Providing temporary relief to your Thameslink pain.

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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I’ve just realised why Twitter is great.

On the right hand side of this blog is an RSS feed that will pick up any Tweets that contain the word ‘thameslink’ or the term ‘first capital connect’. They are all quite funny, and (as you would expect) are mostly complaints about how bad the service is.

So when you are waiting for your delayed train, and have nothing better to do, why not use your mobile to tweet about thameslink and it will be picked up on this site for all to see.

One love, one hate.

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Im back, and Thameslink is as bad as ever.

Iv’e recently been contacted by a fellow Thameslink sufferer – ‘absinthedude’ who has posted the following clips on Youtube demonstrating how awful the service is….

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7i-Tt5ZygU
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w5EuPgVt80
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQUkWpMM5FY&feature=related
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJl0RZiM91k&feature=related
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVMsTJ561jg&feature=related

Absinthedude has also been bombarding Thameslink with letters such as the one below;

Continue reading →

No surprise really.

I had a good chat with the geezer on the platform at City Thameslink today as I wondered how I could get home considering the 17:34 Luton train was cancelled. I told him how this morning the 08:28 to Wimbledon was also cancelled! He sympathised with me, and said I should fill out a complaint form – and that so many people are asking for them now they have nearly run out!

So if you are p*issed off, get a form while you can or complain online and do your worst! Alternatively you can help promote IhateThameslink. Post a link online, in a forum, on your website, anywhere! Lets get this site on the first google page when people search for Thameslink – that will embarrass the First Capital Connect management!!

Barak Obama. The first black president of America. It will go down in history, and he  has changed the world. However I can’t say I am a big supporter of  his foreign policy. I have heard no mention to tackle such important international issues as our Thameslink. He needs to get his priorities sorted out….

On a more serious, and positive note, the service wasn’t so bad this week. Only the usual delays to deal with. The only annoying thing now is all these people giving out more free teabags. They are harder to dodge than London Lite giver-outers!

Happy weekend

Did anyone travel on the Thameslink on Thursday? To promote the Thameslink Upgrade Programme they were giving away flyers with a free tea bag. Are they having a laugh! If they were giving away an actual cup of tea, I could at least keep warm with a hot drink whilst waiting for my delayed train’. But no, just a teabag….great, thanks.

The green screen

I don’t even see what relevance a teabag has with the Thameslink upgrade programme anyway? Who the hell does their marketing? Well here is some marketing – a very familiar sight for everyone I’m sure – ‘the green screen’ – taken at Farringdon  at about 8.30am. Everything delayed, and one cancellation.

Could do with a cup of tea after all of that….

Lots – and because it snowed last night, IhateThameslink will get a record number of hits over the next few days!* Why you ask? Well, because, as any thameslink sufferer knows, when the weather changes, the trains go up the spout, and I’m hoping fellow sufferers will join me on this page!

Yes it did snow last night, and it was bloomin cold today, and whether caused by the weather or just a coincidence, the Luton service today at 5.34pm from City Thameslink was cancelled. The next train, usually a fast one to Bedford was therefore made to stop at all stations. It was Ramadama! I don’t think many people got on the train after kings Cross, but to be honest I couldn’t see through all the people what was going on.

But no worry – ‘First Capital Connect are sorry for any inconvenience caused’. I am so sick of hearing that announcement I cant express it in words.

And I though Thameslink was meant to be improving! We’ve got the inevitable disaster of a Thameslink upgrade programme to look forward towhich will see us through to 2015 – I cant wait.

Please, if you hate Thameslink as much as I do, spread the word, link to Ihatethameslink, or leave a comment below.

In the words of Russell Brand, I bid you a Hare Krishna.

*It probably wont, but who knows.

Looks like the weather is turning… not only does this mean I will most probably get a cold in the next few days but the First Capital Connect service will deteriorate – dramatically.

The 06.52am from Cricklewood arrived at about 06.58am today (only a few mins late, not bad) but on approaching Kentish Town the train just decided to stop…dead. The lights turned out, and we were informed that the overhead power lines had failed. We miraculously regained power for a while and were able to stop at Kentish Town. A further announcement saw mass exodus from the train as the driver informed us he had no idea when we would be moving again.

I decided to wait it out, and we were on the move again within 10 mins, but the whole journey saw me 30 mins late for work. Were you on this train? Suffered similarly? Leave a comment below….

NB In response the the geezer who left the comment below…yes the network is FCC but the London section is commonly referred to as Thameslink, as are many of the stations…..Plonker.