NXEC commuter blog

...to be a few days into a new job, and my commute's been rubbish every morning so far.

Monday, no seat to be had PBO->KGX, made the mistake of picking the H&C line, had a 13 min wait at Baker Street at 8:30.
Tuesday, apparently NetworkRail employed the crew of the 0640 to inspect the overhead wires North of Stevenage on their way down.
Today, stuck doors at Warren Street on the Victoria.

In other news, I see NXEC are in trouble: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8127851.stm

Interestingly, one of the reasons I've not blogged much (apart from the insanity that was changing jobs), is that I've actually found almost nothing to grumble about: NXEC have (at least the bits of it I've used) been pretty much cockup and delay free.

I'm 2 weeks in to my new job and experienced my first 'severe' delay on the A14 Westbound. I say severe but in my case it wasn't. I t was if you were in the he middle of the 7 mile tailback but thanks to my sat nav and the radio, I managed to avoid the tailbacks and cut the delay to 15/20 mins. Unlike the trains, a car has the capability of allowing the driver to choose the route and with modern eqipment and communication tools, it's not that hard to work out what is happening miles ahead of you which gives you the oppotunity to replan your route. Which is exactly what I did this morning.

I'm back on the trains this Friday thanks to a couple of meetings in London. If the news in the press is anything to go by, like GNER before tham, NXEC could well be considering giving up the franchise. I see there are a few comments on here which mention the difficulties they're having and possible redundancies etc. Obviously it doesn't affect me as much as it did but something has to give. No TOC should be expected to run a service at a loss but my understanding is that the ECML is still very profitable but not quite as profitable as NX expected. I guess we're all just going to have to wait and see what happenes.

It's my first day in my new Job Monday and gues how I've got to get to the office and guess which line I've got to travel on to get there? Yes, I'll be joining my old commuter mates on the 07.20 as I'm expected to be in Egham Surry for my first day. Bloody typical isn't it?

I've got to say I'm extreemly pissed off with NXEC at the moment. I surrendered my season ticket the other day which had 5 months left to run. It cost £5560 so I was expecting 5/12ths back = £2316.67p. Unfortunately NXEC don't opperate a pro rata refund basis. Oh no. What they do is milk every last penny they can from you and charge you for 1 x 6 monthly ticket + 1 x monthly season ticket. So all in all I've just paid the bastards £500 more than I have budgeted for. Fuming I am.

After 4 and a half long years, my days as a regular commuter are nearing an end. For now at least. Sadly I'll still be on the trains on a regular basis but I've accepted a job in Northampton and resigned from my current position. So, from Monday Apr 27th I'll be swopping the ECML for the A14 Westbound. My last day here is Thursday Apr 16th although I'll be heading into London the following day to meet my new boss and go over a few plans. I then plan to take a week off and start my new job the following Monday.

Because I'll still be using the trains a lot, I've decided to keep the blog going although it would help if I had a few more people willing to join me as associate bloggers like Penfold etc. Drop me a PM if you interested.

I see the new info board outside Peterborough station is already displaying incorrect information.

What a terrible day on the ECML line yesterday was with 2 fatalities. First there was a fatality Hatfield around about 10am which caused no end of disruption until lunchtime. This was followed at 5pm by another death, this time at Finsbury Park when some poor soul ended up infront of the 17:00 to Edinburgh.

Unsurprisingly I was lucky enough to miss the mornings incident but as I was on the 17.03 (the next train out of KX after the 17.00) I was well and truely in it. The train pulled out of Kings Cross and had just cleared the tunnels whan it stopped just before the Emirates Stadium. For once, the crew and staff IMHO got customer communication spot on. We'd only been stopped for about 5 mins before the guard came on the line and announced the fatality. 15 mins later she came on again and told us they were going to back the train up, change the points and put it on the slow lane. 5 mins later the train backed up and five mins after that we moved forward again onto the slow lane. We then crept forward through Finsbury park and in the 4.5 years I've been commuting I've never seen anything like what I saw yesterday evening. Thanksfully it wasn't what I'd call gory but it was clear what had happened.

The first thing I saw were all the passenegr being hearded away from the northern end of the platform. Next I saw two engineers putting sand and gravel on the track. No doubt covering the blood. Next I saw a bloke (a big bloke at that) at the northern edge of the station. This bloke was shaking like a leaf and I can honestly say I have never seen anyone shake like that. He was knelt down with his back to the track and was obviously a witness who was being comforted by a member of BTP. As we crawled through th sation I then saw a tarp on the track with trickles of blood eminating from the edges and a coupkle more BTP milling around it. About 100 yeards north of the platform stood the 17.00 to Edinburgh. The guards van doors were open and a memebr of staff was stood talking to two more BTP. Other than that it looked normal. There wasn't even a mark on the front of the train where the person hit it.

In these situation I really feel for the driver, witnesses and whatever family the victim may have had. What I don't have any sympathy for is the person concerned. They got what they wanted and it's us that are left have to live with the bedlam they leave behind them.

Personally, I got a right bollocking when I got home. De Wife had obviously had a bad day and was expecting me home on time. She hadn't cooked the kids tea becasue she was going to ask me to take them for a burger. Like a pudding, becasue I knew I was only going to be home half an hour later than I usually am,I didn't call and tell her I was going to be a bit late. Consequently she hit the roof when I walked in and she still hasn't let me explain what happened. Had this person not done what they did I would have been home half an hour earlier than normal and I would of had quite a plesant evening. Ah well. At least I'm in a better place than these two people were.

