Fiona Gray is an SRTA member who commutes from Sevenoaks to Canterbury. She writes:

All the focus of the discussion of the new timetable is on London-bound commuters. It has disregarded the many other rail travellers who commute daily across the network. Trains that go to London come to and from the rest of the network.  So if you have delays going to and out of London, what do you think the rest of us are experiencing?!

London commuters should consider themselves at an advantage. All literature and staff focus prior to the new timetable focussed on London bound commuters, informing travellers of timetable changes. giving ample time in which to make alternative arrangements of which there are many, many options including bus, DLR and underground to enable arrival at work within a reasonable amount of time.

But it’s not like that for those of us travelling in the other direction:

• Where was the literature for those of us who have to commute across the remainder of the network?
• What alternative opportunities do we have should there be a problem in getting to work on time because of non/late running trains? For us it is the train to our specific destination or nothing.
• Which group of travellers do you think are affected the most when a train London bound morning or evening is running late? It’s us that are turfed off trains, very often with less than a minute’s notice, because it has been decided that now the train is running late it will not be stopping at various stations, including Sevenoaks – all so the train can be in London to bring London workers home on time?
• Having to wait at Charing Cross or Cannon Street is bad enough – but at a country station you end up cold and miserable sitting hoping that there will be a train to get you home, with no one really knowing what is happening, with platform staff with limited information and communication skills and who probably feel just as devalued compared to their London colleagues as we do.

We Kent commuters spend just as much money on our season tickets as London commuters. Where’s our voice? How much notice are Southeastern taking of us?

If you are a commuter to Kent – to Maidstone, Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells, Ashford or elsewhere – or even from London to Sevenoaks! – we would like to hear your views too. Please use the comment box below.