Railway Complaint

I've been missing from the Blogosphere for some time due to all sorts of work and personal commitments.

I'm back though to post the text of customer feedback I've sent today to London Midland, concerning a train journey today. Their service (and especially their station staff) are actually pretty good, certainly when compared to their predecessors, Central Trains. Indeed, even what happened today wasn't the biggest catastrophe in transport history.

What managed to get my goat was that they did exactly the same thing last time I had a day out with them and it's starting to make me think it's a regular occurrence about which they don't care. Last time the reply took weeks. I'll keep you posted this time.


Dear Sir,

I took a trip from Sandwell & Dudley today, taking advantage of the Great Escape Offer. I think this is a super idea and had a lovely day out to Liverpool last time you offered it…….marred only by my train unexpectedly missing out Sandwell & Dudley Station on the return leg, with poor ( = virtually non existent) passenger information “given” when that happened.

I wrote to tell you about this then and – after a l-o-n-g delay received a very anodyne reply blaming Network Rail.

Well, I thought naively to myself, these things happen and a train trip can be a very pleasant way of making a journey. So today, Shrewsbury it was.

And guess what happened on the return trip (1547 from Shrewsbury)? Just as we approached Wolverhampton, the guard announced that the train would be proceeding straight to Birmingham and not stopping at Sandwell & Dudley. No advice of what to do, not apology, no concern, just a statement of fact.

This time, I quickly gathered my things together and left the train, managing to find a local train to complete my journey. (Wolverhampton station is curiously devoid of staff but I suppose you’ll tell me that “that’s down to Virgin”.)

Net result? A 40 minute delay to a journey that should only have taken an hour.

I know things go wrong (I heard on the connecting train that there had been vandalism to the signalling system “again”; can’t the railway guard its property in “known trouble spots"?)

As I said last time, whole sections of society, such as the majority of my social circle, simply never use trains because they don’t provide the sort of caring service people are used to today in the world of Waitrose, John Lewis, Lakeland or the hotel trade. I was on a train in Switzerland which caught fire once. Staff moved us onto another train within 10 minutes, our journey was replanned and we arrived on time at our destination. If the railway(s) want more types of people to use their services then they need to behave in a way that shows *care* for customers, not just tell them that what they want ( = need) isn’t happening.

And *don’t* tell me this is Network Rail’s problem. You’re the train operator, you have my money and if you want any more of it you’ll need to show me you actually give a toss.

Looking forward to a sensible, detailed and considered reply. From someone with a clue, please.

Yours faithfully

Ian Jelf

Election Day Thought

Verse III of "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" by Robert Browning seems remarkably relevant.......

At last the people in a body
To the town hall came flocking:
"'Tis clear," cried they, "our mayor's a noddy;
And as for our corporation—shocking
To think we buy gowns lined with ermine
For dolts that can't or won't determine
What's best to rid us of our vermin!
Rouse up, sirs! Give your brains a racking
To find the remedy we're lacking,
Or, sure as fate, we'll send you packing!"
At this the mayor and corporation
Quaked with a mighty consternation.

Shivers Down the Spine

I’ve noticed an unusual trend doing walking tours over the last few weeks.

People seem incredibly susceptible to the cold. Okay, we’re just coming out of winter. Okay, it’s certainly not been balmy. But people seem to literally shiver in temperatures between 4C and 7C; hardly arctic. I make sure I have layers on but in these sort of temperatures don’t even need a scarf or gloves.

I did think that some people just don’t dress for the conditions (and they certainly don’t; fashion seems more important than practicality for many) but one client did suggest that the majority of people now are simply cosseted all day in warm offices and travel by car and simply aren’t used to being outside for long periods.

It’s a worrying trend for me. I have visions of only being able to do walks between June and September.

I’ll have to start wintering in the Southern Hemisphere…….

Michael Foot 1913 -2010

Sad to hear of the demise of Michael Foot, although a full life lived to the age of 96 is no mean achievement. He was a champion of Parliament and was motivated by a desire to make things better for people. I hope I leave one tenth the legacy of having "done something" that he did.

However, being committed, passionate, principled and honest is tempered somewhat by being, er, wrong, about so many things. Britain would not have been better served by unilaterally disarming. The British people had no appetite for centralised state control on the scale he espoused. And they are also for the most part not republican in their sympathies.

So he was always on something of a hiding to nothing and the electoral defeat of 1983 certainly involved the use of the word "hiding".

Above all, though, it is difficult to know who provided the biggest boost to Mrs Thatcher's fortunes in the early 1980s: General Galtieri or Michael Foot.

Still Here!

I seem to have been missing from the Blog for ages. Sorry.

The simple reason for this is that I’m bereft of much free time at the moment.

Spring it evidently springing and there’s been a sudden clutch of bookings for new tours and similar work lately. Good. I’ve also been spending quite a bit of time hosting study days (one of the Jelf sidelines!) which means I keep visiting Manchester! (I’m not complaining about that. As I’ve said before it’s actually a rather splendid city and I was able to see some of its new trams the other day.)

I’m also in the final stages now of studying for some exams I’m taking in March and April, so it feels a bit as though it’s the early 1980s again. (Exams, Argentina sabre-rattling in the South Atlantic, terrorist attacks in Northern Ireland and a recession.)

So, before this afternoon’s job (in Birmingham) I suppose I’d better get back to my notes on Cornish Tin Mining mineralogy (as you do)…….