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.

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.

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.

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.