Mutiny

September 3, 2009

A member of platform staff takes matters into his own hands and, as a result, wins the respect and admiration of a mob of harassed commuters.

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Delays, delays and delays

September 2, 2009

Another couple of bad journeys yesterday. A delay in the morning getting my train into London late and then, in the evening, equipment problems, which meant the next Chelmsford train leaving Liverpool Street wouldn’t be for 25 minutes.

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Breakdown at Ilford

August 25, 2009

A particularly crappy journey home last night. A very slow roll-out from London and then, as we got to Ilford, full stop as the driver rebooted the train. Whatever was wrong – something about the safety systems, apparently – she said she couldn’t fix it, so after 15 minutes or so we were turfed off.

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Irony

August 19, 2009

Well there’s irony. This morning’s train arrives 15 minutes late and they still have the tenacity to ask that you close the windows and doors to assist staff in the ’safe and punctual’ departure of your train.

Punctual.

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Strikes

August 18, 2009

It hasn’t (or has) been a good few weeks to be a commuter, depending on your point of view. If you absolutely positively have to get to London then living on our line was a bit of a bummer, as the unions went out on strike for three consecutive Thursdays and two consecutive Fridays.

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Norfolk crossings

July 13, 2009

It’s Monday, so of course the trains were delayed this morning. This time around it was problems with a level crossing in Norfolk that caused the 09h02 to be 21 minutes late leaving Chelmsford.

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France vs the UK

July 7, 2009

We’re just back from France, where we took a TGV down to Provence and back. It’s reinforced for us just how much better the trains seem to be abroad.

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And coming home…

June 17, 2009

After Monday morning’s crappy journey in, the journey back home was doubly shitty. Bad weather, it seems, stops trains from running on time in this country, and we crawled all the way back after lightning strikes caused problems somewhere around Ilford. Why that should affect the journey right back to Shenfield, though, I don’t know.
Poor [...]

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Trespassers on the track

June 15, 2009

A hopeless journey in this morning. Took the 09h02, and sat going nowhere just after Stratford while we waited for line congestion to clear ahead of us.

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Tube strike

June 11, 2009

Tube strike: it can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you want to look at it.

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