16 November (Part 2) - Back on track
And
so we come to the beginning of the Transport Users’ Sub-Committee meeting after previously digressing into
roads and
buses.
I arrived very early but the Chairman Cameron Smith, Richard Diment and Sally
Hinkley were already there and as usual greeted me like a long lost friend; even
my own Councillor the always generous and kind Sally Hinkley after I have made
it pretty clear that I cannot get my head around what it takes to work for an MP
who is content to see your Granny die of hypothermia.
Cameron invited me to sit at the main table - which I did not - and speak if I
was inclined to do so - which I briefly did.
After Councillors Slaughter and Davey showed up the meeting began right on time
with a presentation by George Patterson from Southeastern. He had a set of
slides which were unfortunately not available to the Committee and I had not
gone equipped to photograph the screen.
George said that in mid-December trains would recommence looping through Sidcup and
back to the Woolwich line with some tweaks to train times “so check before you
travel” and an overall increase in capacity.
A good number of SE stations are to be deep cleaned and all but one of
Bexley’s stations are included in the programme. George quickly ran through the
list and if I heard the muffled Zoom call correctly Erith was not on it. Sidcup would
have extra work done including repainting and “everything that is broken will be fixed”.
Leaf fall has been later this year but the North Kent and Bexleyheath lines
continue to perform better than the industry average especially in respect of
cancellations (2·6%) where Southeastern is almost the best in the country.
Class 376 trains will be refreshed starting next Spring. Dark blue livery and by
Summer, LED lighting, new floors and seats.
The last batch of almost new class 377s are coming through and “we will be
getting rid of the 30 year old Networkers”. Around 30 of them. The replacement programme will
continue “until the end of the decade”.
A new Communications system will be introduced next week which should improve
customer communications to keep them informed of imminent events like bad
weather and emergency timetable alterations
Councillor John Davey asked what sort of things caused cancellations locally. Just
over half of cancellations are related to infrastructure, Networkers break down
occasionally and are expensive to run. Crew availability has not been much of an issue since Covid.
Councillor Cameron Smith expressed his gratitude for the reintroduction of the
“off-peak rounders but are you going to be looking at expanding into off-peak services
too”. (Maybe there was a slip of the tongue with two off-peaks but that is what has been recorded.)
Fortunately the Southeastern response indicated that it is peak hour rounders
that are returning in December but “I am making the case for the return of
off-peak services as well”. George said - in response to a question from Councillor June
Slaughter - that the new train times are already on the
National Rail Enquiry website and having tinkered with it I can confirm that
there will be peak hour trains from Sidcup to Abbey Wood. Quicker than an SL3
through Bexleyheath!)
Southeastern’s Government subsidy is still quite high but much of it is the
result of being the only Train Operator to run High Speed Services (HS1) and “it
has very very high track access charges. We are trying to renegotiate that”.
Councillor Richard Diment referred back to
a previous meeting where assurances
were given about the opening hours of ticket offices and provided examples of
when and where the service appeared to be lacking. This is probably due to staffing numbers
being dropped to one person who might occasionally need a lunch break etc. Mr. Patterson
took the examples away to check that that answer is valid.
Councillor Diment repeated his little nag about Thameslink stopping at every
station in Kent and six stations in Greenwich but misses both
Erith and Belvedere. This, as we have heard before, is due to timing conflicts
in the London Bridge area but Mr. Patterson said he would discuss the issue with
GTR, the train operator, but they may have further issues north of Blackfriars.
He also said that Southeastern had doubled the frequency of trains at Erith and Belvedere
to pre-Covid levels and some passengers complain about trains that stop too
often. (Bring back the Cannon Street, London Bridge, Woolwich Arsenal and Abbey
Wood flyer that used to get me home in 22 minutes!)
And with that the railways section of the meeting reached the end of the line.