25 January (Part 3) - The Transport Users’ Committee - Journey 2
Important things first, there was an error in the first Transport report,
someone was wrongly identified. Corrected now.
Following Sergeant Osborne’s reference to speed guns and catholic boys it was
Mike Gibson’s turn. He is Southeastern’s PR man which has to be one of the most
difficult jobs known to man.
Any reasonable person must accept that half his problems are caused by Network
Rail and as their man was to be next to speak, Mike, I assume, would be choosing his words carefully.
I
took seven pictures of Mike Gibson and as he had his eyes shut in all of them I
gave up. Maybe some will think it is a perfect image for Southeastern but it
would be irresponsible in the present climate to identify Mr. Gibson precisely.
The Chairman circulated an email from Mr. Gibson but to Committee members only,
apparently oblivious to the fact that it was a public meeting and the public has
a legal right to see late input to the Agenda. Fortunately
Councillor Borella was better educated and passed me a copy after the meeting.
Mr. Gibson said that “the predicted meltdown” was avoided over Christmas and New Year when
engineering work dictated that trains must go to Victoria or stop short of
London Bridge at New Cross. The plan for New Year’s Eve worked well.
Additional late night trains have been timetabled since mid-December
in response to passenger demand.
Performance since the start of the year has however been “bad”. There was a
series of calamities culminating in the Barnehurst landslip.
There had been a renewed emphasis on the engineering depot to improve train
reliability and it is currently “the best it has ever been”. Some spare drivers have
been stationed at Cannon Street “to help with service recovery” and staff have
been reminded of “right time start”.
Customers rushing over bridges at the last moment tend to delay trains when seen
by sympathetic drivers. This is going to have to stop because dwell times are
being adversely affected.
Train drivers are to be retrained on line speeds as some like to go slow. With
luck I will no longer see a green light at the end of the Abbey Wood platform
and a train leaving Belvedere a mile and a quarter down the straight and still
have to wait five or six minutes for it to arrive. Crossrail aims to bring an end to it
as well by introducing a kink in the track.
Train times will be “tweaked” to minimise “pinch points at Lewisham and London Bridge”.
“Passenger behaviour” will be modified by moving seats and shelters. In plain
language, trying to get passengers to spread themselves along the platform to reduce loading times.
The trespass problem is being given serious consideration too, if the police are
involved it means power off and long delays.
The Chairman thought the number of replacement buses brought into use during the
Barnehurst incident was inadequate. Mr. Gibson said that rail tickets could be
used in TfL buses too.
Councillor
Stefano Borella had no difficulty in keeping his eyes open and queried the number of rail scrubbers in use for leaf removal
and why during the Barnehurst incident trains were not taken as far as Welling
and reversed because the line there is equipped for it.
The Network Rail man was not aware of any reduction in leaf clearing and was
unable to satisfactorily answer the Welling turn back question. He said that it would
disrupt the timetable and have an impact at London Bridge - as if the timetable
was not disrupted by wholesale cancellations.
Stefano turned back to Mr. Gibson and asked why station lights were turned off
before the time of the last train. Mr. Gibson said they were on a timer so he
would check things out.
Howard Marriner who is a ward councillor for Barnehurst said he only knew of the
landslip when he heard about it on the television news and it took longer than
he would like to
get the details and pass them out via his ward email newsletter. “If
Southeastern could get the information out faster it would be very much appreciated.”
From that point the questions impinged more and more on Network Rail and they
will be reported in ‘Journey 3’.