Being First CC

It must be a difficult thing, running First Capital Connect. All that having to run trains on time, ensuring they have running water in the toilets (how often all of First Group’s trains either have a working toilet or working tap, rarely both; try it!), making sure the trains don’t smell of the smelliest UK bloke of the year on his way to the smelliest man in the World contest wearing his oldest and smelliest pair of y-fronts.

Like many of you out there, I’m a regular user of Sir Moir Blockhead’s outstandingly poor service – surely the worst in the country – certainly London, and although you’ve got to have a degree of admiration for a man who built up a business off the back of the rash of privatisations in the 1980′s (for that read knock-down sale of Grampian Regional Transport), the fact he and his company are still permitted to operate the Thameslink route is something of a disgrace made of eight carriages (though very often four, when they’re struggling to run their trains on time). I heard not long back that Transport for London wanted the route. All I can say is shitsticks Well, at least muse about what have been.

Tonight’s journey home was as usual an unnecessary botch up from First CC. Eight coach train reduced to four, one door failing to open (you think they’d at least check the doors work before sending the train out), six minutes late – heck that’s almost on-time for them!

On top of that, of course, we’re stuck with crappy old trains for the time being (note the blame being levelled by the esteemed CEO of First Group in effect on the Government – which means our money, natch; just shows how twisted the system is when the article I linked to contains news this May of passenger-revenue growth for First Group). Except even the new ones on the Brighton line have the Southern livery. I wonder whose fault that was?!

Anyway, the picture looks bleak, but then when did it ever look particularly bright on our most neglected of rail services? When one of the simplest ways to communicate delays and cancellations – the First CC Twitter feed – barely has any news on it, going the same way seemingly of their useless Facebook page, how do you expect the useless beggars who actually oversee the system (don’t blame the staff; I often feel sorry for them) to do something complicated like run trains?

So I’ll be blogging from time-to-time when the trains break down, First CC manages to cock something up, or perhaps if one of their PR team threatens this site with legal action or if something comes up on this site that’s worth a gripe. I can also be found on Twitter myself (favourite subjects: trains, social media, politics), so if you like the sound of that, pay a visit.

Until next time, goodbye, and good luck, and see you on the 08:54 from Streatham.

Smev