[Travel] Railway flustercuck

[dazzer6666]

It was ok earlier, more or less on time into London Bridge this morning.

Last week 5/6 journeys I made were ****ed up, so not expecting an easy trip home tonight.

 

[theboybilly]

Easy [MENTION=38]Beach Hut[/MENTION], he's not worth it

Have you met some of my jumped-up 'managers'?

 

[Beach Hut]

Easy [MENTION=38]Beach Hut[/MENTION], he's not worth it

Easy with what ?

I do not work for a TOC

 

[pasty]

I reckon Southern must employing saboteurs to noble the signals so they can continue to provide a shit service but not take any blame.

 

[Hotchilidog]

In all seriousness does anyone know why the signals are continually failing? Is it that this is unavoidable wear and tear, poor quality parts, lack of resources to maintain them to a higher standard. We are constantly subject to disruptive engineering works which curtail weekend and late night travel in the name of of signal and points repair/replacement and yet the regularity with which they fail seems to be on the increase.

The Redhill/Gatwick/Haywards Heath area seems particularly badly affected and these are the area which have had the major line closures of late.

 

[Munkfish]

In all seriousness does anyone know why the signals are continually failing? Is it that this is unavoidable wear and tear, poor quality parts, lack of resources to maintain them to a higher standard. We are constantly subject to disruptive engineering works which curtail weekend and late night travel in the name of of signal and points repair/replacement and yet the regularity with which they fail seems to be on the increase.

The Redhill/Gatwick/Haywards Heath area seems particularly badly affected and these are the area which have had the major line closures of late.

I travel to Reigate daily on the trains, It is utterly horrendous, getting to and from work, I cannot remember the last time trains ran on time or I didnt have a problem.

I have no idea about the problem with the signals, but for me its got to be shit quality equipment.

 

[albionite]

In all seriousness does anyone know why the signals are continually failing? Is it that this is unavoidable wear and tear, poor quality parts, lack of resources to maintain them to a higher standard. We are constantly subject to disruptive engineering works which curtail weekend and late night travel in the name of of signal and points repair/replacement and yet the regularity with which they fail seems to be on the increase.

The Redhill/Gatwick/Haywards Heath area seems particularly badly affected and these are the area which have had the major line closures of late.

Signals and points have always been failing. Only difference is it used to take a few hours to kind of get it running back to normal. Now they just use it as an excuse to run a shit service all day.

 

[beorhthelm]

In all seriousness does anyone know why the signals are continually failing?

my understanding from rail forum and a man in the trade is patches upon patches going back decades. systems are upgraded piecemeal and spliced together, then years later a new system replaces a different part and so on. in some cases just poor maintenance, and apparently wildlife.

 

[Guinness Boy]

I travel to Reigate daily on the trains, It is utterly horrendous, getting to and from work, I cannot remember the last time trains ran on time or I didnt have a problem.

I have no idea about the problem with the signals, but for me its got to be shit quality equipment.

I did that for a short while and actually binned it off for a London Terminals commute. It was unbearable, literally the worst commute I have ever done. The number of times I found myself freezing my nads off at either Gatwick or Redhill couldn't be accurately counted. The little 2 car efforts they put on from Gatwick were hot in summer, cold in winter and full of annoying 6th formers. Reigate ALWAYS seemed to be the station Southern abandoned if things had gone tits up, presumably because FGW also served it with their shitty sub-buses. You were reliant on points that never worked, signals that always failed and, on the Redhill - Reading line, cables that were always being thieved by pikeys. If I needed to get in early I had to get that Gatwick Express train that was the most late in the country at a time when the doors on the rolling stock used to fail on about one in three trips. Towards the end I saw someone throw themselves under a train at Gatwick while changing to go home and that did it for me. Just thinking about it makes me come out in hives. Portslade to Victoria is actually MUCH better. There, I said it

 

[Munkfish]

