Unlike most of my fellow commuters I had a good day yesterday, the 06.15 arrived "on time" into Kings Cross and then coming home last night I had 1/2 a carriage to myself on the 18.03 which also arrived on time. I wonder were everyone else was?????
There are some advantages to working such a long day I guess.....

Here a links to news stories I've found so far which cover yesterdays farce: -

http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=845&ArticleID=1793488

http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowStory.asp?story=PN2829520H&news_headline=power_failure_disrupts_rush_hour_trains

http://www.bedfordtoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=182&ArticleID=1792842

http://www.whtimes.co.uk/content/whtimes/news/story.aspx?brand=WHTOnline&category=News&tBrand=herts24&tCategory=newswhtnew&itemid=WEED28%20Sep%202006%2015%3A14%3A45%3A630

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/5388780.stm

THESE WERE ALL SENT TO ME AND I'M SURE THERE ARE LOADS MORE BUT CAN'T BE ARSED TO LOOK BEACUSE I HAVE TO DO SOME WORK.

As a direct result of yesterdays farce, I now have 2 days work to fit into 1. Just where GNER's contingency plans were yesterday is anybodies guess. I suspect the manager responsible lives in peterborough, locked his desk draw the previous evening and then couldn't get in to the office.

It was the talk of the platform this morning with each and everyone of us having our own tail to tell. If only I the time a patience to tell them in detail becasue some were hillarious. What I canm do is summarise peoples experiences though.

1. Passengers who were on any train leaving Tinsel Town before 07.30 got stuck somewhere on the ECML.
2. Those who persevereddid make it into Londinium but I've yet to find one who made it into town before 12pm.
3. P'boro residents like me who were stuck at St Neots generally made it back to Boro somewhere between 10.30 and 11.30.
4. Gallows Humour and Blitz spirit were the order of the day. The fella I caught a lift with also took a bloke from Barnsley back to P'boro so he could get a train back to Donny.
5. Most recognised that it was Network Rail at fault and not the train companies though almost all felt the train companies should have had contingency plans in place and implemented them.

This morning was imeasurably better but we were still late, though only just. There were no seat reservations either though thankfully it was so quiet, there were seats a plenty so it didn't matter.
I've now got to work my bollocks off to fit 2 days work into 1 if I'm to stand any chance of meeting a few deadlines.

I'm sure you've read the previous posts regarding this morning's buggery, so an exposition exercise isn't required.

Anyhoo, I couldn't get a train from Peterborough this morning and ended up driving down to St. Neots to rescue a friend who had been dumped in Cambridgeshire's deep south (the hick locals were commenting on his pretty mouth when I got there). The drive through St. Neotsville was quite bizarre. As I got closer to the train station I noticed quite a few suited men and women wandering around in a daze. I didn't think too much of it until I pulled into the road for the train station and came across what can only be described as a businessman genocide. Never have I seen such a concentrated litter of dazed, confused and suited people in one area. At that moment, there was probably more cheap polyester in the humble town of St. Neots than the whole of Canada (I have nothing against Canadians, but they dress terribly).

Fentyke, we do need to swap numbers at some point. I picked my friend up and was back in the Bronx for 10am. If I'd have known you needed a ride...

Shoddy choo choo rides aside, I've actually had a great day on the beer in the ghetto's town centre with my fellow commuter friends. There's nothing quite like the guilty pleasure of a free day off. Just ask my friend Ferris...

Bring on tomorrow's hangover.

I don't know what's happened to my fellow GNER blogger at www.gnersucks.co.uk but the site now seems to be solely dedicated to the parking issue.

If you read this fella, drop us a line and let me know what's happening with your site.

Cheers
Fentyke

Unlike Platform6, I wasn't so lucky this morning. In fact, under the circumstances, maybe I'll wait and see if he get's home in reasonable time tonight before I consider myself lucky or unlucky.

I had a feeling today wasn't going to be a good one when the alarm went off at 6am and my first concious thought of the day was Fuck! It's morning already. I dragged myself to the station in good time for the 07.20 which the departure board said was running 10 mins late. As it normally arrives a good 5 mins early, I didn't see this as much of a problem at the time. WRONG!

Sure enough it arrived at 07.28 and I sat down with my copy of the sun. It wasn't until we were somewhere between Tinsel Town and Huntingdon that the internal alarm bells started ringing when the guard announced that he had received a report that the lines were down in the Alexander Palce area and it was more than likely that there'd be more delays to endure.

