Date: 2009-07-02
Journey Origin: Ascot
Scheduled Dep. Time: 09:40
Journey Destination: Waterloo
Estimated Delay: 10 mins at Ascot
Details of complaint: The train was 7 mins late arriving, and then once it had shown up, it sat there on the platform. Everyone was on board, nothing going on that would delay it - the lights were green.
Eventually train moved off, but there was no explanation for why it was late or what the delay at the station was.
The rest of the journey was at a snail's place, and the train was seriously late arriving at Waterloo.
I missed a connecting train because of this - thanks guys! No communication from the guard or the platform information systems as to why it was so delayed.
Luckily I just missed the 09:10 from Ascot, as once again that was only 4 carriages and was standing room only.
I guess South West Trains feel no need to give out any information on late running and half-length trains, on the basis that the service is consistently poor so these things should be expected.
Thursday, 2 July 2009
Tuesday, 30 June 2009
Half a train, broken air-con, rubbish service
Date: 2009-06-30
Journey Origin: Ascot
Scheduled Dep. Time: 09:10
Journey Destination: Waterloo
Estimated Delay: 10 mins
Details of complaint: Another example of useless customer service from South West Trains:
Due to all of the above, the train was almost 15 mins late when it finally pulled into Waterloo. At no point in any stage of the journey did the guard attempt to open the windows (you need a special tool to do it, because they are normally shut due to the train allegedly having air conditioning). The guard did not apologise for the hideously cramped conditions, nor the late running of the train - nor did anyone explain why a peak hour train only had half it's carriages.
At Ascot this morning it was 22 degrees already. To run such a totally broken train, in an hour long rush hour journey into London, is totally unacceptable.
People were feeling faint in the carriage, with passengers asking around for water for one lady.
As usual, no apologies, no explanation, no refunds, no water - nothing. Totally rubbish.
Journey Origin: Ascot
Scheduled Dep. Time: 09:10
Journey Destination: Waterloo
Estimated Delay: 10 mins
Details of complaint: Another example of useless customer service from South West Trains:
- The train was delayed by 5 mins at Ascot, with no reason given.
- The train was only 4 carriages long - half as long as normal. Standing room only from Ascot
- No working air conditioning on the train
- All the windows were closed
Due to all of the above, the train was almost 15 mins late when it finally pulled into Waterloo. At no point in any stage of the journey did the guard attempt to open the windows (you need a special tool to do it, because they are normally shut due to the train allegedly having air conditioning). The guard did not apologise for the hideously cramped conditions, nor the late running of the train - nor did anyone explain why a peak hour train only had half it's carriages.
At Ascot this morning it was 22 degrees already. To run such a totally broken train, in an hour long rush hour journey into London, is totally unacceptable.
People were feeling faint in the carriage, with passengers asking around for water for one lady.
As usual, no apologies, no explanation, no refunds, no water - nothing. Totally rubbish.
Wednesday, 24 June 2009
Where's the rest of the train?
Date: 2009-06-24
Journey Origin: Ascot
Scheduled Dep. Time: 09:40
Journey Destination: Waterloo
Estimated Delay: n/a
Details of complaint: Where's the rest of the train? 4 carriages instead of 8 just doesn't cut it - standing room only at Ascot, not even a third of the way in to Waterloo?
And what are those big expensive signs they've put up everywhere actually for? If you can list the time the train is expected, where it will stop - why can't the number of carriages be listed? Some warning that another of the crappy trains has broken down, and it's being replaced with half a train from another line, would be just a little helpful.
Journey Origin: Ascot
Scheduled Dep. Time: 09:40
Journey Destination: Waterloo
Estimated Delay: n/a
Details of complaint: Where's the rest of the train? 4 carriages instead of 8 just doesn't cut it - standing room only at Ascot, not even a third of the way in to Waterloo?
And what are those big expensive signs they've put up everywhere actually for? If you can list the time the train is expected, where it will stop - why can't the number of carriages be listed? Some warning that another of the crappy trains has broken down, and it's being replaced with half a train from another line, would be just a little helpful.
