Thameslink Special - Why is the government letting GTR (Govia) trains carry on mismanaging our railway?

I've used the Thameslink service since it was inaugurated. I was working for BT at the time in Blackfriars and travelling from Mill Hill. I was rather fond of the service, as it took me from door to door in just under half an hour on a good day. There were eight trains an hour in the rush hour, four of which were fast from Mill Hill to St Pancras. Prior to the line opening, I'd have to walk from Farringdon and it cut 15 minutes each way from my journey. The service opened in May 1988. 

When British Rail was privatised, Govia took over. It took them a couple of years to work out how to run the network properly. The early years were a nightmare of cancellations and delays, but it eventually settled down. In 2006 (to my disgust as I thought it should have been renationalised), it was handed over to First Capital Connect. Another period of two years of chaos and debacle as they worked out how to run the network resulted. They also cut the number of trains an hour to four slow ones, which as a result were always packed in rush hour. There was a mini rebellion and eventually they were restored to six an hour in rush hour, with couple of semi fast services.

In 2015 Govia returned in the form of GTR, once again there was a period of chaos as the new operator worked out how to manage the network. In 2018 a chaotic new timetable was introduced, which caused chaos. It ended with the managing director of Govia resigning. The service had just about recovered when the pandemic hit. Over the course of the pandemic, it emerged that Go-Ahead trains, the majority owner of GTR had performed £25 million fraud on the taxpayer and were stripped of the Southern Railways franchise.

As the railway system recovevered from the pandemic and numbers started to return, GTR have imposed an emergency timetable on commuters. This has resulted in a return to four slow trains in the morning rush hour, with a long gap between trains

MIL

08:05

STP

08:27

22m
On time

Direct

08:23 from Mill Hill Broadway(MIL) arriving at London St Pancras(STP) at 08:47. This service takes 24 minutes, is Direct. and is currently On time. click for more info

MIL

08:23

STP

08:47

24m
On time

Direct

This has created a situation where there is overcrowding and at a time when there is a pandemic, additional risks to commuters of infection. Many are voting with their feet and shunning train travel, just at a time when we should be trying to reduce our usage of fossil fuels such as petrol and diesel.

You would think that the government would have shown GTR the door as soon as possible, however earlier this week, the Times reports that despite all of this, they have retained the franchise. I had a look at our local MP Matthew Offord's site to see if there was any comment, there was not, although there was plenty criticising the Mayor of London over the failings of TFL. 

As the service is supported by the taxpayer, we need a service that serves taxpayers properly, not dodgy train companies that have a very shady record of dealing with public money. Why is the government allowing this mess to continue? If we are serious about sorting out our emissions, we need a reliable transport service. The sorry tale of the Thameslink franchise is anything but that. It should be brought under public control ASAP. 

Why Thameslink's new trains can't cope with a power outage

Like many people in Mill Hill, I regularly use the the Thameslink service. Like many, I was massively impacted by the power supply problems on 9th August.  My wife even had to be evacuated from a train north of Kentish Town and walked along the railway lines. I am endebted to Robin Morel of Network Rail for sharing the report.  nationalgrideso.com/document/152351/download

Older trains were unaffected - Pic Copy Barneteye

The reason for the problem is that a 'Safety feature' of the new Thameslink 700 class trains means that if the power supply drops below 49Hz, the train will do a protective closedown. The drivers can do a manual reboot that takes ten minutes, but for 30 of the trains this didn't work, so technicians had to be sent out with a Laptop to restart the trains.

The section on planned mitigations is fascinating. It seems that Siemens, who manufacture the trains are now working on software to allow the train to restart itself automatically when the power returns to 49Hz. None of the older trains on the network were affected. One has to ask how they could not have considered that a power outage might occur and that needing an engineer with a laptop to access the train was not an acceptable or safe solution.

I am not an expert, but this is not only dangerous, but shows an almost criminal level of negligence in design by Siemens. Just suppose that my wife had been in a wheel chair or suffered from claustrophobia, as the power and air conditioning had shut down. Luckily her train was not too far from the station, but had it been in the middle of the mile long Belsize new tunnel, then that would have been terrifying.

Electric trains should be resilient and a driver should be trained to restart them. We need to know how long these changes will take to be implemented. We also need a robust recovery plan for such issues from GTR and Network Rail, in the event of such problems. Engineers need to live in the real world. It is all very well designing massively complicated trains, but if they are not resilient and predictable problems, that clearly can easily be resolved, cause the whole network to pack up, then it is clear that the whole design process is flawed. When the emergency cutoff was designed, someone should have said "what would happen if this train was packed and in a tunnel?".

Since the new class 700 trains were introduced, we've had air conditioning problems, ironing board seats and now we find out that if there is momentary power blip, half of them pack up completely. To me this is a sign of a very badly managed railway. Siemens should compensate commuters for the aggravation their bad design has caused. Maybe this would focus their minds when they come to designing their next generation of trains. The thing that irritates me beyond belief is that these issues always end up in a blame game. Obvious problems are excused as the contractors all start blaming each other, the government and the regulator. British Rail had its faults, but at least we all knew where the buck stopped.