As we passed St Ives the train started to slow and eventually came to a complete stop at St Neots station round about 07.40. I glanced out of the window and noticed that the 07.13 FCC train was still sat on the other side of the platform with the doors wide open and the passengers wandering around. Even the occasional passengers knew this was not a good sign.

After about 5 mins the guard announced that there was no power on all 4 lines in the Alexander Palace area and we were unlikely to go anywhere for some time to come. The doors were opened and we were invited to wait on the platform or at our seats.

After about half an hour of chatting to a few mates and other passengers, listening to the guard announcments telling us that it was likely we'd be there for hours rather than minutes, the realisation dawned that I probably wouldn't make it to the office today. That was the first thing I'd got right all morning. Neither the station staff, GNER train crew or FCC train crew could give any information other than to tell us that they were waiting on head office to inform them what they're contingency plans were. I thought it was a bit rich that they didn't know already, but not surop

At about 08.15 a few other people I knew, and what looked like half of the GNER and FCC passengers, eventually decided to try to get a cab or a bus back to The Boro. As we approached the taxi office at St Neots station it was obvious that we'd be extreemly lucky to get a cab given the number of people in the que. I'd say there were at least 50, probably more.

Next option was to walk into town and find a cab office there or get a bus. Little did we know that St Neots station is about 2 miles outside the town centre. To cut a long story short, we walked intotown, found out the buses run hourly but only as far as Huntingdon and the next wasn't due for another 45 mins. Eventually one bloke called his dad and he came and picked 4 of us up while I went with another fella who'd called his misses.

I eventually got back into Tinsel Town at about 11ish. Not bad eh? 3 1/2 hours to go 20 miles down the road and back again. I'm now trying to work from but I've only got access to my e-mail so can't do too much.

Things wouldn't have been so bad had GNER actualy had a contingency plan to put into action or a system on what to advise customers. As it was we were left to make our own decisions from the limited information we were given. I've no idea if we did the right thing or not. Probably never will.

Seems like I have been lucky today the 06.15 arrived in Kings cross on time, since then overhead line problems at Hornsey have been causing choas. I thought I would go and check the "GNER Live arrival and departures page" to see how bad things were, but once again as soon as there are any problems it stops being used,the arrivals board is 3 hours out of date at the moment,and the departures board is empty,therefore no use to anyone. Surly when there are problems this service becomes MORE important,and could give people REAL information that would be of REAL help. But no- GNER dont want people to see the developing shambles, so they take the information service out of action.
Come on GNER,this information is needed a lot more when your trains are having problems.

The 17.20 was delayed tonight allegedly because of tresspassers on the line around the St Neots area. We were told they had to proceed with caution but I'd never realised that caution meant snails pace. I also wondered why we crawlled along for well over a mile when the tresspassers can only ovupy no more than 12 feet of track at anyone time. Perhaps there was an army of them.

Anyway that aside I've managed to get back on-line at home and have managed to upload the pics I took of the Motorbike park at P'boro station. The red signs in the first and last pic read 'Please do not park Motorcycles in this area'. Hopefully you'll be able to judge for yourself why this might be because I can't work out why they've put them up. Besides eeveryone seems to continue to iginore them.

It seems ex GNER CEO Christopher Garnett, is warning that train compnaies are being FORCED to submit ever higher bids to secure their franchise, which he believes is unsustainable. Click the link to view the articles: -
http://news.google.co.uk/news?q=gner+news&hl=en&lr=lang_en&sa=X&oi=news&ct=title.

Firstly, nobody forces anyone to bid more money than they can afford. In my view competition is the driver here which is why the Railways were privatised in the first place.
Secondly, GNER made £20 million profit last year which seems like an awful lot of money to make if margins are already so tight.
Thirdly, just how big are their margins in the first place?

I admit I'm no analyst and he's far more qualified than I to comment on this subject. However perhaps he should explain a little bit more before he opens his mouth in future because comments like these drive comments like mine.

Meanwhile GNER have distanced themselves from Mr G yet still took the oppotunity to to highlight that they would like to talk to the Government again becasue they got their revenue projections so disasterously wrong.

Doesn't exactly fill you with confidence does it. Tossers the lot of em. That's what I say.

http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=845&ArticleID=1788132

Click the link to see the latest reation from Peterborough City Council to GNER's increase to parking fees. OK, so it takes an extra 5 minutes on foot to get to the Craig Street Car Park but surely a £6 per day saving over GNER is worth the extra shoe leather?

