I do just want to apologise for my voice recording quality - I was feeling rather coldy whilst recording so it may not be up to my usual standards, I do apologise. Also, finding sources/information for the operators was very difficult, so I do apologise if anything in this video was incorrect, however it shouldn't be! Hope you enjoyed the video nevertheless!
My memory of Connex Southeastern is an almost laughable one. I worked on the Isle of Dogs, about halfway down the island. When the DLR extension to Lewisham opened I decided to see if it was a better route home. I walked briskly to Crossharbour DLR station, and at Lewisham I got to see my train just leaving the station as I arrived on the platform. The next day I moved faster, and managed to arrive as the train doors opened. "Is this the train to Hayes?" - "Yes" - happy days! This mad dash became my new commute home. After about a month of doing this, I arrived one day to no train. A staff member was nearby, so I asked "Isn't there usually a Hayes train about now?", to which the reply was "Sorry mate, it was on time today." 😂 Inspection of the timetable showed my new commute depended on the train being about 6 minutes late each day! 🤔 Naturally, this timeliness was rare. The next day the train was late so I caught it as usual. Connex Southeastern were crap, but they were fairly reliable at being crap. Which is better than some recent franchisees have been. 😢
@@myonlydemandisbacktowork8759 You realize you forgot the third Connex which was also a rail operator around 2000 - 2010 which was Connex Melbourne, which was a rail operator ad the result of Melbourne's rail network being privatized in the late 1990's and early 2000's, which alongside with M>Train, Connex didn't last long, only around 9 years, and M>Train lasted even less, because later on Connex bought M>Train, then in 2009 Connex was replaced with Metro Trains Melbourne, which is still operating today. So there actually was 3 Connex rail operators. I only thought there was one, Connex Melbourne.
@@thenetheriteminecartzactnm I knew I wasn't the only one who never knew the British Franchises existed. I spent a while trying to check if they are the same company. Connex honestly do not understand how to run railways.
@@MC_NavyYT78 Connex Melbourne was famous for issues from late trains to even causing short circuits in the overhead wires, and here in Melbourne our rail network is electrified at 1500 volts DC using overhead wires, but the regional area is not electrified and uses diesel trains such as the N class locomotives with N type carriages, Sprinter railcars and the high speed 160 km/h (100 MPH) VLocity DMU (Diesel Multiple Units)
Well the company had arranged the plans to have the driver be back at three bridges , but when that service was canceled they didnt spare a cab , mightve been a bit bold but its not fully agreeable either to let your own children be stranded
“This is a class 423 unit. It has 32 wheels and it’s operated by a company called Connex. Who decided to make the train look like a stained mattress” - Jeremy Clarkson
And Transdev lost their Region 10, 12 and 13 bus contracts too in NSW, the only contracts they’re running these days is the Sydney Ferries, Sydney Light Rail (both Dulwich Hill & CSELR Lines) and Sydney Bus Region 9 with John Holland as a JV, they’ll run the Parramatta Light Rail when that opens.
Also - the Connex liveries were utterly dreadful. I used to commute between Orpington and London Bridge. A journey which should have taken 25 mins. It frequently took 35-40 mins and about once a week on average would take some 50 mins - double. I basically had to get the train before the one I should have needed.
For the early 00s I don't hate the Connex branding to be honest! Yellow, however, isn't great on trains though! I am quite glad I never got to use Connex, they seemed pretty bad.... thanks for watching though!
@@Vanmanyo the blue + white livery currently on the networkers is, imo, one of the best liveries out there. Simple, effective, and rather smart looking.
Connex/Veolia were awful. Auckland kicked them out and Melbourne kicked them out too. They also ran the Stockholm tunnelbana as well and were kickd out by Hong Kong MTR (who also are part of a consortium to run Metro Trains Melbourne as well).
