I'm considering changing phones and provider for my mobile. One thing that I do find annoying about my present provider (T-Mobile) is the poor coverage on parts of the ECML. Apart from the inevitable drops in the tunnels, it's also VERY patchy just north of Stevanage and from St. Ives to Peterborough.

So, gentle readers with other companies: what are the other providers like? (particularly interested in O2).

A wee frisson of nostalgia just now as the guard on the 0700 announces 'Standard class customers are requested to exit through standard class. There is no access through the catering car...."

What... exactly... does 'on time' mean?

According to my dictionary:
"punctual |ˈpə ng k ch oōəl|
adjective happening or doing something at the agreed or proper time; on time : he's the sort of man who's always punctual."

Now, clearly, that's not exactly what NXEC mean. What NXEC say is: "Punctuality is measured as a percentage of all National Express East Coast trains that have arrived at their final destination within ten minutes of the advertised time: this is known as the Public Performance Measure (PPM)."

But, of course, the 'advertised' time, as anyone can tell from a quick peek at the Kings Cross arrivals board is anything from 2 to 6 minutes later than when NXEC think the train'll actually get there.

Anyone want to tell me how much slack there is on top of that in the working timetable? I've been told that pre-Hatfield the actual no-slack time was around 34 mins from Peterborough to King's Cross.

Of course, in order to meet performance goals, NXEC only have to meet the PPM nine times out of ten.

So. Anyway. On time? Means "no more than 15 mins later than we think we can do it, PLUS we can balls it up totally about five times a day."

My season ticket renewal last week, needless to say, didn't get a discount. At least I don't think it did, since I can't actually find out on the NXEC web site how much I should have paid.

Of course, that was the grandfathered GNER-style compensation clause. From now on, I can claim for individual delays.... and look, we have another brand spanking new definition of 'on time'.

THIRTY minutes later than the already generous timetable. And I get paid in lovely, shiny, NXEC vouchers. At least I can use 'em to pay for next year's season ticket, but... hey, look. Now we can balls up EVERY train EVERY day by 29 minutes (plus our generous slack built in to the timetable) and not have to compensate the customers.

I hope everyone of our regular readers will be tuning into BBC 1 to cheer on the mighty Barnsley and see us do to the not so mighty Cardiff City what we did to liverpool and Chelsea and them out of the FA cup and send them back to Wales.

Sadly I won't be tuning in but I will be watching from my seat at Wembley. (so all you train staff working Sunday Lunchtime will ave the pleasure of my company for 1 extra day this week).

Youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu Reeeeeedsssssssssssss

What happened to the 07.20 this morning is anybodies guess. Platform staff didn't know what was happening, commuters ddin't know and neither did on board staff.

Looking at the departure board in the main building, there was no sign of the 07.20 but there was mention of a service we've never seen before which was the 07.24. I heard a few people asking station staff what was going on but some didn't know whilst others just said that the 07.20 had been retimetabled to 07.24, it was just for today but they didn't know why.

With an extra 5 mins to play with I opted to fill the time by getting a cuppa. I'd just got served when I looked round to see the train arriving on platform 2. I looked at the clock and it said 07.19 so I grabbed some sugar and legged it. We then sat there for a full 4 mins until 07.24 when the doors closed and we pulled out. A few mins later the tannoy beeped and the lady CSM gives us the usual buffet car open, trolly in standard class type announcment then says the train is scheduled to arrive at 08.10 (it didn't) which is 2 mins earlier than the 07.20 is due to arrive when it's running on time. Needless to say it didn't arrive at 07.10, 07.12 or even 07.15. In fact we arrived at 07.20.

Clearly NXEC HO still have serious problems communicating with customer facing staff. The thing is if they can't communicate changes and/or the reasons behind them to staff, what chance have customers got of obtaining up to date and accurate information? This morning was just laughable and I suspect that some cummuters opted to jump on the 07.14 FCC instead of waiting the extra 5 mins for the 07.20 (which is fine by me as the 07.20 is a lot quieter).

And before anyone acuses me of moaning, I'm not. I'm just telling the tale.

I was very surprised to see a very dead and very squashed Pheasant at the top of the road outside the Queensgate car park this morning. Pheasants aren't anything unusual for the area but never have I seen one, dead or alive, in the centre of town. I can only assume somebody hit it on the way in and it stuck to the grill and slipped off as they came into the station. So who's got a bloody great dent covered in blood and feathers in the front of their car? It's a shame it was squashed becasue it looks like it was a decent size and would have made a good dinner for 2.

Travel wise, things have been pretty uneventful of late which is a good thing. Yes there have been the usual delays but that's now normal and they've even managed to get the seat reservations out for nearly 2 full weeks now which is getting on for a record. There was a bloke the other night who was moaning about the slow and poor service in the buffet but he was a bit too upper middle class for my liking and on listening to his complaints, I felt his expectations were way too high. He claimed they were slow yet he was gone no more than 5 minutes and he claimed they were rude but how rude can you be in the time it takes to serve somebody 3 packets of crisps and a can of diet coke? Turns out they didn't say goodbye which in his eyes made the staff rude.

I did notice that the paint job on one of the 125's to be sprayed in the new livery was a very poor job indeed. So many runs and drips it was embarassing. It has to have been bad becasue I noticed it and my misses says I wouldn't notice if a naked Elle McPhearson walked passed me though I think she'll find I would.

I jumped on the late running 07.00 at 07.23 this morning. The departure board in the main building said the 07.20 as on time when in actual fact it was also 20 mins late and it did cause a bit of confusion with a few people opting to wait for it but they soon changed their minds.

With the benefit of hindsight I wish I'd boarded a different coach because there were 2 women in coach C trying to control 6 excited kids, all under 8 years. As a father of a 7 & 10 year old, I've learned how to ignore the racket kids make but the poor sod opposite me obviously hasn't. He huffed and puffed for the full 50 min journey but would he do anything about it? No. I nearly offered him my Ipod but decided against it as I thought he was bound to get so frustrated he would turn round and ask the two ladies to keep their kids under control. But no, he just sat their and endured it like the rest of us.

Word on the street (ok T'inernet) has it that there are delays due to speed restrictions at Holme and in the Wakefield area - http://realtime.gner.co.uk/

As per usual the NXEC website reports no delays.

Oh, and I will just mention that all comments will now be moderated before release. You don't have to register but what you say will have to get passed my delete button. Having said that I promise I don;t expect to be too familiar with it. 'I Love NXEC' called me a Twat yesterday and I let that go but Ron, you won't be able to use that word that was once a descriptive word of somebodies country of birth which has now become a term of abuse for people of an Asian persuasion.

I'm thinking of altering this blog so that only people who are registered can add comments. However as most people who leave comments haven't registered, I decided to canvass opinion first.

Should I or should I not and if not why not?

Can it be true?? A few months ago this blog moaned when NXEC? moved the 06.10 departure over to platform 3 at Peterborough. Suddenly this week it has returned to Platform 2, did someone respond to our comments or was it so obviously such a stupid idea that they worked it out on their own?