Providing temporary relief to your Thameslink pain.

Below are the FAQ taken from the FCC website, which I thought you all might find of some interest. I have also added my comments and thoughts in red.

Thameslink passengers have faced an awful week of travel as FCC drivers exercise their right not to work overtime. This is not an official strike, however it is claimed that unions will soon go to ballot for strike action.  FCC have introduced a revised timetable which can be downloaded here (PDF) but passengers faced major disruptions to their journeys. If you were affected by the recent staff shortages, I urge you yo claim compensation from FCC. Its really quick and easy, and if you have an oyster card, just put your oyster number instead of ticket number. Click here to claim compensation now. FCC have also stated that delays will be calculated based on the old timetable, not the revised one.

More delays due to lack of drivers

'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 →

FCC announced yesterday that Thameslink route customers can expect more reliable trains now that they have restarted a traction control reliability programme for its 20-year-old class 319 trains.

As per usual, FCC are quick to find blame elsewhere, and claim that the “late arrival of newly-built Electrostar trains, being introduced as part of the Thameslink Programme, had forced FCC to put the work on hold but enough are now in service on the Brighton to Bedford route for it to resume.”
> Continue reading →

Tweet tweet.

If you have any ideas to help promote the website further or would like to get involved please post a comment and let me know.

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Evening.

First Capital Connect have launched a new Twitter service where you can receive custom messages about your specific journey.

Here’s how it works – from the FCC website;

Send our Twitter account, FirstCC, a direct message listing your stations and times. The direct message should look something like this (using commas to separate stations and times, and stating times in 24-hour format):

kings cross, cambridge, 0800, 1800

We’ll receive your stations and times and store them in our database. Then, when major incidents occur on your route within an hour either side of your times, you’ll receive a direct message sent to your Twitter account straight away.

Continue reading →

When setting up this blog, one of my objectives was to make this blog appear on the first page of google when the word ‘thameslink’ was searched for. I think this would really piss off First Capital Connect, especially if it appeared before their website!

Currently – this blog appears on the 3rd page – the 28th search result.

So – in order to improve this I need your help! Please, if you can, link to this website on any blog, website, forum etc like this –> thameslink and I will update you all in a few weeks to see if we have moved up at all!

One love, one hate.

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