A rumour about Southern

[RockzyUK]

It has been rumoured (and that is the key word in this message) that Southern were only 4 cancelled trains away from being close to losing their franchise.

As I work for them I do not wish to elaborate further on this, but they do seem to be struggling to run a reliable train service.

What do you other guys in the Southern area think?

[southcoasttrains]

We don't get to hear much in the ticket office but I wouldn't be suprised. Usually a service is cancelled when the train crew are in the wrong place.
There have been at least one cancellation of a service this week from Eastbourne, usually the Brighton - Hastings stoppers. Today was a very bad day, broken rail, broken down train, a bridge bash and a points failiure all on the Brighton mainline.

Most of the time we run a good service, its when there is a problem we are the last to know.

[RockzyUK]

Today must have been the worst day I've known ever since I've worked on the railway.

Lunchtime at Barnham. Not a single train on time, many cancelations, CIS not working, control not answering the phone, platform staff nowhere in site, the PM's office being engaged all the time and to top it off some idiot decides he wants a cup of tea, so wanders across the track to the cafe, not worrying about using the subway!

[arabiandisco]

Problem is, and my colleague with operational experience told me this, if something is going to go wrong, the whole damn lot goes wrong. You'll get a points faiulre, a power supply problem, a failed train and a suicide all on the same day, totally unconnected. It's uncanny, but it's true, it never rains, only pours!

Southern haven't been very impressive with the mop-up, though, from what I've heard. I have no first hand experience, but they have a pretty poor reputation.

[WAT3212]

I do not work for Southern, but occasionally for SWT.

It seems the South Central route is always a trouble spots, whether run by Govia or Connex. My personal opinion is they need to expand the number of lines on the brighton mainline! South West Trains, obviously, already have plenty of lines up and down, so when something goes wrong, most of the time, trains can actually run through, instead of being held in a queue. I believe that no matter how many times the franchise changes hands, there will always be problem with the South Central route, unless something is done about the number of lines on such a principle route.

Today was a very bad day indeed for the South Central route, with the Bright Bash at Haywards Heath causing delays of 90 minutes leading to delays all afternoon, and just before the Bridge Bash, a broken down train at Hassocks on the up line. and for Thameslink to brighton it got even worse with 2 broken down trains, one at London Bridge and another at New Cross affecting Southern and South Eastern aswell.

It certainly doesnt just rain, it certainly does pour!

[ca55ie]

They're out to gethca!

Sam

[n863dwt]

the problems with train crews will be sorted soon from what i hear... they are .."importing" german and dutch drivers to provide extra drivers to reduce the number of services that can not be operated.

[thenudehamster]

Be grateful; you could live in the US where they really don't know how to run a passenger railway.

My grandchildren (all teenagers, and responsible) have just returned from a visit to their father in Iowa. They went Amtrak for convenience. Because of the wonderful way this country works, everything goes through Chicago (which isn't bad going from Michigan to Iowa, but isn't much fun if you're going to Boston - but I digress). On their return trip, the train from Des Moines to Chicago was five hours late getting into DM, which meant that the kids would miss their connection to Ann Arbor from Chicago by a couple of hours. Amtrak promised them a bus to AA as a substitute, which would get them in at 2am (instead of their scheduled 10pm). At 2.30, their mother (waiting at Ann Arbor Station) got a phone call from the eldest from Toledo, Ohio of all places (only 60 odd miles from home, in the wrong direction). It seems that there weren't enough passengers going to AA to justify a bus, so they put everyone on the scheduled train to Toledo instead. Then when they got to Toledo, Amtrak arranged a minibus to Detroit for some, and two taxis for our kids! Through all this the traffic department (or whatever the equivalent is) never bothered to tell anyone at 'customer service' (a joke, if ever there was) of all the various changes. First inquiries simply produced the standard 'Everything's running well' followed by 'Well, I don't know nuthin' about that' when told that the kids had called home with the first news of the screwup.

On a slightly different tack, my wife got caught in a similar situation a few years ago. Her due train from LaCrosse, Wisconsin, was late for some reason, so they put her on a substitue bus instead. In the middle of a Western Michigan winter. Snow is normally a couple of feet deep on that side of the State as a result of 'lake effect' weather. The bus ran off the road in the middle of nowhere, and they had to wait at a dingy all night gas station, (having waded in totally unsuitable clothes through the two foot snow) for another bus, getting home nine hours late (and not being offered the chance to stop for food or anything else either).

What it comes down to is that Amtrak is so starved of cash by federal government policies (make a profit; you won't get any government money for investment, and you can't borrow in the open market either) that if anything does go wrong - and it does, because maintenance of both track and stock is pared to the bone, unless you happen to be on the Boston to DC 'Northeast Corridor' with which trainsimmers are so familiar - there is never a spare loco or a spare train, to substitute for a failure. And nobody cares anyway.

