EMT are a joke but no-one is laughing !

What a pathetic bunch this EMT are. It is an awful service that reduces services and charges top dollar for its 'non' service. Tim Shoveller is the worst thing to EVER happen to the rail network in forever. Worse than Dr Beeching.
Surely as the government hands out these franchises, they can withdraw them?
Come back Midland Mainline, all is forgiven.

The fact that the MD of the company admits to not knowing why the drivers are all off tells me that the management of EMT are completely incompetent.

There are three scenarios here
1) There is a "formal" dispute. Drivers and/or ASLEF would be very clear what the problem is, and EMT management would know.

2) The drivers have decided on mass protest outside the union, and the managers don't understand why. This is a damning indictment of the managers - they've completely alienated their staff. If this is the case, then it's clear the management of EMT need to be sacked - they're not fit to run the company.

3) EMT do know what the problem is, but don't want to tell the public because it makes them look bad. When a company resorts to lying to the public like this, then it needs it's management replaced as they're not fit to run a company.

Actually, EMT can't make themselves look much worse - massive service cuts, lies to their customers (less trains, less seats, more overcrowding and lower speed trains misrepresented as "improvements") and I know they're savagely cutting the pay and conditions for some of their staff.

EMT are not fit to run our railway, please can we get someone competant to do it?

I'd like to hear from the drivers, and ASLEF, in the interests of balance.

I am so glad that after 20 years of travelling to London by train that I work locally. I would rather be £6k worse off than use the train again. I feel for people using East Midlands trains. I am never stressed anymore and it so lovely just driving 15 minutes in comfort now. So long East Midlands.

LCS, I envy you.

By the way, I would like to add that although I despise EMT for the cuts, lies and mismanagement, I have every respect for the staff I come into contact with.

It's not the drivers, engineers, cleaners, ticket checkers, or staff at the stations, it's the company managers that need to be replaced.

The point is WHY is Sunday treated as Overtime why dont they a work rota like any normal business. Asda dont shut cos no-one volunteers to work Sunday !! EMT Muppets

Now I have got to make alternative arrangements for my trip to London on Sunday!

What a complete and utter joke - the whole Sunday timetable for East Midlands Trains is reliant upon the staffs goodwill of working overtime?!

Surely any company in this day and age who has a responsibility to operate a vitel public service like a railway, would actually employ staff who are contractually obliged to work Sundays! Maybe not such a higher priority running a railway, but it is like hospitals and police reliant upon their staff only working overtime!

Fortunately I do not travel the railways to work daily, but as I live in Irthlingborough I regularly travel down the A6 to Bedford and take the trains from their. A one day travel card is a whole THIRD less at £24, where it is £35 from Wellingborough. First Capital Connect from Bedford may not be perfect but they have recently started using some new trains and their faster trains are nearly compariable with EMT and more frequent!

EMT is a joke, and offers the people of Northamptonshire a third rate service, while legally ripping passengers off under their noses!


Why does a town like Bedford which is compariable to the size of Wellingborugh or Kettering get 10 trains an hour, while we get 2 trains an hour?!
HOW THE HELL CAN A RAILWAY COMPANY ADD SUCH AN INCREASE TO A TICKET ONLY ONE STOP FURTHER UP THE LINE!

>the whole Sunday timetable for East Midlands Trains is reliant upon the staffs goodwill of working overtime?!
Yes. To be fair to EMT, it's because they inherited contracts with the staff that say they get overtime for working Sundays. However, for the staff to exercise their contractual right not to work on Sundays in a way that causes such severe disruption, EMT must have done something that they seriously do not like.

>Surely any company in this day and age who has a responsibility to operate a vitel public service like a railway,
Ahh, sorry, you're way out of date here. The railways are not a "vital public service", they're a profit making business. That means the passengers are irrelevant.

>First Capital Connect from Bedford may not be perfect but they have recently started using some new trains and their faster trains are nearly compariable with EMT and more frequent!

I really do hope this is true - I'm sick of being stuck on EMT trains where we have 4 people crammed into the toilet because there's nowhere else to go, whilst seeing FCC trains with 4 people per carriage wander past.

>EMT is a joke, and offers the people of Northamptonshire a third rate service, while legally ripping passengers off under their noses!
Spot on (although "third rate" is being nice, and I believe we're supposed to laugh at jokes, not reach for the painkillers)

>HOW THE HELL CAN A RAILWAY COMPANY ADD SUCH AN INCREASE TO A TICKET ONLY ONE STOP FURTHER UP THE LINE!
Because they have a monopoly and no useful way of having their "profit" tied to the level of service they provide.