Weekly Travel Report W/C 15/12/14

Monday 15th December

No Travel

Tuesday 16th December

12:03 SNF to 12:12 CHM

Train: 360107 - Carriage: 74557

3rd of 4 Carriages (from the front)

Pulled into SNF @ 12:02 (1 Minute Early)

Pulled out of SNF @ 12:03 (On Time)

Pulled into CHM @ 12:11 (1 Minute Early)

Temperature: 17.2 to 19.3 degrees C

Humidity: 44 to 47 %

Notes: Dirty floors and exterior, faded seat covers, no bins between doors D and gangway to 72557.

21:16 CHM to 21:27 SNF

Train: 360109 & 360112 - Carriage: 68562

5th of 8 Carriages

Pulled into CHM @ 21:15 (1 Minute Early)

Pulled out of CHM @ 21:16 (On Time)

Pulled into SNF @ 21:24 (3 Minutes Early)

Temperature: 17.0 to 18.1 C

Humidity: 42 to 45 %

Notes: Filthy floors, papers everywhere, heaters on floor are stone cold. No automated announcement on approach to Shenfield.

Wednesday 17th December

12:03 SNF to 12:12 CHM

Train: 360111 - Carriage: 74561

2nd of 4 Carriages

Pulled into SNF @ 12:04 (1 Minute Late)

Pulled out of SNF @ 12:05 (2 Minutes Late)

Pulled into CHM @ 12:13 (1 Minute Late)

Temperature: 19.4 to 20.1 C

Humidity: 49 to 50 %

Notes: Dull faded seats, marks and stains on the floor.

21:16 CHM to 21:27 SNF

Train: 360107 & 360118 - Carriage: 65568

5th of 8 Carriages

Pulled into CHM @ 21:16 (On Time)

Pulled out of CHM @ 21:18 (2 Minutes Late)

Pulled into SNF @ 21:27 (On Time)

Temperature: 18.9 to 19.9 C

Humidity: 55 %

Notes: Dirty floors, rubbish everywhere, although there were a lot of papers on the luggage racks above the seats, stains on seats.

Thursday 18th December

12:03 SNF to 12:12 CHM

Train: 360115 - Carriage: 74565

3rd of 4 Carriages

Pulled into SNF @ 12:02 (1 Minute Early)

Pulled out of SNF @ 12:03 (On Time)

Pulled into CHM @ 12:12 (On Time)

Temperature: 20.1 to 21.5 C

Humidity: 51 to 56 %

Notes: Filthy everywhere, exterior, seats, carpets, you name it.

21:16 CHM to 21:27 SNF

Train: 360101 & 360119 - Carriage: 68569

5th of 8 Carriages

Pulled into CHM @ 21:15 (1 Minute Early)

Pulled out of CHM @ 21:16 (On Time)

Pulled into SNF @ 21:25 (2 Minutes Early)

Temperature: 17.6 to 19.8 C

Humidity: 57 %

Notes: Papers and rubbish everywhere, dirty floors and threadbare seats, No automated announcement on the approach to Shenfield.

Friday 19th December

12:03 SNF to 12:12 CHM

Train: 360120 - Carriage: 72570

2nd of 4 Carriages

Pulled into SNF @ 12:01 (2 Minutes Early)

Pulled out of SNF @ 12:03 (On Time)

Pulled into CHM @ 21:11 (1 Minute Early)

Temperature: 19.2 to 20.7 C

Humidity: 46 to 50 %

Notes: Usual dirty, threadbare seats and dirty floors.

21:16 CHM to 21:27 SNF

Train: 360114 & 360104 - Carriage: 65554

5th of 8 Carriages

Pulled into CHM @ 21:14 (2 Minutes Early)

Pulled out of CHM @ 21:16 (On Time)

Pulled into SNF @ 21:24 (3 Minutes Early)

Temperature: 16.8 to 19.1 C

Humidity: 45 to 47 %

Notes: Faded, dirty seats, dirty floor and exterior. No where to sit on Platform 1 at Chelmsford, while waiting for trains as benches have been taken up.

