Entries Tagged 'First Capital Connect and Thameslink News' ↓

Mary Grant has confirmed that Thameslink commuters will receive five free return tickets. FCC spokesman Gavin Beazant also said: “We will be offering passengers these tickets from mid-January. It means they can use them for a week’s free travel or to take four friends out.

It is still not clear how these free tickets will be issued, and how customers will be able to claim them. Stay tuned in to I hate thameslink for more info.

In other news, our friends over at Penalty Fare Appeal have been sent this shocking video of a FCC driver with the door to the Continue reading →

It appears that FCC have hit an all time low by providing an abysmal level of service today on the Thameslink route. I was lucky enough to take today off as annual leave, but have been able to monitor the chaos via twitter. It appears FCC have not only delayed customers for (literally) hours but have endangered lives.

It looks like a train broke down which caused unimaginable chaos. This combined with the bad weather and the ongoing dispute with drivers was just just too much for FCC to cope with.

A selection of tweets are posted below. Shocking. Continue reading →

According to penaltyfareappeal.co.uk and a chap on twitter who ‘knows a man who knows a man’ it looks like Thameslink season ticket holders are to get 5 free days travel. More details can be found on the penalty fare appeal website here. FCC have seen a backlash from customers who feel the current ‘delay repay’ system is inadequate , especially during the recent debarcle with the drivers refusing to work overtime and it looks like FCC have decided to ‘get customers back on side’ by giving us 5 days free travel. Continue reading →

First Capital Connect announced the following on Thursday 10th December;

ASLEF has withdrawn the ballot for industrial action.
The union has considered our revised pay offer and agreed to recommend it for acceptance to members. The offer is spread over two years and includes productivity based increases. We are working jointly with Aslef to encourage our drivers to resume rest day and overtime working, our aim being to provide a full, normal service to our customers as quickly as possible.

Despite this, the reduced timetable is stil in operation. Leaflets were distributed at thameslink stations this morning that state;

Fewer than the anticipated number of drivers have put themselves down to be rostered next week given that they only learned on Tuesday night of the ASLEF decision.

Another poor excuse, and being the betting man I am, I would put m Continue reading →

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

'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!

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.

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.

Continue reading →

The Department for Transport recently requested under the Freedom of Information Act statistics on the 10 most overcrowded train lines/journeys in 2008. And guess what – FCC came out top!

They also had another two services in the top 10!

The three FCC service in the top 10 are as follows:

• Claiming the prestigious number 1 most overcrowded service is the 17.45 First Capital Connect service to King’s Lynn which had 352 passengers in excess of its capacity of 494. Continue reading →