Rail replacement buses on Saturdays in Feb/March

[Jai]

For interest of any Shrimpers living in the mid/north of the county: Greater Anglia have announced that rail replacement buses will replace trains on the Southend Vic line on weekends throughout February and March. This is to add to the engineering work over Christmas, and the two months of work that's finishing next weekend.

I'm glad I didn't take up that rail 'season ticket' they were offering this season - that's five months out of a nine month season where you can't get a train to the game.

http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/148...three_months_of_weekend_rail_misery_in_Essex/

Small crumb of comfort is it will royally **** off the south Essex spammer population.

 

[AndyT]

Just had something through my door from Network Rail saying there will be engineering works at weekends until May (most weekends) between Brentwood and Hockley, by the looks of things.

 

[kaymac]

Ah, but at the end of the day passengers will benefit from a much improved service.....,so the claim has been since the last century. Don't know how GA are allowed to charge full rate on tickets when they can't provide a proper 7 days-a-week service from Liv St to Southend Vic. It's disgraceful.

 

[Jay_SUFC]

Ah, but at the end of the day passengers will benefit from a much improved service.....,so the claim has been since the last century. Don't know how GA are allowed to charge full rate on tickets when they can't provide a proper 7 days-a-week service from Liv St to Southend Vic. It's disgraceful.

Agreed - and don't get me started on the continuous short formed trains - disgusting what they charge us, especially compared to c2c

 

[MK Shrimper]

The Engineering work has nothing to do with GA, it's down to NR. GA wouldn't probably give a damn if the work was never done as everytime one of their trains are delayed, the get substantially more from Network Rail (and your taxes) than they do when commuters bother to get refunds.

Anglia OLE is the oldest in the country, put up in the early 1960s and it's long past it's sell by date. It's not responsive enough to weather extremes and it's not suitable for modern day trains. I could find out how many delays there's been due to dewirements over the last 10 years but I'd imagine it'd be quite high (in terms of minutes delay and in terms of tax payers money that goes to the TOC that operates on that line - it'd probably run into 100s of millions.)

The work is long past needed doing and obviously weekends are the only time it can be done.

 

[kaymac]

Maybe long past needing doing but just how many years is this fiasco going to continue??
Last year it was no weekends plus no through trains to Southend from Liv St after something like 9.15pm.....that's just not good enough.

On the line to Norwich they issue the same 'leaf' warning in autumn year after year, in fact they amend timetables in advance of the anticipated 'leaf fall'. As for the speed restrictions due to hot rails......aarrgghh !!

 

[WESTY_SUFC]

Might be worth the club looking into moving some home games to Friday night if possible. I've got plenty of friends who make occasional games for a day out and a few beers who just arnt interested when it's bus replacement.

 

[Tinks]

I thought all this engineering work malarkey was being completed prior to Christmas.

 

[RobM]

Might be worth the club looking into moving some home games to Friday night if possible. I've got plenty of friends who make occasional games for a day out and a few beers who just arnt interested when it's bus replacement.

Hang on - isn't there an uproar about the league moving games for TV as people buy train tickets in advance? What's the difference there?

 

[WESTY_SUFC]

Hang on - isn't there an uproar about the league moving games for TV as people buy train tickets in advance? What's the difference there?

I'm talking about games far in advance, late March/April etc. Cheaper train tickets prob aren't even on sale for these dates. Anyway they won't get a train, it'll be bus on the Sat.

 

[RobM]

I'm talking about games far in advance, late March/April etc. Cheaper train tickets prob aren't even on sale for these dates. Anyway they won't get a train, it'll be bus on the Sat.

I'm talking about games far in advance, late March/April etc. Cheaper train tickets prob aren't even on sale for these dates. Anyway they won't get a train, it'll be bus on the Sat.

Oh OK, I thought you meant...sort of...next week!

 

[ms brush]

I travel all over the place by train, and can quite safely say that GA is about the most expensive and worst service (especially at weekends) in the country. I live in Braintree and have given up trying to travel from here by train! C2C used to be known as the misery line, but that had nothing on GA! It is awful, far too slow, far too overcrowded, expensive and given that there have been no weekend trains for months on end, GA should be paying us!

 

[WESTY_SUFC]

Oh OK, I thought you meant...sort of...next week!

Agree with your point that games where tickets have already gone on sale/been sold cannot be changed now.

 

[MK Shrimper]

On the line to Norwich they issue the same 'leaf' warning in autumn year after year, in fact they amend timetables in advance of the anticipated 'leaf fall'. As for the speed restrictions due to hot rails......aarrgghh !!

Adhesion due to leaf fall also costs millions ever year. I'd chop down every tree near the line...but you can't....and do you know that rail temperature in hot weather can go up to nearly 50 degrees? Enough to buckle the track and make it potentially dangerous.

 

[kaymac]

Yet no ‘leaf delay’ timetable changes (rather ‘guesswork’) affecting other lines and I doubt it’s only the track upto Norwich that has trees along it? I’m well aware of affect of heat on rails, however this is far from the hottest place on the planet so how do other countries cope?

 

[southendkid]

The fact you can't do a delay repay claim on weekends for your season ticket despite the fact it will take over an hour extra to get to London on a weekend because of engineering works is a joke, how can this be legal? Surely if you can prove you took the train on a Saturday you should be compensated.

 

[MK Shrimper]

Yet no ‘leaf delay’ timetable changes (rather ‘guesswork’) affecting other lines and I doubt it’s only the track upto Norwich that has trees along it? I’m well aware of affect of heat on rails, however this is far from the hottest place on the planet so how do other countries cope?

Concrete base instead of ballast is one way but that very expensive - hence why they're downgrading the white elephant that is HS2 that was going to use it.

 

[cerbera45]

I was hoping to get the train to Prittlewell tomorrow but onto Plan B instead