Here is the full report.

Appendix F – Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) technical report 
This Appendix contains the independent technical report provided to the ESO by GTR into the impact of the frequency disturbance on their trains on 09 August as part of the detailed investigation into the incident. Title Power Surge Disruption on 9th August 2019: Technical Review.

Date 3rd September 2019

Event Summary

1. From information supplied by the National Grid at 1653 on Friday the 9th of August the frequency of the OLE AC voltage supply dropped below 49Hz for 16 seconds. It dropped below 48.89Hz to a minimum of 48.8 Hz for milliseconds.
2. There was no identified OLE AC Voltage supply interruption.
3. All Desiro City class 700 and 717 units operating on AC Voltage suffered a Protective Shutdown where the converter, known as the 4QC (4 Quadrant Controller) shut down. None of the other AC trains in the GTR fleet suffered any power related issues from this event e.g. Class 387, Class 365, Class 313.
4. In Passenger Service this involved circa 60 units, consisting of Class 700 FLU/RLUs and Class 717, suffering a 4QC lock out.
5. The effect of the 4QC shutting down on the train is that the train switches to battery power which causes a loss of HVAC (fan only fresh air supply), stand by reduced lighting (emergency lighting is activated when battery voltage drops), no at seat power, no PIS displays (audio only from the cab), and no traction power. The GSM-R radio remains active.
6. Following failed attempts to repower the trains, the established first response for a train failing with these symptoms is for the Driver to perform a reboot of the train known as a Battery Reset. This takes approximately 10 minutes.
7. Fleet Control diagnosed the issue quickly and a global GSM-R call was broadcast to instruct drivers to carry out the Battery Reset process.
8. After this 27 of the affected units were recovered.
9. The remaining circa 30 units required the Protective Shutdown to be unlocked by the intervention of a Technician with a laptop attending each unit.
10. There were 17 Technicians available at the time of the event. These 17 were immediately sent to stranded units with laptops and a further 24 technicians were mobilized within the next hour. The trains affected were widely spread geographically and some were not easily accessible.
11.Therefore, this process took some time and resulted in 23 train evacuations and severe levels of service disruption.

Cause

1. The Desiro City from Siemens Mobility is the latest generation software enabled commuter train, so requiring protection against power supply frequency excursions for safety reasons and to protect low power electronics.
2. Siemens Technical Specification for the train states that the train will continue to operate with supply frequency drops down to 48.5Hz for short periods of time.
3. The NR Electrification System Compatibility document, NR/GN/ELP/27010(“Guidance for compatibility between electric trains and electrification systems”), a Manufacturing and Supply Agreement compliance requirement, identifies that the supply frequency can fall to 48.5Hz in extreme conditions.
4. A review of the Class 700 NoBo design submission (Siemens document A6Z00036309602 item 4.2.8.2.2) shows that compliance with both NR/GN/ELP 27010 and EN 50163 (“Railway Applications – Supply Voltages of Traction Systems”) would be demonstrated.
5. Following investigations, Siemens advised that the supply frequency response of the train was designed to comply with the EN 50163 Clause 4.2 Note 2. This note permits train drives to disconnected at 49Hz. Use of this supply frequency value in the train design led to the train protectively shutting down its drives when the supply frequency response fell below 49Hz.
6. Importantly Siemens have also clarified that there should not have been a Permanent Lockout on the train following a protective shutdown caused by a supply voltage frequency drop. All trains should have been recoverable via Battery Reset whereas 30 trains were not recoverable. This was not the intended behaviour of the train.
7. Therefore, the affected Class 700 and 717 sets did not react according to their design intent in these circumstances. The risk of this happening was not known prior to the power event on Friday 9 August.
8. Separately as a part of the new TCMS (Train Control Management System) software version 3.27, the ability for the driver to recover from a Permanent Lockout by using the Battery Reset process was removed.
9. On the 9th of August all the units which required a Technician to recover power were at software level 3.27 or above. The 28 units recovered by the driver performing a Battery Reset were at the previous TCMS software level of 3.25 or below.

Conclusion

1. All the Class 700 and Class 717 trains operating on AC suffered a Protective Shutdown of the 4QC controller because of a drop in the supply frequency below 49Hz for 16 seconds.
2. This was not how the train system had been specified to operate. This event should not have caused a Permanent Lockout fault on the trains.
3. The effects of this were exacerbated as the fleet was undergoing a software change, contained in this was a change in functionality removing the Battery Reset remedy for Permanent Lockout events. 4. This meant that the driver could not recover failed trains which were operating on the new software, instead a Technician was required to attend.

Planned Mitigation

1. Siemens are developing a software patch to allow units which protectively shutdown below 49Hz supply frequency to recover themselves without the need of a reboot or laptop when the frequency rises above 49.5Hz.
2. It is not proposed by Siemens or GTR to revert units to previous software versions as there are concerns this could severely impact unit availability. Based on discussions with the National Grid Head of Networks, the risk of frequency excursion dropping below 49Hz before the patch is fully introduced are considered extremely unlikely.
3. In addition to this Siemens will investigate how the train could be made to operate for a short time with supply frequency falling to 48.5Hz.

