To be really funking fed up of the shit train services in this country

[Medschoolmum]

I paid £170 for an advance ticket for a trip into London this morning. Journey of around 1.5 hours. Booked a seat with a table so that I can work on the train. Got up 45 mins earlier than usual to get to the station on time. Parked at the station for an exorbitant sum. Arrive to be told that train is delayed by 22 mins. Annoying, but OK, I have built in additional time. Not a massive issue.

After waiting for 10 mins, they announce that the train is cancelled. Not stopping at my station because they are running late. (This is not some tiny village station with one person on the platform BTW- it is a substantial sized station with loads of people waiting for that train.

We are informed that the next train will depart half an hour after the original scheduled train. This will mean that I'm a bit tight on time but should just about make it to my meeting on time. This is why you build in a buffer zone, right?

So now the next train is delayed as well, who knows when or if it will arrive. When I finally manage to get on the train, it's clearly going to be heaving. No chance I'll get a seat. And in the meantime, I'm still sitting here in a dingy waiting room drinking crap coffee.

The last time I took a train was around 10 days ago. That one was also cancelled for a different reason. I was delayed by around 40 mins.

I know I can claim back the ticket cost etc, but how on earth do they get away with charging such extortionate prices for such ridiculously unreliable services? I used to live overseas in a country where the trains were much cheaper, cleaner and ran like clockwork. Why are we so incapable of doing the same?

I'm not convinced that nationalising them is going to fix the problem either... the days of British Rail weren't exactly much better.

I am so fed up of this shit show.

I'm not convinced that nationalising them is going to fix the problem either... the days of British Rail weren't exactly much better.

Exactly. I think the working from home revolution has really affected their revenue, on top of their existing issues. The ugly truth is that current passenger levels aren't high enough to support the previous timetable. And the militant rail staff - many of whom earn a lot more than us - are just making things worse.

The problem is more difficult than saying: wouldn't it be wonderful if Keir Starmer was running the trains. The nationalisation of the past was a failure.

If your car is costing you £500 a month just to sit there (financing and insurance) you have no incentive to switch to the trains.

The thing that would make a difference is if Keir Starmer squared up to the unions. Not likely...

Of the last 3 return rail services I’ve caught, I’ve had Delay Repay on the last 2 journeys, either for the outward or inward bound leg. Today will tell if it’s third time’s a charm…

And yet every station I pass through has a a propaganda poster telling me that the service is running at 99.9999999999999% efficiency. Hmmmmm 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔.

If the railways were nationalised at least there would be accountability. The point of privatisation is not to improve services, it's to remove than from government provision to avoid blame for them not working.

@HauntedBungalow 🤣😏 <ironic laughter>

It is a disgrace - I only travel by train occasionally but I have never once had a journey go smoothly. Trains from our small city station are sprinter-type - only ever two carriages. If one gets cancelled the next is cramming 4 carriages' worth of people into the two.

I have a disability and cannot praise enough the Passenger Assist service - but they can do everything bar getting the train in on time and finding you a seat. I cannot stand on a journey but have often been squeezed into a tiny drop-down seat in the corridor with people rammed together like sardines - so tight that people who want to get off cannot make their way down the aisle. I once took a photo on my phone and sent directly to the train company where my face was squashed into a bloke's arse who was standing by me!

I am old enough to remember British Rail - it was not perfect but believe me it was nothing like as awful as the current situation. Labour will take it back into public ownership - which is the right thing to do - but it will take a long time to turn this juggernaut around.

The problem with the rail service isn't the fact that it is privatised. The problem is that it is privatised with monopolies. There is no competition. The argument is that competition will drive service up and cost down, but the reality is that there are no one to compete against and so they can drive down service and drive up prices and the government can always bail them out.

Either privatise fully and allow multiple passenger options, or nationalise. One or the other, because at the moment it is prohibitively expensive unless you're expensing it, unreliable, cramped and awful trains.

The deterioration in the last 5 years is incredible. We are also served by Avanti west coast who no longer run many fast trains at the weekend, so the 1.45 hour service is 3 hours long.

