F*cking nightmare of a bastard commute

[Onket]

Just checked with the driver- diversion in place until the 9th of January.

 

[marty21]

Just checked with the driver- diversion in place until the 9th of January.

I'm guessing alternative options are limited?

 

[Onket]

Correct.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

I knew it! Train home was half an hour late into New Street, due to signalling problems.

 

[Onket]

Congestion in the Three Bridges area followed by points problems between Selhurst and East Croydon.

 

[hot air baboon]

...blissfully quiet and empty roads this week....can't we make home-schooling compulsory...?

 

[Bob_the_lost]

8 hours in the car today. Dartford crossing gets you both ways....

 

[davesgcr]

Congestion in the Three Bridges area followed by points problems between Selhurst and East Croydon.

Just for a change ! - Brighton line is really suffering from these problems (as you may - and 50,000 others - have noticed)

 

[Onket]

Signal problems, Selhurst area.

 

[marty21]

Working from home today, no problems with the commute

 

[Onket]

You're lucky that you work for such a ground-breakingly progressive employer.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Just for a change ! - Brighton line is really suffering from these problems (as you may - and 50,000 others - have noticed)

improved signalling system coming to the brighton line soon -

 

[marty21]

You're lucky that you work for such a ground-breakingly progressive employer.

 

[Santino]

Some delays caused by over-running engineering works but I wasn't too late and no one really takes much notice of when I arrive at work anyway.

 

[davesgcr]

Had a long session with the Train Operators today about the Brighton line - we are hoping to improve things ..

 

[Dan U]

Had a long session with the Train Operators today about the Brighton line - we are hoping to improve things ..

Huge furore locally about the cuts to the Redhill line in January

 

[davesgcr]

We were trying to get the timetable(s) to run better - there is much pain short term with the reduced capacity into London Bridge because of the rebuilding. Should get much better in time - appreciate the difficulties. Work in hand.

 

[Dan U]

Fares higher than Oxted with less trains. People in uproar. It's good to watch. It's the realisation that franchisees don't give a fuck in action

 

[Bob_the_lost]

I've moved to a new part of the country, on the plus side my commute to my regular place of work is cut in half. On the down side when i have to go to the midlands it's now gone from a pleasant but long 2.5 hr drive each way to a 4 hr (again, each way) prolonged carparking activity over some nicely congested motorways.

I'm putting my foot down and refusing to drive past the watford gap ever again, they can pick up the taxi and train fares.

 

[Poot]

Kids were playing chicken on the dual carriageway today. It was fucking terrifying

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Kids were playing chicken on the dual carriageway today. It was fucking terrifying

Bloody idiots - what possesses people to be so fucking stupid.

 

[Onket]

Caught behind a slower moving train in the Burgess Hill area.

 

[Onket]

Points failure - Streatham area - Services subject to delays or cancellation.

Train displayed as 'on time' currently, so we'll see.

 

[davesgcr]

Points failure - Streatham area - Services subject to delays or cancellation.

Train displayed as 'on time' currently, so we'll see.

Defective chug bolt at Streatham North Junction - for the record. Basically points are "f+++ed" and cannot switch.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Packed train tonight, and the train staff came into the carriage and in a rather panicked and urgent way asked if a blue holdall belonged to someone. No-one said so, so god knows what was going on.

 

[Onket]

Defective chug bolt at Streatham North Junction - for the record. Basically points are "f+++ed" and cannot switch.

I don't I was delayed by much in the end, yesterday or today.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Caught behind a slower moving train in the Burgess Hill area.

This fucks me off. If you're on an intercity service, that train should have priority, and not some stupid local stopping service that holds everything else up because it goes at 10mph.

Happened the other night - a twenty minutes late out of the station and we hobbled all the way behind these stupid slow trains.

 

[Onket]

Can't overtake if the track isn't there.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Can't overtake if the track isn't there.

They should be shunted into sidings or another line to wait until my train passes. It is absurd to have a local service carrying perhaps 50 people holding up a number of intercity services each carrying hundreds.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

They should be shunted into sidings or another line to wait until my train passes. It is absurd to have a local service carrying perhaps 50 people holding up a number of intercity services each carrying hundreds.

On much of the network, there aren't sidings or other lines to divert stopping trains on to. Most sidings got 'rationalised' out of existence years ago. And where there are fast and slow lines, trains tend to be segregated.

I'm sure most passengers would complain if their train got "shunted on to a siding" to allow another train to pass. And many stopping services (certainly in SE England commuter land) carry a damn sight more passengers than longer distance services.

At one time, signallers (signal-men) would generally give priority to a slightly late 'express passenger train' even if it would make a 'stopping passenger train' a little bit later. I'm not entirely sure of my facts here, but I think matters would get complicated if a network rail signaller decided to delay train operator A's local service that was ready to depart on time in order to accommodate train operator B's long distance service that was late.