![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I *(^&%^& love Stansted Express... again!
Jan. 5th, 2009 02:34 pmI was in London last week, and guess what? Again on day 4, I get ill. A cold or the flu or whatever. While last time it happened on my last day, now it was in the middle of the week. 31 december to be precise, and I did go to bed a quarter before midnight. If it would get better according to the same timetable, I would just be better when I would go home. Except that this time it was more stubborn, and I had to travel while still ill. Fortunately loading myself up with ibuprofen helped a lot in reducing fever, but it was still far from ideal. And poor Isabelle was so sweetly taking care of me all the time (while she was feeling great and fortunately not showing signs of getting ill at all).
So on sunday we checked the stansted express website to see if the trains were running (as we had experience with their not bothering to care about their customers in weekends). And indeed, they were not. Due to engineering works, there would be rail replacement buses. Great. Except that there were no timetable details or anything else useful on the website. So we phoned their customer service number, where we found out that those busses weren't calling at Tottenham Hale at all!
Now that is ridiculous! It is their only other stop in London, they recommend it themselves for access to the Underground, and they just forget to mention that tiny little detail. And once you're there, there is no easy way to get to the end point of the line (Liverpool Street station) where those buses are, without using the very same, not running, Stansted Express. Well, you could try the Underground but that could easily be 45 minutes or so.
Fortunately there seemed to be an alternative: train to Stratford, coach from there. The national rail planner even indicated those trains appeared to be running. However, having become the paranoid type, I asked Isabelle to check for herself at the station. Which turned out to be wise, since at the station it was announced that there were no trains at all.
So in the end I took the Underground to Victoria, and there I searched for the Terravision coach. I had printed a map but clearly my flu/cold had me in its grip, since my map reading was severely affected and I looked for it in the wrong place. Fortunately I did find it, and fortunately it was possible (contrary to indications on the terravision website) to buy a ticket at the bus rather than at a desk somewhere. So when I got on, all was well.
Nevertheless, crappy Stansted Express cheated us out of at least an hour and a half of time together, plus the additional stress of having to find alternative routes, and getting lunch fixed in time.
I really do love *(^&&*%^& them so much. And since they still hadn't sent a working cheque for the previous incident, I decided to remind them of it. Daily. I'll do it hourly, if I must.
( All emails again here )
So on sunday we checked the stansted express website to see if the trains were running (as we had experience with their not bothering to care about their customers in weekends). And indeed, they were not. Due to engineering works, there would be rail replacement buses. Great. Except that there were no timetable details or anything else useful on the website. So we phoned their customer service number, where we found out that those busses weren't calling at Tottenham Hale at all!
Now that is ridiculous! It is their only other stop in London, they recommend it themselves for access to the Underground, and they just forget to mention that tiny little detail. And once you're there, there is no easy way to get to the end point of the line (Liverpool Street station) where those buses are, without using the very same, not running, Stansted Express. Well, you could try the Underground but that could easily be 45 minutes or so.
Fortunately there seemed to be an alternative: train to Stratford, coach from there. The national rail planner even indicated those trains appeared to be running. However, having become the paranoid type, I asked Isabelle to check for herself at the station. Which turned out to be wise, since at the station it was announced that there were no trains at all.
So in the end I took the Underground to Victoria, and there I searched for the Terravision coach. I had printed a map but clearly my flu/cold had me in its grip, since my map reading was severely affected and I looked for it in the wrong place. Fortunately I did find it, and fortunately it was possible (contrary to indications on the terravision website) to buy a ticket at the bus rather than at a desk somewhere. So when I got on, all was well.
Nevertheless, crappy Stansted Express cheated us out of at least an hour and a half of time together, plus the additional stress of having to find alternative routes, and getting lunch fixed in time.
I really do love *(^&&*%^& them so much. And since they still hadn't sent a working cheque for the previous incident, I decided to remind them of it. Daily. I'll do it hourly, if I must.
( All emails again here )