It's not often I praise PCC but on this issue I'll make an exception. The site is cheap and affordable, covered by CCTV and close to the city centre. My only fear is that commuters won't be able to get in because it's full up with people who work in town and have to start early

I just missed the the 7:40 this morning, which isn't normally a problem as there's usually only a 5 minute wait for the the 7:46. Not today, however. The 7:46, 7:55 and 08:30 were all delayed and I didn't get a train out of the Bronx until 08:30 and was pretty darn late into the office as a result. The reason given for the delays? Over-running of engineering works.

Thankfully, I've had a relaxing weekend and was in too laid back a mood to care. I'm sure that'll change as the week progresses...

On a slightly different note, it looks as though I'll be spending all of November at the firm's head quarters in the US. I've been to the US of A only once before and that was on holiday in Miami, so I'm quite looking forward to it and I can't deny not liking the idea of missing a whole month of the GNER/Bronx/London rat race. It's not often one gets to jet off for an extended period, so I'm going to make the most of my time there by planning a few escapades for my spare time. So far on my to-do list, I have:

1. Watch a ball game
2. Get into a bar fight (complete with pool cues and Country & Western blasting out from the jukebox in the background)
3. Order my toast done on one side

Feel free to suggest any other silly shenanigans for my list - they don't have to be stereotypes like the above.

As usual I arrived to catch the 06.15 this morning, however there was no sign of it, the departure board said "delayed", this was soon changed to "cancelled". How can it be both? if its delayed surly its on its way? in which case it would not then be cancelled. The excuse was "non availability of set". WHAT?? how can there not be a set sitting at or near kings cross that could come up to Peterborough? As usual it was the commuters that got the rough end of the deal.

I can imagine the conversation at GNER control. Boss Boss we are a set short what should we do?? "do what we also do mate, F-ck the commuters, we have their money in advance and no matter how bad the service they always come back, so cancel the commuter train from Peterborough"

I was off Friday, so coming home thursday i was hopefully of a trouble free week, silly me, the train stopped just north of Huntingdon for 20mins, but I was given another excuse that I had not heard before "safety checks at Conington", another entry for my book of lame excuses from GNER

I arrived at P'boro station at 07.10 this morning to catch my usual 07.20 connection to KX. As I walked onto the platform I saw a good number of people stood waiting on the opposite platform which was strange becasue this is were FCC trains usually depart yet there was the 07.13 FCC train in it's usual place on platform 2. 

With this in mind I checked the departure screen on the platform, but couldn't make head nor tail of it. As I did so the tanoy announced a change of platform for the late running 07.00 GNER service to platform 3 which started to explain what was going on. I had 2 options, join the throng on platform 3 or wait on platform 2 for my usual 07.20. I opted for the former and how glad I was that I did.

As I walked onto platform 3 I looked at the departure screen which clearly stated that the 07.00 was delayed by 20 minutes, The 07.20 had been cancelled altogether, the 07.40 and 08.00 were running 20 to 30 mins late respectively. As the 07.00 approached the tanoy announced that the delay was due to engineering work at the weekend over running.

I entered coach E, sat in a reserved seat, and like 100's of others, hoped the occupent had caught an earlier late running train. Thankfully they had. It was at this point that the guard apologised for the delay but unlike the station tanoy, he blamed a broken down engineering train in the Botany Bay area. This struck 3 cords with me. Firstly I thought it was ironic that and engineering train had broken down. Secondly I jokingly wondered how a broken down train in Australia had reeked so much havoc on the ECML. Finally I wondered who was right, the Guard or the station staff? I don't think I'll ever find out.

Anyway, we arrived into KX at 08.05 which is the earliest I have seen the 07.20 arrive.

I hope Platform6 and Shahmacher haven't had too many problems. Perhaps they'll tell us if they decide to blog and entry.

I got my first e-mailed news alert from GNER today and here's what it said: -

Between 22 and 25 September 2006, GNER has more availability of our cheapest First and Standard Advance tickets for travel between 1 November and 15 December.

For example you could travel from Leeds or York to London standard class one-way for as little as £8.45. This low fare is only available at gner.co.uk where an extra 10% discount is already included on our cheapest First and Standard Advance fares.

Enter your details into the quick tickets box above to look for our lowest fares to all our destinations. 300,000 extra First and Standard Advance fares available between 22.09.06 and 25.09.06, previously 200,000. Fare shown is York to London standard class one-way only available at gner.co.uk. Terms and conditions apply.

