Weekly Report 11/8/14

Monday 11th August 

No Travel

Tuesday 12th August

12:03 Shenfield (SNF) to 12:12 Chelmsford (CHM) - Train 360118 Carriage 74568

Pulled into SNF @ 12:01

Pulled into CHM @ 12:11

Temp: 22.6-23.1 degrees Celsius (C) - Humidity: 46-50 %

21:16 CHM to 21:27 SNF - Train 360114 Carriage 68564

Pulled into CHM @ 21:15

Pulled into SNF @ 21:27

Temp: 20.8-21.0 C - Humidity: 52-53 %

Wednesday 13th August

12:03 SNF to 12:12 CHM - Train 360118 Carriage 74568

Pulled into SNF @ 12:01

Pulled into CHM @ 12:11

Temp: 22.8-23.4 C - Humidity: 49-51 %

21:16 CHM to 21:27 SNF - Train 360120 Carriage 68570

Pulled into CHM @ 21:15

Pulled into SNF @ 21:31 (4 MINUTES LATE)

Temp: 21.4-22.4 C - Humidity: 53-55 %

Dirty threadbare seats, stopped outside SNF. Driver updated us.

Thursday 14th August

12:03 SNF to 12:12 CHM - Train 360118 Carriage 74568

Pulled into SNF @ 12:01

Pulled into CHM @ 12:11

Temp: 22.0-22.4 C - Humidity: 52-58 %

21:16 CHM to 21:27 SNF - Train 360106 Carriage 68556

Pulled into CHM @ 21:16

Pulled into SNF @ 21:29 (2 MINUTES LATE)

Temp: 21.2-21.9 C - Humidity: 57 %

Smells like a toilet

Friday 15th August

08:01 SNF to 08:12 CHM - Train 321301 Carriage 77853

Pulled into SNF @ 07:59

Pulled into CHM @ 08:12

Temp: 18.7-19.1 C - Humidity: 56-59 %

Missing seats! Others treadbare! Screws on the floor, quite dangerous

17:09 CHM to 17:19 SNF - Train 360116 Carriage 74566

Pulled into CHM @ 17:09

Pulled into SNF @ 17:18

Temp: 20.7-21.1 C - Humidity: 52-55 %

Dougal the Stain is still there! Not surprised at all!

This picture of Dougal was taken on Valentine's Day this year when I first met Dougal.

And this picture of Dougal was taken on 15th August, 6 months later. He has been reported on several occasions.

Saturday 16th August

08:03 SNF to 08:13 CHM - Train 321307 Carriage 78055

Pulled into SNF @ 08:03

Pulled into CHM @ 08:14 (1 MINUTE LATE)

Temp: 18.4-18.9 C - Humidity: 54-57 %

Loose seats, saw a man replacing one while on the train, etched window vandalism.

17:09 CHM to 17:19 SNF - Train 360115 Carriage 74565

Pulled into CHM @ 17:07

Pulled into SNF @ 17:18

Temp: 22.0-23.1 C - Humidity: 46-55 %
Dirty, threadbare seats, dirty carpets.

Sunday 17th August

08:25 SNF to 08:35 CHM - Train 321425 - Carriage 77967

Pulled into SNF @ 08:17

Pulled into CHM @ 08:33

Temp: 17.6-19.9 C - Humidity: 54-55 %

Loose seats, ill fitting seat backs, sticky floor, first train out of the depot, arrived at SNF 8 minutes early, left at 08:25.

17:30 CHM to 17:40 SNF - Train 360104 Carriage 72554

Pulled into CHM @ 17:31 (1 MINUTE LATE)

Pulled into SNF @ 17:39

Temp: 20.4-24.0 C - Humidity: 54-60 %

Punctuality: 

8 out of 12 (66.7%) on time at both departure stations AND destination stations

1 out of 12 (8.3%) late at departure stations BUT on time at destination stations

3 out of 12 (25%) on time at departure stations BUT late at destination stations

Combined minutes late at destination stations: 7 minutes

AGA "Customer Apology and Update" 15th August 2014

Abellio Greater Anglia Customer Apology and Update on 15th August 2014

http://www.abelliogreateranglia.co.uk/about-us/news/2014/08/customer-apology-and-update

We are genuinely sorry for the problems that have affected train services in recent weeks. Performance has been well below the standards you rightly expect and we intend to deliver. As you may be aware there have been a variety of causes, ranging from infrastructure failures (e.g. with track, signalling and overhead line equipment) and engineering work problems to train faults, fatalities, flooding and road vehicles striking bridges.

