Twice a week, a catch the 21.39 Chiltern service from Gerrards Cross to Bicester North, which then leads me to a bus from Bicester to Oxford, and a bus from Oxford to Abingdon. All in all, this is quite a reliable route for me, i've never had a problem until last night.
The train is often delayed slightly because of the preceeding Aylesbury train is sometimes quite late. This service departs at 21.33 and because it is a slower service, it can sometimes mean that my train runs slower as far as High Wycombe, which happened last night, slightly later than normal at 7 minutes down leaving GX. It wasn't a problem until I got to Princes Risborogh. The train had stopped here for quite some time, and i was beginning to wonder until the driver announced there was a technical fault with the unit (a 168), and he was trying to deal with it. 2 minutes later, he announces that the train will be 'terminating here, this train is out of service due to a fault'.
Ok so trains have faults, i'm not disputing that, i'm just shocked at the lack of information. There was no advice given for any further services, and the boards weren't displaying anything, only the delayed train that ended up terminating. I just thought that out of all
TOCs▸ , Chiltern would be the last one to deal with a matter so poorly. I ended up having to go to High Wycombe and staying at a friends, because i would miss the last bus home by waiting for the later train (which, at this point, nobody had any idea when this was!) It was just a horrible night too, bam smack in the middle of a thunder storm. Sorry for my rant, im just a bit dissapointed and at the time, quite annoyed as i had to be at work at 9 this morning for a 13 hour shift, ended up leaving at 6am!
sorry, rant over!