I remember comparing South West Trains and Connex South Central back in 1999/2000 in the Portsmouth area. Both suffered from having ageing slam door trains which weren't the best passenger experience. However, South West Trains did make a partial effort to reupholster seating on some units, whilst Connex made no effort whatsoever. Irrespective of new or old seat fabric, South West Trains interiors were kept cleaner than Connex interiors. The exterior Connex livery didn't help matters. The terrible brake dust of the old days was much more visible on white and yellow than on blue, red, orange and white. As for punctuality, generally there were lots of punctuality issues back in that era with many operators, but Connex South Central was bad to the point where delays were an expectation.
Also SWT replaced their stock... Eventually! The desiros and coradias were huge upgrades of course, but I believe they waited until 2004 to retire their last slam door stock
Great bit of railway history and one I wasn’t aware of. Thank you. Voice over sounded fine - good recording and still clearly spoken, even if not your usual 100%. Nice one and you’ve got a new subscriber here.
I was under the impression that Connex had started buying the 377s (Southern) and 375s (Southeastern) before Govia took over. The internal seat livery was of Connex design
I've found other than the trains there hasn't been any improvements since it became Southern. At least for the route I use its never been this bad. I travel from Southampton to Gatwick multiple times a year and these days i'm lucky to do it all on 1 train or within 15 mins of the intended time. In the last 2 years i've had 3 occasions where the journey has ended up taking 1- 2 hours longer than intended due to delays and cancellations. They just love to throw you off the train mid route due to delays.
I’ve had some personal experience with SE rail services during the mid-80’s and from 2010-present, so this is one era of the southern BR that I’m not familiar with. Lost coaches? Sounds like a Thomas The Tank Engine story. Confusion and delay, indeed! Thanks for an interesting and will documented video! Subscribed.
Connex in general have been horrible train operators across the world. Melbourne had connex for around 11 years before they were stripped of the franchise in 2009. The reason? Forgetting how to properly run a railway network with constant delays and cancellations which all culminated in the 2009 heatwave which ultimately saw them replaced with the current operator, Metro Trains Melbourne.
They dropped connex (transport) and onyx ( waste management and disposal) and took on the name of the parent company not only were they losing the connex franchises but also losing council bin contracts hand over fist too. I worked for them at the time . Hated it lasted 6 months . Bullying from the top down . And if you mentioned it were told "its the French way"
Yep, considering they held the Melbourne, Victoria suburban railway network contract for 10 years, and actually ran buses under the Connex name in Perth, Sydney and Brisbane until 2006, when it finally got renamed to Veolia Transport.
That was very well-written and easy to follow. Your documentary type films are a good niche for you, the time you spend on research is worth it, I hope. Living in Scotland I seldom use trains in the south-east of England, so wasn't really aware of how bad Connex were - although I do recall a friend who lived in Greenwich for a while joking about them. Get well soon!
I had my one and only slam door experience on a return trip London-Brighton in ‘94. Must have been NSC, the shadow from NSE, back then I didn’t realise the coming horrors of financialised franchises. Here in 🇳🇴 we still had our BR equivalent NSB, but the ‘steal’ of property rights were on their way. What is called ‘privatisation’ isn’t really about the operators, it’s about ownership and how numerous legal entities can exploit the surplus value from downstream rentism. Our “common sense” is so rooted in economics - without us understanding what that means, and mixing it up with “freedom” and stuff. Sure, freedom it is, but not outside of the corporate ownership - private and state - public, it’s not. Again, sorry for ranting (a bad habit…). Loving transportation as a societal good & need (and the nerdy details), I can’t see these socioeconomic issues separately - to me the “modern” political economy is ONE transnational common blind spot - not “common sense”. My heterodoxy aside, great work…! 👍
Haha you make some great points and I wish I had the opportunity to go on slam door train in passenger service (my closest was in 2022 when Avanti West Coast lent out some of their services to Locomotive Service Ltd who had some mk3 slam doors - but I still don't know if this was a full passenger service or not!). Thank you though!!
