Would it have been better with Boris?
Today Which? have published their survey in which Thameslink comes bottom and Southeastern comes second from bottom (by just 1%) of the league table of the best and worst train companies. Southeastern have already responded.
However for Sevenoaks it’s also interesting to compare the ratings of London Overground. A few years ago the London Mayor proposed to take over the Metro services from Sevenoaks, as well as some other routes, from 2015. Sevenoaks passengers backed this strongly, and so did the Sevenoaks Rail Travellers Association. Sadly Kent County Council and some others blocked this, despite it offering all gain and no pain for the county.
So how would our services have looked if Boris had been given a chance? The Which? survey shows that in the view of passengers TfL’s Overground service comprehensively beats Southeastern and Thameslink:
| Southeastern | Thameslink | London Overground | |
| Availability of seating |  |
 |
|
| Cleanliness of toilets | |
|
|
| Condition of the train | |
|
 |
| Punctuality | |
|
|
| Reliability | |
|
|
| Value for Money | |
|
|
| Customer Score | 44% | 43% | 56% |
Actually TfL’s performance is above the national average (52%) for train companies. That’s despite having to contend with some of the problems of high demand in the London area and of Victorian infrastructure that others plead in their defence.
Many long-suffering passengers will ask:
- why the Government turned down the Mayor’s proposals and gave new franchises for all the services to Southeastern and Thameslink when Boris’ people seem to be doing a better job?
- if London Overground can achieve these sort of results with similar suburban services and similar infrastructure why are Southeastern and Thameslink not required to do the same?
PS: the London Mayor’s plans would have brought Oyster and contactless payment to Sevenoaks this year as well.
Absolutely correct. The political decisions made to block the TFL takeover were not in the best interests of our local economy or us as citizens. It’s also important to note that as a public company, TFL have no shareholders. No profits are filtered off – everything goes back into the network. We need to put more pressure on our MP, Council and other organisations to make a change that benefits us. Check out my petition here: https://www.change.org/p/transport-for-london-southeastern-railway-ltd-michael-fallon-mp-extend-the-oyster-system-to-a-zone-7-covering-sevenoaks
An update on the OysterNow campaign. Basically, it will only happen if SE (who will lose some money from it) ask the DfT to give us Oyster. As if that will ever happen!
Letter from the DfT here: http://srta.org.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/20150327-Fallon-1.pdf
Many thanks for your campaigning on this.
We’ll study the DFT letter. It’s a bit odd for DFT to say that they are waiting for the rail industry because it was DFT that required Southeastern to work with TFL to extend Oyster to Dartford and Swanley during the new franchise, and DFT have powers in the Franchise Agreement to make Southeastern implement smart card ticketing subject to meeting Southeastern’s reasonable costs.