I'd travelled by GNER, the company that lost the route to National
Express, and they were 100 times better, the trains were clean, smart
and the staff were friendly. NXEC was bad. The company has a
strapline to 'Make Travel Simpler' but as soon as you board a NXEC
train you are bombarded with PA messages which talk about the types of
tickets that are not valid on the service, the restrictions are far
from making travel simpler.
When the East Coast franchise on the line was up for renewal along
came National Express who bid an unrealistic figure to run the line,
their bid stood to make a huge income for the Government in comparison
to that of GNER, the existing and experienced operator.
What stinks is that right now I'm sitting on a National Express East
Anglia train. Why are National Express still allowed to run other
rail lines when:
1) They have run away from a route they made unprofitable, after
sending a viable business called GNER (who proved they could run the
route) at a profit out of business?
2) They are taking profit in other parts of their business which could
cover loss made on the East Coast.
3) They are obsessed with repainting and rebranding trains, checking
and re-checking tickets, and wasting money?
What a poor decision by Government to award the francise in the first
place, and a bad signal to other train operators who have no real
insentive to invest in routes and services through fear Government
will undo their hard work and award their route at renewal to an
inexperienced operator who promises the earth. Why should they
invest, if I owned a train company right now I'd think 'hang on, lets
not spend, lets make a bigger profit'.
A great example of another route that has gone down the toilet is the
East Anglia line. This route was operated by 'First Group'. They
refitted stations, bought brand new trains, trained staff well and
cleaned well.
After a considerable investment National Express bidded and were
awarded the route rather than First. All assets were handed over as
part of the francise, and ever since National Express has been
repainting the outside of trains and stations.
They have reduced staff, cut food services, are obsessed with ticket
inspections, installed barriers that don't work and slow passengers
down... and háve let the brand new trains bought by First get filthy
and worn.
When things go wrong on the line NX are amazingly good at hiding, and
giving out poor information. I can't think of a week where everything
has gone right for me on their service
First made a bid to take over National Express, and I hope they get
the whole company, they know how to run travel services.
Richard Branson invested heavy into His Virgin Cross Country route,
and it was amazing he did not get the route on renewal, I wonder if
NXEC is the start of a ball rolling for new and inexperienced
companies buckling under the recession and not delivering on what they
said they would.
I hope NX lose the NXEA route. They should not be allowed to run a
profitable route if they have already turned a profit making route
into a loss making route.
This morning I was driving to work, Chris Moyles was playing a dodgy song on Radio 1 so I skipped through the frequencies to be faced with four stations called ‘Heart’. They were called ‘Heart’, ‘Heart’, ‘Heart’ and ‘Heart’.
What I found was each ‘Heart’ station had a different set of presenters presenting the same-ish Breakfast Show, with the same jingles, the same music playlist, just different news and travel. I was confused.
A little bit of research on the internet I found….
102.6 and 96.3 - ‘Essex FM’ (my local commercial radio station) is now called ‘Heart’.
103.1 and 102.8 - ‘Invicta FM’ (Kent station can be picked up in Essex) is now called ‘Heart’.
96.1 - ‘SGR Colchester’ is now called ‘Heart’.
and
106.2 - ‘Heart’ is the London ‘Heart’ station that can be picked up in Essex.
So, when driving along the A12 what do I listen to? ‘Heart’, ‘Heart’, ‘Heart’ or ‘Heart’? All four stations display ‘Heart’ on the display, all four stations seem to play the same songs, although, the clue is in the advertising. I was listening to 103.1 FM’s ‘Heart’ for a good twenty minutes, the adverts were for Kent companies, no good for me in Essex! ‘Heart’ had successfully attracted an Essex listener to unknowingly listen to Kent based local show with Kent local adverts, I bet Kent specific advertisers love paying for me to listen to their advert, and wonder how many Kent based people are listening to the Essex based frequencies?
What has happened here is that Global Radio UK have bought lots of local radio stations and rebranded them as ‘Heart’. Each Heart frequency has been left so the breakfast time and drive time presenters still present local based shows, but the rest of the day is delivered across the entire network from the London studios. So me listening to the Kent Breakfast Show on ‘Heart’ was an easy mistake, and I’d need to learn all the frequencies in order to get the right local show.
Local radio is not local radio anymore.
Essex FM, was a good station, although towards the end it played the same music all day long, with a guaranteed ‘Chasing Cars’, ‘Wake me up before September ends’, ‘I don’t feel like dancing’ and at least three ‘Take That’ songs every hour.
Heart may attract national advertising budgets by telling advertisers their advert will by played across the entire Heart network at the same time, but what Heart is missing is that local audiences expect local content, and in calling everything ‘Heart’ will they attract local advertising anymore? I guess with all the breakfast shows seeming to be sponsored by double glazing companies the barrel is already being scraped.
Bye bye Essex FM, thanks for the trip in the Essex FM Jam Buster Travel Plane in 1994. I’m going to try Chelmsford Radio now for local stuff.
P.S…. I note you are still playing the same old stuff….
We found 'Andy the Gardener', he posted a leaflet through the door.
Andy offered a great price, did a fantastic job and took away all the
mess.
Andy is now a Cleveratom preferred supplier, he even helped us out to
transport our large exhibition stand to London when our usual (former)
transport company let us down.
He is always on time, works very hard, is great value for money. He
has since won contracts with our neighbouring offices on the quality
of his gardening work.
I've seen his customer comments folder and he has very good feedback
from all over the East Anglia and London regions. He takes a pride in
his work.
Andy the Gardener is a polite and friendly person too, we recommend him.
Tell him Cleveratom sent you his way.
His number is 07776 110735
>
Today at Cleveratom we used 'Finest Fillings' of Chelmsford as lunch
company for our SSAT conference for Essex Schools.
After checking out local catering conpanies we concluded 'Finest
Fillings' were the best quality, selection and value, and delivery was
included in the price. The platters are huge and tasty.
Tell them Cleveratom sent you when you call them on: 01245 347545