Saturday 20th December

11:03 SNF to 11:12 CHM

Train: 360117 & 360108 - Carriage: 65558

5th of 8 Carriages

Pulled into SNF @ 11:02 (1 Minute Early)

Pulled out of SNF @ 11:03 (On Time)

Pulled into CHM @ 11:11 (1 Minute Early)

Temperature: 20.9 to 21.9 C

Humidity: 43 to 44 %

Notes: Dirty inside and out, 360108 still has old Greater Anglia logos.

20:09 CHM to 20:19 SNF

Train: 360119 & 360101 - Carriage: 65551

5th of 8 Carriages

Pulled into CHM @ 20:08 (1 Minute Early)

Pulled out of CHM @ 20:09 (On Time)

Pulled into SNF @ 20:18 (1 Minute Early)

Temperature: 19.1 to 21.0 C

Humidity: 43 to 44 %

Notes: Filthy, disgusting and horrible! No automated announcement on the approach to Shenfield, third time this week. New benches put in place of the old ones on Platform 1 at Chelmsford.

Sunday 21st December

10:02 SNF to 10:11 CHM

Train: 360104 & 360114 - Carriage: 65564

5th of 8 Carriages

Pulled into SNF @ 9:58 (4 Minutes Early)

Pulled out of SNF @ 10:02 (On Time)

Pulled into CHM @ 10:10 (2 Minutes Early)

Temperature: 20.2 to 21.4 C

Humidity: 45 to 46 %

Notes: Dirty outside, dirty floors, not too much rubbish, burn marks on the back of seats.

19:30 CHM to 19:40 SNF

Train: 360121 & 360108 - Carriage: 74558

6th of 8 Carriages

Pulled into CHM @ 19:32 (2 Minutes Late)

Pulled out of CHM @ 19:33 (3 Minutes Late)

Pulled into SNF @ 19:43 (3 Minutes Late)

Temperature: 16.6 to 19.2 C

Humidity: 52 to 54 %

Notes: Dirty inside and out, 360108 still has old Greater Anglia logos. No automated announcement on the approach to Shenfield.

General Notes:

Four times this week, there has been no announcements on the approach to Shenfield from Chelmsford in the evenings. (Tues 68562, Thurs 68569, Sat 65551, Sun 74558) - A total of 4 minutes late across the week. Cleanliness is an ongoing issue on all of the trains I've travelled on this week, like most weeks, no train presentation team seen at all this week, litter pickers or actual cleaners. WHSmith at Chelmsford now looks ready to re-open.

The Greater Anglia Franchise Wish List

As you may know, the public consultation for the new Anglia franchise (currently run by Abellio Greater Anglia or AGA) is under way. The current franchise comes to an end in October 2016. The link to the consultation is here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/east-anglia-rail-passenger-franchise - Please go and fill it in.

But we, as commuters who run the AGA Complaints group on Facebook and the @Delayed_Again account on Twitter would like to compile a wish list of you, as commuters want from the new franchise (and if possible) from the remainder one. The idea of the wish list is that it will compliment the public consultation and reinforce what the commuters actually want from the franchise and doesn't just cover subjects that are touched upon in the public consultation. To coin a phrase, power to the people!

If you are on Twitter, you could tweet me at @RealDC80 and/or @Delayed_Again with your ideas using Hash tag: #GreaterAngliaWishList, join my AGA Complaints group on Facebook at www.facebook.com/groups/agacomplaints or e-mail greaterangliacomplaints@gmail.com if you're not on Facebook or Twitter.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Weekly Travel Report W/C 08/12/14

Monday 8th December

No Travel

Tuesday 9th December

See Special Travel Report here: http://dcabellioga.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/special-if-not-mad-travel-report-9th.html

Wednesday 10th December

12:03 SNF to 12:12 CHM

Train: 360102 - Carriage: 68552

1st (from the front) of 4 Carriages

Pulled into SNF @ 12:05 (2 Minutes Late)

Pulled out of SNF @ 12:05 (2 Minutes Late)

Pulled into CHM @ 12:14 (2 Minutes Late)

Temperature: 17.5 to 20.1 degrees C

Humidity: 39 to 45 %

Notes: Usual filthy floor and rubbish everywhere.

