'd obviously be a terrorist.