Our Bat & Ball correspondent, Keith Alderman, has now retired. However, when Thameslink allow him, he’s making good use of his Senior Railcard!
Wednesday 4 December – I am heading for the Round Chapel in Hackney today. At Bat & Ball station this morning a Christmas tree had been placed between the two platform seats near the café on platform two. I wanted to purchase an Off-Peak One Day Travelcard for my journey but the ticket machine and all information screens at Bat & Ball station were not working this morning. Accordingly, I travelled to Sevenoaks on the 09.52 which arrived there one minute early and then bought my ticket there. I had expected that this would have prevented me from travelling on the 09.59 service to Waterloo East, but this train was running two minutes late and I managed to board it. Arrival in London was eight minutes late. If this train was running to time buying my ticket at Sevenoaks would most likely have resulted in at least a fifteen minutes delay to my journey. I wonder if a delay due to a non-working ticket machine would be accepted as a valid reason for a Delay Repay claim?
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Where have the Sevenoaks Station sofas gone?
Update: we’ve now been told by Southeastern that the sofas have been removed because a group of youths were vandalising them, and on one occasion trying to set fire to them. More seriously, the youths also assaulted a member of Southeastern station staff who challenged them about their actions.
Our Bat & Ball correspondent, Keith Alderman, has now retired. However, when Thameslink allow him, he’s making good use of his Senior Railcard!
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On 20 September 2019, I advised Southeastern that there were two lights on the footbridge at Bat & Ball station that were not working. On Friday 8 November 2019, they were still not working, and I contacted Southeastern again. I received a telephone call from Southeastern Customer Services in which they suggested that I should contact Network Rail and advise them of the problem with the footbridge lights at Bat & Ball station. I thought that Southeastern were responsible for Bat & Ball station.
However, I did contact Network Rail and as I expected they confirmed that it was Southeastern who should deal with this problem. I will monitor for progress; as at 29 November 2019 they were still not working.
NB: Although no Southeastern trains now stop at Bat & Ball, Southeastern are still responsible for the maintenance of the station – and of all the other stations on the Darenth Valley line.
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 October 2019 inclusive = £137.36
(East Midlands Trains £5.36, Greater Anglia £8.90, Southeastern £31.50, Southern £2.00, South Western Railway £19.56, Thameslink £15.90, Virgin £53.63, West Midland Railway £0.51). One claim outstanding.
This month’s delays: total 120 minutes, Southeastern 67, Thameslink 53
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Regular readers will recall that I queried with Southeastern why the January fare increase resulted in different season ticket prices to London Terminals for Bat & Ball when compared to Otford and Sevenoaks; historically the fares to London Terminals for all three stations have been identical. The annual fare increase was 3.2%, this was applied to Bat & Ball fares, but Otford and Sevenoaks fares only increased by 3.09%. Southeastern blamed the differences on rounding and advised that the fares were set in stone and will not be corrected/reviewed until the fare revision in January 2020!
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