No wonder I hate rail journeys!

dggar

knightstyle wrote: »

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.

Presumably this is because you split the journey and bought tickets for each portion.
If so that would show you have a reasonable understanding of the rail system and would know Sheffield to London trains are run by East Midland Trains.
I would also expect that you would know the visual difference between a Cross Country Service and an East Midland Service

knightstyle

No, I knew the train I was in for that part of my journey was Cross Country. So what has East Midland got to do with this????

Another gripe is that if I buy my tickets on line I have to collect them before I travel. We have two stations here in Gainsborough but neither has a ticket machine so the day before I travel I have a 25 mile round trip to Retford to get the tickets. Plus there is nowhere I can park for a few minutes to pick up the tickets.

[Deleted User]

knightstyle wrote: »

No, I knew the train I was in for that part of my journey was Cross Country. So what has East Midland got to do with this????

Another gripe is that if I buy my tickets on line I have to collect them before I travel. We have two stations here in Gainsborough but neither has a ticket machine so the day before I travel I have a 25 mile round trip to Retford to get the tickets. Plus there is nowhere I can park for a few minutes to pick up the tickets.

Sheffield station is managed by East Midlands Trains.

Would it have been worth paying £4 for a ticket from Gainsborough to Sheffield and booking your main journey from Sheffield to Totnes separately (cheaper, so actually a very minimal difference in the total price). That way you could have picked up your Sheffield - Totnes tickets from one of the machines at Sheffield station.

If you wanted a through ticket from Gainsborough, and in the absence of a ticket machine, have you tried asking the ticket office staff (assuming there is a ticket office) to print out your tickets for you?
http://www.mytrainticket.co.uk/self-service-ticket-machines-at-stations
"If you have problems collecting your tickets from the self-service ticket machine, please go immediately to the station booking office. Upon production of your booking confirmation print-out and the same credit/debit card that you used to make your booking, station staff should be able to issue your tickets"

Hopefully your next journey will be smoother - If you do have issues with collecting your tickets from Gainsborough, may I suggest that you contact the Northern Rail Customer Experience Centre on 0800 200 6060 who should be able to offer help and advice.

knightstyle

Sorry but there are NO staff or ticket office at either station in Gainsborough.
I didn't say it is a problem just another annoying way the railway companies treat their customers.

Bogalot

knightstyle wrote: »

No, I knew the train I was in for that part of my journey was Cross Country. So what has East Midland got to do with this????

Another gripe is that if I buy my tickets on line I have to collect them before I travel. We have two stations here in Gainsborough but neither has a ticket machine so the day before I travel I have a 25 mile round trip to Retford to get the tickets. Plus there is nowhere I can park for a few minutes to pick up the tickets.

Postage is £1, which would have been far simpler than travelling to Retford.

But then you'd have probably moaned about being charged for postage!

knightstyle

Thanks for that info. I didn't know that, will use it next time.

Kite2010

Some stations will display the train formation (FDCA) on the information screens or the likes of Reading will say "First class is at the front on arrival, this will be at the rear as the train departs". It is annoying when you get some stations where you have to guess which way round the train will arrive in to be able to stand in the correct place.

Coach B only exists on the 5-car voyagers, and (I believe) coach E only exists on the HSTs.

martindow

As the train is only five coaches long you can hover in the middle of the platform and look out for the letters displayed by the doors as the train pulls in. You only have a couple of coach lengths to walk in either direction to find your carriage.

knightstyle

Yes I know that now! But there is nothing to help us very occasional travellers plus only the first carriage had indication outside, the other panels had gaffer tape covering that bit and you do not get indication inside until the train is moving. Whilst at the platform the panel shows which station you are at!
As I say it is almost as if they WANT to make things difficult!

Mids_Costcutter

lammy82 wrote: »

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.

To say that overcrowding is the result of a lack of compulsory reservations is a poor excuse that Cross Country Trains have given me in the past, and with regard to other European countries is a bit of a sweeping generalisation. In Germany very few trains require a reservation as long as you're prepared to pay a more expensive 'Flexpreis' to turn up and travel. Only Thalys and night trains require advance reservation. In France Eurostar and TGV trains are compulsory reservation but other inter-city trains aren't. In Spain pretty much all long-distance trains are compulsory reservation, so there is some variation across countries.

Isn't the real reason here the lack of capacity? Just 4 or 5 carriages on a long-distance service running from Scotland to the SW of England?