15 January (Part 1) - Heading for the buffers
I’m not very enthusiastic about allowing Bonkers to stray well beyond its usual remit even when it is by reader request. Neither is it easy to summon up the same degree of commitment to any old subject on demand but my arm has been gently twisted and today BiB lends a little support to the campaign to rid Southeastern trains of its franchise for their alleged shortcomings.
I have been a long term fence sitter on matters Southeastern and
it is only recently that I have become disenchanted with their service.
With eight trains an hour in each direction from Abbey Wood station only seven minutes walk
from home I have long regarded it as my own personal taxi service. Much quicker than a bus when
heading south to Bexley or Sidcup. Unfortunately there is a very high probability
that the chosen train will be cancelled or late.
Southeastern’s own statistics show late running is at 16% but that is a lie. It measures the timing at the
destination station and doesn’t count five minutes adrift as being late at all.
Currently
the fastest rush hour service out of Cannon Street is the 17:06 which
should arrive at Abbey Wood at 17:33. When I used that route
daily many years ago the 17:08 arrived at 17:31 using underpowered slam door stock.
The off peak trains from London Bridge take 28 minutes, they used to take
23 so there really is no excuse for running late.
The constant stream of Tannoyed announcements suggests it is pretty much the norm,
I heard one apologising for a 21 minute delay to the 13:33 today. The image
above explains why. So that will have meant a 31 minute gap in service.
If a train is running ten minutes late at the beginning of the journey it could conceivably adopt a 30 year
old schedule, arrive only five minutes late and be marked as being on time. It’s dishonest.
Southeastern’s official statistics do not show the true extent of the misery
inflicted on passengers but it would be unfair to lay every problem at their door.
Barnehurst’s land slip,
if it was anyone’s fault, was Network Rail’s. So are the daily signalling
problems and the long term disruption at London Bridge, something
that was being proposed when I worked right next door to the station in the 1960s.
The lack of trains is the government’s fault, the lack of sidings in which to
store them is Southeastern’s predecessor’s fault (they sold them for housing
development) and the recent unquestioned extension of Southeastern’s franchise is due to
the idiots in government. Not everything is Southeastern’s fault but their attitude to customers is.
I hear their senior management speak at Bexley Council’s Transport User’s
Sub-Committee meeting and Crossrail’s Liaison Panel meetings and
their anti-passenger, company first sentiments are all too obvious.
The Crossrail staff generally try to be helpful and considerate to local needs
but Southeastern point blank refuses to allow Abbey Wood station to be used as a short
cut (†) even though the alternative can be a half mile walk. I’ve heard Southeastern’s top man
say that their revenue protection scheme is draconian and they will fine a season ticket
holder for leaving his ticket at home. It is simply not a customer focused company.
There appears to be a move towards local services becoming TfL Overground but
the lines I use (Euston - Watford and Liverpool Street - Chingford) are
infrequent compared to the North Kent Line and in the case of the Chingford
route, just as likely to be cancelled or run late.
So I might have remained sceptical about the benefits of a new
franchisee if it were not for a recently introduced Southeastern wheeze which is
an outrageous piece of cheating and well beyond the pale.
It is the practice of ejecting passengers from a stopping service in order to
run it fast to its final destination. It is a straight forward case of falsifying statistics.
It inconveniences many passengers and the object of it is to protect Southeastern’s revenue. Their
company’s philosophy of ‘stuff the paying customer’ could not be more prominently displayed.
For that reason if no other I am happy to bring the petition to your attention.
Notes:
1988 timetable -
Petition.
† Abbey Wood station staff are more accommodating than their bosses
but within the next two months the short cut will close anyway.