Connex

Being a non car user, I am pretty much forced to use the train service to get from A to B. Living in the South East you get used to paying far more, for the same service elsewhere. In my local area, it is far cheeper to use the train service than it is the buses and even though Connex is usually a little bit late, it does ultimately get you to your destination. One of the main problems with Connex is that the train are some of the oldest in the country, which is quite amazing considering the line is one of the busiest commuter networks. They are dirty, often broken and becasue of the shoddy state they are kept in, are often prone to vandalism. Connex South East ...  Read the complete review

As a commuter from the Medway towns I have no real choice other than to use the Connex train service. I wont go into specific times and delays as anyone reading this will know all about them and find it very dull. My gripe is that Connex still has the franchise here although it lost a previous franchise which was performing marginally better than this one. We are continually met with delayed and shortened trains without any real reason and no alternative provider to turn to. Anyone using Connex South Eastern would have expereienced standing in a cramped corridor whilst the guard announces that the First Class compartments are for First Class ...  Read the complete review

As a child, I used to love travelling by train when my route was still under the aegis of British Rail's Network SouthEast. As a teenager when Connex took over, I still enjoyed travelling into central London every weekend, despite the occasional Sunday engineering works that would disrupt my journey. But oh how things changed once I began to commute to work properly, I now understand why commuters are so dissatisfied with Connex's service, because while the service might be 'fine' and endurable during off-peak hours, it can fall to pieces during rush hour, and I'm sorry, but commuters matter more because they spend more time travelling, they ...  Read the complete review

I often wonder who I have the most contempt for, Connex operations managers or the halfwits that employed them in the first place. Naturally, I appreciate that Connex are trying to operate over an already crowded network. This, however, does not account for some of the sheer stupidity that I have noticed since starting to commute into Victoria on their South-Central 'service'. First of all, there's the mystery of the shrinking trains. Their reaction to ridiculously crowded carriages seems to be to spontaneously deploy even shorter trains every now and then, just to make your life a little more stressful. Secondly, there's the ...  Read the complete review

22 JUNE UPDATE AT END I have the grave misfortune to live in an area which is "served" by Connex South Eastern. This is a railway in name only. When it works it is OK to passable, they are trying to get there. They are bringing new trains, all that stuff, but boy their reliability! I know they all had their problems with the safety checks etc last winter and I sympathise with that, but they still have too many cancellations, too short trains for the number of passengers they do have to carry. I used one recently for the first time in months, from Whitstable station at about 08.45. It was announced that my train was running 20 ...  Read the complete review