@@Vanmanyo Yes, but being an old fart (58), I definitely didn’t realise the experiential (human) value in older stock AND safety culture back then. I didn’t document or photograph any old clunky vehicles in my “youth”, just dreamed about ‘progress’ sending them to the scrap yard. I just wanted to get to work in time, like most people. And, that’s where we are - we want to get to work in time, in a society that tells us that we must save time - not waste it. Dang it, turn that ‘fact’ on its head, and strange new (actually very old) questions come up, all by themselves…🤓 We are _given_ common sense, not making it up ourselves. That idea - _manufacture of consent_ - came up in a book in 1924, 100 years ago. Well, I’m not *that* old, but my grandparents were young back then, probably wanting steam to “progress” into something better. Better because (insert)…? 😅
Haha thanks so much!! I already have the next few 'planned', but I've got sooo many suggestions!!! I'm sure I'll get round to the East Coast eventually!
@Vanmanyo in The Netherlands when Veolia Transport (wich was of course former Connex) took over the Maaslijn and Heuvellandlijn franschise from NS at 10 December 2006 it ran also with some older stock namely the DH1 and DH2 wich where build from 1981 to 1983 and modernenised in 1995 ran on the Maaslijn on the service Roermond-Venlo-Nijmegen + the rush hour train service Nijmegen-Venray(sometimes further to Venlo)the 28 year old trainsets ran until 2007 when the Stadler GTW replaced the DH1/DH2 DMU's and the 12 years younger DM90 trainsets(if compared with these very old trainsets from Connex SouthCentral the DH1/DH2 Wadlopers and DM90 Buffel DMU's we're relativly younger) ran together with the Stadler GTW DMU's until 2008 in the Rush Hour service until some 2 car sets GTW's where lengthened to 3 car sets. And there where problems but that where some small problems so as that on the Maaslijn where the maximum speed 140 km/h is the Wadlopers could only reach a speed up to 100 km/h so from 10th December 2006 until 20th January 2007 due to that the full timetable could not be offered because of the speed of the wadloper trains. The trains were too slow to meet the running times. That is why Blerick was skipped until January 21, 2007.
Since rail privatisation in the U.K. in the 1980’s it has been a total disaster and alongside it, even more regulation and red tape that has actively prevented any real growth or development on all rail routes that has only resulted in more wastage in the now failed HS2 project following the closure of many lines in the Beeching cuts of the 1960’s and where very few UK lines have a dedicated first class option aside from sleeper trains from London to Scotland or the Channel Tunnel - even the existing lines struggle to be maintained according to appropriate safety standards and compared to many rail networks in mainland Europe, even Eastern Europe, the U.K.’s rail network is a total shambles - thank goodness that my native Ireland learned from the mistakes of the U.K. with Irish Rail and did not have private operators on its lines - far more radical and creative thinking is needed and for example, have a high speed, first class line from Hull, through Leeds & Manchester to Holyhead with first class compartments and meals onboard, ditch the useless bodies like Network Rail and ORR as being no longer fit for purpose in the 21st century and get started on the high speed undersea rail tunnel from Holyhead to Dublin as quickly as possible - and just stop with the lame excuses, just get it done - the current state of the U.K. railways is totally inexcusable and unacceptable and needs strong leadership and strong management to massively improve standards in all areas - and strong legal and other radical action needs to be taken against trade unions and others who are holding back progress, where progress is in the national interest - private investment to date has been piecemeal and simply not radical enough, what is really needed is a consortium of companies and investors who will have the governments full legal and other backing to radically change laws to help improve things all round
Central Trains needs a video. I did a bit of work with them about 20 years ago that only lasted a couple of months. A couple of months of my life I'll never get back...
