Southern Rail STRIKE details

[Whitechapel]

I know a lot of people on this thread have it a lot worse than I do, but I need a good moan.

I've reached the point now where I'm genuinely debating leaving my current job because of the struggle that is my "commute". I live in Southwick and work in Goring FFS.

I work until 10:30pm, and over the last few months I've almost got used to waiting around at Goring station until gone midnight for a train to finally turn up. My work has even allowed me to leave early to get the last bus back, but even this isn't safe due to trains being 'On Time' when I leave work and 'Cancelled' by the time I've got to the station.

Trains to work haven't been as bad until the last couple of weeks, where they've been all over the place too. And now to top things off they changed timetable for this weeks means there's only one train every two hours that goes directly from Southwick to Goring meaning I'm either late or an hour and a half early or I have to wait around another station.

Just sick and tired of it.

 

[The Albion Roar]

A rarely heard (public) point of view from a train driver...

https://www.facebook.com/BBCSouthToday/videos/vb.153132638110668/1078371385586784/?type=2&theater

 

[Deadly Danson]

A rarely heard (public) point of view from a train driver...

https://www.facebook.com/BBCSouthToday/videos/vb.153132638110668/1078371385586784/?type=2&theater

A really good, simplified yet articulate representation of the problem of doo and why some of us care so much about the safety aspect. There is more to it of course but good on that driver.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

[tweet]752868726509334528[/tweet]

 

[pearl]

I've been in touch with the club. Southern have committed to get back to them early next week regarding match day services so we'll hear after that.

any news?

 

[The Albion Roar]

A demonstration is being held at Seaford this evening at 6pm to protest at the number of trains cancelled. There are just 15 a day now instead of 79. I think it is the thin end of the wedge, and can see a Beeching type cut on this line.

http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/up...ail-passengers-protest-at-cancelled-services/

 

[Easy 10]

Thankfully I don't have to rely on Southern to get to work (commuters have my deepest sympathy). But I am absolutely bricking it when it comes to the matchday service. Its the only thing I regularly rely on the trains for, and at the moment, I can only see complete and utter CARNAGE laying ahead.

 

[Ernest]

Thankfully I don't have to rely on Southern to get to work (commuters have my deepest sympathy). But I am absolutely bricking it when it comes to the matchday service. Its the only thing I regularly rely on the trains for, and at the moment, I can only see complete and utter CARNAGE laying ahead.

You can get a 700 UNLESS the driver SPOTS you and shuts the DOOR and drives off FIRST

 

[Easy 10]

You can get a 700 UNLESS the driver SPOTS you and shuts the DOOR and drives off FIRST

Bloody hell ENREST, you must have a TOTAL RECALL memory.

You joke though...if the trains are as FUNKED as this, then it'll be the 700 and a BENDY BUS for me to the uni.

 

[DFL JCL]

One positive upshot from the temporary timetable, they seem to have freed up some more modern trains. Usually have to suffer the 3&2 seat configuration on my way home but the newer trains have been used the last couple of days.

 

[pasty]

Oh the irony last night. So there are 350 fewer trains on the timetable, yet the 1815 GE from Victoria was delayed due to congestion

 

[albionite]

One positive upshot from the temporary timetable, they seem to have freed up some more modern trains. Usually have to suffer the 3&2 seat configuration on my way home but the newer trains have been used the last couple of days.

They have to. A lot of stock are out of miles and have stopped being serviced.the 442s are being kept at three bridges ready to be taken away

Mostly why it's been such a mess. They don't have the stock and not enough staff.

Nothing to do with staff sickness.

http://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rssb-report-backs-rmt-warnings-on-platform-danger/

 

[Deadly Danson]

They have to. A lot of stock are out of miles and have stopped being serviced.the 442s are being kept at three bridges ready to be taken away

Mostly why it's been such a mess. They don't have the stock and not enough staff.

Nothing to do with staff sickness.

http://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rssb-report-backs-rmt-warnings-on-platform-danger/

Good report. But don't you know - driver only has been running for years so it must be safe The only way to resolve this issue is to have fewer safety critical staff - that'll help.

 

[Ernest]

Good report. But don't you know - driver only has been running for years so it must be safe The only way to resolve this issue is to have fewer safety critical staff - that'll help.

And of course if there is an incident the driver (or guard if there is one) will be the one dragged off to the Police

 

[Blackadder]

Appreciate this thread is about Southern but can anyone confirm if Thameslink are affected? (This thread is getting a bit large to trawl through).

I haven't been on a train for a couple of months but I am off to London tomorrow. I may change which station to head to, depending on the answer.

Thanks

 

[Ernest]

Appreciate this thread is about Southern but can anyone confirm if Thameslink are affected? (This thread is getting a bit large to trawl through).

I haven't been on a train for a couple of months but I am off to London tomorrow. I may change which station to head to, depending on the answer.

Thanks

Yes but not as badly

 

[Blackadder]

Yes but not as badly

Ta.

 

[Ernest]

Ta.

Wouldn't cut it too fine though

 

[The Albion Roar]

Chris Grayling is the new Transport Minister. Don't know if Claire Perry has retained her place in the department as Train Minister.

Meanwhile, life for commuters in Grayling's own constiuency. From The Daily Mail, dated 4 June 2016.

If anti-Europe MP Chris Grayling’s Brexit campaign is anything like his efforts to get the main railway station in his constituency into London’s Oyster card network, Britain will be in the euro by Christmas.

