139 minutes of delay over 17 days of travelling: sigh.

Delay Repay Claims; total 1 January 2015 to 31 May 2015 inclusive = £31.06 (Thameslink =
£11.41, Southeastern = £19.65)

Keith is a SRTA member and a regular commuter from Bat & Ball to London via Sevenoaks. Each month he gives his personal experiences and views.

Week of 4 May 2015

Total lateness 51 minutes: Southeastern 35, Thameslink 16

• Tuesday 5 May – The information screen was working at Bat & Ball this morning but those at Sevenoaks were blank. The 07.23 to Cannon Street was full and standing this morning. The driver must have forgotten that he was driving an eight coach train today; he stopped about one coach length past the eight/ten coach stop marker. Slight panic on platform one as people quickly adjusted their boarding positions! I only just got a seat on the 07.28. The 17.24 from Cannon Street was very crowded today.
• Wednesday 6 May – Due to some excellent positioning on platform 1 at Sevenoaks this morning I managed to get a seat on the 07.23 to Cannon Street. I travelled on the 16.29 from Cannon Street today because I needed to be home early; unfortunately there is a ridiculous 28 minute wait at Sevenoaks for the next service to Bat & Ball if I have to catch this train.
• Thursday 7 May – Both the 07.23 and 07.28 were full on arrival at Sevenoaks; I had to stand.
• Friday 8 May – The 07.23 was too crowded to get a seat.

Week of 11 May 2015

Total lateness 49 minutes: Southeastern 17, Thameslink 32

• Monday 11 May – I had to stand, both the 07.23 and 07.28 were full on arrival at Sevenoaks. Congestion at London Bridge delayed trains this morning. The 17.24 this evening was made up of class 375/9 units numbers 375909, 375910 and 375911 it is not often that you see consecutively numbered units making up one train.
• Tuesday 12 May – 07.23 crowded again, a few middle of three seats available. I managed to get a seat on the 07.28. One or two middle of three seats available on departure.
• Wednesday 13 May – Similar to Monday this morning. The 07.23 to Cannon Street was full and standing on arrival at Sevenoaks. The driver again must have forgotten that he was driving an eight coach train today; he stopped about three quarters a coach length past the eight/ten coach stop marker. Slight panic on platform one as people scrambled for the doors!
• Thursday 14 May – Not my normal journey today; Bat & Ball to Elephant & Castle then London Underground to St Pancras to travel to Barrow Hill by Midland Mainline. My homeward journey from St Pancras was to London Victoria then to Otford changing there for a service to Bat & Ball; 18 minutes of delay to my last train of the day.
• Friday 15 May – Another day where I did not travel at my usual times or to my usual destinations. Bat & Ball to Waterloo East via Sevenoaks then Waterloo to Kingston. No significant delays to report today.

Week of 18 May 2015

Total lateness 31 minutes: Southeastern 20, Thameslink 11

• Monday 18 May – The first working day of the new timetable; no evidence of any changes that benefit me by reducing overcrowding or improving connections between trains at Sevenoaks. Both the 07.23 and 07.28 were crowded this morning; I had to stand. Chaos on the concourse of Cannon Street Station this evening. Due to delays and cancellations there were many people waiting for services which made it difficult to get to the platform if your train was already there waiting for departure. With steps between street and platform level Cannon Street is not a very user friendly station when things go wrong; especially when the higher level is full up. The 17.24 departure was very crowded.
• Tuesday 19 May – The 07.23 was very crowded but I got a seat quite easily on the 07.28 this morning. The 17.24 had one four coach unit of low density stock in the formation this evening; very crowded.
• Wednesday 20 May – Passengers were advised that the 07.23 to Cannon Street only had seven coaches this morning. On arrival at Sevenoaks it was noticed that the last coach of the rear unit (465926) was locked out of use. Fortunately it was one of the coaches with first class accommodation! The train was very crowded; even more so on departure. I got a seat on the 07.28 service.
• Thursday 21 May – There were seats available on the 07.23 to Cannon Street this morning but the service from Bat & Ball arrived too late for me to get in to a position on the platform to board the 07.23 and occupy one of them. Unfortunately the 07.28 had some low density stock in the formation this morning; no seats available so I had to stand. The train was very crowded and it was difficult for those passengers who wanted to leave the train at London Bridge to detrain. Now the weather is slightly warmer the air conditioning on Class 375 trains does not seem to cope with the number of bodies on the train and these trains seem to be very hot.
• Friday 22 May – Uneventful morning; 07.23 crowded, 07.28 also very busy no seat for me today. 17.24 from Cannon Street a very slow journey but made the connection at Sevenoaks to Bat & Ball

Week of 25 May 2015

Total lateness 8 minutes, Southeastern 5, Thameslink 3 (I only travelled on two days this week but not my usual journey)

• Tuesday 26 May – Bat & Ball to Hastings today. Thameslink were 3 minutes late arriving at Sevenoaks at the start of my journey thereafter everything ran more or less to time. The booking office clerk at Sevenoaks was living in the past; he advised me that my cheap day return with Gold Card discount was not valid until 10.00 hours. I reminded him that it was 09.30 from 1 January 2015!
• Thursday 28 May – Early start today; too early for Thameslink from Bat & Ball to Sevenoaks, I had to walk. I travelled on the 06.10 from Sevenoaks to Cannon Street this morning; 2 minutes late this early in the day. Ultimate destination Bridgnorth today. Return journey this evening on Southeastern was uneventful; 2 minutes late at Sevenoaks.

Other travel notes

I noticed this month that there is a leaflet display stand at Sevenoaks Station advertising Christmas leaflets; none displayed though!

There is also a poster on platform three at Sevenoaks proclaiming “Great value super off-peak tickets”; the example quoted is Tonbridge to London £13.50 standard return!

People may have read in a newspaper or heard on local radio the story of a man who became trapped in a toilet on a Southeastern train service and used Twitter to contact Southeastern and request assistance but before they responded a young girl rescued him. This is not a new occurrence; sometime in the last year, eighteen months, I was travelling home one night and I thought I heard a female voice shouting “help”. I was right, and I established that a young woman was unable to open the door to the toilet compartment she was in. I suggested to her that she stood as far away from the door as was possible. When she had confirmed that she had done so I put my shoulder to the door; eighteen plus stone shifted it! Once open it was apparent that possibly due to dampness the floor covering had risen up and the bottom of the door was in contact with the floor fouling the passage of the door.

There was an article in a recent edition of the “Kent On Sunday” newspaper about the refurbishment of a third of Southeastern’s trains which advised the start of this project was with their class 375 fleet; (mainline trains with air-conditioning). I hope that this will include the following; but I doubt this will happen: –

• Remove the first class accommodation
• Replace the 3+2 seating in the 375/9 variant with 2+2 seating. The 3+2 seating is uncomfortable, the aisle between the seating is too narrow and frequently the centre seat of the three seat bench is left unoccupied. Passengers are standing rather than trying to occupy the middle seat because the average size of people nowadays means the seat is not big enough to accommodate three people in comfort. Similarly the two seat bench usually causes the person sitting on the aisle side to sit hanging over the edge of the seat. On a lighter note; some of Southeastern’s staff are “out of gauge” for the aisle in a 375/9 and if a ticket check is undertaken passengers finish their journey with bruised arms and shoulders!
• Upgrade the air-conditioning so that the trains are kept at an acceptable temperature when they are crush loaded in the peak periods

I heard on a radio news programme recently report that the latest medical advice is that people should not sit in a chair all day and standing for two hours at work per day is recommended. It could be said that Southeastern are assisting their Sevenoaks customers achieve this target on their services to London in the morning peak period!