21:16 CHM to 21:27 SNF

Train: 360117 & 360118 - Carriage: 65568

5th of 8 Carriages

Pulled into CHM @ 21:14 (2 Minutes Early)

Pulled out of CHM @ 21:16 (On Time)

Pulled into SNF @ 21:24 (3 Minutes Early)

Temperature: 15.4 to 18.4 C

Humidity: 41 to 45 %

Notes: Dirty, threadbare seats, filthy floors.

Thursday 11th December

12:03 SNF to 12:12 CHM

Train: 360110 - Carriage: 74560

3rd of 4 Carriages

Pulled into SNF @ 12:03 (On Time)

Pulled out of SNF @ 12:05 (2 Minutes Late)

Pulled into CHM @ 12:13 (1 Minute Late)

Temperature: 18.8 to 20.2 C

Humidity: 44 to 45 %

Notes: Usual stains on seats & dirty floors. Heating didn't appear to be too eager but temperature was comfortable enough.

21:16 CHM to 21:27 SNF

Train: 360109 & 360119 - Carriage: 68569

5th of 8 Carriages

Pulled into CHM @ 21:15 (1 Minute Early)

Pulled out of CHM @ 21:16 (On Time)

Pulled into SNF @ 21:25 (2 Minutes Early)

Temperature: 17.9 to 19.4 C

Humidity: 47 %

Notes: Papers everywhere, dirty walls, dirty floors & threadbare seats.

Friday 12th December

12:03 SNF to 12:12 CHM

Train: 360117 - Carriage: 74567

3rd of 4 Carriages

Pulled into SNF @ 12:02 (1 Minute Early)

Pulled out of SNF @ 12:03 (On Time)

Pulled into CHM @ 12:11 (1 Minute Early)

Temperature: 16.8 to 17.5 C

Humidity: 49 to 52 %

Notes: Usual dirty carpets, faded seats, etc, not really warm enough.

21:16 CHM to 21:27 SNF

Train: 360116 - Carriage: 74566

2nd of 4 Carriages

Pulled into CHM @ 21:15 (1 Minute Early)

Pulled out of CHM @ 21:16 (On Time)

Pulled into SNF @ 21:26 (1 Minute Early)

Temperature: 17.5 to 19.7 C

Humidity: 40 to 54 %

Notes: Short formed, 4 carriages instead of the usual 8 carriages. Filthy, threadbare seats and carpets.

Saturday 13th December

11:03 SNF to 11:12 CHM

Train: 360120 & 360101 - Carriage: 65551

5th of 8 Carriages

Pulled into SNF @ 11:01 (2 Minutes Early)

Pulled out of SNF @ 11:03 (On Time)

Pulled into CHM @ 11:11 (1 Minute Early)

Temperature: 15.5 to 19.0 C

Humidity: 40 to 44 %

Notes: Threadbare seats, dirty floors. Amazingly, the exterior of 360120 was spotlessly clean, didn't get a photo or video as I didn't have my camera ready. Heating appeared to be working fine on the carriage I was on.

20:09 CHM to 20:19 SNF

Train: 360112 & 360118 - Carriage: 72568

6th of 8 Carriages

Pulled into CHM @ 20:08 (1 Minute Early)

Pulled out of CHM @ 20:09 (On Time)

Pulled into SNF @ 20:19 (On Time)

Temperature: 19.0 to 20.8 C

Humidity: 41 to 51 %

Notes: Relatively clean seats, but some were torn and/or not fitted properly, dirty floors and rubbish everywhere.

Sunday 14th December

No Travel

General Notes:

Lucky to not get caught up in the various delays this week. Only 2 of my trains were late getting to my destination, totalling 3 minutes of lateless, which for AGA is a good record, all other trains were early or on time getting to my destination. There was 1 short formed train this week, not a bad record considering all the other reported train faults reported this week.