Make sure GNER emails reach your inbox — click here

You are receiving this e-newsletter from GNER because you've subscribed to our e-newsletter service on our website, or have elected to receive news and information from GNER via the gnertickets.co.uk website.

You will always have the opportunity to unsubscribe from this service with each e-newsletter we send you.
If you no longer wish to receive these messages please click here.

Please note, while we will endeavour to read all emails that we receive in reply to this email address, we are unable to respond to each one individually. If you have a specific query that needs addressing, please contact Customer Relations direct. Thank you.

This is a fracking sales pitch, not news about my journey.

I can shed some light on the questions Fentyke posed in the previous post...

I caught the 18:03 yesterday evening and was 20 minutes late getting back to Peterborough. The train stopped just after Huntingdon for a few minutes and then crawled the remainder of the journey to the ghetto. No apologies and no explanation. However, I did hear another commuter this morning saying it was due to "rough track around Huntingdon".

What the bugger does that mean?!

I'm particularly infuriated because I passed up on a jolly at the LSE just so I could get to the gym yesterday evening (I've put on a couple of pounds worth of holiday blubber).

After changing, a cup of tea and hitting the gym, it was 10pm before I got round to having supper.

Today I have an upset tummy.

I knew I shouldn't have posted yesterday entry about trains running on time.

I got to KX at 17.15 last night to find the concourse packed with commuters waiting for the 17.20, 17.30, 17.33 and 17.50. Even FCC services seemed to be affected.

I didn't stay long enough to find out what was going on because I went for a pint or 2, but what I can tell you is that the problem appeared to stem from a problem with inbound services running late. Consequently the 17.20 hadn't even arrived, the crew for the 17.30 were stood waiting for permission to board and god only knows what happened to the 17.30 and 17.33.

I eventually got back and caught the 18.50 which left KX and arrived into The Boro on time.

This morning, despite the boards telli9ng passengers the 07.20 was on time, it actually arrived at 07.25 and left at 07.28. As we all kniw the 07.20 has time in the schedule to accomodate such a delay and it arrived into KX on time.

Next time I've had a good week I'll wait until the weeks over before posting.

As a season ticket holder I'm entitled to register for a number of so called 'benefits' from GNER for which I successfuly registered yesterday. I say successfully because I tried to register last week and received an e-mail telling me the I had been unsuccessful but little by way of an explanation as to why. Apparently it was due to something to do with the date I registered (13/9) and and the expiry date on my season ticket (15/9/07) being outside the term allowed.

The benefits I now receive are as follows: -
- 4 x weekday upgrades to First Class
- Unlimited Season Duo tickets
- Unlimited off 34% Standard Advance 4, Single tickets
- 20 x £1 GO EAT catering vouchers
- Email news updates if you have chosen to receive them when registering for benefits
- GNER365 Ticket Wallet

My problem with these benefits are as follows: -
4 1st class weekday upgrades are 1 way only. Consequently I save them in case I can't get a seat in std class.
I've no idea what Season Duo tickets are, how they work, how much they cost.
34% off std advance single tickets - I've tried and failed to book these in the past but due to a number of excuses, failed on every occasion. They're also limited to GNER trains only and must be booked days in advance.
£20 Go Eat vouchers - Don't go very far (equivalent to 15.4 cups of tea or 7.7 cans of Stella) but are still worth having.
Email new updates. I didn't receive 1 last year.
Ticket wallet - Usually falls apart inside 3 months.

Quite frankly I don't view these as benefots but by all accounts are better than other rail companies benefits scheme.

I forgot to post this little gem this morning so I'm doing it in my lunch hour.

As regular readers will know I usually catch the 17.20 back to Tinsel Town. This is an old 125 loco with old, un-reconditioned coaches. As I sat in coach D last night I happened to notice the disgraceful state of the chairs. There was plastic panels missing from a large proportion, you could remove the chair bottom from many but only if you dared touch them.

It struck me that me and every other paying passenger are actually paying £1000's to sit in what can only be described as Squallor. I know GNER are in the throws of refurbishing their coaches but I've been commuting for a few years now and necver once have I seen a refurbed coach on a 125 service.

I'm touching something wooden as I write this becasue so far this week, every train I've caught has run on time or early (although it's always the 07.20 that's early). With only 3 more journies to go this week I wonder if the trend will continue to the weekend.

Having said that it's obvious that not all is well. I arrived into Tinsel Town at 18.06 last night and as I got off the train, I heard the tannoy appologise for the late running of the 17.49.

