Left hand - right hand?

In an earlier post I promised to post my second email to NXEA complaining about them letting connecting services piss off into the sunset leaving the poor sods wanting to catch those connections high and dry together with their reply.

This is my email:

Dear Mr Xxxxxxx,

  Thank you for your reply. I have read it carefully, and to be honest it raises more questions than it answers. In particular:

• Why was the Braintree train diverted onto the electric lines in the first place?
• Who made that decision and was any consideration at all given to the passengers that decision was likely to adversely affect?
• Why was the earlier Ipswich service not diverted onto the electric lines? It was well ahead of the Braintree train.
• If the Braintree train was scheduled to stop at Stratford would it have still been diverted and allowed to overtake the Ipswich service?
• Why was the Braintree service not held at Witham to await the Ipswich train which arrived no more than 2 minutes after the Braintree one departed?
• If it was obvious that passengers for Braintree arriving at Witham on both the scheduled connecting Clacton service and the nominally earlier Ipswich service, why were no buses  arranged as they had on previous occasions?
• Could you also please clarify the term "electric lines"?

I look forward to receiving your answers in due course.

Yours Sincerely,



And for what it's worth here's their reply:

Dear Mr Xxxxxxxxxx,

Thank you for your email and I'm sorry that you were unhappy with my

response.

I have asked the Control Manager for his further comments.

Where there was the ability to move trains onto tracks to let them proceed

we did. This would not have been the case for all trains as crossing points

from one set of tracks to another are not always going to be available.

There will have been services where there were no set of crossing points to

allow transfer to another set of tracks. As I'm sure you fully appreciate,

it's not like changing lanes in a car where you can do it at pretty much

any point. The decisions that were made were done so on the unique set of

circumstances that that disruption raised - insofar that each disruption is

unique with regards to the type and location of disruption, the time of day

and other such factors.

Where we were able and where it was safe to do so we moved trains onto

tracks so they could bypass the affected area. There were trains where this

was not possible. Sorry you are unhappy but this is what happened to your

service that evening.

Once again, thank you for contacting me.

Yours sincerely,

Customer Relations Advisor

National Express 

 

So basically they've told me to suck it up. Roll on February when we finally see the back of NXEA and their arrogant incompetence. 

 

  

Once bitten twice shy?

Following the balls-up on 23 March I wrote to NXEA complaining about them allowing the connection at Witham to leave without waiting.

I posted their reply here.

They've now written again and this is what they say:

Dear Mr Xxxxxxxxxxxxx,

Thank you for your email.

I apologise for the delay to the 18:06 from Stratford that evening. I have
asked the Manager of our Control Centre to investigate your comments. Owing
to the disruption on the down mainline, caused by a Network Rail emergency
speed restriction at Forest Gate, services were queuing. Where it was
possible and safe to do so trains were diverted onto the electric lines,
the Braintree service being one of these. It would not have been possible
to divert all of the trains on to the electric lines and this did mean that
some services overtook others.

Once again, I apologise for the delay to your service that evening and
thank you for contacting us.

Yours sincerely,


Customer Relations Advisor
National Express

OK fair enough, but no-one appears to have even had a single passing thought for the passengers being f*cked up when their connecting trains were diverted onto the "electric lines" whatever they are; all of NXEAs lines have overhead power so they're all "electric lines".

I have one or two more questions for them yet.

But it appears they may have learned something because the self same thing happened again tonight, Network Rail put in another bloody silly speed restriction and once again all the trains were backing up at Stratford. Yet again I got the 1806 Ipswich train, somewhat earlier than last time which probably made a difference, because the Braintree train, despite having again been allowed to overtake the earlier Ipswich train was still at Witham unlike last time.

Moreover, unlike last time it was also held to await the scheduled connecting Clacton service. This was also earlier than last time but was still almost 15 minutes late at Witham.

I'll post my questions and any reply from NXEA when I get round to it.

Does the left hand actually know what the right hand is doing?

I wrote earlier about a classic NXEA balls-up on 23 March; NXEA have replied and their reply makes interesting reading:

Dear Mr Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,

Thank you for contacting National Express East Anglia. We have received

your email dated 23/Mar/2011 and we aim to get back to you as soon as we

can. Our target is to answer 90% of our contacts within 6 working days.

I have asked for your comments to be investigated. I will be in touch again

once the investigation is complete...

Yours sincerely,

Customer Relations Advisor

National Express

Why do my comments need investigation? Did something occur that shouldn't have happened? Curious.

My cynical side can't help wondering whether they're actually investigating the passenger reaction at Witham.

More when I have it