Trying to recap the carnage

The first post on this blog is my attempt to recap how horrendous the my trains into Manchester have been.  A good week for me is having only two trains cancelled or heavily delayed.  Remember, that's a GOOD week. 

I have routinely been taking screenshots on my phone of all my cancellations/delays but I won't bore you with posting them all here - the post would go on forever!

I will however post a screenshot of my screenshots, just so you can see I'm not exaggerating.  Everything in red is either a cancellation or a delay.

My annual ticket runs out mid June and I'm seriously considering not renewing it because the service provided is really not worth it.  How they can even charge for this shambles is beyond me.  The problem is, they know people don't have much of an alternative, other than enduring the hell that is the M61 in a morning. 

I'm one of the lucky ones, my job is quite flexible and I have understanding bosses who know and sympathise with the reasons I'm running late.  It's the people who have strict bosses and are on warnings for being late that I feel sorry for.  I was chatting to somebody the other day who was getting my 6.31am train even though they didn't start work until 9.00am.  They just wanted to make sure they got into town as they were on a last warning and couldn't afford to be late again.  They just intended to sit in a coffee shop to pass the time - having to spend yet more money just because of a shoddy train service. 

Anyway, the new timetable starts tomorrow so we'll see what awaits but I'm not holding out much hope.  Watch this space.