I did that for a short while and actually binned it off for a London Terminals commute. It was unbearable, literally the worst commute I have ever done. The number of times I found myself freezing my nads off at either Gatwick or Redhill couldn't be accurately counted. The little 2 car efforts they put on from Gatwick were hot in summer, cold in winter and full of annoying 6th formers. Reigate ALWAYS seemed to be the station Southern abandoned if things had gone tits up, presumably because FGW also served it with their shitty sub-buses. You were reliant on points that never worked, signals that always failed and, on the Redhill - Reading line, cables that were always being thieved by pikeys. If I needed to get in early I had to get that Gatwick Express train that was the most late in the country at a time when the doors on the rolling stock used to fail on about one in three trips. Towards the end I saw someone throw themselves under a train at Gatwick while changing to go home and that did it for me. Just thinking about it makes me come out in hives. Portslade to Victoria is actually MUCH better. There, I said it

I do Portslade to Reigate, its absolutely awful. Going to look to Drive, however thats probably got a whole world of problems of its own. Liverpool to Victoria is at least one train, Id kill for that right now.

 

[Guinness Boy]

I do Portslade to Reigate, its absolutely awful. Going to look to Drive, however thats probably got a whole world of problems of its own. Liverpool to Victoria is at least one train, Id kill for that right now.

I thought about driving but the stories I got about that from people in the office put me right off. A choice between crawling in traffic from Gatwick if you turn off there or braving the M25 for a junction in rush hour before battling all those Dorises in Chelsea Tractors that they can't drive properly or park in town itself. It's one of those places where the school run seems to be an Olympic Sport. The evening it snowed one of the contractors was on Reigate Hill for 4 hours and moved ten yards.

EDIT - they will also be turning the M23 in to a car park to make it a "smart motorway" very soon if it's not started already. Our old friend the average speed camera was being installed on practically the whole of the road the last time we drove on it.

 

[dazzer6666]

I thought about driving but the stories I got about that from people in the office put me right off. A choice between crawling in traffic from Gatwick if you turn off there or braving the M25 for a junction in rush hour before battling all those Dorises in Chelsea Tractors that they can't drive properly or park in town itself. It's one of those places where the school run seems to be an Olympic Sport. The evening it snowed one of the contractors was on Reigate Hill for 4 hours and moved ten yards.

EDIT - they will also be turning the M23 in to a car park to make it a "smart motorway" very soon if it's not started already. Our old friend the average speed camera was being installed on practically the whole of the road the last time we drove on it.

Redhill/Reigate services are probably even worse than we get from Brighton and around.....full trains from either direction and loads of cancellations. Always a scrum there in the morning to get seats.

Came down the M23 on Tuesday....cameras are already up Southbound. Obviously no actual work happening, but forecast to take until 2020. Guess we’ve had a couple of years of ok-ness after the Handcross Hill work.

I’ve driven into Canary Wharf a few times....it’s not too bad as long as you’re early as you can avoid Redhill/Reigate/Croydon/Brixton etc by going a bit East. Problem arises if you try to cross the river over here as the Blackwall Tunnel gets jammed right up. Tried London Bridge and into the West End a few times as well, always an awful drive during the week.

 

[Surf's Up]

I travelled back to Brighton from Cardiff by train on Monday after the 20/20 game v Glamorgan. There was a points failure on the GWR line outside Swindon (delay 1.5 hours), a points failure on the line from Redhill to Three Bridges (delay at least 1.5 hours, ended up getting a shared taxi from Redhill to Gatwick - extra cost £10), points failure on Victoria to Brighton line (delay 20 minutes).....the whole rail system managed and run by Network Rail was in complete meltdown, I eventually arrived in Brighton over 3.5 hours late.

 

[dazzer6666]

Not in London today. How has the new timetable affected things ? Will be interested in how it goes this evening as southbound journeys in the evening rush hour have been particularly awful.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Not in London today. How has the new timetable affected things ? Will be interested in how it goes this evening as southbound journeys in the evening rush hour have been particularly awful.

I’ve got 4 days worth of London commutes this week. FOUR. Going well so far but then I was on the 5.49 out of Portslade. I hold out no hope for tonight at all.


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[dazzer6666]

I’ve got 4 days worth of London commutes this week. FOUR. Going well so far but then I was on the 5.49 out of Portslade. I hold out no hope for tonight at all.


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Ooh, yuck [emoji20][emoji20]