Special (if not mad) Travel Report - 9th December 2014

Special Journey Report - 9th December 2014

Station Codes:
SNF = Shenfield
RMF = Romford
UPM = Upminster
FST = London Fenchurch Street
TH = Tower Hill Underground Station
LST = London Liverpool Street
SRA = Stratford (London)
HII = Highbury & Islington (London)

AGA (Abellio Greater Anglia)
11:20 SNF to 11:28 RMF
Train: 360107 Carriage: 72557
3rd of 4 Carriages
Pulled into SNF @ 11:19 (1 minute early)
Pulled out of SNF @ 11:20 (On time)
Pulled into RMF @ 11:28 (On time)
Temp: 20.2 to 21.1 C
Humidity: 40 to 47 %
Notes: Standing room only, temp getting colder.

AGA
11:41 RMF to 11:50 UPM
Train: 317649 Carriage: 62846
2nd of 4 Carriages
Pulled into RMF @ 11:34 (7 minutes early)
Pulled out of RMF @ 11:41 (On time)
Pulled into UPM @ 11:51 (1 minute late)
Temp: 17.5 to 18.4 C
Humidity: 42 to 45 %
Notes: Filthy, cold, heating not working. Temp decreasing.

c2c
12:02 UPM to 12:24 FST
Train: 357211 Carriage: 74711
3rd of 4 Carriages
Pulled into UPM @ 12:01 (1 minute early)
Pulled out of UPM @ 12:02 (On time)
Pulled into FST @ 12:25 (1 minute late)
Temp: 17.1 to 18.1 C
Humidity: 45 to 49 %
Notes: On time, clean and tidy apart from a small stain on one seat, white exterior clean too. Temp increasing, seats showing signs of wear and tear, but good compared to AGA standards.

Circle Line train from TH to LST
Carriage: 25374
Pulled into TH @ 12:33
Pulled out of TH @ 12:33
Pulled into LST @ 12:37
Temp: 16.4 to 17.8 C
Humidity: 47 to 49 %
Notes: Clean and tidy. Cold though.

AGA
14:48 LST to 14:55 SRA
Train: 321440 Carriage: 78160
12th of 12 Carriages
Pulled out of LST @ 14:48 (On time)
Pulled into SRA @ 14:56 (1 minute late)
Temp: 18.9 to 19.2 C
Humidity: 45 to 46 %
Notes: Floor filthy, threadbare seats. Didn't see front two train unit numbers.

LO (London Overground)
15:05 SRA to 15:19 HII
Train: 378233 Carriage: 38133
1st of 4 Carriages
Pulled out of SRA @ 15:05 (On time)
Pulled into HII @ 15:20 (1 minute late)
Temp: 19.2 to 23.9 C
Humidity: 45 to 51 %
Notes: Floor a little dirty but otherwise in good condition.

LO
15:38 HII to 15:54 SRA
Train: 378228 Carriage: 38128
4th of 4 Carriages
Pulled into HII @ 15:37 (1 minute early)
Pulled out of HII @ 15:38 (On time)
Pulled into SRA @ 15:53 (1 minute early)
Temp: 20.9 to 23.4 C
Humidity: 35 to 49 %
Notes: As with other LO train. Had to stand.

AGA
15:55 SRA to 16:11 SNF
Train: 321430, 321357 & 321425 Carriage: 71973
10th of 12 Carriages
Pulled into SRA @ 15:58 (3 minutes late)
Pulled out of SRA @ 15:59 (4 minutes late)
Pulled into SNF @ 16:14 (3 minutes late)
Temp: 19.8 to 20.8 C
Humidity: 43 to 45 %
Notes: Dirty floors, although not too bad, clean seats, grey/white seats and red grab handles. Temp appears to be slowly decreasing.

General Notes:
Latenesses never over 3 or 4 minutes. In general, cleanliness of the trains was better on c2c, LO and the Circle Line train, the interiors and exteriors are all cleaner for white painted trains. Upminster Railway Station could to with an update, but certainly no worse than AGA managed railway stations. Platform 6 which is only used for AGA trains between Upminster and Romford still has some old One signage (been NXEA and AGA since).

