Great North Eastern Railway > Reviews > Not so Great North Eastern Railway

Author's product rating:   

Frequency of trains	Inadequate
Reliability of trains	Occasionally on time
Comfort of trains	Slightly uncomfortable
On-board facilities	Poor

Advantages:	Quicker than the coach/car
Disadvantages:	Where do I start? .  .  .  See op

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

I live in London but grew up in the north-east. I travel home to see family about four times a year and have done so for the past eight years on the only train company that goes to Darlington from London (Kings Cross): GNER.

I have had cause for complaint so many times in the last few years, I couldn't tell you, due to the frequent delays, dirty trains, and rude staff and have often received vouchers to contribute towards my next journey as a result. I will not really go into these complaints in this op as it would make it too long by far.

I should mention at this point that GNER have a monopoly on train services to and from the north-east from London, and my only other choices are:

*** to fly from Heathrow to Teesside (this would actually take longer as travel to Heathrow takes at least 1.5 hours, and then there are check-in times)
*** to take a coach (much cheaper but alas takes 5/6 hours and apart from the time this eats into an already short weekend, due to a back condition I can't sit down for that long - I used to take this route when I was a very poor student in a long distance relationship, and it's actually quite nice if you can sit down for that long and have the time)
*** to hire a car and drive the 250 miles

My problem now is that I am unable to afford to go home for the weekend and visit my family. I used to pay around £40 to travel home on a Friday evening and return Sunday, so long as I booked many weeks in advance as this was the apex fare. For the last year however, I've found it increasingly difficult to get tickets I can afford. In January I had to pay £88, and then in June I started trying to book for myself and 2 friends to go home for any weekend in August. I was getting nowhere as all fares were £88 or more and that was much more than I expected to pay (especially considering I'd been to Paris and back on the Eurostar recently for around £90, without booking in advance). My friend eventually tried ringing up (I was looking online) and got a nice operator who was willing to help find cheaper tickets. She tried every weekend in August and eventually then moved on and tried weekends in September. We had to take the day off work on the Friday in order to travel late morning in September, but it was £58 each which was a bit more affordable.

Below is an email exchange I had with GNER before my friend spoke to an operator and resolved the situation. It began when I posted the following comment via their website to customer services:

JOURNEY DETAILS
Comments: Why has travelling on GNER suddenly become so expensive, and how
can you justify these prices (especially considering the poor state of the
service whenever I've travelled on it)? I used to travel home to parents
from London KX to Darlington regularly for the Apex fare of £39. Now it
seems I can only get tickets for £85 at the least, and for travel in
September £88, unless i go at ungodly hours, which is not possible and
shortens the weekend. GNER has a monopoly on this route - I have no other
alternative. I can actually go to Paris and back for cheaper or for around
this sum without booking in advance on Eurostar (a far superior service),
and recently travelled to Norwich and back on a weekend for the reasonable
sum of £20, on a much cleaner train than any GNER train i've ever been on.
GNER has put me in the position of not being able to afford to travel home
to visit my family and I find this apalling.
-----Original Message-----
From: Customer Care [mailto:CustomerCare@gner.co.uk]
Sent: 16 July 2003 16:07
To: xxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: Customer Services Email Response

