NXEC commuter blog

A bloke pulls into the north car park to park up so he can collect the wife. He turns round so that he can exit the car park via the entrance rather than take the correct route to exit which takes him out of his way. He and others have been parking up like this for years without any problems or near accidents.

While he waits a transvestite (his words not mine) dressed in FCC uniform knocks on his window and asks if he's aware he's facing the wrong way on a one way street. He replies that he is. He is then told to turn round. Not asked, told. He refuses. FCC trannie asks for his name and address which he refused when he was told he was under no obligation to do so. FCC trannie says 'Fine. I'll trace you from your number plate'. writes the number down and fucks off.

Did FCC trannie speak to anybody else? Nope. Will a ticket be issued to this driver? Perhaps and I'd even go as far to say as probably.

UPDATE.

The He/She transvestite has made another appearance. This time they returned to take photo's of the same gentlemans car as he waited for his wife one night this week. No words were spoken, just pictures taken. A comlplaint was submitted to NXEC who have subsequently taken this very seriously. They rang the customer up and appologised profusely because it appears this person may not work for NXEC or FCC afterall and may be trying to impersonate a member of railway staff. BTP have been informed and are investigating.

http://www.transportxtra.com/magazines/transit/news/?ID=15290

Pathetic. Here are a few quotes & comments: -

'National Express Group has announced that it will be making further job cuts and cost reductions, paring back investment and cutting its dividend'. Really? Didn't see that coming.

'Designed to free up at least £100m of additional cash next year, enabling the company to pay off debt, minimise the expected fall in profit and prevent it from breaching its banking covenants'. You don't say?

'Although NEG made a pre-tax profit of £194m in 2008.' A very healthy profit in difficult times and no mistake?

'Bowker acknowledged that the UK rail division which contributed £81m profit in 2008'. Ah, £81m of £194m. A healthy percentage for a very large group then. Very interesting.

'Revenue growth at the flagship National Express East Coast franchise fell to 3-4%'. Revenue growth. Did he see that. Revenue growth. How many companies would settle for a flat year?

'against a target of 10%.' Don't you think that was just a little optomistic?

'"We have put together a series of cost reduction plans beyond those we announced before Christmas"'. Like I said. No surprise there.

'"as of today we still expect the division to be profitable.”'. I thought so.

'NEG is under pressure from its banking covenants. With net debt having reached nearly £1.2bn due to the £450m acquisition of Continental Auto in 2007 and a £240m hit from adverse currency swings'. Over stretched ourselves have we?

Ladies and Gentlemen, here endeth your service.

What a strange day it's been on the ECML between P'boro and Kings Cross.
First there was the bedlam outside KX presumably becasue they shut the tube station. Then, when we finally get back ti Tisel Town after a hard days graft, there are the FCC gestapo backed up by BTP harrassing commuters on their way home.

I alighted this evening and made my usual walk up the ramp, over the bridge and down the opposite ramp towards to side gate near the north car park. I was just about to open the gate with the guards key I bought off Ebay when I noticed a freind and neighbour of mine being grilled by a couple of FCC staff on the other side of the gate. Quickly, I thought better of opening the gate and put the key back in my pocket and trudged off to the main building.

As I walked down the platform I could see the whole area had been taped off and a bloody great BTP van and a car parked up. When I get to the building I find even more FCC staff on all the doors checking everyone had tickets. Nothing unusual about that except for the presence of the Britshit Transport Police and Snuffer the sniffer dog. Whilst I really felt like having a pop I decided to put up and shut up and showed my ticket and left without a fuss.

When I got home I popped in to see the lady concerned and was horrified by what she told me. It transpires that she too has a guards key (which if anyone is interested can easily be bought on Ebay) and exited the station via the gate together with a friend of hers who happens to be a copper and west indian.Imediately she was pounced upon by the FCC Gestapo who were lurking out of sight. They asked her for her ticket which she duely produced. They asked her if she knew she wasn't supposed to exit via that gate to which she replied she didn't. They then cautioned her. Yep. Cautioned her. They asked for her name and address and date of birth. She asked if she was legally obliged to tell them and was told she was obliged to give them her name and address so she wrote it down for them. From the information on her ticket they then made a phone call to verify she was who she said she was. After that the beleived she was who she told them she was and she does live where she told them she lived. After a few more words she was finally advised that she may be summonds for breaking some railway byelaw or other.

Somewhat surprisingly she's not very happy and I can't say I blame her. Remember the copper she was with? The Black One? Guess what the FCC Gestapo boys asked him? Do you think they took his detail down? Did they fuck. Yet he exited the same gate at the same time. The only difference was, he didn't open the gate.

So what's the fucks going on here. Why are commuters being targeted in such a way? There must have been 10 or more FCC cunts there tonight ( and had they been manning the trains could have done the same job with half the number) and god knows how many Britshit Transport Police (I only saw 3) for what exactly? How many fare dodgers did they get then? How many bombs and how many kilos of drugs did that dog find? How much did that cost? How many commuters were inconvenienced? How many are going to be summonds? How happy do you think they feel? And what the fuck were FCC policing that gate for anyway? I thought NXEC ran the station or have I missed something?

