Angela White

Said the following about Cambridge Station Staff both Ticket Office Platform and Gateline:

“I'd like to nominate the station staff at Cambridge, including Platform, Ticket Office and Gateline, for the Rail Team of the Year award.

Everybody has seen and read about the issues following the introduction of the new timetable in May earlier this year. Great Northern and Thameslink were two of the companies that were worst hit regarding cancellations and disruption to their services. The promised Cambridge to Brighton regular service just didn't materialise and the new trains were lacking qualified drivers.

Cambridge is a Greater Anglia station with an annual footfall approaching 11 million customers. The Cambridge station staff were caught in the middle between angry, frustrated customers wanting to travel on Great Northern and Thameslink services (which were unreliable from day to day) and trying to get information from Great Northern/Thameslink Control regarding their services. Eventually, each evening the Platform staff would receive a list of trains for the following day from Great Northern stating which services would be running and which stations they would be calling at.

Customers aren't interested, or believe, that these types of issues are beyond the control of Greater Anglia staff, that the staff genuinely don't know whether a driver is going to turn up to drive the train or whether the service is going to be cancelled 10 minutes before it is due to depart. The customers just saw this as 'fobbing off' which only added to their frustration.

This period of disruption/frustration lasted until the interim timetable was introduced on 15 July, so almost two months. The interim timetable has improved things immensely. However, I think the staff at Cambridge deserve recognition for remaining professional throughout the prolonged period of disruption.“