Photo Album:
If you want to see some of the photos, feel free to join my AGA Complaints group on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/groups/agacomplaints or go here to go straight to the album: www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.396283147187695&type=1

Call me mad... On my travels to and from London on Tuesday 9th December.

On Tuesday 9th December, I'm going to do something crazy. I'm going to London to meet Colin from Quiet Riots, but before you wonder, that's not even the crazy part. The crazy part is how I am going to get there and back.

As I do a lot of complaining about Abellio Greater Anglia (AGA), this blog and my Facebook group is devoted to the task, I thought I'd give two other train operators a go to see how they compare. The two in question are c2c and London Overground (LO). These two operators have a fairly good reputation, so I wanted to see what people are talking about and see if they really are as good as people say and see how much, if any, better they are compared to AGA. My journey, as always, will start at Shenfield, which is where I shall return.

Ordinarily, travelling from Shenfield to Liverpool Street would be a relatively 'simple' task of hopping on one AGA train, however, because I want to try c2c out, I'm going to go via Romford, Upminster, Fenchurch Street and Tower Hill. And yes, that does mean braving the twice hourly AGA trains on the Romford to Upminster branch line and having to walk from Fenchurch Street to Tower Hill before popping onto a Circle Line train to Liverpool Street. I told you I was mad!

After meeting Colin, I'm going to check out LO to see what they're like. The route I have chosen takes me from Liverpool Street to Stratford, either by Central Line or AGA, before getting on a LO train to Highbury and Islington, then boarding a Victoria Line train to Oxford Circus and from there, a Central Line train to either Liverpool Street or Stratford, before boarding an AGA train back to Shenfield.

I'm taking my digital camera to take photos and videos wherever I can, so we have some evidence, good or bad, to compare AGA to their counterparts.

I shall report back on Tuesday evening with my travel report blog and with the photos and/or videos I have taken of my travels. I'll also be checking in, via Swarm to the various stations and the check ins will get posted to my Twitter and Facebook accounts for those of you who follow me.

Over running engineering works on 8th December

So much as we hate AGA, sometimes Network Rail are just as guilty for annoying the hell out of commuters. Lately we've had plenty of infrastructure faults which neither AGA or NR have never apologised for, but on 8th December we had over running engineering works, combined with AGA not having contingency plans, causing as much hell for commuters as on previous occasions. We have an apology from Richard Schofield of NR on AGA's website at: http://www.abelliogreateranglia.co.uk/about-us/news/2014/12/apology-for-service-disruption-monday-8-december

And here is the apology for when AGA delete it:

We are genuinely sorry for the problems that affected train services this morning.
 
As part of the ongoing programme to upgrade the railway line between London and Norwich, we were installing new track at Seven Kings. Unfortunately, we encountered unforeseen problems while carrying out this work.
 
After removing the old track and digging up the track foundations, the condition of the track foundations was not as expected, meaning we needed more time to complete the work. Unfortunately when carrying out upgrades on the network we do sometimes encounter problems such as these.
 
Please accept our apologies for this morning’s problems. We are acutely aware of the frustration and inconvenience felt by passengers when things go wrong, and are taking action to improve performance standards and service consistency.

Richard Schofield
Route Director
Network Rail

Please Richard, get this sorted out, no more over runs, no more failures of the infrastructure which blight peoples lives. The faults risk peoples jobs and livelihoods with the delays they cause.

Weekly Travel Report W/C 01/12/14

Train Station Codes:

SNF = Shenfield

CHM = Chelmsford

Monday 1st December

No Travel

Tuesday 2nd December

11:41 SNF to 11:52 CHM

Train: 360104 - Carriage: 74554

3rd of 4 Carriages (from the front)

Pulled into SNF @ 11:41 (On Time)

Pulled out of SNF @ 11:42 (1 Minute Late)

Pulled into CHM @ 11:53 (1 Minute Late)

Temperature: 17.9 to 20.4 C

Humidity: 45 to 51 %

Notes: Dirty floors and seats.

