London Midland Trains

[Tony]

They're an absolute shambles, 2 coaches on a peak time journey to Worcester (Snow Hill Line), without any notification or apology. .................., they're a joke, I'm serious getting tired with this awful service, I have the displeasure of having to use their "service" everyday

Don't be silly, that can't be correct Tom reckons everything is nice and rosy on the Stourbridge Line ;D

[Tomjusttom]

I was being...sarcastic! You should try it! Its just a train!

[Bob]

Once again the Chase line is a bloody joke! 15 mins late in Cannock, 4 coach train, rammed, standing room only, its that packed were in bloxwich and the sodding conductor hasnt even been round! A joke! Bring back a bus between Cannock & Brum!

[Bob]

And why does it say 16.07 on timetable when the train isnt running til 16.42?? Pile of S***e NEVER USING THIS CRAP SERVICE AGAIN!!!

[Tony]

And why does it say 16.07 on timetable when the train isnt running til 16.42?? Pile of S***e NEVER USING THIS CRAP SERVICE AGAIN!!!

Because it is Christmas week! You may have noticed buses are running to a different timetable as well which is why Centro have produced a 68 page booklet listing all the changes and there are temporary timetables on all the stations. While London Midland have been pretty useless recently you cannot blame them for anything today.

If you were at New Street at 16:07 today you may have noticed platform  1a, 2a, 3a; 4a; 5a; 6a; 8a & 8b all out of use while they put a new bridge in. New Street was struggling to cope with the reduced service and certainly couldn't have had any more trains running.

LM put 4 car trains on every service on the Rugeleys today, the maximum possible, and were running as many trains as possible given the restrictions at New Street. All the late running was down to platform congestion at New Street as well. I caught the 09:55 of Hednesford this morning, on time , but stood outside New Street for 10 minutes waiting a platform, so was late for next trip. I have just come home on the 15:42 which arrived at New Street at 15:42 but couldn't get onto one of the through platforms so was reversed in 4b meaning it was 10 late leaving while crew swopped ends, and then lost a few more minutes because the route via Soho is slower than via Aston

[Tony]

And here is the reason for most of the local chaos today

[Discodave]

dont they do this sort of work through the night or weekends when services are slightly reduceed

[Bob]

£4.80 for a one way back to Cannock that a) i couldnt get a seat on and b) couldve got on for free cos there were no barriers, and once again no conductor. Nobody paid on the trip into bham this morning, and the barriers let us walk through. Can you imagine how much money London Midland lost on a packed to the rafters train. Im sorry Tony its a crap service, sooner we get a Birmingham bus again the better!

[Discodave]

As with the X31 campaign Bob Arriva have had there fingers burnt and tried and failed NXWM are not interested except a couple of am and pm journeys on the X51 do you see any operator trying without a massive subsidy of staffs and centro

[Tony]

£4.80 for a one way back to Cannock that a) i couldnt get a seat on and b) couldve got on for free cos there were no barriers, and once again no conductor. Nobody paid on the trip into bham this morning, and the barriers let us walk through. Can you imagine how much money London Midland lost on a packed to the rafters train. Im sorry Tony its a crap service, sooner we get a Birmingham bus again the better!

Couldn't get a seat ? where would you propose LM put any extra seats? As I said Network Rail said no more trains. It is impossible to run 5 car trains. I too think LM are a crap company, but today was not their fault. As for fare collection they do need more staff selling tickets. There were two on every train this morning, but probably only managed to collect all the fares in two of every 4 coaches that was one of the point I bought up in the interview I did on radio WM referred to above.

Incidently if you would have booked your ticket on the internet before leaving the house and then collected them from the ticket machine at Cannock Station it would have only cost you £3.80 return!

I was on the train in front of you If you stand down the platform instead of milling with the masses you will always get a seat. I was on the train in front of you there were about 200 people standing near the bottom of the stairs. I walked down the far end and had a table to myself while the back coach ended up like a sardine can

[Tony]

I was being...sarcastic! You should try it! Its just a train!

See the smiley on the end of my post? That was because I was being sarcastic, you just don't get it

[Tomjusttom]

Never had guessed! :-)

[Bob]

Its a shame, had it been routed better and promoted more it couldve been a viable alternative, every time i caught it it was either quite busy or full. Lichfield has a quicker train service to brum, yet Arriva still run the 112!

[Ash]

Its a shame, had it been routed better and promoted more it couldve been a viable alternative, every time i caught it it was either quite busy or full. Lichfield has a quicker train service to brum, yet Arriva still run the 112!

Yes but how many people on the 112 travel the whole journey from Lichfield to Birmingham I wouldnt think that many and so would use the train probably, as the quicker alternative, but I agree it's a shame the X31 was withdrawn. It was like my suggestion of a service called the X529 Tony rightly pointed out that not many people travel the whole journey and due to congestion wouldnt be sucessful. Also relating to my point under the Claribels section if centro were to subsidise new services for a trial period we could see more service like the X31 being trialled out and i'm sure some would be successful but alternative funding would have to be found outside the area covered by Centro.

[Bob]

on the X31 quite a few people used to get on in new invention/bentley