The SRTA has lodged its objections to the proposed double decking of the Bradbourne Park Road car park. As we have already reported, there are better solutions if Sevenoaks District Council works with Network Rail and Southeastern on alternative provision … Continue reading →
For years we have been pressing for a second “Ticket Vending Machine” at the busy Kippington entrance to the station.
We finally secured agreement from Southeastern last summer. Now, after nine months of inexplicable further delay, the new machine has been installed and switched on.
Unlike the existing machine it is anonymous, and it does not take cash. But it is a welcome step forward.
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In October 2015 Southeastern launched a Community Panel and invited customers to join it. It has been used to recruit testers for the Problem Reporting Application, but a principal part of the Panel was an online, members-only, discussion group.
However Southeastern do not appear to have made the resource or cultural commitment to engage with members of the Panel and to draw them into a dialogue to improve their train service. So at the moment the Panel is not serving a useful purpose.
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Sevenoaks District Council want to add two decks to its car park in Bradbourne Park Road; they have the money, but there are objections. Southeastern want to add a deck to their car park in Morewood Close; that would be better, but they don’t have the money. We think that by working together they could create a more acceptable and cost-effective way solution.
Members of the Southeastern Community Panel have been taking part in an eight-week trial of a feedback application.
It’s a good idea, but its execution needs more work on usability, feedback, social engagement, gamification and transparency.
Southeastern’s half-million customers, from one of the most talented parts of the world, are an incredible resource. The company need to do better than this to engage and use them more effectively to help improve their rail service.
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Karen Harding, our Borough Green correspondent, reports on the current state of the Maidstone East line services.
The general consensus amongst people I speak to, is that the Maidstone East line is treated as the poor relation. Since 2010 I have noticed a marked increase in the number of people travelling, both during the week and at weekends, particularly in the last couple of years. There needs to be increased capacity and frequency, particularly to/from Blackfriars in peak hours; this would avoid the need for people to travel to Sevenoaks for more frequent services.
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