Spare me the Labour hypocrisy on Rail Fares

One of the subjects that this blog takes very seriously is public transport. The blog I've probably spent longer researching than any other was last months one concerning the future of rail transport. Although I'm not an industry insider or a rail buff, it is a subject that fascinates me and I have come to realise is vital for the economic health of our city and the country.

Today the Labour party has launched a big assault on the Conservative Party under the title of #Railfail against the huge hikes in rail fares that have come into force today. On a very simplistic level, I am tempted to applaud the Labour attempts to portray the Tories as uncaring in their campaign. It is clearly great politics because it is an issue that is easy to understand and lets face it, no one likes having a fare hike coming out of their pocket.

But any campaign has to be honest.  There are many things to criticise about the Tories policy on Transport, but we are appalled by the rather hypocritical stance that the Labour party is taking. Lets look at a few undisputable facts.

1. In 1997, Tony Blair lead Labour to the largest majority of modern times in Parliament. Public finances were in a strong position and it was clear that Rail privatisation was not working. Labour won three elections in a row. However they did absolutely nothing to reverse privatisation, apart from when private companies failed (most notably with Railtrack and the East Coast franchise). In Barnet, commuters suffered a truly awful period during the First Capital Connect era under Labour. I've had this discussion with several Labour supporters, who claim things will be different under a Corbyn led government, and that privatisation is definitely a priority. Personally I take the view that if they were serious about transport, then they would have details of a serious joined up, sustainable and deliverable transport future on the placards, rather than the current campaign. One has to presume that the Blair government looked at privatisation. The harsh truth is that Labour could have undone privatisation and didn't.

Rail Fare increases by year

2. Labour, The Tories and The Coalition all put fares up, this graphic shows that the biggest rise was under Gordon Brown (7.6% in 2009). The biggest problem in the relation to the UK and rail is the chronic under investment. There are all manner of schemes that would produce decent returns on investment and would massively improve the lot of passengers. Schemes such as Crossrail 2, The West London Orbital Railway, Midland Mainline Electrification, High Speed Trans Penine Routes, etc are all languishing awaiting funding. For us in The London Borough of Barnet, The Thameslink project is coming to an end, with all the disruption it has brought. London Bridge is reopened and in May we'll see more trains. Passengers will bear the brunt of the cost of this. If you asked any commuter from Mill Hill what the biggest problem is and they'd say boiling hot, packed rush hour services. Whilst cheaper fares may be desirable, they will do nothing to address this. Many passengers think they pay too much for a sub standard service, but most I know wouldn't mind the costs if you could get on the trains, they ran on time and they weren't roasting hot. If you use the "Finding a quieter train" app you will see that all Mill Hill Rush hour trains are packed to bursting. There is no quick fix to the funding issues that plague the railway. To pretend that a lower level of fare rise will make things better is clearly nonsense. Unless there were more trains, it would simply attract more people and make the situation impossible. The sad truth is that whatever  a Labour government did on the transport front, there is no way anything would improve for several years and if there was an across the board fare cut, it could be a disaster.

3. The Labour Party rightly point to the fact that the Tories have baled out the failing operators of the East Coast franchise and that this has cost taxpayers a fortune. It is also correct to say that when the franchise failed before, it functioned better as a state run operation.

The videos being put out by Labour imply that a complete renationalisation of the network will solve all the problems. The evidence of the East Coast franchise on the face of it seems to back up the Labour campaign.

Today, the Tory Government and private train companies are putting up your rail fares by 3.6%. The steepest hike in 5 years.

The next Labour government will bring our railways into public ownership to work for the many, not the few. #RailFail pic.twitter.com/XTKH67hS0T

— Andy McDonald MP (@AndyMcDonaldMP) January 2, 2018

Of course I have a huge amount of sympathy with this view, however Labour can't just give us these platitudes. Any renationalisation of rail would need to be properly thought out and may take decades to achieve, given the fragmentary way that the Tories broke up British Rail. Some aspects of British Rail, such as the technology and train building functions simply can't be brought back in house. In may ways, the infrastructure is already in private ownership under Network Rail. It must also be said that some of the private companies actually provide a decent service and the last thing that should be a priority for these should be to hoist huge management changes on them. My experience as a commuter shows that when the management changes on franchises (I've seen it three times) chaos ensues until the new management work out how to run the railway. The outgoing company also seems to stop training drivers etc, to maximise profits, resulting in all manner of chaos.

Labour should know this.  If Andy McDonald was standing up and promoting a coherent plan to renationalised the network, in a sensible and structured way, starting with failing franchises and building up management competence then we'd have the basis of a good plan. For Mill Hill, moving Thameslink local services to TFL would be a far better way forward than to suddenly renationalise the whole of the rail network.

