It's always a worrying time when the train timetables change and I find out whether my commute is going to get better or worse. First Capital Connect have been promising a lot since they bought the franchise into London (I commute from St Albans to Kentish Town) but delivering little from my point of view. Today new timetables came into effect and I longed to see those "more trains", "longer trains", "disco carriage in every train" promises fulfilled. Actually I made up one of those. Actually I'd might as well have made up all of them.
My main two morning trains (I don't always get the same one) are much the same, except one is now four cars instead of eight. The reason I went for these trains in the first place was that they were eight car so I'd get to London without being crushed. Oh well.
My evening trains appear unchanged. Between 1802 and 1914 there are still no eight car trains. So I either have to leave work before six or after seven unless I want to fight for standing space.
I find it insulting that they joke about twelve car trains whilst reducing existing eight car services to four. I will find it doubly insulting in the new year when the fares leap up by inflation busting amounts same as they have each and every year before (usually 6-9%). I can only dream of the day when the whole fleet is replaced by trains with four seats across rather than five, bringing them blinking into the light of civilised society enjoyed by most of the rest of the country.
