Monday blues

Yeah. I, like many thousands of others, was caught up in that mess yesterday. Having been forewarned about the problem I arrived at KX just as the trains were beginning to move again (about 18.30), but my decision to jump on the first train out and change at Stevenage proved to be unwise. Standing room only all the (slow) way north to Stevenage, then the best part of an hour's wait for a Peterboro bound train to my homestead in Sandy. By the time I got indoors I just about managed a quick sherbet then retired to bed as I had to be up at 5.30 then next morning. The joys of commuting are barbed a many, and that's before anything goes wrong !!

I arrived at KX only wanting to go to WGC. I thought I'd catch a delayed 17.06. I think it was about 5 to 6 when we finally left KX.
There was obviously still the aftermath at Finsbury Park when we crawled through and stopped right by the train, which was full of police and there were obvious plastic sacks around. My neighbour and I were having a gorey discussion about how many body parts had been strewn across the tracks!
I was about an hour late, which considering wasn't too bad.
The gripe I have is why do they NEVER tell you what is happening? I can cope with being late, that's just life as a commuter, but why oh why is there no communication on the stations as to why trains are delayed/late, etc... I'd been sat on the train (I was a lucky one with a seat!) for about 40 minutes before we knew what was happening and that was only because I'd received a travel text from First Capital Connect!

i have to agree, with Fentyke, i know its tragic about, the fatality but i do see it as very selfish, especially for the drivers, thats all you can see is that person and there is nothing you are able to do.

If they wanna kill themselves buy some pills and do it somewhere else

Heh, i was a witness to the hatfield Fatality, there was only two of us that saw it (only two on the platform) it was pretty grim, im still a bit shaken up. but hey, gotta stay 100% strong eh?

It worries me a little that you saw as much as you did. The rules clearly state that passenger trains must not pass a fatality until it has all been cleared up as there may be passengers on board who would be severly distressed by seeing this. There is a route that the train could have taken which is slightly away from the station wich would have probably meant that nobody could see anything distressing. This route is a goods line and does reqiure special permission for a passenger train to use and would need a Kings Cross crew to work it.

I'm disgusted by your comments about how desperate you evening became because of this poor mans suicide at Finsbury Park. I work on the NXEC main line, on-board crews, and believe me, our days get messed up just as much in the wake of such an incident. However, could I just stop everyone for a second. Think about it this way.... how desparate and decaying must a persons life and mentality be to think that this is their only way out? Pills? Yeah, could still survive if their bottle goes and they decide to ask for help, where does that leave them? Back at square 1. They must believe that this way, there's no going back and that whatever they are suffering will end. Don't get me wrong, my heart does go out to the driver and witnesses too, having spoken to several drivers about this topic. But as for trains getting on the move on the slow line, nobody has to look do they? And this gentleman stated himself that the evidence was sharpishly covered with tarpaulin. But a traffic accident is the same, the majority of the jam is caused through motorists slowing to gawp at the seen and see what they can see, so that they have a story to tell later!! I really do appreciate that incidents like these cause mayhem, we were heading south, and were just approaching Finsbury Park when the incident occured, and subsiquently were delayed over an hour, missing our return workings. But as already said, unfortunatly it does come with the railway!! NXEC on the other hand i agree, are very slow at getting the information to the onboard crews allowing us to pass this on to our passengers, it's unfair that we can't give any details for up to 30 mins sometimes! It's embarassing to us when we can't give you guys answers as to whats causing the delays, it makes us look like confused cattle, and to be honest, we already get enough flack!!
May future travel be all calm and uneventful for all!! xxxx