I understand, appreciate and actually support the striking train drivers on East Midlands Trains. However the customer services, urgent emails and website information is not helping me with my travelling anxieties.
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| East Midlands Parkway |
The train they have booked me on does not seem to exist anymore so I cannot determine if I will be travelling the Nottingham to Manchester leg of the journey by train or bus. I actually don't care which it is as long as I get to Glasgow. But they have raised my anxiety by sending me an URGENT ATTENTION email in red asking me to find out more.
I have phoned them only to be told I can find out at the station on the day whether it is bus or train. Well that is no help at all - I already know that. I was on hold for more than 5 min on a premium rate phoneline to be told that!
Oh and the best bit they offered to let me travel on a different day on their trains. However the rest of the journey, which isn't on East Mids trains, I cannot change the day! ha ha ha ha Is it me or does this not make sense at all?
The result:
- I know less than I did before I was made aware of the strike
- My phone bill will be higher
- I am slightly annoyed
Update:
Have just worked out it is 5 hours in the car (6 hours on train).
I have to change trains 4 times on the way up and 3 times on the way back.
It is 285 miles - so petrol would only cost about £10 more than the cheap train ticket I managed to get.
Guess what?
Next time I am driving up. I wont have to worrying about how much kit I'm taking. I can visit cousins on the way. I can be in charge of it all.
I got swayed by the romance of train travel only to find out it is no better than one of the sheep you see crammed into a trailer on their way to a slaughter house - but let's hope I don't get pissed on - rain is fine, there's going to be plenty of that.
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