Train delay and School comments

For a developed Country out railways are appaling. No sign of them getting better as good old Rishi Rich doesn't seem to want HS2 coming up North.

Wind, Rain Pigeons, Cold...all the things that makes the North the North! 😂

What it explains to me is why some parents demand phone contact numbers for school trip teachers, or have trackers on their child's phones.

@HarrowToCroydon I presume you are pleased when your train is cancelled then, as it’s a wonderful opportunity for you to practice your resilience?

In what way were the children not being resilient anyway? I’ve traveled on many trains all over the world and sitting on the floor and having your breakfast/lunch/dinner is a pretty normal response to cancellations or delays.

Do you expect them to all be sitting on the floor while busily writing thank you letters to the train company, thanking them for the opportunity?

Well it was a good opportunity for the OP to show how she was a perfect parent with the perfect son

Although given she quoted the Richard Branson example as how to teach six year olds resilience I hope her son ends up with access to the therapy he probably needs

I'm confused now

So you started a thread saying this should teach resilience because your son wasn't bothered that it might happen to him?

I don't get the logic

If the Government and First Group ran a competent railway, trains would have been diverted around the infrastructure issue (I gather that it was at Lockerbie so the G&SW would have done, alternatively via Hexham). They would have had enough spare crews on hand and would have maintained good industrial relations so that persuading staff to stay on for an extra couple of hours would have been easier.

But no. Diversionary route knowledge has been cut, Alstom doesn't like Pendolinos being dragged by 57s any more, and in the space of just a few words the ex-MD of Avanti managed to piss-off staff sufficiently that they all started refusing to do overtime.

Preston train station is fairly large and bloody windy and cold. Not where I'd like to be stuck for long periods.

It used to be much worse than it is now. Twenty years ago, the roof was pretty ineffective, so you got wind, cold, pigeons & rain.

Rather than complain, should the school and parents be a little happy that the children were pushed out of their comfort zone?

No, no, no, no, no!

It's clear you live in the south, or at least somewhere away from the misery of being a captive of the appalling West Coast line.

When up there, I've lost count of the number of times I have been left stranded at Preston station, or taken home to my town, about 20 minutes away on the West Coast line, but a good hour by car. And those of us who lived near stations on the mainline were far better served than anyone nowhere near it, or on the Manchester-Leeds, or Carlisle-Newcastle, or West Cumbria routed.

Once, it took me 8 hours to travel from Birmingham to Lancaster. It was scheduled to be a 1 hour & 57mins journey (I think it takes longer than that). I was supposed to be working in Lancs, so that was a day's productivity just gone.

Another time, I was on the 7pm train from London to Lancs. It should have taken just over 3 hours. I should have been checked into my hotel & in bed by 10:30pm, as I had a long day's work the next day. Instead, I walked from the railway station at 5:30am. There were people going for job interviews, there were people - like me - who were working the next day. We were given no information, no water, no food, and I got no refund on a hotel room I wasn't able to use. A 3 hour trip took over 10 hours.

This is the result of decades of southerners deciding to spend billions on a shiny new Elizabeth line, or the EuroStar, and leaving northerners stranded.

Your OP shows so little understanding of the third world transport standards (actually, Indian and Kenyan trains are far better!) northerners are expected to put up with. You have no idea.

Going on the state of the billionaire berk's railway, it would appear that being chucked out of a moving car miles from one's destination has had a big influence on how he thinks transport provision should operate.

Absolutely bizarre thread, people are posting pretty reasonable responses and you're desperate to take anything they say to the extreme. Why are you so worked up about a school group being unhappy that they were left in the lurch? Other passengers got a weird but functional route home, does that mean they are in fact the cocooned ones? I'd imagine most of them were well out of your 'kids today' age bracket.

I've travelled the Country on trains, and by far and away Avanti Worst Coast is the worst. Now as a single guy after spending all day driving one way starting at eg 6am, It is no fun being in the position these people were. Now imagine being in charge of a whole lot of children that aren't your own. Or being a child, who is by that shattered after an exciting day out.
No that does not build resilience.

PS, Preston train station is fairly large and bloody windy and cold. Not where I'd like to be stuck for long periods.

Sorry was is an incident of abuse/neglect in Richard Bransons childhood relevant?

If you think incidents like that is what drove him to success, I would argue his success was mostly made possible by coming from a very privileged family.

Its unlikely the children on the school trip have white the same familial background as him.

*"When Richard Branson was around six years old, he was in the backseat of his mother's car on his way to visit his grandmother.

With about four miles to go, the future billionaire founder and chairman of the Virgin Group started acting up - and his mother, Eve, stopped the car, pushed him out, and told him to find his own way there.*

Sorry you’re now advocating child abuse as a means to develop resilience?

Ah apologies! And I'm sorry you were that child too.

@Insommmmnia no it was directed at the OP who I quoted, I know what you were trying to say, I too was that child.

Out of interest given how well your son has apparently turned out have you thrown him out of the car at 6 when he was several miles from his destination?

Or expected him to be happy for the lesson in resilience when stranded in a train station with no more trains until the next day?

Or has your child managed his current level of perfection without going through these things that you think other children should be grateful to experience?

I see you haven't actually managed to quote any of the things you accused me of saying though.

Half the schools in Scotland are on strike this week - school support staff (cleaners, catering etc looking for more money)

This is a mad thread.