I am writing this on Thursday morning, August 16, while on a train from Robertsbridge to London. This slow route was the only option as when I checked at 05:30 this morning, the 05:45, 06:08, 07:16 and 08:14 from Rye to Ashford (to link with the high speed Javelin service), were cancelled.
It now looks as if the Rye shuttle has now been diverted to the Eastbourne service and is going to arrive at 06:12 at Rye. Why this has been done is beyond me, as since the May timetable changes the Rye shuttles are now by far the busiest services.
This comes on the back of yesterday’s mess when apparently a broken-down French freight train (it could only go very slowly) was diverted via the Marshlink. This led to the 07:16 shuttle arriving at Rye at 07:15 so GTR decided to cancel it and sent it back to Hastings. Great idea, because this delayed the 07:47 and meant it was going to miss the HS connection at Ashford at 08:16 and commuters would end up catching the 08:46 HS which would make us 60 minutes late in to work instead of 30 minutes.
The only bit of good news was that by using the @marshlinktrain account via Twitter, I was able to get SE Trains to hold HS services at Ashford for five minutes which enabled Marshlink commuters to be able to catch it.
So this week’s consumer advice is: if you are a rail passenger, sign up for Twitter and use it to delay connections at Ashford and obviously follow @marshlinktrains and @rye|news to keep up to date with all that is happening to the trains.
While writing this from the train, we have just arrived at Tunbridge Wells but now have to wait nine mins for another train to be attached –what a way to run the railways.
Rye News library