Still haven't got my PC at home sorted so can't post the pics of the motorcycle park at P'boro station but I hope to get it done sometime tomorrow. I'm keeping my fingers crossed though.

As I have for the last few posts I'm writing this in the office becasue my PC at home is up it's own arse. No matter how I tried to get on-line last night I could so I haven't been able to add the pics of the Bike park at P'boro station. Unfortunately my works laptop won't accept any unauthorised hard or software so You'll all have to wait until I can get the PC at home sorted.

Nothing really to report on the travel front either. Both last nights 17.20 and this mornings 07.20 were bang on time, seat reservations were all in place and there wasn't even a special request from the guards to exit from cattle class either. The only thing I did notice was the lack of a trolly service last night but the main bar was open as normal.

Nice to see Shahmacher's back on the rails again as that means this sites authors are back up to full strength again. Hope you had a good time mate because life with GNER hasn't got any easier while you've been away. Having said that it hasn't got that much harder either.

I got back to old Blighty just yesterday and have spent today recovering from a dodgy tummy and jet lag. Unlike the trains, the flights and drive to and from Heathrow were fine.

It sounds like I haven't missed too much whilst I've been away (Fentyke's Pro Platform Wrestling aside), but I'm sure that's all about to change now I'm back.

Ah, the joys of returning to work from holiday.

The 18.03 arrived in Peterborough on time, but then the fun started. I joined the queue to leave the car park at the far end, it was slow going and clearly the barrier was having a bad day, but I was stuck in the line, in went my ticket....red light "OUT OF USE" and it kept my ticket. Finally the barrier had packed up completely. After a few minutes pressing the Help button, the barrier was lifted. I then had to re enter the car park by getting a day ticket, and join the ticket office queue of 10 people. I finally got a replacement ticket, but no apology!! Total time wasted 20minutes.. GNER investment in car park facilities?? Dont make me laugh!!!!!!

I arrived for my usual 17.20 on Friday evening but GNER had a surprise in store. This train is normally a 125 diesel loco bound for Hull but on Friday it was a 225 electric loco bound for Leeds.

Have GNER changed the titmetable or was this a one off. Either way I'm worried becasue I've just re-applied for my seat reservation and booked what I thought was a Table seat. The problem is that the seat numbers on a diesel carraige don't correspond with the coaches on an electric 225 service. I may therefore have reserved the wrong seat or at least a seat I don;t actually want. I'll find out tonight.

Punctuality has been OK over the last few owrking days with only a small delay on the way in on Friday.

Looks like business is picking up becasuse I've now seen 2 passengers on the GNER bus service thingy, both in the evening. I've yet to see one person on the morning run though.

Bikers are still parking where GNER have put up these signs requesting them not to. I've taken a few pics of the area this morning so I'll hopefully be able to post them up in the next day or so to let everyone view the area for themselves.

I've just seen this on the local rags web site re the increase to parking fees.

http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=845&ArticleID=1768375

What I take exception too is the claim that the Government are to blams becasue 'THEY MADE GNER commit to paying £1.3 Billionover 10 years to the Gov in order to win the renewal of the franchise.' He therefore feels that GNER had no choice but to increase parking fees.

What utter bollocks. Nobody made GNER pay £1.3 billion. That's what they offered and they won the renewal becasue theirs was the most attractive bid. The reason GNER are in such a pickle is becasue they got their sums and projections wrong which is nothing to do with the government or anyone else for that matter.

In addition I beleive GNER made £20 million profit last year so please Cllr Horn, don't try and tell me that it's the governments fault or that GNER can't afford it because clearly it isn't and they can.

I arrived at KX at 17.10 last night to catch my usual 17.20 only to find the concourse rammed full of people. This could only mean one thing - Serious delays.

I looked at the departure board to find the only train boarding was the 17.00 to Edinburgh. This was no good for me becasue it doesn't stop at Tinsel Town so I stood with everyone else waiting for them to announce the boarding of the 17.03 or the 17.20 which both stop in P'boro. After 5 mins they announce the 17.03 to Leeds was boarding on platform 2 and I set off for the front of the train where I knew there'd be unreserved seats.

As I strolled down platform 2 I was bumped and jostled by 3 or 4 people who, along with a large number of others, were legging it to the front. Why they felt the need to run and barge other passengers out of their way is beyond me but the last bloke who did it to me got more than he bargined for. The first I knew of the'attack' was what f