I read something about GNER's & Network Rails finances this week which if true, could well prove to be a warning to us all.

Apparently, GNER's turnover in 2006 was £478m off which they turned a 1.5% profit. This compares to FGW who made a 6.2% profit off £397m. First things first, I think you'll agree the profit margins GNER were making are appauling.

In other news, latest financial results have revealed Network Rail are making £6m profit ---- per fucking day. That's £1220m profit on revenue of £2984 for the first 6 months of 07/08, up £21m on the same period last year.

Clearly the TOC's are making not a lot whilst NR are milking us all dry. No wonder the TOC's are putting up prices and no wonder I'm convinced NXEC are going to reduce service in the ECML because who would stand for a pilfry £1.5% profit and how else are they going to increase margins. Whatever happens NR will take the vast majority of it.

Platform 3. Again.

Why?

This year will be my 20th Christmas commuting from Peterborough, so I feel I know a little bit about the service and what to expect over that period, and I know for a fact that Christmas eve is always very busy during the day as people head off to visit their friends and family before the service winds down early evening. So I am totally staggered that there is no direct service between Peterborough and King Cross on Christmas eve, in fact there is no direct service from the evening of Saturday 22nd December until after Christmas. Correct me if I am wrong but I thought this governments policy was to get people OFF the roads and ON to public transport???

The first NatEx train from Peterborough to Kings Cross leaves at 9.25 and arrives (after a nice ride on a bus) at 11.45, not much use for those of us that have to work!! FCC are providing a half hourly service, from early morning but again because of the bus ride involved these will also take 2hours 15 mins. Now I know engineering work has to be done sometime, but closing the line for 2-3 of the busiest days of the year is just unbelievable. I guess the A1 will be busy

...same as the old boss, to quote the wonderful Who.

Last night, I was aiming for the 1820, which I could probably have caught if I wanted to stand. Both it and the 1833 had the 'Reservations in coach X are in Y' note, which usually means it's a carriage short, and seats are at a premium. Not being in overmuch of a hurry, I caught the 1837 FCC instead.

Got the 0640 this morning, and... well...

It was a train. It left P'boro the usual minute or so late, got in around about 0733, there was a trolley, there were crew, no-one inspected my ticket, no-one stopped people leaving from the first-class end of the buffet car, I didn't have the leg/seat room to use the laptop, but the mobile phone picked up the WiFi just fine.

The Brave New NXEC World isn't that different, really.

(Relax, I'm not going to be blogging every single journey!)

(Edit: hah. well, not for long. The 1530 today? No reservations at all.)

Mixed. That's the best word to discribe my first experience with NXEC yesterday. The mornings trial and tribulations are well detailed in my last post but the trip home was much better. Not perfect, just better.

I caught the 16.10 to get home so I could watch my sons nativity play (Peter Kay would have been proud of that comic performance) and decided to see if the rumours were true that the Wifi was indeed free in Std. It was and for the first time ever, it worked for me throughout the journey. Everything else was pretty much the same as GNER - Warm beer, no trolley service, some tit fer brains trying to argue with the guard that his ticket was valid on that service when clearly it wasn't. You know the sort of thing? We did however leave and arrive on time which was the 2nd bonus.

This morning was no better of worse than yesterday PM. If the chit chat on the platform is anything to go by, word is getting round Std class the the Wifi is now free (which is going down a storm with the poor folk) but we're going to be paying for it through inflation busting increases to fares (which isn't going down too well). Nobody seems to like the proposed livary and most seem to be sceptical that NXEC are going to be able to deliver on their promises to improve punctuality and reliability. Time will tell.

For some reason this blog was one of the 'Featured Blogs' on blog.co.uk yesterday. I've no idea why or how but we were. You can also google both GNER and NXEC and we appear on page one of the returns. Again. Don't know why and how but we do. Visitors and page views on this site are also rising which I find odd since neither I, Platform6 or Penfold could be described as serial bloggers over the last 3 months. We've been lucky to put one post a week on here between us.

...to NXEC.

- 0610 was in the station when I got there at 0605 - bizarrely on platform 3, which I do hope /isn't/ going to become a habit.
- free wifi worked, but BBC site thinks its in Sweden (correctly, since that's who provides the service), so serves me banner ads. Have mailed BBC and advised them otherwise.
- the delivery of 'your new East Coast' brochures to my carriage seemed to have either been dropped in the rain, or caused unnatural excitement in NXEC staff, since several of the pages of several issues were stuck together.
- got in at about 0659.

I didn't know what to expect this morning but I certainly expected better than what we got.

I arrived at the station in good time for the 07.20 and took my place on the platform as usual. 07.20 came and went as did 07.21, 22, 23 and it arrived at 07.24. Not only was it slightly late, it was also a 125 diesal (where as it's normally an electric 225) and it was 1 coach shorter than normal. To make matters worse there were no seat reservations. Well I say there were none but there were the odd few NXEC seat reservations but all of them were therefore the ad hoc traveller who no oubt booked via NXEC direct where as us commuters booked via GNER.