Connex South Central did order new trains, I remember having to show "important" people round the first unit delivered as it was assisted into platform two at Brighton by a Thameslink unit - it was that new it didn't have any shoe gear fitted. I remember it as it was the only time I wore the company issued hat. South Central/Southern changed the carpet colour on the units they ordered so that was a way to identify Connex ordered units too... Passengers expected new trains to just arrive and didn't grasp the fact they had to be designed and built so South Central introduced the "Big Paws Bear" poster campaign explaining the big pause. As far as I know only two people were asked to wear the big paws outfit for piblicity/recruitment - I don't know who the other person was.
@@Vanmanyo It was really interesting, thank you for making it. Reminded me of happier times and ceremonial Connex tie burning when the franchise was finally over.
Don't know if this was mentioned already but there's still a Connex South Central banner on a bridge outside Penge West station, last time I checked was around April
Just looked on streetview and it's seen better days that's for sure! The one I can think of is at Brixton at the Atlantic Road junction, but the Connex logo is very faded (still has the yellow though!)
British Rail's Network Southeast was far better run, and greatly improved my local service with new trains and enhanced frequency, yet privatisation was meant to improve things. Government propaganda, which regrettably was believed by the gullible, called BR inefficient. I often wonder if there was a hidden (EU) agenda to transfer everything, including train manufacture, into foreign ownership- well that has certainly been the result. Perhaps there should be a "Connex Award" for governments who have failed transport policies- Rishi Sunak being the current contender.
Thank you! I looked up old articled (The BBC were very good) and just generally found old articles, passenger accounts, used wikipedia etc. It was very difficult to find stuff as it is very scarce!
On both franchises, Connex upset the Platform Staff with their insistence of outfitting them with pseudo French Uniforms. So many of the Staff told me that they hated the uniforms, especially the "kepi" caps. Connex also lost the London Bus "franchise" pretty quickly too. They also upset their staff and many went sick (just like the rail drivers/guards etc.) causing loads of cancellations. The 156 (which was one of their "services") was a joke - and not a funny one, with massive gaps due to driver absences. As far as the rolling stock was concerned, the old Southern Central Division provided old "slammers" that had seen better days. There could be no excuse on the Eastern section where they inherited a majority of newish suburban stock (465/6s) and new Class 365s to supplement the CEPs/VEPs and the odd CIGs. The CEPs, though far from new, had been completely refurbished but many were in woebegone condition (and Connex were responsible for most of this). For me, Connex Management were out of their depth, not heeding their own staff nor the Rail Unions. The Staff situation affected both Rail Divisions and the Bus Group; Connex got what they deserved IMO.
The 411/6 units were the Brighton depot "pets." They were allowed to make only one return journey a day, weekdays only, I believe, and spent the day at Streatham Hill sidings. I think the aim was for three of them to become a heritage unit. The fleet engineer at Porterbrook was very sympathetic to the preservation movement and that is why some EMU vehicles are still around, including, probably, the odd class BIG unit buffet car. The quality of the Brighton line service had taken a hit when Thameslink started and that was the end of the popular buffet cars.
So what ive learned from Taitsets video and this is that Connex couldn't run a railway for the life of them. Also it shows me that privatization in the British sense was and is a very bad idea.
The age of the stock was not a problem. Under the BR regime the highly standardised mark 1 stock had been regularly overhauled at main workshops to as-new condition, on a production line bases. Connex inherited a fleet that was good quality despite its age and could perfectly well have remained in service for a further 15 years. The replacement stock was cramped and with uncomfortable seating, and the ride quality is inferior. The name Connex was wrong for a start. Then they devised a livery that could not be applied to the trains. Then they messed up the Brighton line by replacing the CIG units with tarted up 319 units. The CEP units that were based at Brighton were superb. They had were the only ones to have replacement bogies and were among the smoothest running EMUs ever. They were carefully looked after - the owners, Porterbrook, kept an eagle eye on them to make sure they were well cared for; they were Brighton depot's "pets".