21:16 CHM to 21:27 SNF

Train: 360111 & 360112 - Carriage: 65562

5th of 8 Carriages

Pulled into CHM @ 21:15 (1 Minute Early)

Pulled out of CHM @ 21:16 (On Time)

Pulled into SNF @ 21:25 (2 Minutes Early)

Temperature: 17.2 to 19.6 C

Humidity: 48 to 52 %

Notes: Dirty, Rubbish everywhere. bumpy ride.

Wednesday 3rd December

12:03 SNF to 12:12 CHM
Train: 360108 - Carriage: 65558
1sr of 4 Carriages
Pulled into SNF @ 12:02 (1 Minute Early)
Pulled out of SNF @ 12:03 (On Time)
Pulled into CHM @ 12:11 (1 Minute Early)
Temperature: 19.5 to 21.8 C
Humidity: 45 to 48 %
Notes: Slightly dirty seats and floor, torn seats.

21:16 CHM to 21:27 SNF
Train: 360104 & 360115 - Carriage: 65565
5th of 8 Carriages
Pulled into CHM @ 21:15 (1 Minute Early)
Pulled out of CHM @ 21:17 (1 Minute Late)
Pulled into SNF @ 21:26 (1 Minute Early)
Temperature: 16.4 to 18.5 C
Humidity: 46 to 50 %
Notes: Dirty threadbare seats and dirty floors.

Thursday 4th December
12:03 SNF to 12:12 CHM
Train: 360117 - Carriage: 68567
1st of 4 Carriages
Pulled into SNF @ 12:01 (2 Minutes Early)
Pulled out of SNF @ 12:03 (On Time)
Pulled into CHM @ 12:11 (1 Minute Early)
Temperature: 21.0 to 21.9 C
Humidity: 44 to 45 %
Notes: Threadbare seats, member of AGA staff on board.

21:16 CHM to 21:27 SNF
Train: 360101 & 360110 - Carriage: 65560
5th of 8 Carriages
Pulled into CHM @ 21:15 (1 Minute Early)
Pulled out of CHM @ 21:16 (On Time)
Pulled into SNF @ 21:24 (3 Minutes Early)
Temperature: 15.9 to 19.7 C
Humidity: 53 to 59 %
Notes: Rubbish everywhere again, not a surprise.

Friday 5th December
12:03 SNF to 12:12 CHM
Train: 360112 - Carriage: 74562
2nd of 4 Carriages
Pulled into SNF @ 12:02 (1 Minute Early)
Pulled out of SNF @ 12:03 (On Time)
Pulled into CHM @ 12:12 (On Time)
Temperature: 16.2 to 17.4 C
Humidity: 51 to 52 %
Notes: Seats relatively clean apart from a few pieces of rubbish debris.

21:16 CHM to 21:27 SNF
Train: 360118 & 360108 - Carriage: 68558
5th of 8 Carriages
Pulled into CHM @ 21:15 (1 Minute Early)
Pulled out of CHM @ 21:16 (On Time)
Pulled into SNF @ 21:24 (3 Minutes Early)
Temperature: 14.7 to 17.3 C
Humidity: 46 to 48 %
Notes: Dirty exterior, papers everywhere, threadbare seats, heaters not on.

Saturday 6th December
11:03 SNF to 11:12 CHM
Train: 360113 & 360107 - Carriage: 65557
5th of 8 Carriages
Pulled into SNF @ 11:01 (2 Minutes Early)
Pulled out of SNF @ 11:02 (Left 30 Seconds Early)
Pulled into CHM @ 11:11 (1 Minute Early)
Temperature: 22.1 to 23.0 C
Humidity: 36 to 46 %
Notes: Heaters on, dirty floors and rubbish everywhere.

21:16 CHM to 21:27 SNF
Train: 360121 & 360109- Carriage: 65559
5th of 8 Carriages
Pulled into CHM @ 20:08 (1 Minute Early)
Pulled out of CHM @ 20:09 (On Time)
Pulled into SNF @ 20:18 (1 Minute Early)
Temperature: 16.5 to 18.6
Humidity: 41 to 47 %
Notes: Dirty/Threadbare seats, dirty floor.

