Silence

The silence referred to in the title here refers to two things:

1. Silence from me (few blog postings in recent weeks)
2. Silence from train crew when things go wrong

Both are indirectly linked...

On the first 'silence', we've had umpteen problems on the line into Euston over the last few weeks but for various reasons I've avoided coming on here to express frustration.  Why?  Because there seems so little point. 

Through November and into December we've had delay after delay and one or two cancellations.  The late running has normally been within the 3-15 minute range.  Not much, but enough (it's my time, and I'd prefer not to spend it unnecessarily on a London Midland train!)

The causes of these delays and cancellations have been various...  The most frequent has been 'failure of lineside equipment' but we've also had more than our fair share of broken down trains.  The recent cold weather has played it's part as well, the latest issue apparently being door problems caused by ice and grit.

Now for the second 'silence'.  Anyone who follows me on Twitter (@eustoncommuter) will know that whenever a delay occurs to a train that I'm on I post updates.  When the guard keeps us informed I say so.  When we hear nothing from the train crew I also say so (and unfortunately this is all too frequent an occurrence).  London Midland are big users of Twitter (@londonmidland) and they are very keen to know when their staff provide good customer service, and when they do not.

It looks like the London Midland train staff have become aware of what's going on which is good.  I wasn't on my regular train home on Friday but a friend who was tells me that after one announcement (subject to be covered in a separate posting) the guard finished with the words "tweet tweet".  Someone has a sense of humour  :-)