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
"Hey guys! Be patient!"
Date: 2009-05-06
Journey Origin: Ascot
Scheduled Dep. Time: 09:55
Journey Destination: Waterloo
Estimated Delay: 35 mins+
Details of complaint: Slow slow train, and then it just stops outside Feltham. The guard announces over the tannoy "Hey guys. We have a problem and are being delayed. Please be patient."
And that's it.
After 20 minutes he tells us that there are signal problems, which apparently no-one knows when they will be resolved. Nor does he know how long we'll be stuck in the middle of nowhere.
But we need to be patient. He doesn't know how long the delay will be, but we need to be patient.
Then we move into Feltham station, move 200 yards out of it, and then stop again for another 15 minutes.
"Hey guys, be patient" says the guard again, in the most bored and disinterested voice ever.
I've missed one meeting due to this delay, and as I'm typing this on the train - still stationary - it looks like I'll miss a second meeting in London at mid-day.
Thanks South West Trains! Your rubbish over-priced unreliable service has once again damaged my business and cost me money!
Journey Origin: Ascot
Scheduled Dep. Time: 09:55
Journey Destination: Waterloo
Estimated Delay: 35 mins+
Details of complaint: Slow slow train, and then it just stops outside Feltham. The guard announces over the tannoy "Hey guys. We have a problem and are being delayed. Please be patient."
And that's it.
After 20 minutes he tells us that there are signal problems, which apparently no-one knows when they will be resolved. Nor does he know how long we'll be stuck in the middle of nowhere.
But we need to be patient. He doesn't know how long the delay will be, but we need to be patient.
Then we move into Feltham station, move 200 yards out of it, and then stop again for another 15 minutes.
"Hey guys, be patient" says the guard again, in the most bored and disinterested voice ever.
I've missed one meeting due to this delay, and as I'm typing this on the train - still stationary - it looks like I'll miss a second meeting in London at mid-day.
Thanks South West Trains! Your rubbish over-priced unreliable service has once again damaged my business and cost me money!
Thursday, 30 April 2009
Heating, again
Date: 2009-04-30
Journey Origin: Waterloo
Scheduled Dep. Time: 19:50
Journey Destination: Ascot
Estimated Delay: n/a
Details of complaint: Heating jammed on full blast, again. My laptop is showing the ambient temperature as being 24 degrees. Are the heating/air conditioning controls broken? Are the guards and/or driver somehow unable to turn off the heaters when it gets warm? Or do they just not care?
I'm beginning to suspect the latter.
Journey Origin: Waterloo
Scheduled Dep. Time: 19:50
Journey Destination: Ascot
Estimated Delay: n/a
Details of complaint: Heating jammed on full blast, again. My laptop is showing the ambient temperature as being 24 degrees. Are the heating/air conditioning controls broken? Are the guards and/or driver somehow unable to turn off the heaters when it gets warm? Or do they just not care?
I'm beginning to suspect the latter.
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
Delayed train with no explanation
Date: 2009-04-29
Journey Origin: Ascot
Scheduled Dep. Time: 10:25
Journey Destination: Waterloo
Estimated Delay: 14 minutes
Details of complaint: Big delay, and the train only stopped at Staines and then Waterloo. The only explanation from the platform staff was 'emergency engineering works'.
The guard didn't explain the revised stops until after the train had left Ascot, leaving a number of very angry people stuck on the train, who'd run from the platform to catch it.
Of course as the guard is locked away in the middle of these trains you can't actually ask him anything until the train stops somewhere and he gets out.
Oh, and even though it's 16 degrees outside the heaters were still on full blast in the carriage I was in.
Journey Origin: Ascot
Scheduled Dep. Time: 10:25
Journey Destination: Waterloo
Estimated Delay: 14 minutes
Details of complaint: Big delay, and the train only stopped at Staines and then Waterloo. The only explanation from the platform staff was 'emergency engineering works'.
The guard didn't explain the revised stops until after the train had left Ascot, leaving a number of very angry people stuck on the train, who'd run from the platform to catch it.