We are acutely aware of the frustration and inconvenience felt by our passengers when things go wrong, so we are taking urgent action to improve performance as follows:

• Putting in place quicker response arrangements for fixing infrastructure faults

• Investing in an enhanced maintenance regime for points, signalling and level crossing equipment

• Accelerating the track-side vegetation removal programme to try and prevent trees and branches falling on overhead lines and tracks - including tackling trees close to the railway, but on third party land

• Upgrading other track and signalling equipment in the Ipswich area over the next 4 weeks to improve infrastructure reliability

• Improving the planning, project oversight, resource management and contingency arrangements for engineering work projects

• Investing in a programme to tackle the main causes of train faults (doors, couplers and pantographs)

• Accelerating the fitment of remote train monitoring equipment to more of the train fleet, which helps identify potential faults before they occur

• Adding management resource in our Control centre to provide more focus on the rural routes and branch lines to ensure performance is more consistent across the network

• Trialling the use of a small number of stand-by buses, at key locations such as Bishops Stortford, Witham, Ipswich and Norwich, to reduce the response times in providing alternative transport, where appropriate, in the event of service disruption.

In addition, we are making progress on the five initiatives we outlined in June:

1. An enhanced maintenance regime for overhead line equipment is in place, including route monitoring using a train fitted with a special rooftop camera to identify faults and potential problems

2. An enhanced maintenance regime for the track and signalling on the approaches to London Liverpool Street station (including a re-organisation of the maintenance team) has been introduced. Some track and signalling staff will now be based at Liverpool Street itself, to reduce incident response times should things go wrong

3. Improved customer information procedures to provide better information during disruption are being implemented

4. Additional customer information staff are now in place during the morning and evening peak periods

5. A software upgrade programme is underway for the London Liverpool Street departure board to improve the accuracy of information about train departures during service disruption.

Please accept our apologies for the recent problems. We are under no illusion as to the impact these problems have had on passengers and we are anxious to put things right. We believe that this targeted programme of initiatives will help restore the more consistent service we all want to see. Everyone in our teams is working as hard as possible to deliver real improvements over the coming weeks.

Jamie Burles - Managing Director - Abellio Greater Anglia

Richard Schofield - Managing Director - Network Rail Anglia

Join Our Cause for a Better Train Service

Readers of my blog will probably have realised that I, along with others, want a better train service along the rail network currently run and operated by Abellio Greater Anglia (AGA).

Everyone who travels by train or any other public transport wants value for money when buying their ticket or paying their taxi fare, and expects to travel in comfort and in a reliable vehicle. It's something we want and should expect. Sadly with AGA, value for money, comfortable journeys and reliable vehicles are three things that are lacking. We want this to change and quickly!

At the forefront of the campaign for a better train service, my comrade, Ian is a Twitter regular and often re-tweets complaints aimed at AGA and has conversations with complainants. I would strongly advise following him on Twitter if you are regularly frustrated by your travels with AGA. His Twitter account is quite infamous, @Delayed_Again .

There's a task force that has been set up by the government called Norwich in Ninty. As the name suggests the idea behind the task force is to get trains from London Liverpool Street to Norwich in ninty minutes. This will in turn also improve train times along the rest of the Great Eastern Mainline (GEML). Part of this task force is the Great Eastern Rail Campaign, run by the New Anglia LEP. I would ask as many people as possible sign up to this campaign. Please go to their website at: http://www.newanglia.co.uk/find-out-about-us/campaigns-to-unlock-barriers-to-growth/gerailcampaign/ #GERailCampaign

Lastly, follow me on Twitter, @RealDC80 - I'm always tweeting about AGA, amongst as other things, posting pictures and trying to get information out of them, which a lot of the time is easier said than done. I also have a picture gallery on Facebook with all of my issues with AGA. The link to the album is: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152583232911617.1073741846.513546616&type=1&l=a4bb91485a Please take a look and feel free to comment and share with others.

Join our campaign for a better train service on AGA and get your voice heard.

E-Mail to the ROSCO's and Their Responses

On 20th July, I e-mailed the three Rolling Stock Companies (ROSCO's) - Angel Trains, Porterbrook and Eversholt Rail about the rolling stock they lease to Abellio Greater Anglia (AGA). I was curious about the agreements the ROSCO's have with TOC's, AGA specifically, about the maintenance and cleaning of the trains and who was responsible. So far I have only got responses from Eversholt Rail, who replied on 29th July, and Angel Trains, who replied this morning.

Eversholt Rail were rather dismissive of my request for information. Refusing, on two occasions in short and sweet e-mails, to give me information because of "confidential commercial arrangements". Wendy Filer was the person who contacted me.

Angel Trains were on the other hand a little bit more open with me. I received a fairly long winded e-mail from Susan Holliday, who apparently is one of their contract managers, AGA's Class 360's come under her portfolio. Having read her e-mail, I would say some of her response was generic, but some also a direct reply to the e-mail I had sent them.

