"At present they only run one round trip with another short running to York."

You are out of date - they have operated the full timetable without problems since Sunday.

"They have been besieged with problems."

And GNER weren't? And are any of their making? Not really, no.

"They started running their service over a year late about 2 weeks before the rail regulator was going to take their licence off them."

Not quite, the license may have been due to expire but that doesn't mean it was going to be "taken off them". It's all water under a bridge anyway now.

"The one train that they had was made up of vehicles that had been rejected by the franchised operators."

Rejected by Virgin Trains you mean? Yes because Virgin think that Pendolinos are more comfortable. However sensible companies (including your own!) realise that is not the case.

"In the first month they cancelled more services than they ran"

That statement is probably a slight exaggeration, but in any case they started running about half-way through the month (so that's not a month is it?), engineering work prevented them running for a few days over Christmas.

"They are still running some trains with more staff than passengers."

Which trains are they then?

"They can still return a profit with virtually empty trains as they cream ticket revenue from the franchised operators."

I hardly think there is much to "cream" north of York, and if you are moaning so much about them running York-London, why don't you moan about Hull Trains "creaming" south of Doncaster and even introducing more stops to get a slice of more ticket flows.

If NXEC/GNER had operated a regular service to Sunderland/Hull then there would be no open access operators on the ECML. NXEC chose not to. They also chose to hand the government £billions over the life of the franchise.

"Many don't see them lasting. If they were to stop at peterborough the price of your season ticket would have to rise to cover the cost of giving them a slice of our profits, for the sake of one train a day this seems to be a crap idea."

It wouldn't "have" to rise. NXEC *could* raise the price, which could also actually reduce revenue for the as FCC would then get more sales as people see a bigger saving. But you aren't in charge of ticket pricing on NXEC so you don't actually know that.

And no I don't work for GC, and yes I have travelled on GC a few times.

Wrong, none of the GC guards are ex-GNER!

Talk about people in glass houses. If people like you supplied the service we paid for, this blog would not have evolved as it has and we wouldn't have anything to moan about.

I can see why you may think p'boro commuters are sad, tired, ratty and unhappy. You see us first thing in a morning and immediately after work which doesn't really make for happy, rested and tollerant people. Also, because your obviously not intelegent enough to realsie this, I'll also point out a few other things. Firstly, on the whole, amongst ourselves we are quite a happy and socialable lot. Not as socialable as I would like but then this is the south of England and you wouldn't expect anything else from a bunch of southerners. You also need to consider that your the public face of NXEC that has to deal with us and so you face our flack on a regular basis (which takes me back to the opening few lines of this reply). Next, I implore you to take a look at the faces of most (not all) of your customer facing colleagues. If you tell me they look like a happy team I will know your either a liar or your working with one of the select few happy crews there appears to be out there on the ECML. Finally, you say we won't move nearer to London because we're all greedy so and so's. Just how thick and socially unaware are you? There are hundereds of P'boro commuters each with their own reasons for 1, commuting and 2, living in P'boro. Becasue the world is so obviously black and white to you and due to you low level of inteligence, it will surprise you to know circumstances, effort and oppotunities usually dictate how people run and live their lives. Not greed. How do you know how much I earn? I could earn less the £20k PA and my employer pay my travel for all you know. I can also tell you there are a few commuters in exactly that position so stick that up your narrow minded arse.

If your goona contribute to this blog and help educate and raise awareness of what it's like on both sides of the ECML fence, try to be a little more constructive with your posts. I've learnt one hell of a lot from your colleagues who've posted on this site. Over the months I've come to value their opinion and thoughts and have a greater level of understanding as a result. They've helped change this blog and I'm glad they did. Passengers and staff will always have different views but thats because we see things from a different perspective. To put it simply for you, you see the reasons for the moaning, we experience the effects and we all live with the results.

Very embarassing and shameful for the City of P'boro. I won't use the 'P' word Ron because I have many asian friends but yes, those that are abusing the British forces in uniform on the streets are indeed predominantly muslims with a few do gooding dirty eco warriors thrown in for good measure.

I found this out yesterday. Aparently the order for Wittering servicemen and women not to wear uniform in P'boro was issued in Apr 07 and it's only because the press have got hold of the story and sensationalised it that it's come to the fore now.

Actually I dont think anyone blames any individual member of NXEC for anything really. We understand the issues. What does cause annoyance is the attitude sometimes. Nuff said really.

Getting back to the muslim issue. I think they shoudl be banned from using the railways and underground. Why do their women have to wear burkas to conceal themselves.

The young religious muslims are backward and dangerous and its about time we all stood up and said so without the constant cry of being racist.

fuck me if someone who is a muslim blows up my son or daughter then call em a racist as I would cripple as many as I could of the bastards.

If they want sharia law and to behave as if they are in Pakistan then they should fuck off back home.

We can have a whip round and give them enough ruppees each to buy a brand new mud hut each. Should cost about a £5 to house each of them.

Badwolf, There's no double standards here mate. I don't know if you were about when Razor and his mates from computer contractor first 'Raided' this site but I think I gave as good as I got at that time. Since then Ron has stayed with us and become a regular poster. I won't ban him (like I can), I won't censor him (at least too heavily) as I've already stated I don't like censorship and I've come to know that Ron loves fishing and if people are daft enough to bite, then on their heads be it.

Having said that, Notassadolikeyou has not posted before and it was an unporvoked attack which I feel entitled to respond to. This blog actually started off as a social record of what it's like to be a commuter on the ECML and it started long before the parking fees were increased to rip off levels. Yes we've attacked individuals but only when they deserved it. Good service = Praise. Bad service = Critisisms. If I post anything about a named individual, you can be sure that it is the truth and that I have no fear of any defamation charges being made against me. Yes we moan a lot but then we have a lot to moan about and little else to pass comment on. As I said before the blog has evolved and will continue to evolve and I think this is a good thing.

It will never happen because that would cost money and notwork rail would have to pay and they have shareholders to satisfy. I may be wrong but I think the oppotunity was there when they electrified the ECML but the powers that be at the time realised that overhead was cheaper than the third rail system like they have on the continent. They also realsied that overhead was prone to more problems than the 3rd rail power delivery but chose to ignore the fact and live with the consequences.