DD went to London at Easter. Train on time until 5 minutes before, when cancelled completely. She was due to arrive in London at 11.39 but bumped onto a train that arrived 2.45pm. Twice I’ve been to visit her at university on a 2.5 hour service that’s dumped me in the middle of nowhere or announced we need to get off at Manchester because it’s decided not to carry on to Liverpool - at 9.30pm.

i had a journey up to Newcastle where the return leg was cancelled on the day. I was refunded the £50 but had to pay £150 to book onto a different return service at such short notice. The last minute hike in prices is shocking

My car has broken down and I will have to travel by train for work next week. I know it's going to be a mess. I have really strict limits on my time due to everything I have to fit in and get back for the afternoon school run. Not looking forward to it.

The (lack of) service is shit. The strikes are risible. The condition of the trains is appalling. More and more people will find alternative means of travel and trains will become less and less necessary.

It’s utterly ludicrous that people pay an extortionate amount of money for the dubious privilege of being held to ransom by train companies.

They are so unreliable and expensive. It makes me laugh in amazement when people ask me if I am going by train on my next planned trips. Not a hope.

I use trains a lot. Last year I claimed back 50% of all my journeys because of long delays. This year it's more like 60%.

A train service on an island this small really should be seen as essential infrastructure, run with safety and efficiency as priorities, and not for profit. I

YANBU regarding unreliable trains, it’s infuriating but YABU paying £170! Were you travelling first class?

I’ve checked on Northern Railway app and there are various ticket prices ranging from £29 - £129! Anytime train £70!

And that’s without a railcard!

I live in Sydney. Yesterday I took the train into the city with my kids. We have a 40 minute journey in from our suburb, then we got the team about 4 stops and then the train home again later. It was clean, on time, you can choose which direction you face thanks to moveable seat backs. The whole thing was easy.
It cost me $8.25 - about £5. It cost the kids $4.00 each.

Yes, blame the staff still trying to get a payrise for 2022/23 within a few percent of inflation for the period, so that their wages have only actually dropped 4 or 5 percent in real terms rather than 10%. Definitely their fault and not the greedy shareholders and incompetent senior management.

Get a clue love.

We lived in the U.K. last year and we were saying how we only had one train journey into London where there wasn’t some kind of delay/problem, and on two occasions major cancellations.

I am so with you, OP. The last trip I took should have taken 2.5 hours, ended up taking 5. It was delayed by a fallen tree on the line - was showing as cancelled, so I asked for advice and on the basis of it took an alternative route that involved changing trains.

When I got to the connecting station, all services were severely delayed because of - guess what! - another fallen tree on the line 🤨.

Tried to claim delay repay, only to learn that the original cancelled train had been suddenly reinstated (after I set off on the alternative route) - so no compensation for my lost 2.5 hours.

Feeling your pain OP, my train into Waterloo and onward tube travel to my destination should be around an hour. I’m currently 2.5 hours in and still not made it to Waterloo yet.
Tedious. Delays then cancellations across the board this morning (mostly it happens when I’m trying to get home, it’s not often that I’m delayed on my way to work).

Meant to add that a day barely seems to go by without the local paper fb warning readers of some delay or other. It's pathetic.

The Dutch got around the directive by just giving the operating contract to Nederlandse Spoorwegen.

I don’t even think about catching a train anymore.

We’re served by Trans Pennine express. Not sure we’re served though, maybe failed,

A deputation of northern mayors went to see whoever the transport secretary was. It’s destroying the economy up here.

Yes it's a stinking pile of shit.

How can they bang on about climate change and try and encourage people on to trains rather than flying or driving when it's such a mess?

DH is off somewhere for the weekend on the train and just found out half the trip is on rail replacement buses because tracks are broken. Can't plan anything more than a fortnight in advance because of strikes. Can't afford to get a train from one end of the country to the other because of their ridiculous prices.

Try looking at a journey from Manchester to London, arriving before 11:30 (when most other peak restrictions end at 09:30 or 10:00). It really will cost that much, and then some. There's not enough capacity on the West Coast Main Line so the operators are told by the government to price everyone off, this is why it was important to complete HS2 to Manchester in order to boost capacity.

I’ve never had any time for conspiracy theories, but this is sounding scarily possible to me!!