I hate Central Trains Services

Guillaume's Travel Journal - November 19th, 2006

I hate Central Trains Services. I also know I'm not the only one. They seem to particularly like to mess with your head and your schedule. If it's not delaying a train and cramming people into it once it does come, it's cancelling a train altogether due to "labour and staff shortages" (something I'm sure they could have foreseen 10 days ago when I bought my ticket based on available schedules). I suppose things could be worst; fellow Canadian Adam Gaya almost missed Friday's sessions due to two consecutive cancellations, with the tardy replacement eventually breaking down en route. Needless to say, I think he hates Central Trains Services too.

So here I am, having otherwise thoroughly enjoyed my Cambridge weekend (minus a recurring acute muscular pain in my right foot that forced me to limp a bit at times). It's currently 2:34 pm on this Cambridge train station platform, and I'm stuck here. And it's all Central Trains fault that I have nothing to do for the next hour except wait on a cold metal bench whilst venting into my debate notebook with my fine, music printing-and-editing pen.

Have I mentioned I hate Central Train Services?

I really should have followed Steven's advice about going via London. I thought it would cause undue complications to travel via the big city (Toronto Pearson, anyone?) but then again, having four trains every hour to London versus one every four hours might hold distinct advantages, like warm seats with a train company other than Central Trains Services.

I feel deep-rooted passionate hatred for Central Trains Services.

I suppose I should focus on the positive. I had a fantastic time in Cambridge. My friend Anastasia, a former debate partner and currently a Cambridge University MPhil student, hosted a small yet refreshing dinner party on Friday night. Sure, I might have walked an hour through the pouring rain to get there (do NOT trust Chris Jones to be your tour guide), but it was good to get a feel for Cambridge that way anyway.

At least it's not raining now, not that this could extinguish my fiery hatred for Central Trains Services anyway.

Debating was generally okay. We rightfully took a fourth in round 1, were wrongfully cheated out of a first in round 2, agreed with the second in round 3, somewhat questioned the third in round 4 (as did everyone else aside from the judges in that room), and were dubiously awarded a first in the final open round.

Well, isn't this fantastic, now the 15:48 to Birmingham has been cancelled as well, with a replacement coming along at 16:24. That means another 1h26 to wait around on this platform, also due to labour shortages. You know, it's funny, ONE Trainlines has four customer service attendants on this platform to eal with anything that could come up for them, but Central Trains Services can't even find enough people to staff a train, let alone a platform at a popular station. More people are willing to stand on platforms all day long rather than serve onboard CTS trains. Somehow I'm not surprised by that either.

Oh, well this is interesting, apparently Central Trains Services have found the staff requiered for a 15:48 run to Birmingham, with the 16:24 now being cancelled. What a bunch of unorganized panzees.

One good thing that happened to me today was lunch at the Curry Garden. I had some nicely spiced Chicken Jalfreza, and it was awesome. Some of the rice was coloured fluorescent green pink, orange and/or purple. It was cool, I liked it. That meal was supposed to keep me full till I got to Lancaster. I rate the chances of that happening to be a lot lower now; who knows how long I'll be in Birmingham waiting for a Lancaster-bound train (if I ever get to Birmingham in the first place, that is).

I really, really hate Central Trains Services. I'm starting to think I might better spend my time writing a fiery letter of complaint to the company, but then again, they probably wouldn't (A) have someone employed to read and deal with such letters and (B) care.

One thing I was able to accomplish today was working on my composition. I did so from a sunny bench alongside the King's College grounds. The work is shaping up really well and -

Okay, that's it, I'm cold. It's going to be sunset by the time I board the train, might as well go warm up with a hot drink now.

I hate Central Trains Services.

***

So Now I'm sitting in Preston, about 20km south of Lancaster. It's 9:54pm (a bit more than 6 hours later), and I'm waiting for the last train out to Lancaster. I wasn't supposed to have a stopover here, but with Central Trains Services messing up my schedule in Birmingham, this is the closest I could get to Lancaster without going via Plymouth or Edinburgh. I barely made it too, as the train I vacated in Birmingham arrived about 5 minutes before the train that took me here to Preston was leaving (Virgin Train Company, thank God almighty!). Any later, and Central Trains Services would have been directly responsible for me having to wait out the night in Birmingham, which could have again significantly increased my " mild displeasure" with them.

I hate Central Trains Services.

The Central Trains Services ride itself was an embarassment to the company - for a service that advertises itself as professional and reliable, it was neither. Reliability I've already commented on. As for professional, during the entire 3-hour ride over to Birmingham, the two-car train was crammed fuller than a 7:40 Montreal metro subway car. They even kicked off some passengers at some point further down the line for them to wait for the next train to Peterborough to make room for people going beyond that point. Some guy, without a seat, found it more convenient to occupy the washroom for the entire duration of his journey than to stand. You know things are out of hand when a petition is circulated within the train itself on the journey, a petition that nobody hesitated to sign. The ride made me think of what Roman describes as bus service in The Gambia: an overcrammed van going from stop to stop. If I don't find this acceptable for public standards in Western Africa, I'm certainly not going to condone it in central England.

I hate Central Trains Services.

So it's going to be 10:30pm when I arrive in Lancs, an hour and a half later than expected; not quite too bad given the ordeals I've gone through, or what I very well could have gone through. I'm going write Central Trains Services a letter, see if they dignify a response.

I hate Central Trains Services.