Not bad at all!

TfL and its partners in crime South West Trains are making an effort in the New Year, I have to give them that.  I'm not sure how long they can carry on with what I assume must be their Resolutions, but last night the tube ran on time and the train was only one minute late.  This morning, the train arrived two minutes early, while the tube was two minutes late, owing to being held at a red signal.

That's a total of just one minute's delay for £2.50.

Tube Bingo card coming later this week.

In news today, I'm glad I didn't have to use the Central Line last night (or ever): big congestion at Oxford Circus as the stations falls apart.  I'm also glad I rarely use the buses anymore, since 'eco-upgrades' planned by TfL are likely to cause major havoc for months, I strongly suspect.

A new beginning

I moved house last week, and accordingly my travel situation has changed.  I now take South West Trains from Hersham to Waterloo, and then the usual Bakerloo Line to Edgware Road.

And it was a promising start this morning: 'just' one minute's delay on the train and a further minute on the Bakerloo Line.  Total of two minutes and £5.  (Please note, the train goes into TfL's network, so I'm adding delays on this line to their charges - only, however, if the delay accrues after I have departed Surbiton, a stop on the way (or, on the reverse journey, before Surbiton), since delays before (after) then are not within zones 1-6.  That's being fair, see?  Clear?  Tough!

When is a delay not a delay?

Quite an adventure this morning: traffic problems made me miss my original train from Hampton Court, so I had to wait half an hour for another.  In the absence of any advice to the contrary from my previous post, I'm going to continue not charging for this form of delay.

However, I am going to charge for the three minutes' delay arriving in Waterloo on the train I did take, which was due to being held at a red signal outside Vauxhall because of overcrowding.

I'm also going to charge for the reasons behind this, which were chaos caused by the suspension of the Victoria Line (irrelevant to me) and an earlier signal failure on the Bakerloo Line (which I needed to take), the latter causing a further minute of delay.  I suspect that these delays worked in my favour, because given TfL was advertising 'severe' delays on the Bakerloo Line this morning, I think the 09:37 I caught was probably a very delayed earlier tube - and it's only my final delay that counts.  You lucked out, TfL!

Or did it?  I make this three new strikes for this week's Tube Bingo card: overcrowding, red signal, and signal failure, to be added to yesterday's sitting in a tunnel for no reason.  My card for the week is below, and I'll add another 4 minutes and £10 to the tally.

Finally, I note at Hampton Court station, South West Trains has removed its poster asking you to vote for their employees in National Customer Service Week.  Do we think this is:

1. Because of reading my earlier post?
2. Because they realised the absurdity of the proposition?
3. Because they decided they were too cheap after all to offer those first class tickets?
4. Because they'd already received so much abuse from passengers instead of nominations?

UPDATE: total of five minutes' delay on the way home.  No reasons given.  £12.50.

I'll pay you to be my friend!

Imagine my surprise this morning on seeing a hastily put-up poster at Hampton Court Station advertising that 1-7th October is National Customer Service week, and asking me to nominate someone from South West Trains as my champion of customer service.  (I was in a rush, so didn't have time to grab a picture of this, but will try do so on my way home tonight, likely only slightly hampered by the drinks I'm intending to have with a friend after work.)

South West Trains advises me that

"During this time we want to give you the opportunity to nominate a member of South West Trains staff, who you believe gives you exceptional customer service and makes a difference to you and your journey."

Quite an opportunity indeed.  But in a move perhaps signalling how little recognition their employees are likely to get (not necessarily thanks to them, but thanks to the general ineptitude of their employer), South West Trains has indicated it is prepared to pay for your votes with some rather poor bribery:

"All passengers who send nominations will enter a prize draw. There are 5 pairs of 1st Class tickets available to be won."

So, as well as the opportunity to nominate a South West Trains employee, I also get the opportunity to enter a bog-standard prize draw and receive unwanted corporate communications forever more.  Luck is indeed on my side today.  Still, I'm dubious as to whether even this will be enough, so if you want to enter by writing customerserviceweek@swtrains.co.uk by 12th October, your odds of winning might actually be fairly good.

Never having seen one of these heroic South West Trains customer service representatives (and I'm not being sarcastic there: it must take heroic courage to stand daily in the face of the levels customer ire South West Trains must generate), I am at a bit of a loss as to how I would do this, were I in any way so inclined.  As it happens I'm not: four minute delay on that train's arrival in Waterloo this morning, leading to me taking a later connecting tube, which seemed to run on time, for a total of 5 minutes' delay and £12.50.