In Mill Hill today you could smell the stench of corporate failure. Yet again First Capital Connect failed to provide even a basic service on the Thameslink line. The reason? Snow and poor weather. Rather bizarrely the one bit of the network with no service at all was the bit in the tunnel, between St Pancras and Blackfriars.
It seems like they've given up even trying. At Mill Hill at 7.45, no staff, no information on the signs except "listen for announcements" and no announcements. For most commuters the only time you need an announcement or a display board is when it goes wrong. When this happens the system collapses. Surely the signalmen know where the trains are. Surely these systems talk to the systems that display the info?
Coming home, I checked the FCC website. It said there was a 17.02 from City Thameslink to Mill Hill and it was running on time. Off I headed. On arrival, there was a hand written board saying all northbound services start from St Pancras.
Just how useless can a company be?
They extended the overhead 25kV wires from Farringdon to City Thameslink, so that trains could reverse there, even when they have to split the service, north and south of the Thames, due to disruption.
ReplyDeleteSo it is hard to see why your train disappeared down a worm-hole in space.
Ah, I see Blackfriars is closed, so maybe they are turning south London trains at City Thameslink.
ReplyDeleteThe point is that if they can run trains south of the river and they can run trains north of the river, why can't they run them through the tunnel?
ReplyDeleteI have adopted your name for this useless lot, it's so apt. We know that transport providers are simply unprepared for bad weather (why they're so unprepared is a total mystery - it's not as though we live in a tropical climate) so we know there will be disruptions. What compounds the problem and infuriates is the total lack of information available to passengers, who pay through the nose for the privilege of being left high and dry.
ReplyDeleteWhy can't they run a train through a tunnel? Because they're morons, perhaps......
Because it makes sense to separate the two services when the timetable is shot to pieces.
ReplyDeleteIf they hadn't used 'third rail electrification' everywhere south of the Thames in the 1920s, the power could get through to the trains.
On the other hand, Kings Cross is closed today, because the OVERHEAD power lines are down. But that is due to cost-cutting in the 1970s.
Why don't we just give everything to the Germans to run for us?