Well I’ve been struggling to think of things to write on my blog recently, but thankfully the railway system has presented me with a topic on a platter, and for the first time in a while, this post is going to be true to the “lashings” label. This is going to be ranty, so I apologize for that.
Every Saturday at 5pm, I get out of work, get changed and head to Telford Railway Station. I go to the self-service ticket machine and I receive the tickets that I have pre booked from my favourite train app, the cost is £27.80 but I don’t mind that. Why do I do this every week I hear you say. Well, it’s when I go to spend a day with my other half. You see, we only normally both get Sunday’s off so it’s the only time we get to see each other in the week due to her living in Derby. (That’s due to be rectified very soon, but that’s another story).
The way the journey normally goes is that I catch the train from Telford Central, it stops at Birmingham New Street where I then change to get on a train that heads for Derby (and vice versa when I head the other way). So Thursday evening, I went onto the National Rail website and what I found shocked me.
Instead of the train journey costing me £27.80. It would cost me a whopping £53. Why so much? It was because of engineering works, which meant I’d have to catch an East Midlands train from Derby to Stoke, followed by a Cross Country train from Stoke to Wolverhampton and finally an Arriva train from Wolverhampton to Telford.
An extra £26 because of engineering work? I’m sorry but no! Why should I have to pay extra because Network Rail have that part of the line shut down? Also apparently it wont be back to normal on a Sunday until the middle of February. It’s a farcical situation. I have no issue with them doing engineering work, it’s necessary, but I should not have to fork out almost double what I normally have to do because of it. There should be some sort of mechanism in place that allows customers to pay what they normally pay at times when there are works on the line.
It’s a ludicrous situation and at a time when the British railway network is seemingly hell-bent on milking their customers for as much as they can, it’s a situation that should not be allowed!
Lashings of Liam 