written by Feud on 04/11/2015
I'm a frequent commuter on the inappropriately named Trans Pennine Express and other "train services" they offer. TP often cancel services because of "a lack of rolling stock", which is like a pub that doesn't stock up on enough beer to my simple mind -- except you can choose another pub and TP exercise a functional monopoly over the poor saps who are condemned to travel on their "service". Several times I have booked reservations only to find that "their was a technical problem with the carriage" and ended up staring wistfully at the First Class carriage which the trolls who patrol the remaining carriages (laughingly entitled train managers) keep clear, even when one's reserved seat no longer exists. Slow, often overcrowded, frequented by drunken plebs, staffed by people who seem to exist purely to catch people out for having the wrong ticket, TP proves that the golden age of British Rail at its very worst is not dead, but lives on in spirit. Rather like TP's phantom carriages and cancelled services. Oh, and their apologies are automated insincere and all-too-frequently used. In fact, the apologies are the only part of TP's service that are remotely reliable.