Grayling, MP for Epsom and Ewell, has been campaigning to get Epsom into the capital’s joined-up transport and contactless travelcard system for years with nothing much more to show than a ‘yeah whatever’ from Southern Railway.

It’s starting to feel like he’s secretly run it as a ‘stay out’ campaign as practise for his get out of Europe one. It really shouldn’t be this hard.

Gatwick Airport, 25 miles from London, is now part of Oyster. Epsom Downs station, in Epsom, is further out of London than Epsom’s main station and is in. Watford, 20 miles from London is in, Amersham, 30 miles, also in, and so on.

But Epsom, just over 13 miles from central London, remains out of the zone thus consigning commuters to flit around one of the world’s apparently best capital cities on trains, Tubes and buses with annual passes made of paper.

Worse than this, however, London Transport lists Epsom as being in London on its website, which means people willing to travel to this provincial outpost assume it’s in the Oyster zone.

Ticket office staff in London also tell people that they don’t need a ticket – because it says so on the website. To deal with this nonsense, Southern Railway employs teams of Stasi-like revenue generators armed with semi-automatic handheld machinery to fine anyone who arrives at Epsom border control without the correct paperwork.

If you arrive without a pre-purchased paper extension, however innocent, you will receive a penalty fare and a lecture.

The thing is, people who get fined for visiting a town tend not to come back. There’s a lot of empty shops between the charity shops in Epsom – ‘Home of the Derby’. It’s not all horses and top hats. Being out is not good for business.

Epsom station is a mess. It’s a perfect example of why private railways don’t work. In theory, it could be a text-book example of the economic conceit of perfect competition - one station used by two competing train companies. What could go wrong?

1. The station is managed by Southern Railway.

2. But the majority of trains running through it belong to South West Trains.

3. If you commute with South West Trains, and suffer one of its regular meltdowns, you are entitled to a ‘void day’ refund. But if you bought your ticket from Epsom station your contract is with Southern Railway so you need to convince a justifiably irritated South West customer services operator that you want money back from a company that didn’t sell you anything.

4. If you commute with Southern Railway, you’ll be aware of the company’s joyless disregard for the times in its timetables. Its lateness is legendary. The SouthernRailUK Twitter page is a high-speed feed of apologies.

5. An annual season ticket from Epsom to the London zones costs more than £2,600. This staggering amount of money gets you to a destination that if you walk up the hill you can see!

6. The good thing about competition, though, is choice. Much of the Southern Railway rolling stock is 10 carriages, comfortable, new and air-conditioned – there’s even on-board toilets, individual tables and plug sockets to charge your laptop or phone.

7. Much of the South West Trains rolling stock on this route has just eight carriages, was built in the early 1980s and is tatty, filthy with no air-conditioning or toilets.

8. South West Trains services do have windows that open but they slam shut when a fast train passes. The misery is compounded in summer.

9. South West Trains turns the heating on in summer.

10. Having no on-board toilet apparently entitles desperate late-night drunks on South West's one-hour stopping services from London to Guildford to relieve themselves into the bins. There are four urinals per carriage.

11. At weekends, South West Trains removes half its carriages ‘for maintenance’. While it’s great that these knackered old wagons are being looked after, it does mean that leisure travellers also get the full standing room only commuter experience on the special weekend half-trains.

12. You’d think, then, that using its ‘competitor’ Southern would be a no-brainer.

13. But South West Trains can get you to London about 10 minutes quicker than Southern Railways – even though it’s the same distance with the same number of (10) stops. And South West runs trains at sensible 15-minute intervals as opposed to Southern’s completely random timetable of a train every now and again, which’ll also probably be late.

14. So it is great news that South West has been introducing a few new carriages!

15. But they’re the same as the old ones.

16. No air-conditioning, no loo, no tables or plug sockets and with the same number of carriages. The only discernible difference is a peculiar new single aisle-facing seat that’s too narrow for a not-that-fat person to get in.

Rail privatisation was dreamt up, probably with a pen on the back of a paper ticket, to fix a problem that could have been tackled from within. Even the tracks were privatised for a while until everyone realised that that was just for a laugh. Unlike a Brexit vote, the decision was able to be overturned.

Perhaps like the EU, London Transport is an old, unwieldy, imperfect institution but joining it or joining the Travelcard card part of it would make one town at the tip of Surrey a better place for Londoners to come and do business in the shops, bars and coffee shops.

Now try to comprehend this: the latest from Grayling is that an IN vote (i.e. for Epsom to be in Zone 6) for Epsom commuters would bring fares for commuters DOWN, which he says is a reason for NOT joining the Travelcard zone.

Irony spotters, thank you – you’re very welcome. In is better for your pocket, after all.

What happens if we leave the European Union in June is anyone’s guess but surely it’s harder to fix a problem if you’re stuck at the frontier shouting at visitors, dishing out penalty fares and spouting nonsense?

+++

Footnote for completists: In the spirit of idiotic competition, Southern Railway has launched its own contactless card ticketing system to rival Oyster. But if you buy your ticket through a third-party such as Trainline - as many company season ticket loan schemes insist - you can’t have one. Trainline won’t sell the cards. Southern won’t talk to Trainline. Grow up everyone! It’s 2016 not 1975.

 

[Steve in Japan]

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/1462...resigned_after_changing_her_tune_on_problems/

Claire Perry resigned (it says here)