Hacker News Reader

Comment by andyking | Hacker News Reader

Substitute the words "Northern Rail" for "South West Trains" and you're right again. The train company up here are well-known for being terrible. The trains are antique early 1980s sheds, built on a shoestring during a recession and way past the end of their useful service life.

There are even several Twitter accounts dedicated to documenting the agony of daily commuting on this awful service: http://twitter.com/#!/ntfail

View on HN

Agreed, I get a Northern Rail leg for part of my daily commute and actual route through Darlington to swap onto an East Coast just to save myself hassle.

In fairness, they have some nice people working on their Twitter desk, but the company and service in general is substandard.

I found the older trains (slam door ones) were more reliable personally. The new "one-piece" techno-trains are always broken or limping. It's a place where adding technology just increases the fail-o-meter rating.

Heh, I recently moved from an area covered by SWT back up north to Northern Rail territory. My physical experience on NR is much worse though (2 carriages at rush hour after the previous train was cancelled?!) but I doubt anyone can beat SWT for crappy customer service.

and London Midland too. A couple of years ago my rush hour commuter train was reduced to 2 carriages from 3 for several months - every official person I asked gave a different reason, but the net effect was severe overcrowding.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com