No wonder I hate rail journeys!

knightstyle

Is it just me or does everyone find train travel unnecessarily stressful?
Here is what I have told Cross Country Trains after my journey to Devon and back.
Hi, I recently took your train from Sheffield to Totnes and returned a few days later. The journey down on Monday 13/02 leaving Sheffield at 10.55 was awful, the station boards told us the train would arrive on platform 8 and was about 10 mins late. Then a train arrives and waits BUT this train was going to London! Staff did come along and stop us boarding and we then had to rush to platform 6 to get on the correct train. The train arrived almost full and like most people on the platform I expected the carriages to arrive A, B, C etc. but the first carriage was F so we all ran up and down the platform to find the correct carriage! I then had to ask people to vacate my seat as there were no spare seats and many were standing.
The return journey was much better except for the confusion over carriage numbers. Silly me I thought if the down train started ABC from the back the up train would start ABC from the front but no the first carriage was F again, none of the other carriages had external indication of their numbers, the panels were blanked off. So I wanted D which should be two away from F but when I got on I found I was in C because you number F, D, C, B, A. No E!!!!!!!
Do you do all this to deliberately confuse us?
On the continent we can look at the platform and see exactly where the correct door on the train will stop! This makes the whole journey much less stressful.
I am not looking for compensation or anything just want you to put yourselves in the travellers position and make things easier for us.

lammy82

Sounds like a lot of fuss over not very much, to be honest! I don't see what was awful about your journey, the trains do get busy sometimes but it sounds like you got your seats.

Sheffield station is managed by East Midlands trains not Crosscountry so complaints about the display boards should be addressed to them.

Trains can arrive in either order - sometimes the screens indicate what order the train will be in (although sometimes this is incorrect). The number of carriages can vary too, but on CrossCountry Voyager and HSTs, A is always first class and F is always the carriage with a wheelchair space. The coach letters should be displayed on the doors though.

Having the trains line up to a particular spot on the platform only works when you have a consistent set of trains and know which platforms they'll be used at, which isn't usually the case for UK train operators.

Some people find these things stressful I suppose but as a regular user of CrossCountry trains I wouldn't find the things you mention particularly terrible.

knightstyle

Sorry but these things should not happen, try lugging a suitcase and hand luggage through a carriage overfull with people standing with their luggage all through the train! All this because Cross Country Trains cannot label carriages and send trains out with FDCBA, who misses the letter E from a sequence unless they WANT to confuse us?
The refreshments trolley was cancelled and my tickets were never checked as the staff wouldn't disturb people sitting in the isles. Even the toilets were full of passengers looking for a place to rest! Oh and it was very hot, 24degrees in my seat, hotter in the corridors, but they couldn't run the A/c as it is winter!!!!

knightstyle

Just to add I had 4 separate seats allocated for this journey so I should have moved several times but I didn't as no-one could get near to claim the seat I was first allocated.
If train travel is so good why do some platforms have NO waiting rooms and NO seats. i had to stand at Sheffield 3B along with the rest of the cattle waiting for our local train after leaving the one from Totnes!

Bogalot

I'm with lammy82, it is like you were looking for things to moan about. Platform changes happen, not the end of the world. You found the seat you paid for and you got to your destination in good time. The other stuff is just fluff.

I've just seen post #4, you're really scraping the barrel now. Unless you have mobility problems I'm sure standing for a short while was no hardship. If you did have mobility problems then you could have booked assistance and a staff member would have ensured you were accommodated for while waiting.

WestonDave

Some background.

The issue with carriage lettering is complicated. Certain carriage letters are associated with specific characteristics - so on X Country F is the quiet carriage, A is first class, D has less space. (No idea where E disappears to but I think this is where an extra standard class carriage is added into a normal 5 coach unit - because this is added in the middle it can't be coach F with a normal quiet carriage being E otherwise it would be just as confusing!)). So even though on these units the carriage lettering is electronic display based, you can't just shuffle the order so A comes first - A has to be where ever the first class carriage is.

As to why a train that goes south F first doesn't come back A first - some trains on this north south route call at stations like Gloucester where the direction of travel is reversed. So a train that leaves Sheffield F first, calls at Gloucester would arrive at Totnes A first and so come back F first.

As to that being a bad journey - seriously don't see it on a bad day!

Edit to add - as for changing platforms - we used to swear that the signalling staff at Bristol used to compete to see how many commuters they could get to run from one platform to another when they switched platforms at the last minute. It is a bit annoying but really its about operational things - if the train that is due into platform 8 is running late, they can either delay yours whilst it comes in and clears or bring it in somewhere else and send it out on time (where its taking a different route after the station as could be the case at Sheffield).

London50

I do hope the OP never tries using the Indian railway system as I have. I think the carriage lettering would send them into a nervous breakdown :0)

lammy82

Obviously the lack of letters on the outside displays has caused some confusion - the lack of a carriage E on 4-coach trains is for perfectly legitimate reasons as I outlined.

Sounds like the service was overcrowded too. That happens, particularly because reservations aren't compulsory on our trains, unlike many services on the continent where if you don't have a seat reserved you can't board.

Still - you got your seat!

Sheffield has plenty of seats and waiting rooms if you don't want to stand, but not along the whole length of the platforms. Again this would be something to suggest to East Midland trains if you think there should be more seating. Personally I rarely sit down at train stations, I like to wander up and down the platforms if I'm early

lammy82

WestonDave wrote: »

on X Country F is the quiet carriage

Actually they've done away with the Quiet Coach on Voyager trains now. So F is just the 'Standard Class with wheelchair space' coach. According to their website, their HSTs still have one in Coach G though.

knightstyle

Thanks for the replies, I just needed to vent! But all these niggling things could easily be rectified to make train travel less stressful.
I notice no-one has commented on the fact I should have swapped seats four times on the same train, lugging suitcase etc through overcrowded corridors between Totnes and Sheffield.

p00hsticks

knightstyle wrote: »

Is it just me or does everyone find train travel unnecessarily stressful?So I wanted D which should be two away from F but when I got on I found I was in C because you number F, D, C, B, A. No E!!!!!!!

30 seconds googling in preparation for your journey would have shown you the expected train layout

https://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/media/1051/voyager_seating_plan.pdf