And you think that the occasional late train for peculiar reasons is something of note? We'd give our eye teeth for service as good as that you complain about!

[Christopher125]

Be grateful; you could live in the US where they really don't know how to run a passenger railway.

My grandchildren (all teenagers, and responsible) have just returned from a visit to their father in Iowa. They went Amtrak for convenience. Because of the wonderful way this country works, everything goes through Chicago (which isn't bad going from Michigan to Iowa, but isn't much fun if you're going to Boston - but I digress). On their return trip, the train from Des Moines to Chicago was five hours late getting into DM, which meant that the kids would miss their connection to Ann Arbor from Chicago by a couple of hours. Amtrak promised them a bus to AA as a substitute, which would get them in at 2am (instead of their scheduled 10pm). At 2.30, their mother (waiting at Ann Arbor Station) got a phone call from the eldest from Toledo, Ohio of all places (only 60 odd miles from home, in the wrong direction). It seems that there weren't enough passengers going to AA to justify a bus, so they put everyone on the scheduled train to Toledo instead. Then when they got to Toledo, Amtrak arranged a minibus to Detroit for some, and two taxis for our kids! Through all this the traffic department (or whatever the equivalent is) never bothered to tell anyone at 'customer service' (a joke, if ever there was) of all the various changes. First inquiries simply produced the standard 'Everything's running well' followed by 'Well, I don't know nuthin' about that' when told that the kids had called home with the first news of the screwup.

On a slightly different tack, my wife got caught in a similar situation a few years ago. Her due train from LaCrosse, Wisconsin, was late for some reason, so they put her on a substitue bus instead. In the middle of a Western Michigan winter. Snow is normally a couple of feet deep on that side of the State as a result of 'lake effect' weather. The bus ran off the road in the middle of nowhere, and they had to wait at a dingy all night gas station, (having waded in totally unsuitable clothes through the two foot snow) for another bus, getting home nine hours late (and not being offered the chance to stop for food or anything else either).

What it comes down to is that Amtrak is so starved of cash by federal government policies (make a profit; you won't get any government money for investment, and you can't borrow in the open market either) that if anything does go wrong - and it does, because maintenance of both track and stock is pared to the bone, unless you happen to be on the Boston to DC 'Northeast Corridor' with which trainsimmers are so familiar - there is never a spare loco or a spare train, to substitute for a failure. And nobody cares anyway.

And you think that the occasional late train for peculiar reasons is something of note? We'd give our eye teeth for service as good as that you complain about!

Hi

I spose a lot of it has to do with the fat that it is the opposite to the UK, Most lines are regarded as passenger lines, with the freight operators being allowed to use them, while in America, the lines are mostly owned by the freight companies, who grudgingly allow Amtrak to use the line.

Chris

[thenudehamster]

Hi

I spose a lot of it has to do with the fat that it is the opposite to the UK, Most lines are regarded as passenger lines, with the freight operators being allowed to use them, while in America, the lines are mostly owned by the freight companies, who grudgingly allow Amtrak to use the line.

Chris

Technically, ALL the tracks are owned by the freight companies - of which there are less and less every year. We now only have two in the Detroit area, CSX and Norfolk Southern.
The trouble is not often caused by conflicts between freight and passenger scheduling; I'm fairly sure that a passenger train still takes priority over a freight, no matter who owns the track. It all stems from the fact that Amstrak is run on a complete shoestring, desperately trying to run an economic and profitable service with no investment. The only profitable systems are local commuter services which are, despite protests to the contrary, subsidised by 'local' (city, county and State level) authority funds, and only exist in the really major conurbations. Boston, New York/New Jersey, Philly and Washington have the NE Corridor, Chicago is still the railroad hub of the US, and many West Coast places have reasonable commuter rail, but 'long distance' service, which is all run by Amtrak, is a disaster. It costs as much as it does to fly and takes up to 10 times longer - I can fly to Seattle in 7 hours, or go by train in 2 or 3 days. The trains, despite the enormous loading gauge, are made like old aircraft - cramped cigar tubes, limited facilities - and you still have to check your baggage in advance and hope they get it on the right train.
This country has its well known love affair with the car and cheap gasoline - there was uproar recently when it went up to $2 a gallon - and the aircraft (which the government are quite happy to give financial help to after 9/11, despite most of them being in dire straits well before the event, and the airports and ATC system being Federally financed) but nobody loves a the train any more - because it no longer has glamour, and nobody has a hope of making a fortune at playing trains.

Ah well. (rant over and soapbox folded up and put away till the next time)