Sunday 7th December
No Travel

General Notes:

Bizarrely, given the delays caused primarily by various track defects at Manor Park, Romford and Stratford, all my trains, with one exception (which was only 1 minute late) were on time or early getting to my destination. Didn't stop the trains being dirty and/or threadbare. I did not see any of the Train Presentation Team on any train this week, unlike previous weeks.

On Tuesday 9th December, I'll be travelling to London Liverpool Street to meet Colin (the chicken) from Quiet Riots and from there I plan to use one or two London Overground services and one or two c2c services  (using the Underground were needed) to see how they compare to AGA's services. Look out for my blog report on Tuesday.

Don't forget to keep sending in your videos, read this blog post for details: http://dcabellioga.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/building-case-against-abellio-greater.html

An Open Letter to Jamie Burles and Management at Abellio Greater Anglia

Dear Mr Burles.

Over the last 10 days your services have been blighted with ongoing issues every single day. There has been a whole mixed bag of infrastructure defects and failures causing delays to your passenger trains and causing your passengers a lot of grief and yet neither you or Richard Schofield from Network Rail have apologised, you haven't even attempted to copy and paste an old apology.

We know, as knowledgeable commuters, that every time an infrastructure issue causes significant delays to your services, Abellio Greater Anglia get compensation from Network Rail by way of an apology from them to you. You must be racking it is over the last 10 days, over charging your poor, unfortunate passengers for the privilege of travelling on dirty, overcrowded and late running trains, and getting compensation, hand over fist from Network Rail, especially as you won't pay out Delay Repay until passengers have been delayed by at least 30 minutes.

After than thinking about Pound signs £££££, you should be thinking about attempting to keep your passengers happy. I know you have them over a barrel, seen as most people haven't got any other option than to travel by train and use your sad excuse for a train operating company, but like with any other business, it should be a priority to keep the people lining your pockets happy. To do so, you should be on Network Rail's back saying stuff like, "this isn't good enough, you can't keep delaying our trains like this, we need to run a punctual network and we can't do that if parts of your infrastructure keep breaking down."

A lot of AGA passengers, including myself, rely on AGA to get them to and from work, and most of them rely on AGA to get them to and from London for work from various places such as Ipswich, Norwich, Colchester, Clacton, Chelmsford, Wickford, Cambridge and Southminster, to name but a few. The morning delays often mean that people are late getting to work, which means businesses in London are affected because of staff lateness and the staff in question risk getting disciplined or even worse, fired, because of how often they are late for work. Do you, as a company director, think it's fair to sack a member of staff because of being late for work when it wasn't their fault they are late? Personally, I don't think it's fair, but companies, a lot which are smaller than Abellio, have no choice because of the constant knock on affect staff lateness has on their business and they can't conduct their business as efficiently as they need to when staff are getting to work late a lot of the time. And that is of course, not mentioning the affect evening rush hour delays have on people's personal and family lives. A lot of passengers have wives or girlfriends, husbands or boyfriends and quite a lot have children too, how do you think delays affect family time? Stressed out people waiting for their partners to get home from work, waiting to cook their evening meal, not getting to see their children before they're put to bed, which can lead to arguments, which in turn can lead to previously happy couples splitting up, all thanks to the incompetence of Abellio and Network Rail.

So far, I've not mentioned train faults, the reason for this is because train faults have been hiding behind Network Rail's incompetence. However they have still existed. You need to improve the maintenance programme on your trains and get more units so that train faults are far less frequent. Most of the AGA fleet is ancient and the "new" carriages you're getting from Virgin's Pretendolino, which are just as old as all the other Mark III carriages and DVT's AGA have, since you inherited all of those from Virgin too when they replaced them with their Pendolino fleet. You need new trains and more of them, and you need to maintain them properly, just as Network Rail need to maintain the infrastructure properly.

Do all of this, otherwise you will find yourselves without a franchise by the time this one is over in October 2016 and hopefully we'll find ourselves with a new franchise holder who will care more about it's passengers than lining it's own pockets with silver and gold.

Regards,

Dan Collins and all your other disgruntled passengers.