On 13 Jan 2015 at 10:49pm Belladonna wrote:
Given the news today that one Brighton train wasn't on time even once during a whole year, I wonder what proportion of the Lewes trains are on time. I often travel on the 0742 to London Bridge and over the last year I would say it has been late every day I've used it - on average two days a week. How can we get figures on which trains and what proportion arrive on time ? Does Southern publish figures ? The south coast line is notoriously crowded so delays are frequent. Who do I complain to?
On 14 Jan 2015 at 1:08am Historian wrote:
It's official, they're crap !!
On 14 Jan 2015 at 8:16am Train spotter wrote:
I've caught the 0742 (Gatwick Express) on many occasions and It's arrival at Lewes has always been good. When a train gets up to three bridges and beyond it all becomes very congested. Many TOC's are trying to get their trains in to the city too remember! It only takes one train to run late and it snowballs. Any signal failures etc are under Network Rail (not Southernrail) which people also seem to forget and blame Southern every time. Oh and yes Network rail is still Government run!
On 14 Jan 2015 at 9:15am GhostBike wrote:
It was pretty bad before Christmas but trains have been on time this week.
I think you're right, trainspotter. Southern are hardly perfect but the problems are mainly due to sheer lack of capacity on the line which after all hasn't changed much since the Victorians, despite a huge number of trains trying to get down it every morning. I actually think the system copes remarkably well considering, although their communication and staff attendance could be better....
On 14 Jan 2015 at 9:51am Mark wrote:
@trainspotter. I was surprised to read in your post that Network Rail are government run. Just checked and I see that they came back under government control just this autumn after failing hopelessly as a semi-private enterprise.
On 14 Jan 2015 at 10:15am Its not just London wrote:
Its not just London trains, try taking the xx:44 from Lewes to Eastbourne, any train, any time of day - always late. This January Southern added 2 mins to the timetabled time and even despite this devious slight of hand its still always late! - So much for the minister for bicycles silly signs on the A27!
On 14 Jan 2015 at 12:20pm Humbert wrote:
The trains are a total shambles. But then so is an economy that relies on transporting a huge amount of the workforce a hundred miles a day entirely unnecessarily if business decentralised a bit. Doesn't anyone else think it odd that literally thousands of people from this area travel so far for work every day, to work in businesses that might as well be based anywhere in the country? Focus should be a bit more on encouraging businesses that could be based anywhere to move out of London. Very few have any imperative to be based there anymore.
On 14 Jan 2015 at 1:20pm Clifford wrote:
Humbert, a friend who works in London and worked at home in Lewes three days a week has been told by her bosses she'll have to go in five days. Why? Because they don't like having empty office space.
On 14 Jan 2015 at 3:36pm PLUMPTON LAD wrote:
Generally I find the train service is ok on the line up from Lewes, not perfect but the bottlenecks are always past Three Bridges. As someone else said, they clearly had a nightmare around Christmas, since then it hasn't been too bad though often a few minutes late into Victoria.
On 14 Jan 2015 at 5:43pm Annette Curtin-Twitcher wrote:
I occasionally get the train to Eastbourne as I work there one day a week. It has yet to be on time.
This morning the 8.55 was 5 minutes late. Not much, but I wonder if I'll be able to get a refund for the difference between the pre-09.00 fare and the post-9.00 fare?
On 14 Jan 2015 at 9:35pm kevsy wrote:
When Cameron says that Southern should improve or have their franchise taken away - am i alone in thinking that he should have thought of that before giving them the Thameslink franchise to run as well?
On 14 Jan 2015 at 11:57pm ar10642 wrote:
None of these problems will be fixed by swapping TOCs. They're infrastructure related, and not easily fixed. The Thameslink Programme works going on at London Bridge will help when eventually finished, by increasing throughput at London Bridge, but it's going to cause 18 months of chaos first.
On 15 Jan 2015 at 7:28am kevsy wrote:
That is only partly true, TOC's have latitude over rolling stock quality, timetabling, priorities of one service over another. They juggle their service to minimise penalties not necessarily for the good of the passenger. Let's not get too carried away with the infrastructure is shot so we must accept bad service argument.
On 15 Jan 2015 at 8:22am Belladonna wrote:
I wasn't clear in my OP. I didn't mean late arriving in Lewes - I meant arriving at London Bridge. I think I can count in single figures the times it has been on time, according to the printed timetable (which last year differed to the app timetable!) even with timetable adjustments to allow another couple of minutes, the trains are still late. Yes some of it is beyond the TOC control, but why are Southern's figures significantly worse than other TOC s? Apparently only 40% of their trains are arriving on time now.
I'm just fed up with it, given that I'm paying close on £100 per week for 3 return journeys.
On 15 Jan 2015 at 11:29am ar10642 wrote:
All minor points compared to the root cause which is too many trains on too few paths in the peak. Swapping the TOC rarely achieves any real changes, it's the same trains on the same tracks operated by the same people on the ground. Some suits in the head office change and someone has to peel off a lot of logos and paint some stuff. Bigger things need to happen to make a real difference.
On 15 Jan 2015 at 3:23pm kevsy wrote:
That is only partly true, TOC's have latitude over rolling stock quality, timetabling, priorities of one service over another. They juggle their service to minimise penalties not necessarily for the good of the passenger. Let's not get too carried away with the infrastructure is shot so we must accept bad service argument.