If we take off the rose tinted glasses, British Rail was not a golden age of rail. It was a long term project of managed decline. Whilst other countries such as France and Japan built High Speed Rail networks, the UK replaced dirty, polluting steam engines with dirty polluting diesel engines. Only the UK could modernise and upgrade a mainline railway, electrify it and then scrap the whole thing (the Woodhead Transpenine route).  Thirty years later, we are looking at building a multi billion railway to simply reinstate that route. Much as we may hate rail privatisation, in terms of passenger numbers and investment, the period has been far more successful than the BR era.

Of course what Mr McDonald is seeking to capitalise on is our aversion to paying huge price rises to badly run private companies. This is clever politics, but without a clear, detailed and robust plan, explaining how funding will be maintained, how infrastructure projects will be implemented and financed and how issues of overcrowding will be addressed, it is all meaningless platitudes.

The Labour Party has an awful record on the rail network. The Tories is even worse. Short termism has been the order of the day for the last 70 years. In truth it is a miracle that full Thameslink is only being delivered 18 years late.

What I would like to see is a Royal Commission set up, to take a proper look at the UK transport infrastructure, including rail, air and road travel. I'd put it within their remit to examine models of management and ownership from around the world and work out the best way to fund, manage and rebuild our creaking infrastructure. At present we have all manner of controversial transport schemes. A new runway at Heathrow, HS2, Crossrail 2, Northern Powerhouse etc. There is no joined up thinking at all. We have airports such as Luton that don't even have a train station on site. We have abandoned railways such as The Woodhead route, with new schemes to rebuild parallel routes. There is a scheme to rebuild a railway between Oxford and Cambridge as part of the East West Rail scheme that will use polluting diesel traction. The government is planning £61 billion worth of new road schemes. A holistic view of all of this is what is needed. A coherent national transport plan, that all parties commit to and agree to fund. The Cameron governments seemed rather obsessed with huge schemes. I am convinced that a whole swathe of well planned smaller schemes, addressing bottlenecks, reopening closed lines and electrifying main lines would have delivered far more benefit, at far less cost than the HS2 project. It may well be that when we'd fixed the existing network, HS2 would have been needed, and the route should have been protected, but it is ridiculous that we will still have diesel trains trundling to Derby, Nottingham, Aylesbury and Cornwall whilst building such a highly controversial project.

What we are seeing from the Labour Party is a very one dimensional political attack that does nothing to move the debate from arguing over which sticking plaster the next government will apply to our transport system, to trying to fix the whole thing properly.

Matthew Offord opens new train sidings at Cricklewood for Thameslink trains

I was intrigued to see a post on Matthew Offord MP's website detailing how he opened a "world class rail facility" at Cricklwood yesterday. Matthew's site says

Monday, 25 January, 2016

A disused piece of railway land in Cricklewood has been turned into a first-class railway facility that will play a crucial part in what will be one of the country’s busiest main line train services - the Thameslink route.

The new depot - part of the Government-sponsored £6.5 billion Thameslink Programme - includes a new drive-through train wash, toilet emptying facilities and walkways for staff to remove rubbish from trains. It is already cleaning trains on the Thameslink route and will be used by Thameslink’s new Class 700 trains when they are introduced this spring. The sidings are a crucial part of Thameslink's plans to modernise services to give passengers new, spacious trains and, from 2018, more frequent services at all stations between Bedford and London.

Opening the new sidings, Matthew said:“I am delighted that the Government’s investment in the Thameslink Programme is contributing to this new facility at Cricklewood. As a user of the Thameslink line, I am well aware that the overcrowding and delays on the current service are not acceptable. When completed, this Programme will provide a much-needed modern and efficient train service for all users of the Thameslink line including my constituents in Edgware, Hendon and Mill Hill. These new state-of-art facilities will enable trains to visit around the clock which will make a real difference to the service."

Cricklewood Depot in 1975

I was rather intrigued by the spin put on this rather modest upgrade to some stabling sidings. In the 1970's Cricklewood was a major maintenance depot for the Midland Mainline route of British Railways. Inter city trains, freight locomotives and local commuter trains were maintained at a large depot on the site. There was also an extensive marshalling yard for freight adjacent to the site. The GLC also built a rail waste transfer station on the site in the early 1980's under Ken Livingstones regime.

 In the late 1980's three things happened that saw the demise of this facility. Firstly the Midland mainline saw the introduction of HST services, replacing the old locomotive drawn trains. The maintenance of these was transferred to a new depot in Yorkshire. The second was the demise of coal trains to power stations in Thatchers move to gas and nuclear power. The third was the opening of the Thameslink service, with maintenance of trains transferred to Selhurst. Within a few years Cricklewood Depot, although relatively modern was closed, derelict and was demolished in the early 1990s.

Matthew Offord opens new Crickewood Depot

As the Thameslink service has grown ever more popular and more trains have been added, there has been a requirement for more stabling facilities. These are simply sidings where trains are cleaned and have the toilets emptied between journeys and trains are parked when not in use. The new facilities at Cricklewood are one of a number of such facilities refurbished for the Thameslink upgrade. The main train depot, where servicing and engineering will be undertaken will be in Hornsey, not Cricklewood. Unlike the former depot, there is no shed or inspection pits for engineers. In effect, the "state of the art depot" Offord refers to is a giant car park for trains, where bogs are emptied and carriages cleaned.

