Sorry Way to Travel (SWT) (South West Trains)

Member Name: TravelSick

Product:	South West Trains
Date:	14/03/01 (69 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You can more or less guarntee that if you arrive late for the train, it will still be there!

Disadvantages: Too many to list. Scummy Trains, useless excuses and unhelpful announcements

Believe it or not, Time Travel is possible! Well it is if you Travel with South West Trains. 5 Times a week I step back in time as I travel from Surrey to London on the South West Trains network.

The 08.00 Service usually arrives within 5 minutes of its scheduled arrival time. As the ancient relic pulls into the platform, you can smell the brakes burning and its difficult to see inside the carriages as the windows are scratched and dirty. I usually get onto the train and take the nearest seat - as the trains are often overcrowded.

You have to be careful where you put your head, as the blue seats have been stained over the years with Brown residue of peoples heads being rested on the set backs. If you are lucky, you will escape the brown crud from rubbing off on your hair!

The train jerks off from the station (and often comes to a sharp halt as people still board through the 100 separate slam doors). As it arrives at Surbiton for the stopping service, people are frantically trying to squeeze through the doors and crowds to get onto the platform - everyone has the same expression of anxiety on their faces. Not one person smiles on a South West Train!!

The stopping service arrives at its usual 5 minute late stage, and as expected, the train is 4 carriages instead of 6 - so there is a flurry of panicking people all cramming into the last door. Thankfully, people are so used to this, that nobody can be bothered to argue about the pushing and shoving.

So the inbound journey isnt too bad, its possible to put up with (just) but the return journey in the evening is when the real trouble begins.

In 8 months of travelling from Wimbledon - the 18.26 has arrived on time "once" - just one time!! Its become a waiting game where timetables mean nothing, as to the announcements of "This train will arrive 10 minutes late". Usually, add 5 minutes on top of their estimates!

In comes the battered 1950
9;s relic of a train absolutely crammed with people. You have to wonder whether you can get on the train, but everyone is so used to it by now, that you just grab a hold of the nearest object, and pull yourself into some sort of space - forget breathing, you can do this when you get off the train!

So many times this happens, EVERY DAY my train arrives late and every day is the same old story "South West Trains would like to apologise...."

Even their complaints office dont bother responding to me. I pay £1500 a year to this company and for what? I might as well pay for a doctor to trigger off a heart attack!!

SWT stinks! The trains are old and dirty, they are ALWAYS late and the staff are generally unhelpful! The most amusing thing is when they announce "HAve a Super Day" like someone greating you in the Disney Store!

Whatever you do, steer clear of SWT if you can!

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