Trains are a fucking shitshow

[Amethystbluexo]

Seriously, they are. Before 2022 they was half alright. They turned up on time, never cancelled, was reasonably priced and wasn’t overcrowded, that’s on my northern route anyway.

Now they’re fucking chaotic, disastrous even. I bought a railcard last year to save money, tickets have now increased in price to the point they’re now originally the same price as they would of been without one.

Constant cancellations. I used to travel regularly and they were fine, now in the past six months every single journey has had a disruption. Either cancelling last minute, cancelling the service halfway through, setting off late. I have been left to wait at Sheffield for over three hours on two occasions because they’re cancelling trains left right and centre. It’s a joke and entirely unreliable.

Overcrowding is now piss poor. I know Northern for a fact are now operating on reduced carriages even on the busier services and it shows. I’ve had seats booked and i’ve turned up to find people sat in them. I ask them politely to move and they either ignore me or tell me to fuck off. Even worse recently a train was so busy, nobody else could even get on because we was packed like sardines at the door. People swearing, getting pissed, there was a woman with a pushchair who burst into tears on one station because she couldn’t get on, not even the ticket man could make his way around.

Not to mention customer service is piss poor. They blame everything on staff shortages and covid but it’s been like this for atleast six months now. I tweet them or send an email and they just send a link for delay refund. However, twice i’ve tried to reclaim on my journey and twice it was rejected.

Honestly, the thought of getting on trains now makes me sick. It’s so so stressful. I would travel on trains each month to my parents house but i’ve reduced this heavily as trains are just so shit. The stress and expenses just doesn’t feel worth it. Even the behaviour of people on stations are shit as i’ve had one man smack me with his bike, and then had an another old lady pull my hair.

Opinions please?

This. The rail network can’t cope with the number of people using it now, and they want other people to use it.

Public transport has been woefully underinvested in by successive governments who are more interested in avoiding raising taxes because they know people won’t vote for that. The difference is so stark in other European countries.

Basically northern trains are now for people who have no other means of travel because they can't drive, don't own a car or don't want to drive so they can drink as much as they possibly can and make life as miserable as possible for all the passengers who don't think it's normal to start drinking at 10am.

We live less than 12 miles from a major city and we're travelling there tomorrow evening, we live in a "commuter town" if it can be called that.

To get there via public transport we'll have to take a taxi 4 miles to the station (as it's nowhere near the actual town centre).
The last train home is before 11pm so we'll have to get an Uber which will likely cost £40+.

They cancelled the once hourly bus service to the city and even if it was running, it finishes before 9pm. People have actually lost their jobs because of this because they can't get in or out of the city via bus now.

It's an absolute joke.

Horribly expensive, run replacement buses all over the show.
Buses round here are even worse, this was yesterday (Saturday) ..

You are not wrong OP it’s a absolute disgrace. Trans pennine are currently striking “indefinitely” every weekend. Half the trains they do run are cancelled due to staff shortages - how are people supposed to go back to the office if they can’t actually get there. Agree with the loutish behaviour as well - some blokes on a train loudly talking about another one being “sucked off” by so and so - swearing and in a carriage with kids and old people - these were men in their 40s and they weren’t drinking so god knows what they thought they were playing at.

It's unacceptable. You're right of course. My only advice is for people to get actively involved.
We need an enhanced BTP.. the force is ridiculously small.
And pester your MP's etc for a complete ban of alcohol on trains.

Completely agree.
Trains ok for leisure purposes but crap for work. Mainland Europe seems to have good train networks and services, reliable and pleasant, why can't we? The bloody things were invented here.

They reduced the carriages on the trains where I live a couple of years before Covid, from 8 to 4.

The train starts from a town on the S. coast, and when they made it shorter it was standing room only from the 3rd station on the line. People were having to stand virtually the whole distance from the coast to central London. Some mornings, the trains were so packed that people waiting at stations further north were simply unable to get on.

RMT are balloting members for strike action

if it goes ahead, if you think it is bad now, wait till the whole system stops

People WFH more post CV19, so revenue down, no win situation

Ticket prices, yep, very high but people who don’t use trains would say, “Why should I subsidise train fares”

I'm old enough to remember the bad old days of British Rail so don't think discarding the the franchise model is going to improve the railway.

So am I, and I travelled virtually every working day from 1971 to 1991. The bad old days weren’t that bad. Tickets were affordable and you didn’t have to buy them months in advance. Just turn up, buy a ticket, and get on a train.

RMT are balloting members for strike action

What a surprise.

Why is it always the industries with strong unions that provide such crap customer service?