This week hasn’t been a good one for commuting. Thinking that I would be late home on Wednesday night after a work pub quiz, I got a later train in the morning, but still an early enough one to work a decent amount of hours. But, as the saying goes, all the best laid plans go to waste. Guess what? A broken down train further down the line was soon reported to us and the ’10-minute’ delay turned into one 34 minutes longer. I wasn’t the only person who wasn’t happy.
But, there was more misery to come. On Wednesday night, even the train home was late. You would think that ‘one’ could get it right, even at 22h30. But no, the Intercity back to the wilds of Suffolk was delayed by 14 minutes, as the driver couldn’t ‘get the brakes to release’. That’s a new one from the book of never-ending excuses, ‘one’; sticky brakes that won’t release.
Maybe us passengers who pay a fortune in season tickets every year for a bad service should be treated to some new rolling stock? I mean, all I wanted to do was to get home, before the alarm awoke me at six again on Thursday morning. In all honesty, it can’t be that hard, can it, to run an on-time service, with reliable rolling stock? What do we pay our season ticket for? And if it’s not for line or carriage improvements, where does the money go?
This morning there were yet more delays. Points failures at Liverpool Street meant that only half the platforms were in use (and a 60-minute wait), and admittedly, this wasn’t ‘one’s’ fault, but it did mean that as I’ve only been in the office for four days this week, 50% of those days have suffered depleted hours due to train delays. It’s just not good enough. I’d be tempted to leave work later if it wasn’t for the fact that due to this week’s problems; I don’t know what to expect from the evening journey home until I get to Liverpool Street.
I’ll be truly glad when the days of commuting are over. Maybe the planning should start now…