Until later.

This morning I picked up one of those crappy free 'City Lite' newspapers the P'boro ET produce each Friday. I got to page 4, looked at the bottom of the page and, thinking about this nutter, pissed myself laughing at the irony of the main headline: -
'Station is declared on of UK's safest'.
P'boro station is one of 12 on the ECML to be awarded secure status by BTP and the DOT. The award was acheived for the various SECURITY measures and improvements that have been installed at the station. There are 4 key security levels to be adhered to in order to qualify:-
1. Design of the station has to conform with standards to prevent and reduce crime.
2. Staff must respond to incidents and communicate with customers.
3. Stats for the preceeding 12 months must demonstrate positive efforts to manage crime
4. A survey of station-users must show they feel secure in the station.

Apparently NXEC have a range of security measures such as CCTV (which are always pointing at the exits and not the car park) and security guards (who it now appears, hide in the office at the first sign of a major security threat) although the article only mentions the CCTV. Further improvments to the stations lighting and signage are also cited as examples of the improved security. I can't say I've noticed the improved lights and the new signs look liked they'd fit right in a few hundred yards up the track at Peterborough prison. And where's this survey? I certainly haven't heard of anyone being asked to fill one in or give their views. I'll lay odds they ran the survey between 11am and 3pm when most passengers are occasional rail users and wouldn't have a clue.

Clearly NXEC are very proud of their secure station status but I can't for the life in me work out how they got it, why they'd want it or what they intend to do with it. IMHO opinion, by giving the place a lick of paint, they have improved the look of the place since they took over but I don't think NXEC have done didly to improve security and I don't think the place is very secure but I do and always have felt safe there.

When we all turned up on Monday morning, this is how the main entrance/exit to the platform at P'boro station looked. Given that Peterborough played Leicester on Saturday and POSH won, I assumed the Leicester city fans had done it and then I saw this report in yesterdays P'boro ET -

'A BOOZE-FUELLED man who smashed up Peterborough railway station's concourse with a breeze block after being told he had missed his last train has been jailed.
Security staff were so terrified by the unfolding events, they ran into their office and locked the door while watching Robert Clancy's rampage on CCTV.

His wrecking spree caused £5,500 in damage to the concourse.

The booking office remained closed for a day, and parts of the station are still not fully functional, causing disruption to commuters.

Clancy (46) was jailed for 20 weeks after admitting criminal damage, and told to pay compensation of £5,000 by city magistrates.

He has lodged an appeal against the sentence.

After knocking back the equivalent of 17 pints of cider during the previous 24 hours, Clancy, from Bromley, in Kent, boarded a train from King's Cross in London to Peterborough at just after midnight, on Friday, March 27.

When he got to the city's station, he was intending to catch another train back to London again.

But when he was told by platform staff that he had missed the last train, it sparked a shocking chain of events.

At about 2.20am he ran outside and picked up a breeze block before rushing inside the concourse, intending to "smash everything up", he told British Transport Police (BTP) officers in his interview.'

Click the link below to read the full report.

http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/Man-in-railway-station-wrecking.5128677.jp

If you read the the full report you'll see that the security staff were so scared, they locked themselves in the office. I thought security staff were there to deal with any threats to security but obviously I was wrong. It now appears their job is to spot threats to security and call BTP to come and deal with it for them. You couldn;t make it up could you? Priceless.

When we boarded yesterday mornings 07:20, in addition to the usual crew. we found if staffed by a large number of 'Railway Enforcement Officers' dressed in florecent yellow jackets. Personally I'd never heard of or seen 'Railway Enforcement Officers' before so I was quite interested to find out what they were doing there.

I watched as they went from passenger to passenger checking tickets. But this wasn't an ordinary ticket check. Oh no. Whenever they came across a passenger with a season ticket (which at that time of day was most of them) they asked the person to remove the ticket and photo ID card from whatever wallet or container it was held in. They then proceeded to check both the ticket and ID card to see if it was a fake.

I've absolutely no problem with what they were doing. In fact I applaud it. What I thought was slightly out of order was the non existant explanation to us customers. All of us were perplexed as to what was going on and why. A few asked but none received and answer that I heard. I watched as one bloke was asked if he had any other forms of ID with him. His ID card was very old and not what I would call in a good state of repair. Luckily he had proof of ID and because his season ticket was valid and it matched his suspect ID card, they let him off. But let him off what exactly? Having a vaild ticket and matching but knackered ID card?

I've since learned that 1 enterprising individual from Peterborough has been caught during peak times traveling with a fake season ticket and ID card. As a direct result, NXEC opted for what now seems a slightly heavy handed response to a problem NXEC believed could have been rife. Well now they know it isn't. As far as I know they havent caught anyone else with a fake ticket or id. They did manage to find one fella on the 07:20 who was trying to avoid paying by hiding in the toilets. That said, had it been a usual morning I'm sure the guards would have caught him. The bloke did pay up but they still had BTP greet him at KX because they couldn't understand why he was trying to avoid paying when he had shed loads of cash on him.

Sadly it's true. Not sure what affect it's having on services yet but I'll update if I can later.

All looks to have been resolved. Local news bulitins on the web state the track was closed at 8.15 and handed back to Natwork Rail at 9.35. I'll be traveling back to Tinsel Town at about 4pm today and if I get chance, I'll post an update while I'm on board.