Southeastern, or how to make someone consider walking 216 miles
I'm a "loyal" customer of Southeastern - loyal in the sense that short of learning how to drive (or taking the coach that doesn't go particularly nearby), I need to use them to periodically get to/from my parents. Today however, they've managed to cock up in two particularly bad ways.
Admittedly, the first part isn't today-specific, but I've hit it repeatedly while trying to plan things today. They've recently introduced a thing called the HS1, a high-speed rail link whose primary aim is fast Eurostar travel on the English side, but also provides domestic routes as well. Said domestic routes are more expensive than the conventional trains (which are also running, but with a reduced timetable relative to pre-HS1 times), and you need a special ticket, which I didn't have. So, I want to figure out how to get back from my parents (just north of Canterbury) to London, either via traintimes or the National rail service. Neither have any notation noting which trains are HS1, and only grepping the PDFs on Southeastern tells you which are them. If I screwed up, I'd get fined for being on the wrong train... As the HS1's go to Stratford International which is nearer home than the other London termini, I would have actually quite like to have taken one. So, that's fail number one.
Fail number two involved my managing to locate one of the remaining non-HS1 services, specifically the 15:05 from Chestfield and Swalecliffe towards Victoria. Firstly, the station announcements claimed it was only going to Whitstable (next station along). Not wanting to wait for another hour, I figured I'd get on it anyway and hope that Whistable (as a slightly larger station) would give me more options. Had a quick gander at the National Rail site on my phone, and we've got new data. Now, it's going to Faversham (an even bigger interchange station one more along), but cancelled from there on in. It dutifully turns up, and I get on. The train itself claims it's a normal Victoria service, and I'm feeling moderately optimistic. It promptly goes past Whistable, past Faversham, and proceeds to do what it was meant to do originally and go to Victoria. A nice turn of events in the end, but the level of disinformation is rather disquieting, and indicative of larger issues.
All in all, a bit of a fail day for Southeastern, but at leas I'm home now (well, until I head out again shortly!)
Update: Forgot also to mention the fail heading up on the 23rd, when they kept cancelling stations my train was going to, while we were on it. This was ok up until they cancelled the one we were heading for...
Admittedly, the first part isn't today-specific, but I've hit it repeatedly while trying to plan things today. They've recently introduced a thing called the HS1, a high-speed rail link whose primary aim is fast Eurostar travel on the English side, but also provides domestic routes as well. Said domestic routes are more expensive than the conventional trains (which are also running, but with a reduced timetable relative to pre-HS1 times), and you need a special ticket, which I didn't have. So, I want to figure out how to get back from my parents (just north of Canterbury) to London, either via traintimes or the National rail service. Neither have any notation noting which trains are HS1, and only grepping the PDFs on Southeastern tells you which are them. If I screwed up, I'd get fined for being on the wrong train... As the HS1's go to Stratford International which is nearer home than the other London termini, I would have actually quite like to have taken one. So, that's fail number one.
Fail number two involved my managing to locate one of the remaining non-HS1 services, specifically the 15:05 from Chestfield and Swalecliffe towards Victoria. Firstly, the station announcements claimed it was only going to Whitstable (next station along). Not wanting to wait for another hour, I figured I'd get on it anyway and hope that Whistable (as a slightly larger station) would give me more options. Had a quick gander at the National Rail site on my phone, and we've got new data. Now, it's going to Faversham (an even bigger interchange station one more along), but cancelled from there on in. It dutifully turns up, and I get on. The train itself claims it's a normal Victoria service, and I'm feeling moderately optimistic. It promptly goes past Whistable, past Faversham, and proceeds to do what it was meant to do originally and go to Victoria. A nice turn of events in the end, but the level of disinformation is rather disquieting, and indicative of larger issues.
All in all, a bit of a fail day for Southeastern, but at leas I'm home now (well, until I head out again shortly!)
Update: Forgot also to mention the fail heading up on the 23rd, when they kept cancelling stations my train was going to, while we were on it. This was ok up until they cancelled the one we were heading for...