Miss xxxx
Thank you for your e-mail.
I am sorry to learn of your disappointment with the current pricing of our products. We seek to offer a wide range of fares providing a variety of journey opportunities to suit different pockets. We like to feel that we are successful in attracting passengers who travel for a variety of reasons and either frequently or infrequently.
Our pricing policy is designed to recognise that although certain train services are consistently busy, we have spare capacity at other times of the day. By adjusting our fares accordingly, we can make quieter trains more attractive in terms of price and so spread the number of customers travelling on each service throughout the day. This helps us to ease overcrowding.
We try to balance the contrasting requirements of those wanting cheaper fares and who are prepared to commit to being reserved to a single train during off-peak periods, with those wanting more flexibility. It is difficult to satisfy the needs of each individual but nevertheless a satisfactory ticket is usually available at most times.
The Apex fare between London and Darlington is currently priced at £44.00 (this fare has not been priced at £39.00 since January 1997). In fact, there is a Bargain fare available for this journey costing £33.00. Both the aforementioned tickets must be booked at least seven days in advance of travel. However, due to the heavily discounted nature of these tickets it is often the case that quotas will sell out before this deadline is reached. Our booking horizon allows people to make reservations up to ten weeks in advance.
Our fare structure is under constant review to meet changing demand. Changes are made in the interest of a majority of customers and are frequently done to attract more people during our off-peak periods.
Kind regards,
%%%%
Customer Care
*B4J/000
-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxxxx
Sent: 16 July 2003 16:12
To: Customer Care
Subject: RE: Customer Services Email Response
Dear %%%%,

Thank you for your prompt response. The last few times I have wanted to travel this year and end of 2002, I’ve rung up on the day the tickets for that date become available, and have never been offered the prices of £44.00 or lower as you suggest. I have also never seen these prices (and neither have friends) on any internet sites such as qjump, so you’ll forgive me if I find it hard to believe that they exist. The Apex fare I’ve been offered by your operators has been £58 or even £88 for dates in September. A friend rang one of your operators who was very helpful in finding the cheapest ticket for travel the first weekend in September, but this was £58 and was described as an Apex. I would appreciate any advice you have on booking these cheap fares (£44.00 and below) as short of ringing up every morning when I know tickets are about to become available in order to be one of the first to book them, I don’t know what else I can do.

Regards,

xxxx

Miss XXXX

I can assure you that the Bargain fares do exist. There has clearly been some confusion here. I feel I should clarify that Apex fares for the return journey between Kings Cross and Darlington are priced at £44.00. There are no other Apex fares available for this journey. The full range of fares and applicable ticket restrictions are shown below;

Standard Open £157.00 - Ticket can be purchased at any time, including the day of travel. Valid for use on any service.

Weekender £85.00 - Ticket can be purchased at any time, including the day of travel. Valid for outward travel on Friday or Saturday only. Return journey must be made within four days of outward journey, except on Friday (i.e. the ticket cannot be used as a Friday day-return).

Business Saver £84.50 - Ticket can be purchased at any time, including the day of travel. Valid for outward travel from Kings Cross on any service except those timed to depart between 0645-0815 and 1559-1745 inclusive. Valid for return travel from Darlington on any service timed to arrive into London 1005 or later. Restrictions apply Monday-Friday only.

Standard Saver £77.90 - Ticket can be purchased at any time, including the day of travel. Valid for outward travel from Kings Cross on any service except those timed to depart before 0931 and from 1459 to 1859 inclusive. Valid for return travel from Darlington on any service timed to depart 0904 or later. Restrictions apply Monday-Friday only.

SuperAdvance £58.00 - Ticket can be purchased up until 1800 on the day prior to the date of travel. Must be used on the service specified on the ticket.

Apex £44.00 - Ticket must be purchased at least 7 days in advance of travel date. Must be used on the service specified on the ticket.

Bargain £33.00 - Ticket must be purchased at least 7 days in advance of travel date. Must be used on the service specified on the ticket.

All advance purchase tickets (SuperAdvance/Apex/Bargain) are sold subject to quota restrictions on a first come, first served basis i.e. there are a limited number of these tickets available on the majority of services. As previously stated, quotas of these tickets will be reduced on peak services into and out of London and on services which we know will be heavily loaded. It not be commercially viable and indeed would be counterproductive for us to allocate quotas of these tickets to trains which we know will already be full.

I have checked the website and entered a 'dummy' booking with a couple of random dates. The result of my fares search is shown below. As you can see, the SuperAdvance, Apex and Bargain fares are shown.