In summary. It's pathetic. It wasn't so long ago (I'm sorry to say in the what now seems sensible by comparison, the GNER days) that gate was opened every morning and evening for the convenience of us commuters. Every now and then they would do a ticket check but I don't think the ever caught any fare dodgers. Then some bright spark decided it was an RP and security risk (that still makes me lauch when you think how open P'boro station is) and they started to leave it closed. Us commuters continued to open it (did I mention that flip top car keys fit it too?) and they eventually pinned a very ambiguous notice on it. When you read said notice it leaves you wondering if you can use it or not. My take was that you could if you had a valid ticket and the ability to open it. Clearly I was wrong. My point is that the vast majority (and I mean 99.99999%) of people traveling to P'borough from London and arriving between 4.30 and 7 are honest, paid up customers who just want to get home as quickly as possible. But during exercises like this we are treated at best like suspects and at worst like animals and common crims to be manipulated and milked. Remember their little trick with the parking tickets issued to motorcyclist (including me) which they did while we were all at work? Same thing? Cunts.

If the gate is not to be used fucking remove it or lock it tight you twats. And please don't tell me staff need it. No you fucking don't. There is a bloody great blue gate 100 yards further down the platform which is twice the size. If you haven't got a key, use the main fucking buiding just like your trying to force us victims.

I've just realised I have put such a critical and vicious anti TOC post like this for a long time but it's about time I did. This has really got my goat up and only becasue it's totally unnecessary. From my point of view it could have been managed much more sympathically. For instance, why didn't they just leave staff platform side with instructions to tell people who tried to use the gate. Why didn't they leaflet everyone who left the station? Why didn't they put guards on the trains if they're that concerned abour fare dodgers?

Rant overr.

Night folks (except FCC who can go fuck themselves in purgatory. Cunts)

Fentyke

Bedlam at Kings cross this morning. I don't know what happened but from what I could see, they shut KX tube station. Overcrowding was probably the cause (it usually is) but does anybody have any firm details?

On another note NXEC are continuing their downward trend with punctuality. Last nights 17.30 was delayed by about 15 mins as was the 07.20 and probably a whole raft of other services.

Your a trainspotter and train spotters aren't welcome here.

Yes, the latest clap trap to come from NXEC is that when they finally get round to installing these long awaited ticket automatic ticket barriers they also plan to ban trainspotters from their platforms. Why? Well according to NXEC they're a security risk. What or whose security they're risking I've yet to work out but if NXEC say they're a risk then they must be a risk and so must be banned.

What a load of bollocks. If trainspotters are a security risk then by default, so is every passenger who boards a train. Anyone of uus could be carrying a bomb or threaten staff with a knife or sabotage the hardware or something equally daft. I've seen in this mornings 'Current Bun' that NXEC say platform tickets will be available for those wishing to wave people off. OK but what's the difference between somebody entering the platform to wave a passenger off and a person writing down the loco numbers? I guess you could say one has a sad hobby but I think there the differences end.

On board has been laughable since I posted praising NXEC for the improvements they've made in reliability. It all seems to be going a bit Pete Tong again. Since I posted I don't think I've been on one service that has arrived at both P'boro and KX on time. Do you think it was something I said?

I think so.

All you have to do is look at what NXEC have done since they came in and look at what they are planning. From my perspective the good things they've done is given us all free WiFi, improved punctuality and eh, I can't think of anything else. On the down side they're allegedly planning to reduce platform staff, ticket staff and on board staff whilst reducing on board catering facilities. It's been mentioned on here that they've also cut maintainence and if the number of working toilets and the wram beer straight from the fridge is anything to go by, I'd say that's probably true. I could go on but I think you get the picture.

Having said all that, as a commuter I'm most concerned with reliability and punctuality, both of which have so far improved under NXEC. But if they have cut back on maintainence, the question I'm asking is can this continue? I suspect not.

But not until Jan 2010.
No doubt most season ticket holders will have seen the news that the credit crunch does have some benefits and one of them is that ticket prices will be lower in 2010 than they are at the moment. Personally, I'm pleased to hear it but it won;t help me today, or tomorrow. In fact, I, and no doubt thousands of others, won't see the benefit for another 18 months becaseu my annual season ticket is renewable in september. I suppose I could consider purchasing a six month ticket in Sept instead of my usual 12 but only if it is cost effective to do so.

Anyway, the news is that ticket prices are falling, customers are rubbing their hands whilst NXEC and all the other TOC's ain't too happy and are trying to wriggle out of it. If ever there were an occasion when UK Gov PLC needs to show it's hand in favour of the consumer, in my view, this is one of them. So far that's exactly what they've done but we all know there is still 10 months to go until Jan 10 so there's plenty of time for the fat, Scotish worm to turn.

Refurbishment of Kings Cross is now well under way and I can't wait until it's finished. I don't think it will be as impressive as St Pancras when it's finished but I do think it will be a damn site better than it has been for some years. However whilst they work on the place, they're also shutting all the shops and stores which can be a bloody inconvenience if your hungry and/or thirsty and would like to avoid paying the extrotionate on board prices.

I suppose there is an element of no pain, no gain to be had but I do miss those shops. If you'd asked me if I'd miss them before they were shut I would have answered in the negative. But now they're gone, I realsie I do value their presence even if I only use them intermitantly.

How many of us have had to pay a penalty fare and felt agreived by it. There are many excuses - Ticket man told me it was fine, Army gave me the ticket and didn't mention anything about restrictions, Non comprende mon amee, etc etc.

I'm sure most penalty fares are justified however there is no doubt that sometimes the customer is in the right. If this is you and you've lost the argument with the guard and paid up, visit these guys when you get home http://www.penaltyfareappeal.co.uk and see if they or any of the information on the site can help you in your fight for justice.
It also looks like a useful site for general information and the Rail, and regulation etc.
By the looks of the site it's only recently been launched so give them a bit of time to load more info etc or why not send them information you feel is relevant.

Well, the adverts showed up.

On every seat on the 0610.