Here’s SRTA supporter Paul Malyon, who travels from Dunton Green. He’s in the unlit main passenger shelter there.

It was on 17 November that Paul first told Southeastern that the lights were not working in the main shelter at Dunton Green. We’re previously written about this here. Three months on, the problem has still not been fixed.

Although we have been working with Paul throughout to try and get some action from Southeastern, we are told that it was not until around 20 January that an “engineer” actually went to look at the problem. The engineer apparently reported that a replacement motor was needed and needed to await the part. A further four weeks on we are still waiting.

We have been told that Southeastern do not undertake station maintenance themselves but have contracted it out to a company called NG Bailey. Indeed, according to that company’s website they are “a trusted partner of … leading [sic] Train Operating Companies, such as … Southeastern” and they “use our specialist expertise in station maintenance to optimise the full value of rail for passengers, the wider community and the country itself”. Moreover the firm has recently won the Network Rail “Supplier of the Year” award, which will tell rail passengers how good they are. We will all be reassured to know that they have won a contract to provide fire safety and security systems at London Bridge.

We are wondering why a specialist stations maintenance company cannot do a relatively simple job like fixing the Dunton Green shelter lights in three months. After all, their Twitter site says that they have “a deserved reputation for excellence”.

We are also wondering why Southeastern cannot effectively manage their contract with the company to get them to do the job that our fares are paying them to do.

We’ve asked both  Southeastern and NG Bailey for comment on this article, but they have failed to respond.

Meanwhile, here is the sequence of Paul’s regular reminders to Southeastern:

Lights in shelter at Dunton Green station not working. Please fix @Se_Railway. @SevenoaksRailTA #darkandscary

— Paul Malyon (@PaulMalyon) November 17, 2014

18 Nov 2014 0710

@PaulMalyon We’ll get this checked out Paul. — Southeastern (@Se_Railway) November 18, 2014

20 Nov 2014 1002

@SevenoaksRailTA @Se_Railway Not fixed yet..

— Paul Malyon (@PaulMalyon) November 20, 2014

24 Nov 2014 1057

@Se_Railway @SevenoaksRailTA Have these been sorted yet? — Paul Malyon (@PaulMalyon) November 24, 2014

05 Dec 2014 1707

Dunton Green shelter lights still out @Se_Railway. Any chance of a fix before 2015? @SevenoaksRailTA

— Paul Malyon (@PaulMalyon) December 5, 2014

05 Dec 2014 1709

@PaulMalyon Evening.. Just for clarity, can you confirm which platform this is? I’ll drop the Station Manager a note and chase up — Southeastern (@Se_Railway) December 5, 2014

05 Dec 2014 1712

@Se_Railway London bound platform. It’s the large shelter.

— Paul Malyon (@PaulMalyon) December 5, 2014

12 Dec 2014 0750

Main shelter lights at Dunton Green still not working @Se_Railway. We’ll bring candles shall we? @SevenoaksRailTA — Paul Malyon (@PaulMalyon) December 12, 2014

16 Dec 2014 1138

@Se_Railway @SevenoaksRailTA Any news on the lights at Dunton Green station?

— Paul Malyon (@PaulMalyon) December 16, 2014

22 Dec 2014 1505

@Se_Railway has anyone fixed the lights in the main shelter at Dunton Green yet? I reported it weeks ago.. — Paul Malyon (@PaulMalyon) December 22, 2014

06 Jan 2015 1121

@Se_Railway none of the shelter lights at Dunton Green are working. When will you fix? Date please, no more excuses. @SevenoaksRailTA

— Paul Malyon (@PaulMalyon) January 6, 2015

12 Jan 2015 1538

@Se_Railway @SevenoaksRailTA any news on some working platform & shelter lights at Dunton Green? — Paul Malyon (@PaulMalyon) January 12, 2015

13 Jan 2015 1830

Dunton Green update. No shelter lights still.. Any news @Se_Railway cc @SevenoaksRailTA pic.twitter.com/yooaZHQo6e

— Paul Malyon (@PaulMalyon) January 13, 2015

13 Jan 2015 1902

@PaulMalyon is this the fault that you first reported to @Se_Railway in November please? — Sevenoaks Rail Assn (@SevenoaksRailTA) January 13, 2015

14 Jan 2015 0652

@SevenoaksRailTA @Se_Railway Yes, same problem. Main shelter, no lights.

— Paul Malyon (@PaulMalyon) January 14, 2015

16 Jan 2015 0743

07:40 from Dunton Green late again.. @Se_Railway bothered? Doubt it. No lights in shelter still either. @SevenoaksRailTA — Paul Malyon (@PaulMalyon) January 16, 2015

16 Jan 2015 0818

@PaulMalyon I will report the lights in the shelter, thanks

— Southeastern (@Se_Railway) January 16, 2015

16 Jan 2015 0819

@Se_Railway they’ve been reported since November.. We need a fix date please. @SevenoaksRailTA — Paul Malyon (@PaulMalyon) January 16, 2015

20 Jan 2015 1751

Wondering if the shelter at Dunton Green will have lights when I arrive home.. Hmm.. @Se_Railway

— Paul Malyon (@PaulMalyon) January 20, 2015

20 Jan 2015 1738

@SevenoaksRailTA Bad news I am afraid, They need to replace a motor for the lights at Dunton Green & need to await the part. I am sorry. — Southeastern (@Se_Railway) January 20, 2015

21 Jan 2015 1105

@PaulMalyon The lights in shelter Dunton G the engineers are waiting for parts to finish the job. Thanks for letting us know about it. — Southeastern (@Se_Railway) January 21, 2015

05 Feb 2015 1032

@Se_Railway A cold train is better than no train I guess.. Any news on the shelter lights at Dunton Green? @SevenoaksRailTA — Paul Malyon (@PaulMalyon) February 5, 2015

09 Feb 2015 1133

@SevenoaksRailTA @Se_Railway not yet! — Paul Malyon (@PaulMalyon) February 9, 2015

Archived version of the website pages linked in this article are here, here, here and here.