The e-mail I sent to them was as follows:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to you today based on the understanding that as one of the UK's ROSCO's you own a selection of trains operated by Abellio Greater Anglia. I understand that the Classes of trains that you own that Abellio Greater Anglia uses include: 51 x Class 317, 21 x Class 360 and 30 x Class 379.

While I realise that Angel Trains retains ownership of the aforementioned trains, I wish to know the maintenance arrangements you have with Abellio Greater Anglia, IE, who is responsible for maintaining the trains, external and internal cleaning of the trains, etc. It strikes me that most of the trains used by Abellio Greater Anglia aren't subject to adequate maintenance or cleaning, so they end up developing faults and are in a generally dirty condition. In saying that, I am not directly pointing the finger of blame at Angel Trains, as it seems to be a common theme with trains used by Abellio Greater Anglia, including trains owned by the other two ROSCO's.

I generally don't have experience with the Class 317 or Class 379 trains, however I do frequently travel on the Class 360 trains, which given that they are only 11 or 12 years old, they seem to be in very poor condition internally. A lot of the seats are threadbare, the fabric on some is even torn and the carpets are often filthy. One train, 360116, there has been a large orange and brown stain on the floor of carriage 74566 for at least 5 months and has been reported to Abellio Greater Anglia on at least 3 occasions in that time. Other carpets on other trains are filthy too.

Based on this, I would like to know the general lease terms, particularly to do with the issues pointed out in this e-mail. If possible, I would like to know the required service and cleaning intervals for the trains your company owns that Abellio Greater Anglia use.

If you could get back to me with the information I ask for, I would be most grateful.

Kind regards,

Daniel Collins

And the response:

Dear Mr Collins, 

Many Thanks for your e-mail.   

Firstly, may I introduce myself properly, my name is Susan Holliday and I’m a Contract Manager employed by Angel, the Class 360 Fleet comes under my portfolio.  And you are absolutely correct, Angel Trains do own the Class 360 Fleet currently in operation with Abellio Greater Anglia.   In answer to your query, specifically relating to the 360 Fleet, I can confirm that we contract the Maintenance out to a 3^rd party, as we do with many other fleets.  The Class 360 has an excellent reliability record, with performance in service (in terms of delay minutes seen by the travelling public) regularly exceeding targets.     

Ref the issues you raise with regards to the cleaning, the Trains are regularly cleaned to a good standard, however they are operated on busy commuter routes and so I suspect you have been travelling at times which fall in-between the heavy cleans.  There are occasionally carpet stains which are more difficult to remove and need a little more time in the depot for staff to fully remove, sometimes this can take a few weeks to plan in around the scheduled maintenance (to avoid disrupting the service), however 5 months for the stain you mention on 74566 is not acceptable and I will raise with our contractor to ensure it is addressed at the next possible opportunity.   

Torn seats are exchanged during maintenance exams at the earliest opportunity, but are usually a result of passenger vandalism which we do our best to keep on top of.  The threadbare seats are exchanged as required, however in order to keep the costs to a minimum for the industry and ultimately for the travelling public, we work to an inspection regime to maximise on the seat life.  The seats are exchanged if they do not meet the agreed criteria on thread wear, and any torn seats are exchanged.  Following your feedback, I will review this regime with our supplier and the Train Operating Company and ensure we are focussed as a team, thank you for bringing it to my attention.   

It is worth noting that Railway vehicles go through cycles of scheduled maintenance and interior refreshes.  The 360s are approaching the end of this cycle and so will not be in the same condition as a newly refurbished Fleet.   

Many Thanks for your feedback and Very Best Regards   

Susan Holliday

Make of this e-mail as you will, but to suggest that damage to seats and interiors are due to "passenger vandalism" is A) premature without knowing that was definitely the case, and B) shamefully rude and unacceptable without knowing the facts. And I like the quote about cleaning standards, "trains are regularly cleaned to a good standard". By what measure would Ms Holliday consider the 360's interiors to be cleaned to a good standard? Has she seen my pictures, which are among many others showing the cleaning standards are far below par and not good by any stretch of anybody's imagination.

I suppose I should consider myself lucky that Susan Holliday replied at all with an e-mail that was carefully thought out. I am still waiting Porterbrook's response and with Eversholt's brief and pointless response, they may as well have not bothered.