I have been on Connex South Eastern before it rebranded and renamed to Southeastern. When Govia took over the Southeastern Franchise. And still Southeastern is going strong. And of course Southern which merged with Thameslink and Great Northern (formerly First Capital Connect). Which Govia re-branded the TSGN franchise to Govia Thameslink Railway in 2016. Maybe you could do the East Anglia franchise with One Railway/NXEA (National Express East Anglia), WAGN, First Great Eastern and Anglia Railways (which all have merged together as (Abellio) Greater Anglia).
And also Veolia didn't had the sufficient trains (Stadler GTW's)available, the promised rush-hour trains between Nijmegen and Venray will not run when the timetable starts. When more equipment became available in March 2007, additional local trains could run between Nijmegen and Boxmeer during rush hour. Only from the 2008 timetable change the rush hour trains began run to Venray. And on the Heuvellandlijn from 2006 to 2008 NS Plan V's/Mat64 EMU's where leased to Veolia Transport and got logo's and ran on the line until 2008 when the Stadler GTW EMU's came in service. So these services had some little trouble in the beginning but after it it was all good
Connex Southcentral was a bit of a joke really. The trains were so old you thought they would fall apart, every bump on the track was nuanced by no shock absorption and the uniforms were a bit poxy too. As for the customer service. I preferred Network Southeast. The joke was when you had something planned, what time you would actually get back. I switched to Thameslink back then as at least it was a little more punctual.
Thing is dont get me wrong they needed to invest in new rolling stock but they were only doing the bare minimum of maintenance on the existing stock. Like the coupling incident never happened on SWT (to my knowledge) and they had trains of a similar age
I go on some of these routes daily (or regularly) and to imagine that my carriage could have just detached like that has a crazy verisimilitude. The current situation is still bad but at some point it was worse than trans-penine express or avanti. Incredible how shameless people can be.
What happened to the 1M+ fine imposed? Did it go back to the benefit of the passengers who had paid too much for appalling service? Or did it all go reduce the Country’s balance of payments deficit?
Thanks for joining Andrew! I can imagine how they weren't great at all! It's incredible to me that trains as good as the 171s replaced trains as bad as the thumpers!
Is this the same Connex that ran Melbourne's trains for years? Their service was so bad, and they were so hated by the public (they were running Melbourne's entire suburban rail network that has to carry hundreds of thousands of people per day). I cannot remember the details exactly, but they were stripped of their contract. Now Hong Kong's MTR corp runs the system, but it should just be government run. Connex was so famous in Australia for being possibly the most hated company to have ever existed. Edit: Just saw comments from other Aussies. It appears many of us still remember the traumatic experience of putting up with Connex! 🤣 I cannot even begin to describe how hated they were. There's a very famous photograph of one of their trains broken down, and the train driver has changed the pixel display to read "this train is f*cked" - except the driver didn't censor it at all.
@@Vanmanyo I just saw that there is a video by MetroManMelbourne entitled "Connex: Melbourne's Worst Rail Operator" - I'd really recommend you check it out just to see why so many Australians are in these comments stunned that this nonsense happened in other countries.
The Southern Region is a HUGE network. If one company was to run all of them they would face similar issues to that of Connex, GWR and Northern. One of the reasons why operators like Chiltern are so successful is because they have a smaller network that they can put all of their focus on.
NSE ran it all didnt it so would work and shared stock between southern and southeastern would be better. I hate how stock is not shared very well anymore. And so differientiated between companies.
My thoughts on Connex South Central. They were totally shocking. Really, appallingly bad. My thoughts out of 10. 0.5 and that is being really generous.
In Melbourne Australia we used to have Connex never trust the French to run anything that involves public transport we used to have connex in Melbourne for the trains and then eventually trans dev ran part of the bus network and they were absolutely useless buses never showing up on time the state of the trains were a complete mess connex viola and Trans Dev are shit in the end the buses got re contracted with a new company called kinetic
@Vanmanyo thay hadn't got rid of the last of the Hitachi trains as thay were obliged to do and we had no ac on the comeng trains with half of the trains being hevaly delayed or outright cancelled
