I think the Transport Users’ meeting could be described as the June Slaughter show because most of the questions came from her,
from memory, only one each from Councillors Adams, Hinkley and Hunt.
Probably that is doing Dylan from the Youth Council an injustice.
The format is that on-line guests from the transport
companies report on their subject of interest and open themselves up
to questioning. Here’s what happened last Tuesday…
Unusually Councillor Slaughter opened proceedings with a question. Why has
Southeastern decided not to take advantage of the new minimum services levels
legislation on strike days? I regarded the response as a bit of a
non-answer but
not wishing to be judgmental it is repeated verbatim below.
Turning to the strikes, there is at the moment, it is true to say that it is not
a dispute with Southeastern or other operators. The RMT, there’s been progress
in negotiations there. They are not currently undertaking strike action. The
third and final union ASLEF is still in dispute with Southeastern and the rest
of the industry so there will be strike action from ASLEF and they represent the train drivers and when the train drivers go on strike
we can’t run any services at all whereas with the RMT when they are on
strike we can run some services so there is a difference in impact and the
next strike action is on the 30th next Tuesday and between the 30th and the
5th of February. so it’s Tuesday to Tuesday, there will be strikes on other
train companies so if your are planning to travel on another train company
you might find there is disruption or complete closure of the network because of strike action.
There is also an overtime ban between the 29th of January and 6th of February which means
that drivers will not book on journey time shifts if there is a need to fill a
gap if a driver is ill or whatever but we are intending to run a full service
on those days so hopefully that won’t cause too much disruption.
On the minimum service levels, the legislation
is now in place but Southeastern and all other train operators decided that
it would not be right to implement this at this time but that does not rule
out implementing it in the future. It is a judgment call by each train
company and it is a judgment call on whether it is right to implement that and whether it can
be implemented safely so it could be implemented in the future.
Councillor Slaughter may have been as unimpressed as I was because she tried to
identify the real reason, “Is it safety?”
There are various reasons, safety is one of them. If our Directors make an
unsafe decision they can be prosecuted. It would be the first time the
legislation was implemented in the UK and we need more time to prepare and we
have not yet had time to plan how it could be done effectively and safely.
Note: Unlike the previous quoted response, this one is abbreviated.
Also from Southeastern; performance levels have improved across the board over
the past twelve months although the storms of the last few weeks have not
helped. Several trains were damaged by fallen trees. Staff are being
recruited with the intention of keeping “gatelines” open later. Albany Park,
Bexley, Bexleyheath and Falconwood were specifically mentioned as getting
10 p.m. closures instead of 8. This is to address revenue and
anti-social behaviour issues.
Albany Park services will be increased. Direct services from Gravesend to
Victoria via Bexley will be introduced. Sidcup ‘rounders’ could be
reintroduced by December 2024 but requires DfT approval and funding. The number
of old Networker units is now reduced to 161. (Whilst the word units was used
the context suggested that the number referred to daily services.)
Dylan asked for a Bexleyheath to Sidcup ‘rounder’. (Has there ever been one? As
a North Kent line user it would have made no impact on me.)
North Kent line for Abbey Wood, top left. To Bexleyheath bottom left. To Dartford top right. To Crayford bottom right.
The Southeastern man was unsure of the route availability. Maybe, like me, he thought the Bexleyheath line trains
used to turn back towards Slade Green and not Crayford. He could only offer to provide
an answer later. Dylan added that unlike Bromley, Bexley borough was no longer
served by any long distance trains at all which caused would-be passengers to
travel into London before coming back out again.
“Trains are provided to serve the most travelled route. If you compare the
number travelling from Bexleyheath to the numbers from Bromley it would be very
small.” (If there is no service, people cannot use it. I found the same chicken
and egg problem routing international telephone traffic during my time with BT.)
Dylan repeated his question emphasising the fact that he was talking about long
distance journeys to Rochester and the coast etc. and not trips to London or
Bromley. Providing the service might create a demand. At the moment there are no
Southeastern trains beyond Dartford on the North Kent line.
Southeastern accepted that Dylan had made “some good points”. I have no wish to
be condescending but how is it that a schoolboy has more ideas on how to improve
the railway than the professionals?
Moving from the Southeastern input to Network Rail and
as reported earlier,
Slade Green and Abbey Wood are incident hotspots. Trespassers are a major
problem and caused 18,000 minutes of train delays in the South East last year. Drones are increasingly used to locate them.
Lewisham station is being looked at with a view to a redesign including the DLR platforms. Bexley station
access improvements are expected to be operational from about April after UK Power
Networks encountered a problem supplying power to the lifts. The cost was about
£6 million. A rather more complex scheme will be implemented at Hither Green.
Councillor Slaughter asked a question. One about drones and another about Slade
Green. It has a trespass and vandalism problem. Councillor Hinkley asked about
the possibility of improving access to the platforms at Sidcup, Erith and
Crayford. The lengthy answer could perhaps be summarised as “Don’t hold your breath.”
Dylan asked if the access works at Bexley station would cause any further line
closures but the answer was No.
Like buses themselves, the Bus Services report is going to run later than
timetabled. Railways have taken up far too much time already!