Weekly Report W/C 4/8/14

Monday 4/8/14
08:59 Shenfield (SNF) to 09:34 Southend Victoria (SOV) - T 321364 C 72008
Pulled in to SNF @ 08:59
Pulled in to SOV @ 09:33
Slightly threadbare seats and sticky floor.
14:50 SOV to 15:25 SNF - T 321322 C 77874
Left SOV @ 14:50
Pulled in to SNF @ 15:23

Tuesday 5/8/14
No Travel

Wednesday 6/8/14
No Travel

Thursday 7/8/14
11:27 Brentwood (BRE) to 11:38 Romford (RMF) - T 315821 C 64503
Pulled in to BRE @ 11:28
Pulled in to RMF @ 11:39
Rubbish still on seats only one stop away from originating station.
16:16 RMF to 16:27 BRE - T 315818 C 64495
Pulled in to RMF @ 16:17
Pulled in to BRE @ 16:28

Friday 8/8/14
No Travel

Saturday 9/8/14
No Travel

Sunday 10/8/14
No Travel

Only travelled twice as I am on holiday this week. Total delay of 2 minutes from departing stations and 2 minutes getting to destination stations. Used Oyster Card between BRE and RMF.

GA's Apology for Service Disruption on 7th August (in case GA delete it)

Just so people get to read it before it gets deleted from Greater Anglia's website on the following link:
http://www.abelliogreateranglia.co.uk/about-us/news/2014/08/apology-for-service-disruption-thursday-7-august

We are sorry for the disruption affecting train services on the Great Eastern Main Line yesterday evening, which caused significant problems for passengers travelling to and from destinations north of Colchester, as well as for journeys between Ipswich and Cambridge/Peterborough. The cause of the delays was a major fault affecting a signalling cable south of Stowmarket, which resulted in a complete failure of the signalling system between Ipswich and Stowmarket. The situation was exacerbated by the fact that it proved very difficult to identify the exact location of the fault and because it took longer than anticipated to put in alternative safe signalling and operating arrangements, to allow trains to run through the affected area. In addition, to minimise the overall delays and run the best possible service, when platform capacity was severely limited at Ipswich as a result of the problems, it was necessary for some services to be altered at short notice and for some trains to turn around at Colchester.

We provided as many buses as we could, as quickly as we could, to provide alternative transport between Ipswich and Stowmarket and we then started to run trains through as soon as it was safe to do so, but there were still severe delays affecting many people. For anyone wishing to claim compensation, details of our delay repay policy can be found on the Abellio Greater Anglia website :http://www.abelliogreateranglia.co.uk/about-us/our-performance/delay-repay.

We are implementing three actions to try and prevent a repetition and handle any future incidents more effectively :

• Identifying the underlying cause of the cable fault and then taking action to prevent future failures

• Reviewing our response arrangements to get staff to site more quickly to implement alternative operating procedures

• Reviewing the communication of the contingency arrangements to better explain service alterations and the reasons for them

We apologise again to our customers for the inconvenience and frustration caused by yesterday's problems.

Jamie Burles                               Richard Schofield

Managing Director                      Managing Director

Abellio Greater Anglia                Network Rail Anglia

Weekly Report W/C 28/7/14

Monday 28/7/14

No Travel

Tuesday 29/7/14

12:03 Shenfield(SNF) to 12:12 Chelmsford(CHM) - T 360118 C 74568

Pulled into SNF @ 12:01

Pulled into CHM @ 12:11

21:16 CHM to 21:27 SNF - T 360120 C 68570

Pulled into CHM @ 21:14

Pulled into SNF @ 21:25

Wednesday 30/7/14

12:03 SNF to 12:12 CHM - T 360121 C 74571

Pulled into SNF @ 12:00

Pulled into CHM @ 12:10

Stained, treadbare seats

21:16 CHM to 21:27 SNF - T 360106 C 72556

Pulled into CHM @ 21:15

Pulled into SNF @ 21:31

Short formed, 4 carriages instead of 8, scratched windows, banana skins on seats

Thursday 31/7/14

12:03 SNF to 12:12 CHM - T 360110 C 74560

Pulled into SNF @ 12:04

Pulled into CHM @ 12:14

Stained, threadbare seats, filthy carpets

21:16 CHM to 21:27 SNF - T 360102 C 65552

Pulled into CHM @ 21:19

Pulled into SNF @ 21:30

Dried on BBQ Sauce coloured stain on seat next to mine

Friday 1/8/14

12:03 SNF to 12:12 CHM - T 360119 C 74569

Pulled into SNF @ 12:05

Pulled into CHM @ 12:16

21:16 CHM to 21:27 SNF - T 360115 C 68565

Pulled into CHM @ 21:15

Pulled into SNF @ 21:25

Saturday 2/8/14

11:03 SNF to 11:12 CHM - T 360106 C 68556

Pulled into SNF @ 11:01

Pulled into CHM @ 11:11

20:09 CHM to 20:19 SNF - T 360102 C 65552

Pulled into CHM @ 20:07

Pulled into SNF @ 20:18

Sunday 3/8/14

No Travel

Mostly early getting to departure station and to destination station, late three times, totalling 9 minutes lateness at destination, and 4 minutes lateness at departure station.