Of course as the guard is locked away in the middle of these trains you can't actually ask him anything until the train stops somewhere and he gets out.
Oh, and even though it's 16 degrees outside the heaters were still on full blast in the carriage I was in.
Thursday, 23 April 2009
More heating! Turn it off!
Date: 2009-04-23
Journey Origin: Ascot
Scheduled Dep. Time: 09:10
Journey Destination: Waterloo
Estimated Delay: N/A
Details of complaint: It's 13 degrees C outside, yet the heating is on inside the carriage. Thanks, SWT, I really needed to arrive dehydrated and sweaty for my meeting this morning.
Journey Origin: Ascot
Scheduled Dep. Time: 09:10
Journey Destination: Waterloo
Estimated Delay: N/A
Details of complaint: It's 13 degrees C outside, yet the heating is on inside the carriage. Thanks, SWT, I really needed to arrive dehydrated and sweaty for my meeting this morning.
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
This service is poo
Date: 2009-04-22
Journey Origin: Waterloo
Scheduled Dep. Time: 20:20
Journey Destination: Ascot
Estimated Delay: 20 minutes
Details of complaint: The toilets in one of the carriages had overflowed. Effluent everywhere. Rather than just seal off the carriage the decision was made to delay the service to try and mop things up.
Firstly, that is gross - there's no way they could have cleaned the carriage up enough to make it sanitary, let alone not smelling like an effluent pipe.
Secondly, why not just seal off the carriage? SWT regularly decided to only run 4 carriage trains instead of 8 - often at peak hours - so why would only 7 usable carriages on a late train be that big a deal?
Top marks to the announcement from the guard: "I'd like to assure passengers that the carriage will be thoroughly cleaned and the toilet repaired overnight." Helpful.
If you've never had the misfortune to use a toilet on the trains on the Reading line - don't. They are clearly never cleaned during the day, at all. The doors seldom open, and if they do, they either won't shut or else lock you in. The stench is appalling, and often the only free seats on the entire train can be found near the toilets.
Yes, people would rather stand for an hour than sit near the toilet door. It is that bad.
Journey Origin: Waterloo
Scheduled Dep. Time: 20:20
Journey Destination: Ascot
Estimated Delay: 20 minutes
Details of complaint: The toilets in one of the carriages had overflowed. Effluent everywhere. Rather than just seal off the carriage the decision was made to delay the service to try and mop things up.
Firstly, that is gross - there's no way they could have cleaned the carriage up enough to make it sanitary, let alone not smelling like an effluent pipe.
Secondly, why not just seal off the carriage? SWT regularly decided to only run 4 carriage trains instead of 8 - often at peak hours - so why would only 7 usable carriages on a late train be that big a deal?
Top marks to the announcement from the guard: "I'd like to assure passengers that the carriage will be thoroughly cleaned and the toilet repaired overnight." Helpful.
If you've never had the misfortune to use a toilet on the trains on the Reading line - don't. They are clearly never cleaned during the day, at all. The doors seldom open, and if they do, they either won't shut or else lock you in. The stench is appalling, and often the only free seats on the entire train can be found near the toilets.
Yes, people would rather stand for an hour than sit near the toilet door. It is that bad.
Friday, 13 March 2009
The heating, dear god spare me
Date: 2009-03-13
Journey Origin: Ascot
Scheduled Dep. Time: 09:10
Journey Destination: Waterloo
Estimated Delay: n/a
Details of complaint: I would just like to thank South West Trains very much. Now that the weather has turned, and it's warmer, they've finally decided to turn the heating on - full blast.
It's a real thrill to be sitting on this train, slowly melting, after a winter of freezing with no heating.
Thanks so much!
Journey Origin: Ascot
Scheduled Dep. Time: 09:10
Journey Destination: Waterloo
Estimated Delay: n/a
Details of complaint: I would just like to thank South West Trains very much. Now that the weather has turned, and it's warmer, they've finally decided to turn the heating on - full blast.
It's a real thrill to be sitting on this train, slowly melting, after a winter of freezing with no heating.