In truth, his constituency has missed out again on jobs and investment. Whilst Hornsey will get a real state of the art depot, providing skilled jobs for engineers and technicians, Cricklewood will get a few jobs for cleaners and people emptying toilets.  Matthew Offord has always seemed a rather semi detached MP, with little interest in the commuters who make up a large proportion of his constituency.  In his article, he talks of commuters in "Edgware, Hendon and Mill Hill" using the service. This is a truly odd choice of words. Firstly Edgware doesn't have a Thameslink station, being served by The Northern Line. He says  "These new state-of-art facilities will enable trains to visit around the clock which will make a real difference to the service." This is a truly odd thing to say about some train stabling sidings. They are designed to park trains outside of peak hours when they are not in use. I suspect Mr Offord has simply been given some publicity material by the Thameslink operator and regurgitated it without bothering to ask any questions.

Offord states that he is  "well aware that the overcrowding and delays on the current service are not acceptable." Despite being well aware, there is no mention of any action to resolve any of the issues faced by commuters. Today the Barnet Eye published a guest blog by Richard Logue calling for Govia to be sacked as operator and for TFL to take over immediately. Richard said "How many times have you stood on a Monday morning at Mill Hill Broadway only to be told your trains are cancelled while fast trains from St Albans and Bedford whizz past on the fast lines? These trains could stop at Mill Hill. We have 12-car capable platforms that could accommodate the longer and newer trains that First Group and now GTR don't allow to stop at Mill Hill." This simple change of policy by Govia would make a huge impact on the almost daily delays experienced by Mill Hill Commuters. Govia claim that DofT rules prevent this from happening. This is why we need a proactive MP to get stuck in. Offord has been MP for five years and in this period we've seen no improvements, only deterioration. There are rumours that following continual lobbying by our GLA representative Andrew Dismore, there will be step free access at Mill Hill announced shortly. I suppose Mr Offord will be invited to open this as well as he clearly has a very cosy relationship with the train operators.

I find the current culture of political spin disgusting. This attempt to portray the refurbishment of a few stabling sidings as a major new depot to be ridiculous and Mr Offord should be ashamed of himself for going along with it. Mill Hill Commuters have got a raw deal from Thameslink. We lost a major centre of excellence in the 1980's when Cricklewood depot was closed down and in truth all that is left is a few sidings and a few cleaning facilities. Of course it is good that a few jobs will be created, but please spare us this spin and tell is the truth.

Credits  - Cricklewood Diesel Depot photo courtesy of JeffP's photos - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79590-jeffps-photos-early-70s-and-80s/page-11

Is this what Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Trains call customer service?

Richard Branson has made a career out of being a bit different. When the major record labels shunned the Sex Pistols, he signed them up. He launched Virgin Atlantic Airways to offer a high quality, low cost option for transatlantic travel, succeeding where Freddie Laker had been torn to shreds. Virgin brand themselves as different, more customer focused and better.

So today my Daughter had an open day at Manchester University to attend. She left the house at 7am to get the 8am Virgin Trains service to Manchester. She had booked a cheap return ticket with a railcard. When she arrived at the station to board the train she found she'd forgotten the card, when asked. The ticket inspectors point blank refused to let her board the train and informed her she'd have to buy a brand new ticket. Being an art student on a limited budget, she only had enough cash on her for fares and lunch and a little spending money. As the ticket would be full price, this was simply not an option. She had to be at the Uni at 10.30.

Now of course by the letter of the law, Virgin Trains were within their rights to refuse to let her travel. But surely when someone makes a genuine mistake, one which is easy enough to verify, in this day and age a company such as Virgin should be able to accomodate it. Under the much maligned First Capital Connect, I once travelled to Blackfriars having fogotten my season ticket. At the Barriers, a helpful chap explained that I had to pay a £20 penalty fare. He asked if I wanted to pay now or later. He then said that season ticket holders will be let off if they could prove they actually had a season ticket. This simply involved scanning the ticket and photocard and sending it with an appeal form to the company. I duly did this and the fine was waived.

In my Daughters case, surely it would have been equally simple to take her details and get her to supply a photo of the card. In fact, we could have scanned it and sent it to her smartphone there and then (or to any other computer they wanted). But no. The Virgin Trains staff sent my daughter home in tears. She has missed the open day for the University and she is distraught.

So thank you Sir Richard and your company. I never thought I'd say this but I am starting to form the conclusion that for all their sins, First Capital Connect were not that bad. As far as I am concerned, if Labour really were serious about winning the election, they would make a pledge to nationalise all of these rail companies ASAP and stop these greedy fat cat companies ripping us off for every last penny. To deny a student the opportunity to attend a University Open day, when she has paid for a valid ticket, has a valid railcard and has simply made a silly mistake rushing for a train is scandalous and sickening. 

