God. If you ever want to make sure never make it on time anywhere, take a commuter SNCF train. Sure it snowed last night and that's a biiiiiiig thing. Fine. Even in Nordic countries there are problems when there is snow (although probably not when it's about a few millimeters of snow). But at least give us some information on how the trains are running.
This morning I made it to the train station on time (thank you dad for dropping me off and braving the snow/ice) and my train was shown as being on time. After the hour came the train never did come so we asked an SNCF person at the station when it was going to come "ah, you must have missed it, it's shown on the computer as having already left, with a three minute delay". Yeah, no, we've been here since 7:20am, would have seen if a train had left at 7:33am, trust me. "Oh, I can't help you then, that's all I see, the guy who is in charge of the trains is actually sick so there is no other information." Of course the sign board did not give any details since on their computers the train had left already... and the next one was shown with a 15 minute delay. Finally someone called the main info line, 25 minute delay. Fine. Half hour commute, 25 minute delay, now we're used to it. 7:55am comes, no train. No more info. 8am. Train comes. We run lik made because we were all waiting in the warm train station and the train leaves from a track that can only be accessed through an underground passage. The platform is covered in a thick layer of ice, fun times.
(sidenote)
Illustrative example of ice... not my station but two stations over:
On the left hand side you have where most of the train stops, only about half a wagon can fit on the non-icy part, it's pure ice... salt? Pfff... for amateurs. You can see the a "sortie" sign above the third door, that's where you get out of the heated building. Right above you have a "passage sousterrain" signs and the underground passage is actually a good 200m to the side, tons of ice to cross to get there. Oh, and if ever you're in a wheelchair? You're screwed, the stations on the line do not have elevators or things like that. One did get equipped but ever since they've installed it, it's been out of order.
(end of sidenote)
No really, this is beyond exasperating. You know your trains are rarely on time, at least provide us with the proper information on them. Don't make us call places to get it when you're in charge of a train station. FYI, on this line only 85% of the trains are on time or have less than a five minute delay. It's what they recently called "une des lignes malades".
And when someone asked the train station person if they could get someone to put something on the parking lot because right now it's an ice rink there, "oh, I'm not the main person at this station, he's sick and he's the one in charge of such things." Argh.
Last time I checked SNCF were supposed to provide passengers with a service, isn't "making people travel in decent conditions" part of the service? Sometimes I think it's not. Just the thing that we have to run from the heated station to the underground passage and then to the next platform when we see the train arriving... there are days when they announce that the train will arrive in two minutes and we have the time to walk there but there are days, like today, when they don't announce anything.
Excuse all the whining and moaning, not my morning. At least I get to see a snow-covered Mont Faron from the office window. Strangely enough the Faron creates a micro-climate in Toulon and there is no snow at all here.
( +1 - of another side ) |
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