Joe Thomas delivers a humorous take on the UK’s rail services ahead of the Easter weekend travel
Looking forward to the Easter weekend without your plans being disrupted by rail replacement bus services, unwanted diversions or simply standing around for hours waiting for a train that never comes?
Never fear, Tempcover is here to provide hassle-free temporary car insurance that lets you borrow a car at a moment’s notice.
Tempcover has created a comical skit along with comedian and actor Joe Thomas, poking fun at some of these nationwide bugbears. The light-hearted video brings to life some of the shared irks of travellers, including having to take the replacement bus and risking “having to pay five times the price of a ticket from Paris to Berlin”.
Joe Thomas said: “It was fun bringing to life some of the well known irks about the prospect of using trains over the holidays”
“But it would certainly be annoying if this was your reality during the long weekend, when everyone else is larking about enjoying the extra days off.
“It was a good laugh to create this little comedy skit, I use the trains all the time – when they’re good they’re great and when they’re bad they’re rubbish.”
The top 15 ‘RAIL FAILS’
Joe’s comedy skit comes following Tempcover’s research of 2,000 adults that found the following issues as major frustrations when it comes to travelling by train:
- Expensive or overpriced tickets
- Delays and cancellations
- Overcrowding
- Lack of available seats and having to stand
- Replacement bus services
- Unreliable timetables
- Noisy passengers
- Lack of toilets or dirty toilets
- Dirty trains
- People taking up extra seats with bags
- Drunken passengers
- People putting feet on seats
- People playing loud music/videos
- Slow trains or too many stops
- People blocking doors when trying to get on/off
What our expert says
Joe’s video brilliantly captures the very real frustrations many endure with UK train travel, using comedy as the vehicle to do so. While it brings some much-needed laughter to a frustrating issue for many, it also raises an important point that unreliable services take away from people’s precious time. Over a four-day Easter holiday, no-one wants their plans derailed
Marc Pell
Managing Director, Tempcover
Do you prefer to drive or take the train?
The top three most annoying rail peeves are costly tickets (35 per cent), delays (34 per cent) and overcrowding (24 per cent) – with almost half of those polled (43%) bracing for disruption over the Easter weekend.
- The average time passengers have had to wait on a rail replacement bus service is 41 minutes, while 20 per cent have done so for an hour or more.
- 84 per cent have had to stand up on their travels for more than 30 minutes, as a result of overcrowding.
- 48 per cent have had their plans ruined due to a delayed or cancelled train.
- The average price of tickets costs almost £110 – with 80 per cent citing train ticket prices as expensive.
- Brits have said that the staff are the silver lining, with 49 per cent saying they are helpful.
Furthermore, 51 per cent would rather drive than catch a train – as you can get straight to your destination (49 per cent), have your own space (38 per cent) and it’s seen as more reliable (35 per cent).
Stay on track with temporary car insurance this Easter
Marc Pell of Tempcover added: “This Easter, car sharing is another way to visit friends and family.
“This is where temporary car insurance can really help. Just borrow a car, get insured in minutes and you can travel on your own terms whenever you want – evening or day, on or off-peak.”