As usual when there are no seat reservations, there was a mad crush for the doors as people fought to get to the front so they stood half a chance of getting a seat. Persoanlyl I didn't have to rush as I noticed that becasue the train was shoprter than normal, the doors we not in the usual alignment with the platform. Consequently most people were pushing to get on coach C where as the doors for coach B (the quiet one) was relatively clear so I moved 6 feet to my right and got a seat with ease. There were many who weren't quite so lucky and it was standing room only for a good proportion of Peterboroughs morning commuters.

A few people moaned about the change of rolling stock and the lack of seat reservations and a few even threatened to waltz into the travel centre this evening to complain. I sat and listened but resisted temptation to point out that they were on a hiding to nothing and sat back with my book (Peter Kay's Autobiography The sound of laughter) thinking how glad I was that there was firstly a train to travel on and secondly that I had a seat and finally that the blokes next and opposite me didn't smell.

I had hoped to try and use one of my last remaining buffet vouchers when the trolly passed just to see if NXEC were accepting them as promised. Sadly I didn't get a chance becasue there was no trolly service (Staff shortages again so no change there). I then got my ticket out and laid it on the table but they never came to check it so even that little act was a wasted effort.

We finally arrived into Kings Cross 30 pages later and 10 mins late. All in all it has not been the best of starts to a relationship between my good self and NXEC. Of course things could get much much worse becasue this mornings irritations were only minor but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will actually get better. It is only day 2 of NXEC's reign afterall.

One thing I did notice was the new logo on the outside of the rolling stock which as far as I can see, has been written with a marker pen. To say it looks cheap is an understatement but I guess it has been a bit of a rush job to get some form of NXEC branding to replace the GNER brand name. Anyway, I'll be travelling home mid afternoon today as it's my sons nativity play tonight and he's promised to give me a good kick in the nads if I fail to show. We will just have to see how that goes. The journey that is, not the nativity play.

And in the supreme irony, on the last day of weekday commuter service from GNER....

...the last ever 0615 (before it becomes the 0610 on Monday) is cancelled with no explanation.

For those wanting a lasting (till you drop it, chip it or otherwise break it) memorial for GNER, the folks at www.thebufferstopshop.co.uk
have "GNER Farewell" mugs in three different styles.

http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1898672007

And before anybody suggest I go out and buy some crappy train drivers software for my home PC, forget it. I wanna go on the real thing like this bloke.

I note Tinsel Town MP Stewart Jackson has been having a bit of a go about the crappy Saturday timetable back from London.

Since I've had enough of London by 4pm on Friday, I can't say this bothers me much, but... if I go out for an evening with colleagues or friends, or even to the theatre, during the week, I'm starting to think the weekday evening timetable sucks, too. If I miss the 22:22 (stopping at every third telegraph pole on the way up), which given a lot of West End shows end around 22:00-22:15 is pretty much a given, that's IT for an hour. I'm definitely getting fed up of standing on KX station, knowing the 23.30 is in the platform with its doors open and not being let on it for 45 mins+.

I'm working late tonight so I opted for a lie in and a later train. First mistake. My second was volunteering to take the kids to school because that meant I couldn't get the 9ish train so went for the 9.30 ish which I just missed thanks to all the lovely Peterborough people heading into town for a bit of festive shopping. No worries though because the 09.50 will be along in a moment. Oh no it won't. It's running 25 mins late. I know, I'll get the 10.10. No I won't, it's cancelled. My last mistake this morning was catching the late running 09.50 instead of waiting for the 10.20. Why? No bloody heating in the coach. And there I was thinking GNER had to hand the fleet to NXEC in full working order.

Sorry I've been a bit short with posts over the last 2 months or so but work has got on top of me and this blog makes sod all money whilst I have mouths to feed and a mortgage to pay.

Has anyone else noticed the slow removal of the GNER logo and the replacement of the red stripe down the side with a grey/off white one? Apparently NXEC will now have a common grey/white livery across all NX group companies. I'm also told that repainting rolling stock will take up to 2 years but they still don't know if or how they can refurb the interiors.

This made me laugh the other day too. I ften enjoy a pint on the way home but usually buy a can on the way to KX. This particular day I was in a rush, fogot and was forced to by a can from the trolly. 'I'll have a warm can of Stella please' Said I as the trolly passed. 'They're not warm' said the Dolly. 'We have to hand the rolling stock over to the new opperator in full working order so we've had all the fridges fixed which means the cans are actually cold now'. Result thought I but surprise, surprise. A few days later we were back to the old warm cans becasue the fidge had broken down again.

Only a few days left for GNER then it's in with new and out with the old. We already know prices are going up over inflation so NXEC are not off to a good start in my books but we will have to wait and see what happens.

With regards to this blog I've been thinking about what I'm going to do with it. Whilst I can change the name of the blog I can't change the web address. Consequently I'm going to give it a few months to see if traffic number remain stable before I decide if I should stick with waht we've got or just abandon it and start a new NXEC commuter blog.

Till the next time (which hopefully won't be as long as I've left it since my last post).