That’s nice then. You wait in Moorfields for the 5:36 to West Kirby, and it doesn’t turn up. No announcement, just a big space where the train should be standing at the platform.

The ‘Information Board’ was totally cocked-up, changing every minute or so with what appeared to be a random selection of train destinations and times. There was an announcement that the the Chester/Ellesmere Port trains were in a mess, but that was all. My Brother and I were left wondering (like a few others, I suspect) whether we had somehow missed the 5:36 to West Kirby perhaps.

But no, it was indeed late, as I found out when it finally arrived in Moorfields at about ten to six. The ‘Information Board’ said that there was another one immediately behind it, but bearing in mind that the board had been changing like a fruit machine display, I decided to board the first train that was hopefully going my way – along with anyone also going to Chester as well, as the announcement told them to do.

Imagine the looks on my fellow passengers faces when the cattle truck- like train pulled into Conway Park and the guard announced that because the train was late it was now cancelled, and we were all to get off and stand on the platform to await the next one !

It is absolutely no wonder that people don’t believe in the Merseyrail PPM figures – I overheard a chap next to me saying that he believed they cancelled the train to avoid it being counted as late, and it is hard to argue with him. Why the bloody hell else would you piss people off like that – passengers who have paid for a journey that is already late, the delay has not been explained to them, and then you turf them off the train “because it’s late”?

Until I see a categoric explanation of how the PPM figures are calculated – I’ve searched the internet and can’t find an authoritative answer to this – I’m inclined to the popular belief that they are rigged. From a passengers perspective, it’s an almost unavoidable conclusion. And I’m not the only one who shares it.

UPDATE:

In an effort to get to the bottom of the question about the PPM figures, I have written to the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) as follows:

Good evening,

 

I am writing to ask if someone from your office can explain to me, in non-technical terms that a layman can understand, how the Public Performance Measure (PPM) figures for a rail operator are calculated.

 

My specific interest is in an explanation of under what circumstances (if indeed there are any) a train does not count toward the operators PPM calculation, or if there is a circumstance(s) for which an operator can claim an exclusion for a particular train journey.

 

I have tried to find the answer to this question myself, and can only find conflicting explanations.

 

Your help with this request would be greatly appreciated.

 

Best Regards

… are not to be relied upon. Not if last night was anything to go by.

There was chaos on the Northern Line, and the Wirral line trains were running ten to fifteen minutes late, all of this during the evening peak period, and there wasn’t a Tweet to be heard.

I found out because my girlfriend phoned from Conway Park to warn me of the delays getting home, and then when I got to Moorfields the foyer was packed full of commuters with nowhere to go.

It makes the whole idea of Merseyrail using Twitter as a means of communicating with passengers pointless, totally pointless. Which is hardly a surprise, I suppose.

After their run of delays and cancallations recently, I’ll be interested to see their published performance figures, and how loudly ther crow about them.

What I saw this evening has so annoyed me that I’m taking time out of my normal Friday evening beer-drinking experiments to write this …

I was standing outside the main entrance to Moorfields, under the escalator finishing a smoke before I went in to catch my train (at about 5:10 this evening), when the door to the office or whatever it is opened – the one with the dirty great “No Smoking” sign on it.

Anyway, the door opened, and a flurry of rubbish shot out of the door, hotly puersued by a broom-head! A chap wearing a Merseyrail coat then stepped out, and I thought “aha, he’s going to pick it up in a dustpan and put it in the bin”. Did he hell as like.

He swept up the pile of rubbish (bits of paper and all sorts) and then, in front of anyone walking past, give the broom a good shove and sent the sweepings shooting across the pavement! Before I had a chance to ask him exactly why he thought this was a reasonable thing to do, he popped back into his box, and was gone.

Isn’t littering illegal? Clearly not if you work for our boy Bart. Maybe it’s a cost cutting exercise.

I seem to remember reading somewhere this week that Merseyrail are employing someone to look after their ‘environmental responsibilities’. I don’t hold out too much hope.

I just wish I’d gotten a video of the chap as he did it. At least now I know why it’s always such a shit-hole around there, it’s not the poor travelling peasants fault, but Merseyrail’s own employees.

And for the record, I put my ciggarette end in the bin …