Arriva Trains are a disgrace

I can't speak for the individuals who work for Arriva Trains but the firm themselves have a very poor record. I used to often find that trains would be late or cancelled during the winter months which would leave me standing for hours waiting to get home in the freezing cold without any sort of communication. Where as if we were made aware of the problems we could have made alternative arrangements we were instead told to be patient and wait for more news. Glad I don't get the trains any more.

Arriva and CCFC have something very much in common then

I agree, they are shockers, I would write to the Head of Communications, but clearly they haven't got one, I daresay there is somebody that gets paid a wedge to have that title, but clearly he is using a piece of string and a paper cup.
I use the train everyday and accept that things can go wrong, but the lack of communication annoys me no end, on Friday night I was waiting for my train to Rhoose and accepted it would be late, some people had been waiting over an hour, one train pulled in and the guard on the station was asked by some young girls if this was the Barry train, yes he said, lots of people piled on, only to be told eventually that the train was for Penarth, I am pretty certain that some of the people were unaware and stayed on the train and ended up in Penarth. My daily commute gets more like an episode of Reggie Perrin everyday, with their outlandish excuses for late running trains.............Can't wait for their franchise to be up..........if they do go on strike most people won't notice

A major problem they have is staff going home early so as not to risk not being able to. They do this quite often

To be fair, I cover one of the announcers jobs up here from time to time and have done it alot lately with the weather, it's at the same desk as the folk in charge for Aberdeen and the surrounding areas.. I don't know where the Arriva main office is, but ours is 150 miles away in Glasgow and decisions are made by them and we're always the last to know, normally when it's too late. The people who should know first always seem to be the last to know and it's very infuriating when you can't give out the information people require. The people who update the info display screens(which are called CIS monitors ) are based 90 miles away and even though we have the facility to change them, they change it back and have a go at us for interfering!!! The folk to blame are at the top tables, and most usually the ones you never see unless something is going well and there is anward to be collected.

On top of that, the National Rail Enquiries website must be one of the worst for correct information in times of disruption. I would always advise using the website of the company you are using

Have heard guards / ticket sellers get comision on sales this true ??

Have heard guards / ticket sellers get comision on sales this true ??

Up here the guards do, as do the gateline ticket sellers, but ticket offices don't.

I work for ATW & i can tell you that the drivers & guards work hard to get people from A to B, but if there are problems with the the railway infrastrutre, or the actual trains themselfs, then there is not a lot we can do. As for going home early thats news to me. Don't blame the workers, it's the politicians you want to ask the questions to. Even Eurostar are having problems!

I work for ATW & i can tell you that the drivers & guards work hard to get people from A to B, but if there are problems with the the railway infrastrutre, or the actual trains themselfs, then there is not a lot we can do. As for going home early thats news to me. Don't blame the workers, it's the politicians you want to ask the questions to. Even Eurostar are having problems!

Never any thanks for it either. Getting away early? I've done 2 weeks of overtime trying to keep things running where I can, and all we get is abuse for it.

I work for ATW & i can tell you that the drivers & guards work hard to get people from A to B, but if there are problems with the the railway infrastrutre, or the actual trains themselfs, then there is not a lot we can do. As for going home early thats news to me. Don't blame the workers, it's the politicians you want to ask the questions to. Even Eurostar are having problems!

Its not those people that most of us are annoyed at. Its the admin / customer relations side.
I was keeping an eye on the situation today as I have to get back to the Rhondda from Somerset later in the week, and while First Great Western had regular updates about the situation, there was no real information about the ATW services.

And while its not probably ATW's fault, the national rail website was claiming trains were on time, when they hadn't even left their start point half hour after they were supposed to etc. Yet for FGW trains, the live info seemed quite accurate.

I work for ATW & i can tell you that the drivers & guards work hard to get people from A to B, but if there are problems with the the railway infrastrutre, or the actual trains themselfs, then there is not a lot we can do. As for going home early thats news to me. Don't blame the workers, it's the politicians you want to ask the questions to. Even Eurostar are having problems!

Its not those people that most of us are annoyed at. Its the admin / customer relations side.
I was keeping an eye on the situation today as I have to get back to the Rhondda from Somerset later in the week, and while First Great Western had regular updates about the situation, there was no real information about the ATW services.

And while its not probably ATW's fault, the national rail website was claiming trains were on time, when they hadn't even left their start point half hour after they were supposed to etc. Yet for FGW trains, the live info seemed quite accurate.

When we first had the snow, the National Rail site had live progress of trains that were cancelled days beforehand yet were making good time on their journey according to the site!