Thanks so much!
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Delay
Date: 2009-03-03
Journey Origin: Ascot
Scheduled Dep. Time: 09:10
Journey Destination: Waterloo
Estimated Delay: 6 mins
Details of complaint: Doesn't sound like much, but there was no reason why the train was running late, and it meant I missed a connecting train at London and was late for a meeting.
Date: 2009-03-03
Journey Origin: Waterloo
Scheduled Dep. Time: 20:20
Journey Destination: Ascot
Estimated Delay: 5 mins
Details of complaint: Random stops in the countryside on the way home, again more annoying because there was no reason given why the train kept on stopping outside stations all the time.
Journey Origin: Ascot
Scheduled Dep. Time: 09:10
Journey Destination: Waterloo
Estimated Delay: 6 mins
Details of complaint: Doesn't sound like much, but there was no reason why the train was running late, and it meant I missed a connecting train at London and was late for a meeting.
Date: 2009-03-03
Journey Origin: Waterloo
Scheduled Dep. Time: 20:20
Journey Destination: Ascot
Estimated Delay: 5 mins
Details of complaint: Random stops in the countryside on the way home, again more annoying because there was no reason given why the train kept on stopping outside stations all the time.
Thursday, 5 February 2009
Information? What Information?
Date: 2009-02-02->05
Journey Origin: Ascot
Scheduled Dep. Time: n/a
Journey Destination: London Waterloo
Estimated Delay: no idea
Details of complaint: OK, so there's been heavy snowfall, and the roads and rails are blocked. But why does that mean that:
- the Journey Planner website, listing delays and travel information
- the South West Trains website
- the departure boards at the stations
Have all been broken?
The websites have been down, and when they are reachable, they say the same sorry story - "We can't display live departure information at this time"
The snow and travel disruption wasn't unexpected, they had plenty of time to make sure they could actually inform passengers what was going on.
Hopeless.
Journey Origin: Ascot
Scheduled Dep. Time: n/a
Journey Destination: London Waterloo
Estimated Delay: no idea
Details of complaint: OK, so there's been heavy snowfall, and the roads and rails are blocked. But why does that mean that:
- the Journey Planner website, listing delays and travel information
- the South West Trains website
- the departure boards at the stations
Have all been broken?
The websites have been down, and when they are reachable, they say the same sorry story - "We can't display live departure information at this time"
The snow and travel disruption wasn't unexpected, they had plenty of time to make sure they could actually inform passengers what was going on.
Hopeless.
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Delay in a lovely Monday morning train
Date: 2009-01-19
Journey Origin: Ascot
Scheduled Dep. Time: 09:10
Journey Destination: Waterloo
Estimated Delay: 5 mins at Ascot
Details of complaint: Yet another late train, but this time making me late for a meeting in London. That - sadly - is something I've grown used to over the many years using South West Trains on this line to Waterloo. To the point where I don't book client meetings before mid-day because it's highly likely I'll end up being late, thanks to the rubbish service from South West Trains.
What really make it worse this morning was the state of the train - totally filthy. Thick, wet mud on the seats, all over the floor, over the walls - it was literally like someone had stampeded a herd of sheep through the train.
Nice way to start the week, sitting in an overcrowded, dirty, smelly train for an hour.
Journey Origin: Ascot
Scheduled Dep. Time: 09:10
Journey Destination: Waterloo
Estimated Delay: 5 mins at Ascot
Details of complaint: Yet another late train, but this time making me late for a meeting in London. That - sadly - is something I've grown used to over the many years using South West Trains on this line to Waterloo. To the point where I don't book client meetings before mid-day because it's highly likely I'll end up being late, thanks to the rubbish service from South West Trains.
What really make it worse this morning was the state of the train - totally filthy. Thick, wet mud on the seats, all over the floor, over the walls - it was literally like someone had stampeded a herd of sheep through the train.
Nice way to start the week, sitting in an overcrowded, dirty, smelly train for an hour.
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
Robbery
Yes, it's true. Yesterday I was robbed by South West Trains.
