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First Capital Connect say sorry… We say !@”£$*

Mary Grant (Managing Director) has issued a statement saying sorry.

http://www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk/sorry

I am also sorry – because I dont know what sorry means. Do you ever find when you repeat a word over and over again it loses all meaning? I have heard the word ‘sorry’ so many times from FCC it doesnt mean squat….

Tweet your FCC Acronyms

I’ve asked all those following ihatethameslink to tweet their FCC acronyms. Within minutes I had received a whole bunch and expect more to follow. So if you are on twitter – tweet your FCC acronym to @ihatethameslink (or post them below) and I will publish it on this post. Perhaps I will set up a vote and see which acronym wins the prestigious ‘best FCC acronym’ award…

13 18 19 25 31 34 funny and creative acronyms below!

1. Failure Consistently Comes
2. Frequent Commuter Calamities
3. Friday Cancelled Commute
4. Failing Commuters Consistently

Chuka has our back – vote Labour!

An interesting tweet was picked up on ihatethameslink.co.uk today, and it led me to an article on the Streatham-Labour website.

Minister Told of Thameslink Anger

Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Streatham has contacted FCC and has met with the transport minister to express his anger over the continued disruption to services as a result of the staff unofficial strike.

Train service update – additional trains to revised timetable

In addition to the amended timetable, the following trains will be running / canceled today – lucky us!

Thameslink route

Northbound
- 09:37 Sutton – Kentish Town
- 16:18 Elephant & Castle – Bedford (calls at Farringdon at 16:27)
- 16:04 Brighton – London Bridge
- 17:58 Elephant & Castle – Luton (calls at Farringdon at 18:07)
- 18:18 Herne Hill – Bedford (calls at Farringdon at 18:37)

Southbound
- 08:06 St Albans – Sutton
- 08:54 Luton – Elephant & Castle
- 17:11 London Bridge – Brighton

Great Northern route

Northbound
1312 Moorgate to Hertford North terminates at Alexandra Palace
1332 Moorgate to Hertford North cancelled
1442 Moorgate to Welwyn Garden City cancelled
1552 Moorgate to Stevenage cancelled
1638 Moorgate to Hertford North cancelled
1757 Kings Cross to Welwyn Garden City cancelled
1808 Moorgate to Welwyn Garden City cancelled
1823 Moorgate to Welwyn Garden City cancelled
1937 Moorgate to Welwyn Garden City cancelled
2007 Moorgate to Welwyn Garden City starts at Alexandra Palace
2152 Moorgate to Hertford North cancelled
2241 Kings Cross to Welwyn Garden City cancelled
0106 Kings Cross to Letchworth (Saturday morning) cancelled

Southbound
1232 Hertford North to Moorgate terminates at Alexandra Palace
1343 Welwyn Garden City to Moorgate cancelled
1452 Hertford North to Moorgate cancelled
1544 Welwyn Garden City to Moorgate cancelled
1620 Letchworth Garden City to Moorgate due 1726 will no longer call at:  Letchworth Garden City, Hitchin, Stevenage and Watton-At-Stone.
1659 Stevenage to Moorgate cancelled
1736 Hertford North to Moorgate cancelled
2058 Welwyn Garden City to Moorgate cancelled
2310 Hertford North to Kings Cross cancelled
2318 Letchworth to Kings Cross cancelled
0516 Royston to Kings (Saturday morning) cancelled

Thameslink disruptions – FAQ

Below are the FAQ taken from the FCC website, which I thought you all might find of some interest. I have also added my comments and thoughts in red.

Thameslink route revised timetable – what’s happening
Please accept our sincere apologies for recent unprecedented levels of disruption. We share your frustration and are doing everything we can to restore the service to normality as quickly as possible.  Apology NOT accepted!!

Revised timetable
As your usual timetable was becoming increasingly untenable because of short notice forced alterations, the decision was made to introduce a revised timetable from Thursday 12 November. Although the revised timetable means that we will operate a reduced service, it should be more dependable and reliable. All trains should be formed of eight carriages. More dependable + reliable?? So they might turn up?

Revised Timetable on Thamleslink route due to lack of drivers

Thameslink passengers have faced an awful week of travel as FCC drivers exercise their right not to work overtime. This is not an official strike, however it is claimed that unions will soon go to ballot for strike action.  FCC have introduced a revised timetable which can be downloaded here (PDF) but passengers faced major disruptions to their journeys. If you were affected by the recent staff shortages, I urge you yo claim compensation from FCC. Its really quick and easy, and if you have an oyster card, just put your oyster number instead of ticket number. Click here to claim compensation now. FCC have also stated that delays will be calculated based on the old timetable, not the revised one.

More delays due to lack of drivers

First Capital connect to give lethal injection to passengers without ticket!*

'Nervous? If yo’re travelling without a ticket you should be.' No ticket? lethal injection is only fair.

A new FCC advertising campaign suggest that all anyone travelling without a valid ticket will receive some sort of injection as punishment! The advert tells us that we should be nervous travelling without a ticket and features a medical looking person holding a needle in the background. If in fact FCC are not planning to inject us, it still suggests we should be as fearful as receiving some sort of injection which is completely over the top, and I am surprised that this even got past the advertising standards people.

This is probably the worst advertising campaign I have seen in a long while.

Leave a comment and let us know what you think or tweet @ihatethameslink !

*not confirmed by FCC, based on interpretation of poster!

Alstom get very confused

Video footage was released today of the new ‘radical’ Alstom trains which are one of a number of options being put forward to the Department for Transport as it considers options for the Thameslink line.

Footage can been seen on the Telegraph website.

The video is very nice, but it does appear to me that Alstom have got a little confused…

Leave a comment, and let us know what you think about the new trains! What is the point in these new trains if they will be as delayed, and with as many cancellations as before?

Shout out to @smiggers for the link via twitter.

FCC Performance Update – Still not performing well.

I’ve been perusing the FCC website and have noticed on the front page that every month they publish their performance statistics.

Between 26 Jul – 22 Aug they claim 96.2% of trains on the Great Northern route, and 90.8% of trains on the Thameslink route were less than 5 minutes late at the final destination.