Planning an epic journey to visit a great London landmark

I thought I'd set myself a little challenge. I thought I'd take a trip from Mill Hill Broadway to Stratford, to see the Olympic site. That's easy, you may think. Train from Mill Hill Broadway to Farringdon, Tube from Farringdon to Liverpool Street and then a Tube to Stratford. Total Journey time less than 1 hour.

That's too easy though. Just suppose I wanted a day out and I was in a wheelchair and I couldn't use stairs or escalators? Well you may say, that is a bit harder. How much? Well this is the route TFL's Journey planner suggested.

16:22 16:26	Mill Hill Broadway Station Take the Route Bus 186 from Stop: F towards Northwick Prk Hosp Social Club	Average journey time: 4 mins	Mill Hill Broadway Station
16:43 17:11	Mill Hill / Apex Corner  Stop:  D Take  Route Express bus 797 towards Green Line Coach Station	Average journey time: 28 mins	Mill Hill / Apex Corner
	Baker Street Station Take the Route Bus 205 from Stop: D towards Bow Bus Garage or Route Bus 30 from Stop: D towards St. Marys Of Eton Church Pay before you board	Buses every: 3 - 7  mins Max journey time: 23  mins	Baker Street Station
	King's Cross St.Pancras Walk to St Pancras International	Transfer time: 13 mins	King's Cross St.Pancras
17:58 18:04	St Pancras International Rail Station Take  Southeastern towards Broadstairs Rail Station Zone(s): 1	Average journey time: 6 mins Zone(s): 1	St Pancras International Rail Station
18:09 18:14	Stratford International Rail Station Take  Route SE 26772 Southeastern towards Stratford Rail Station SOUTHEASTERN HIGH SPEED: Travelcards and Freedom Passes are not accepted for travel on this service. Reported: 10/12/09 09:49 Last Updated: 10/12/09 09:49 Zone(s): 3	Average journey time: 5 mins Zone(s): 3	Stratford International Rail Station
	Stratford Walk to Stratford	Transfer time: 5 mins	Stratford
18:19	Stratford

You know what, maybe I'll just stay in and watch telly. You know the sad thing? Well consider this.

Mill Hill is one of the most modern stations on the old BedPan line. It was rebuilt for the M1 Motorway in the 1960's. When it was rebuilt, it had a lift. This would allow disabled passengers to access platform 1. Sadly this was taken out about 10 years ago as part of a refurbishment. Theoretically this could easily be added back at not too great a cost. A ramped overbridge would also not be an exhorbitant cost for the return journey. Not only that, but there is a street level access from Bunns Lane Car Park to the station, which would make the station available for people in wheelchairs at minimal costs.

From Mill Hill Broadway, you could make your way to St Pancras, where there are lifts, and then access the new Javelin Service which takes a mere 9 minutes to Stratford (except that this journey is not permitted).

So what point am I making. Well in 2012, we are staging the Paraplegic Games. A small amount of money spent and Mill Hill Broadway could easily be turned into a North West London Hub for people in wheelchairs wishing to travel to the Olympics or even travelling to Brussels and Paris. Is it really too much to ask? A ramped platform overbridge and a wheelchair friendly gate on Bunns Lane Carpark? That's all.

Maybe I'll do the trip next week to see what it's really like. I wonder if Boris Johnson would like to accompany me and tell me whether he thinks that it is a reasonable journey to expect someone in a wheelchair to make in 2012.

Who do First Capital Connect think that they are kidding?

The sorry saga of First Capital Connect and the Thameslink route was given a good airing on ITV's London Tonight program last night (Please note this clip will be replaced later today). It is a really good expose on the shambolic service and contains a great Youtube clip. There were two rather revealing moments in the broadcast. The first was the fact that First Capital Connect were unable (or unwilling) to put a spokesman on air to explain the shambles. The excuse "We're too busy". The second thing, gave lie to what they were busy doing. After the clip at the beginning, the presenters asked for comments by email. The emails were read out towards the end of the show. Now if you are a Thameslink commuter who has used the service in the last three months, you tell me if you think this is a "real commuter" or whether you think that this was a message planted by someone in the First Capital Connect PR department. If you forward the clip to 25:04 you will hear it. Shane from Borehamwood said :-

 "I use Thameslink to work in the city. I find the service good. It's a great service"

It is simply totally unbelievable that anyone who commutes to the City from Borehamwood, could possibly say such a thing. Given the "emergency timetable" we had to endure, do you believe that any real person using the service would say it? First Capital Connect stand to loose hundreds of millions of pounds worth of revenue if they are stripped of the franchise. It is clear that they've gone into PR overdrive. It is clear to me that this company will stop at nothing to protect the revenue for their shareholders and directors. Sure I can't prove anything, but I use the service from the next stop on the line. I know what it's been like.  Lord Adonis should take note of these tactics

First Capital Connect - How bad can a company be?