I had to get a monthly car park pass. £75
Despite the car park being littered with CCTV, I have spoken to several other commuters who's cars have been broken in to or vandalised, and even if they can get the police involved, demand SWT turn over the tapes, then wait months for the tapes to be sent - there's still 'no identifiable information'.
That's not even taking into account that very often the car park is totally full. Good luck finding a space if you arrive after 11am, or if a bunch of Railtrack vans have shown up work on the line.
Given that the car park is shared with the Honda garage (Clover Leaf Cars, great people) how can SWT possibly justify £75 a month of £5 a day to park there?
I had to get a monthly car park pass. £75
Despite the car park being littered with CCTV, I have spoken to several other commuters who's cars have been broken in to or vandalised, and even if they can get the police involved, demand SWT turn over the tapes, then wait months for the tapes to be sent - there's still 'no identifiable information'.
That's not even taking into account that very often the car park is totally full. Good luck finding a space if you arrive after 11am, or if a bunch of Railtrack vans have shown up work on the line.
Given that the car park is shared with the Honda garage (Clover Leaf Cars, great people) how can SWT possibly justify £75 a month of £5 a day to park there?
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
Broken heating again
Date: 2009-01-07
Journey Origin: Ascot
Scheduled Dep. Time: 09:11
Journey Destination: London Waterloo
Estimated Delay: 0
Details of complaint: -3 outside, and once again no heating. It was so cold I ended up giving my coffee to the old lady sat next to me - she couldn't feel her fingers any more. The guard did come on to the intercom to apologise that the heating was broken in the last 4 carriages, and that it would be looked in to when we arrived at Waterloo. Helpful.
Journey Origin: Ascot
Scheduled Dep. Time: 09:11
Journey Destination: London Waterloo
Estimated Delay: 0
Details of complaint: -3 outside, and once again no heating. It was so cold I ended up giving my coffee to the old lady sat next to me - she couldn't feel her fingers any more. The guard did come on to the intercom to apologise that the heating was broken in the last 4 carriages, and that it would be looked in to when we arrived at Waterloo. Helpful.
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
No heating, again
Date: 2009-01-06
Journey Origin: London Waterloo
Scheduled Dep. Time: 20:50
Journey Destination: Reading via Ascot
Estimated Delay: 0
Details of complaint: No heating again! It's below zero outside, it's almost 9pm, and there's no heating anywhere in the train. This is insane.
Journey Origin: London Waterloo
Scheduled Dep. Time: 20:50
Journey Destination: Reading via Ascot
Estimated Delay: 0
Details of complaint: No heating again! It's below zero outside, it's almost 9pm, and there's no heating anywhere in the train. This is insane.
Fare increase
My monthly season ticket has increased by 3.9%, pushing my yearly cost of taking the train in to Waterloo from Ascot up to £3207.60. On top of this, I have to pay £72 a month just to park my car at the station, adding another £864 to my yearly bill.
Over £4000 a year just to take the train in to London.
Non season tickets and off-peak fares have risen even more.
You can read more about the fare increases from all train operators - not just the useless South West Trains - at http://www.passengerfocus.org.uk/news-and-publications/press-release.asp?dsid=2074
Over £4000 a year just to take the train in to London.
Non season tickets and off-peak fares have risen even more.
You can read more about the fare increases from all train operators - not just the useless South West Trains - at http://www.passengerfocus.org.uk/news-and-publications/press-release.asp?dsid=2074
Delay, crowding, and no heating
Date: 2009-01-06
Journey Origin: Ascot
Scheduled Dep. Time: 09:10
Journey Destination: London Waterloo
Estimated Delay: 15 mins
Details of complaint: -4 outside and no heating inside the train, for the entire journey. Train was very overcrowded with many people having to stand for over half the journey.
Journey Origin: Ascot
Scheduled Dep. Time: 09:10
Journey Destination: London Waterloo
Estimated Delay: 15 mins
Details of complaint: -4 outside and no heating inside the train, for the entire journey. Train was very overcrowded with many people having to stand for over half the journey.
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