I regret that I am unable to provide specific details of quota allocations as this is information of a commercially sensitive nature. I can only suggest that you look for the cheaper tickets on off-peak services. (Friday and Sunday afternoons are generally classed as peak times into and out of Kings Cross).

Kind regards,

%%%%
Customer Care
*B4K/000

He then pasted in a screenshot of his own attempts to find a ticket. This clearly showed that he was trying to travel on a Thursday morning, not a Friday as I desired (this would involve taking 2 days off work, and possibly one day on the Monday too – I’m not sure what day he put for the return journey.

Anyway, that was then, and this is now. I’ve been testing the water for the past few weeks to see what price tickets would be for me and my partner to go to my home one weekend (Fri-Sun) in about 6 weeks time (far enough in advance one would think to get cheaper tickets). The situation seems to have worsened beyond belief. I am unable to get tickets that are cheaper than, wait for it, £156.70!!!! PER PERSON. This is not a first class ticket, no, it’s a standard return. It just beggars belief. I even tried travelling (theoretically) on a Thursday and coming back Sunday and it was the same, but Thurs to Monday (three days off work) took it down to £88, which I still feel is overpriced and remember there are two of us travelling so it’s £176.

It’s made all the worse by the fact that GNER trains are dirty, delayed, and 50% of staff I’ve come across are rude, that’s if you can find a member of staff (I’ve experienced on more than one occasion missing carriages so my booked seat has gone and been unable to find staff etc.).

The government are pressing for us to get out of our cars and onto public transport yet I can’t afford to – I don’t have a car but it’s cheaper for me to hire a car for the weekend than it is to travel by train. It’s cheaper for me to fly than to travel by train – where’s the logic in that?

Oh, and the last (that journey I booked in September), overcrowded (people were standing in the aisles and sitting on the edge of tables for hours on end), dirty (the toilets were so disgusting they made me retch), no staff to be seen to resolve seating disputes (the train before us broke down so all its passengers boarded ours and were fighting over seats they had booked), delayed journey I had the misforturne to experience I wrote and complained about. GNER are obviously either a) sick of doling out vouchers to me or b) have not only increased their prices but are also now not giving out many vouchers to compensate because they had the cheek to offer me a £5 voucher against my next journey (at over £150 there won’t be a next journey).

I discovered that the figures that GNER put out for delays (e.g. they have 90% of trains running on time) are by law calculated over the period Mon to Sat each week – they don’t have to include Sundays. As a result, Sunday services are always disrupted, all the scheduled trains take longer (on the timetable) and then have additional delays (usually due to engineering works) yet this is one of the days that they say is more expensive to travel! Go figure.

In June this year my partner and I went to a wedding in Norwich, a journey that’s about two thirds the length of the one I take with GNER. I was amazed that even though I booked the tickets only 2 weeks in advance, they only cost £20 each, and the trains were cleaner and more comfortable than GNER (and no delays). I also had the pleasure of hopping on a Virgin train from Durham to Darlington when I was home in September – oh the joy. So comfortable, so informative (digital displays on the outside and inside of each carriage), so clean, so modern (plugs next to each seat to plug in your laptop/mobile). It was a different world.

I think if I want to travel at GNER’s cheapest ticket - £58 is still the cheapest I’ve achieved this year – then I’ll have to leave at 4am on a leap year and return at midnight (on a Tues to Thursday, of course). I wish there was something that could be done, but I just feel I’m banging my head against a brick wall. I think we’re going to have to fly home at Christmas.

I challenge any of you to find me a cheap ticket to go home for any coming weekend in the next few months as I couldn’t (if you do manage to find one, and there’s a trick to it, please let me know!).

(By the way I put that they cater poorly for disabled people because in my one experience of travelling with someone who has walking difficulties, we travelled first class (the only time I've ever done so) and the first class lounge was the furthest distance from the platform it could be, we were given a few minutes notice of the platform our train was departing from, and when we got to the platform had to walk the length of the train to reach first class - only to find our carriage missing, but that's another story.)