Yet again the hard pressed commuters of Mill Hill are suffering. It seems that First Capital Connect have discovered a new excuse for not being able to run a service. This time, it seems the snow has damaged their trains. There are two aspects of this I don't get. Firstly, these trains have been running since the mid 1980's. How on earth can they suddenly be susceptible to snow? Strange as it may seem, it has snowed in the last 25 years. Secondly, having used Thameslink since the line was first opened, I do actually remember when these trains were first introduced under British Rail. They all went wrong then,the first time its nowed. The excuse "The wrong type of snow". They said that the filters couldn't deal with fine snow. These were quickly replaced with more expensive filters that did the job.Could it be that First Capital Connect have gone back to using the cheap filters that caused the initial problem?

A quick look at the Thameslink website revealed this message
------------------------------------------------

Customer information: Monday 11 January 2010, 18:23

THAMESLINK ROUTE
Due to the weather we regret we can offer only a severely limited service today but there are 8 extra services this evening northbound from London and 4 services out of London on the Wimbledon/Sutton loop. Buses are in operation to alleviate overcrowding
------------------------------------------------
Surely the time has come for the Government to say to First Group that "enough is enough". They make a handsome profit running this service, which is redistributed to shareholders. If the line was taken back into public hands, then the money could be spent on upgrading the service. First have completely undermined the argument that privatised companies can run a train service more efficiently than a nationalised company. British Rail ran the service for years and we never had the mayhem we've had in the last few months then. The only measure First Capital Connect works on as a company is to deliver huge dividend to shareholders and huge renumeration packages to the directors such as Moir Lockhead.

First Crapital Connect - Everything that's wrong with Great Britain today

The Tragedy of Thameslink

There are many things I love about living in Mill Hill. One of the less fantastic aspects is the fact that the rail service many of us rely on is run by a company which doesn't seem to know what it's doing. In the "bad old days" of British rail, there were 8 trains per hour to London during rush hour. Four of these were fast and the journey time was approx 10 minutes. The then Conservative government had a brilliant idea. They'd privatise the railways. At least when Maggie Thatcher privatised things she gave people the chance to earn a few bob out of the process by selling the shares to the general public at a discount, so those of us with a bit of spare cash could make a few bob. The rail privatisation didn't even gig such a nod to the owners (ie us). Assets were virtually given away. As a result we got Thameslink. The company operating this services, Govia, did a lousy job. As a result season ticket holders at Mill Hill, used to get a big discount. When the franchise was up, we all breathed a sigh of relief. A new company took over. Thameslink became First Capital Connect. The first thing they did was get rid of the automatic discount for season ticket holders. Now if your train is late, you have to apply for a refund. As this is far too much hassle for most people, they've made a fortune in savings.

They've also brought in penalty fares. Again they are making a fortune on these, because people who don't travel regularly get caught out time an again at Mill Hill because although you can get on a train at many stations with your Pay as you go Oyster card, when you get off you can't use it. As such you either get the full monty for not touching out, or you get caught by inspectors and handed a £20 penalty fare. In other words you get scammed.

They've now found a new way to make your life miserable. I just read this report on the BBC which says they can't even find enough drivers to run a Sunday service on part of the route. Does the managing director of First, Moir Lockhead get fined a penalty fare for every passenger left stranded?


As to it's performance. In February this year, nearly 1 in 4 trains was late (5 or minutes late) and in July more than 1 in 10 was late. What is quite stunning was the fact that whilst I was researching this blog, I discovered that they HAD TO BORROW trains to run their timetable earlier in the year !

Now I don't claim to know anything about running a railway, but come on, if you publish a timetable you should know how many trains you need.

Back to my original point. In the "bad old days" of British Rail, we had 8 trains an hour from Mill Hill at rush hour. How many do we have now - 5. Has the cost of travel got cheaper? Nope, it's gone up in real terms. Is there less overcrowding? Nope, it's got worse. Is it easier to get to? It used to take 3 minutes to walk from Kings Cross Thameslink to the tube. It now takes nearly 10 minutes. The hours at the ticket office have been cut. So you undeniably pay more and get less. Who has benefitted from this awful company running the operation?

I had a look at Moir Lockhead's executive profile. I found that his renumeration package was as follows :-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ANNUAL COMPENSATION*

Salary	£609,000
Bonus	£160,000
Total Annual Compensation	£769,000

STOCK OPTIONS*

All Other Compensation	£33,000
Exercisable Options	735,853
Exercisable Values	£185,979
Unexercisable Options	297,107
Unexercisable Values	£779,906
Total Value of Options	£965,885
Total Number of Options	1,032,960

TOTAL COMPENSATION*

Total Annual Cash Compensation	£769,000
Total Short Term Compensation	£769,000
Other Long Term Compensation	£33,000
Total Calculated Compensation	£802,000

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I like the way it calls his earnings COMPENSATION. I always thought compensation was what you got from a company that provides a crap service. It seems like the only person who gets proper compensation from First Capital Connect for it's tawdry service is the bloke who runs it. If you want to know what's wrong with Great Britain today, can there be a finer example.

