It's not getting any better

Back to work on Tuesday, I shouldn't have bothered, the service was diabolical.

Morning: On the 0812 from Braintree (late), it arrived even later at Stratford, half-an-hour to be precise. Claim submitted,

Evening: 1820 from Stratford and what's this? I actually made the connection at Witham. Will wonders never cease?

Wednesday

Morning: On the 0812, it actually departed on time. First time for everything I suppose. We were back to normal at Stratford though, arriving 10 minutes late.

Evening: Back to normality, caught the 1806 to Ipswich (10 minutes late).

Now this train doesn't stop at Chelmsford so there were plenty of seats available.

The 1820 (late), on the other hand, has become a total catastrophe. What NXEA have managed to do with it is reduce (or as they would have us believe, "improve") what used to be 2 trains consisting of a total of 20 carriages both of which stopped at Chelmsford into a single twelve carriage train.

As a result this train is now grossly overcrowded daily, the only upside is that it empties out at Chelmsford. Not much consolation if you're travelling from Stratford. This change in particular is an abject failure and needs to be fixed and quickly.

The 1820 Clacton train ran 18 minutes late and the connection at Witham was held for it.

To top it all off, as a sample of the incompetence we're subjected to daily, I received the following email from NXEA on the way home, You just couldn't make this up:

Dear Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxxx,

Disruption has been reported to services between your selected stations Stratford to Braintree.

- General disruption along the line caused by a problem currently under investigation [my emphasis] may lead to cancellations or delays to the 19:09.

(It should be noted that this service is provided to indicate general disruption along the route as well as delays and alterations specific to services that are planned to operate during the times that you have selected. Problems occurring immediately before despatch of this email may not yet have been reported to the system and whilst the best possible prediction is made relating to future delays and alterations, these may change due to unforeseen circumstances. There may also have been short notice changes to the planned train services which have not been notified to the system and therefore this alerting service must NOT be used as a journey planner to indicate the train service between any two points.)

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Don't forget, your new December 2010 timetable is available from http://www.nationalexpresseastanglia.com/december_timetable_changes