January being the month in which fares are increased an elderly friend of mine who used to work on the railway as a booking clerk thought people might be interested in the following fares from Sevenoaks in 1962: –
| Single | Return | |
| London Bridge | 2nd: 5/3d (26p) 1st: 7/11d (39½p) |
2nd: 7/8d (38½p) 1st: 11/6d (57½p) |
| Charing Cross | 2nd: 7/8d (38½p) 1st: 11/6d (57½p) |
2nd: 8/6d (42½p) 1st: 12/9d (63½p) |
Incidentally the Secretary of State for Transport, Chris Grayling, was born on 1 April 1962. So the fare from Sevenoaks to London Bridge has risen by 4,861% since he was born!
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Our Bat & Ball correspondent, Keith Alderman, has now retired. However, when Thameslink allow him, he’s making good use of his Senior Railcard!
Delay Repay Claims: total 1 January 2019 to 31 January 2019 inclusive = £15.60 (Southeastern £15.60, Thameslink £0)
This month’s delays: total 95 minutes, Southeastern 85, Thameslink 10
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Transport Focus have released their Autumn 2018 passenger satisfaction survey. Overall 78% of Southeastern customers were satisfied with their last journey, little changed over a year and still too low.
However on 36 out of 40 specific aspects of the journey – including at stations and on trains – satisfaction was less than 78% – including toilets at stations, toilets on trains, and how Southeastern deal with delays (40%).
Customer satisfaction has not significantly improved over the last year, despite the end of the London Bridge works, many aspects of the journey are still falling well short of what customers expect, and other transport operators are achieving better results with the same Victorian infrastructure. Southeastern should not be getting out the champagne yet!
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This sounds a simple question.
It turns out that the answer is much more complicated.
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There’s an Open Day at Bat & Ball station this Saturday, 19 January between 1000 and 1200. There will be a chance to:
We were caught up in the disruption due to a fire at Ashford on the evening of 20 December. We had to take a taxi from Bromley South to Bat & Ball.
Unexpectedly our claim for compensation resulted in a long, personalised letter from David Eustace, Customer Relations Officer, explaining the difficulties of the evening, apologising for our experience and not quibbling about offering a full refund of the taxi fare. Give the man a bouquet!
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