Providing temporary relief to your Thameslink pain.

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. Continue reading →

It appears that the First Capital Connect official Facebook page mentioned in my last post is on a downward spiral (much like its actual train service) towards complete closure.

Visitors to the page since yesterday, 21st July 2010, have been greeted with this message (left):  “First Capital Connect has no more posts.”

This was certainly not the case just 24 hours before, when the page was filled with more than six months’ worth of messages from angry passengers asking – and getting answers to – their questions about FCC’s operations and failings. Continue reading →

First Capital Connect recently published their performance stats for the period running between 30 May to 26 June. Once again, performance on the Thameslink route was unacceptable with just 88.2% of planned train service running less than 5 minutes late at their final destination. 3.2% of planned services (Thameslink + Great Northern routes combined) were also cancelled for part or all of their journey.

FCC also disclose that their target is for 90.32% of planned Thameslink services to run less than 5 minutes late at their final destination. Therefore, in the May – June period FCC underperformed even by their own standards! Continue reading →

First Capital Connect have taken steps to prevent their passengers posting new Wall comments on their official Facebook “fan” page, and have made other changes to its layout.

The move comes after many negative comments posted on its page since “The Troubles” of late 2009 and early 2010, when the beleaguered train company was running an emergency timetable, citing “Force Majeure” due to drivers refusing to work overtime. The Facebook messages from angry commuters were met with fairly light-touch moderation, and regular – if somewhat “toeing the line” – responses direct from the company’s PR department, who did seem to make an effort to answer some of the more difficult questions.

The staff member (known to regulars as “Miss FCC”) who had been moderating the Facebook page seems to have disappeared, leaving many posts unanswered. Continue reading →

Today the Government responded to the e-petition (one of many) that asked the Government to strip FCC of their franchise.

The response noted that whilst the disruption experienced at the end of 2009 was unacceptable, FCC did not breach their franchise terms, and so the franchise cannot be taken away. The response then goes on to say that FCC have been improving and are recruiting additional drivers to lessen the reliance on drivers volunteering to work overtime and rest days

Given the severity of the disruption we feel this response is particularly weak. What is your view? Leave a comment.

The full statement can be read here.

Dear IhateThameslink readers,

You may have noticed that I haven’t posted for a little white – this is because I have moved, and only take the Thameslink occasionally. I now have to put up with the northern line.

It would be great to keep the blog updated, and so if you would like to contribute, either with Admin access to the site, or just send through a short blog entry to me now and then it would be great!

Please email admin@ihatethameslink.co.uk if you are interested!

Cheers.

First Capital Connect have published their Thameslink service statistics for the Jan/Feb period.

Following the abysmal service experienced over the Dec/Jan period (when only 62.8% of trains reached their final destination less than five minutes late) First capital Connect continue to disappoint with only 76.8% of training running ‘on time’ in Jan/Feb.

It was also revealed that 8.3% of trains were cancelled for part or all of their journey across the whole FCC network. I Hate Thameslink has previously pointed out that FCC do not reveal how many cancellations occurred on the Thameslink route alone which we feel they should.

IHateThameslink has got its grubby little hands on a leaked internal First Capital Connect document that outlines the full terms of the Compensation FCC are offering commuters. We cannot reveal our source, as unfortunately the email self destructed within 10 seconds – weird.

Anywho, you can read the whole document by downloading it here, but we have also summarised the main points below. Continue reading →

It has been reported by The Times that FCC will extend its compensation package to season ticket holders to 5 per cent of the value of a season ticket or ten free days of travel. This is an increase from the 5 days of travel previously announced by FCC directors. Analysts expect the compensation package, which is on top of the normal ‘Delay Repay’ compensation to cost FirstGroup about £1 million. Continue reading →

First Capital Connect recently revealed their results for ‘period 10′ which covers 13th December 2009 to 9th January 2010. The FCC press release reveals that in this period just 62.8% of trains ran with less than a five minute delay on the Thameslink route and Continue reading →