Public transport should carry a Health Warning. I live in a little village, which is poorly served by train and bus ‘services’. The trains run at 7am and 8 am, then every hour from 9.30 am until 6.30 pm, then they stop. The buses are a little better, and run every half hour from 7.50 am to 6.55 pm, then change to an hourly service at 6.35 pm, the final bus to the village is at 10.55 pm. The nearest Town is around 6 miles away (as the crow flies).
Anyway, I used to drive into work. Then, when the ‘powers that be’ decided ‘to address the problem’ on the local bypass, the solution added another 15 minutes onto my journey. I’m not too impatient when driving around, however, I do get annoyed when ’cut up’ by other road users –so to remove the stress factor from the morning race, I decided to ‘go green’, help the ozone and use the trains. I also travel around the country for the organisation, so I know all about Virgin trains (the less said the better). No prizes for guessing what I’m going to moan about –you have been warned.
ADDED VALUE I am really lucky (sarcasm suits me), there is a local station about
5 minutes from where I live. To get into Liverpool, I catch one train (North Western), then walk 50 yards or so, through a tunnel, onto an adjoining platform and get on Arriva TrainsMerseyside. The train USED to run straight through to Liverpool, but many moons ago, a wise executive decided to make a break in the line at Kirkby, hence the additional ‘added value’ of exercise, which is no bad thing in itself.
The journey into work takes 30 minutes, 10 minutes to Kirkby, off one train and onto another, 20 minutes into Liverpool, (most of the time). The journey home takes 1 hour. Off one train (Liverpool to Kirkby 20 minutes) and a wait of 25-30 minutes for the connecting train to take me home. The train journey from Kirkby to home takes 10 minutes. This is a good day.
COST A standard return ticket costs £3.70 per day; on some occasions it costs £2.80 (same time, same journey, same train companies) –different ticket machines! You can buy a Weekly Trio Saver ticket (or monthly/yearly), which I used to do – but not anymore!
CARRIAGES (and yet more added value) Well, take your pick and what choice do we have today –NONE North Western Trains – grotty carriages, dirty windows, and you can sometimes have a shower whilst on the journey home, but only if it’s raining (only available on trains from the Neolithic period). I do not jest; other commuters and I have sat on the train with umbrellas up! (But, North Western haven’t started to charge for this facility yet) One or two of the train guards try and look happy, but the majority tend to scowl –must be the pay! On rare occasions when they send a train from the ‘middle ages’, we don’t have the free shower facility (bit like having an en suite shower room really).
Arriva Trains Merseyside, well, what can I say. Scruffy yellow (well, I think they’re yellow) tin cans basically. The seats are something else (this is Arriva Trains answer to the free shower supplied by North Western). You get to play ‘spot the seat that’s clean’ – when I say the floor is cleaner than the seats, I jest not. There is no choice with the rolling stock from Arriva, it’s old, it’s naff and it’s about time they changed it. The guards are very similar to North Western employees, although some at least smile when checking the tickets.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
If anybody out there is a Customer Service Trainer, I have a really good, profitable notion. Offer to train Arriva Merseyside Ticket Staff in Customer Service or at least to tell people the same excuse.
EXAMPLE OF ‘CUSTOMER SERVICE’ (Gold Star Award)
A few weeks ago, I alighted (along with four of my friends & everyone else) at Kirkby for the brisk 50 yards walk under the bridge and onto the adjoining platform. Nobody around, only us from the ‘other side of the tracks’. So, being vigilant, we noticed that everyone was congregating around the ticket office – oh worth investigation. Great minds really do think alike, and we all went up to the ticket office, asked when the next train was due.
One Arrive employee in the ticket office (young lad) said 5 minutes, that’s when we noticed the Transport Police; one milling around and two in the office. Now then, you don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out that something was afoot, but, try as we might, no information came forth. Thinking about this sudden appearance of the ‘men in blue’, I asked again when the train was due, only to be told ‘there isn’t one’, this time from the woman in the ticket office. This is a major change from 5 minutes. Okay –do we get transport into Liverpool, remember, we have paid for the journey –big emphatic NO. We are all told there are plenty of buses that go into Liverpool, so get one of them, there’s one due soon.
Time check: 8.20am. Bus arriving: some point in the morning. Travel into Liverpool: @50 minutes. Time I start work: 9am. Bit of a conundrum – I am a key holder, the other key holder wasn’t in, so I needed to open the centre up for staff etc.
Can I have the fare from Kirkby to Liverpool back; I’ve paid for transport that you cannot provide. No, your ticket is from a different train company and we don’t do refunds on them. I hate it when employees of PUBLIC Transport look really smug and all knowing – so in the end, I got a taxi, and a receipt for £15, which I sent in to Arriva Merseyside for a refund, not forgetting the all-important complaint. What good it will do, I have no idea. But, I will get my taxi fare back, at least I better had.
To cap it all, the connecting train home was 15 minutes late on Wednesday, so I am not pleased. I suppose the fact it turned up was a blessing – sometimes it doesn’t and you’re left waiting for an additional hour.
RECOMMENDATIONS
To both train companies – starting from the beginning would be a really good idea. Investing money in new rolling stock would be another good idea; better still, bring Stephenson’s Rocket out of the museum, trains may run on time – I think I’ll start a ‘bring back steam’ campaign.
To myself, maybe I should forget doing my bit for the environment; stuff the ozone layer and start driving into work again.
To everybody else, unless the train goes ‘peep peep, my name’s Thomas’ and the Fat Controller is around –then sorry, you’re in the same train nightmare as I am.
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Great op. The same powers that be have been playing with my route to work as well... a bus lane for, as far as I have seen, less than 10 buses during one years worth of rush-hour traffic! Paul.
AnitaM 26.07.2003 15:40
I didn't mean your opinion isn't good. I meant that public transport isn't good!
AnitaM 26.07.2003 15:39
I don't think I have ever read a good opinion on public transport! Hope your complaint has the desired effect.
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Review of Merseyrail Electrics
Advantages: Cheap, but certainly not cheerful. Sucidal more like. Disadvantages: Dirty, smelly, understaffed (and even then they are unhelpful and rude), unrelaible........
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