ready, steady.... RANT!

Sigh. My train has been late every day this week. On Monday I had to leave the train five stops from my destination and catch the Tube into work because of power failure at a station. Part of me wonders if Thameslink is trying to put us off catching its trains before it starts its major work.

But that's not my rant. My rant is aimed at the marketing of the 'major work'. For two weeks an army of smiling folk have been giving out leaflets at stations with cheery stripey designs and a catchy good-humoured slogan, such as 'Crikey! It's all change!' This week I've been given card-holders, tea bags (yes, tea bags - guess the slogan for that one!), and today I have a Thameslink-branded bottle of water. I don't even want to think about the cost of all these gimmicks. And for what? When I read the leaflet, it tells me nothing. So it's a campaign to tell passengers that change is coming, but Thameslink can't tell us exactly what the changes will be. There are various rumours that they're shutting down the line I and many of my colleagues use to get to work. We can't find anything to prove or disprove the rumours, but we'd like to know before we renew our railcards for 2009. The change begins next month, for an indefinite period of time. Eventually, there will be many more trains and faster lines, but still that's no use to me if the trains don't stop at my station. South London needs the Thameslink! Grrrrrr.

I wonder if they'll be handing out tea bags tomorrow... if so, I may grab enough to get me a full caddy! And yes, I know I don't have to take the gimmicks, but I am a real sucker for free tea.

F has an analogy: 'You can dress a dog cr@p with tinsel, but underneath it still stinks.'