First Capital Connect and the Oyster Pay as You Go daylight robbery scam

On Wednesday 30th September I posted this blog about the awful experience my daughter had at the hands of an aggressive bully of a ticket inspector at Mill Hill Broadway Station. She didn't realise that you can't use Pay as You Go Oyster Cards at Mill Hill and got a £20 penalty fare, even though she'd touched in at St Pancras, where there are no warning signs. As she couldn't touch out she was also deducted a fare higher than the one she should have paid.

I got quite a response from the story. People told me many tales of rude and surly inspectors. What I didn't expect was the email I got today. This was from someone who has used a Pay as You Go Oyster card at Mill Hill. This is an extract from his statement

22/09/09
21:28 Mill Hill Broadway Exit £1.70 £9.40
21:00 Farringdon Entry - £4.00 £7.70

He explained that on the 22/09/09, the Oyster PAYG readers at Mill Hill were working. he touched out with them and as his statement clearly shows, he was deducted the fare.

What does this mean. It means that all of those people like my daughter, who suffered abuse and humiliation have been scammed. The system is there, it works, they just don't want to use it.

Yesterday (Tuesday) I saw a team of inspectors again fining people for using PAYG Oyster cards. I'd suggest that anyone receiving a penalty fare from these people informs them that the system is working and that they are extorting money under false pretences. I don't know when the system became usable, but usable it is.Point this out to them.

YOU HAVE A TICKET, THEY HAVE A MACHINE THAT CAN READ IT, IF THEY CHOOSE TO NOT USE THAT MACHINE, THEY CANNOT JUSTIFY CHARGING YOU A PENALTY CHARGE.

I have proof that the system works, so there is no longer any justification for this scam and the humiliation of law abiding customers to continue. As before, urge Boris Johnson, James Cleverly and Brian Coleman to bang some heads together to stop this scam.

Great Train Journeys of the World

I read with interest Dave Hills blog this week about going on a nostalgic tube journey on an old Red tube train. Generally I don't do nostalgia, but reading Dave Hill's article reminded me of all sorts of long buried memories. One of my greatest regrets as a father is that I can't take my children on the greatest train ride of them all. When I was a little kid, the biggest treat was when my mum used to take us home on the "big train" from St Pancras to Mill Hill Broadway.

In the 60's & 70's this journey was usually on a clanky old diesel railbus. These were bright blue with a yellow front. I'd drag my mum to the very front of the train. If you were lucky, the driver would not put the blinds down and you could see the oncoming tracks. The highlight was the stretch between Kentish Town and West Hampstead. On this stretch you go through the Belsize tunnel. We'd always play the game of "who can see the end of the tunnel first". The tunnel is over a mile long and the journey through would seem to take about 10 minutes, with the end emerging through a misty haze after about 8 minutes. On one rather spooky journey, the lights were off all of the way, so it was like a scary fairground ride. I always imagined that zombies and monsters inhabited the tunnel, why I really don't know. Another bit of the journey which I used to like was the section between Hendon and Mill Hill, just before Aerodrome road. Here the line branches off, goes under a rail flyover and has a steep bank to one side that for a few weeks a year is covered in the most glorious wild flowers. In the early days of my life in the 60's, you would emerge from this to see Hendon RAF base on your right, with all manner of the latest military planes. To a young boy, this truly was the worlds greatest train ride. These days you get a glimpse of the RAF Museum at Hendon and then a lovely view of Grahame Park estate.

I vividly remember one day, when we arrived at St Pancras and my mum excitedly announced that she had a special treat. Rather than the rickety old diesel railcar, we were going on a "proper train" with an engine & carriages. It was an express, first stop Mill Hill. It was one of the old style rail carriages with compartments. The carriages then were maroon and the engine was green. The seats had a sort of tartan pattern. I imagined that the train had specially been brought down from Scotland to ferry us to Mill Hill. I asked my mum why it was first stop Mill Hill. She said "because we live there". After that I always thought British Rail was a rather marvellous and caring organisation.

These days, when I take the Thameslink, I don't have the same magical feeling. Whilst I'm rather pleased to seethe train come, it really isn't the same. Is it just because I'm a world weary adult? Having said that, I did make a magical rail journey a few years ago. I was in Stratford and my sister had just had her youngest son and was in the Royal Free. I took the North London Line from Stratford to Hampstead Heath. It was a sunny/cloudy winters afternoon and the sun was just setting. There is a section of the North London line which is raised above street level and I was treated to the most magnificent views of London bathed in the most glourious evening sun. I didn't have my camera, but I've vowed to repeat the journey one day and record it for posterity. How I'd arrange the weather, I don't know. As a lover of craggy urban scene's that is, to my mind one of the worlds greatest train journeys.

One thing which I thought was quite interesting was the lack of pictures of the smelly old diesel railbuses at St Pancras when I was looking for a picture. I guess that people don't hold them in the same affection that I do. I suppose they don't fit in with modern image of Eurostars and champagne bars, which seems to have taken over the St Pancras experience. Personally, I think I preferred it when you could get a pint of real ale in the Shires pub as you waited for you train home.