This week the daytime Southeastern service to Dunton Green and Knockholt has been halved – from two trains stopping each hour in each direction to one an hour. And once a hour the train will speed through without stopping. This is being done because of a forecast of “Leaves on the Line”. But, while customers will suffer, the change won’t adversely affect Southeastern’s performance statistics.
Update: The amended timetable has been extended for a second week, until Friday 18 November. The same stops will be skipped.
Southeastern have introduced a new timetable for week commencing Monday 7 November because of “expected poor rail conditions” (the current railway industry euphemism for “Leaves on the Line”). There’s an opaque announcement on their website telling customers to check journey planners – that enables a check of individual trains, but makes it virtually impossible to see the whole picture.
We’ve found that half the daytime Sevenoaks to London and London to Sevenoaks slow trains won’t stop at Dunton Green or Knockholt. That means only one train an hour in each direction. The other train in each hour will run fast through Dunton Green and Knockholt, and be non-stop between Sevenoaks and Chelsfield. In total that’s 15 day-time trains removed from each station.
Southeastern are doing the same across the “Metro” network – in total it seems that 651 stops have been removed each day this week. This in addition to the longer journey times and reduced stops already introduced in the Autumn timetable in October.
Southeastern say that they “are skipping stops on a planned basis to maintain the integrity of the timetable” and is “based upon trading off directly impacting a small number of passengers to improve the service for the majority.” That will be cold comfort for Dunton Green passengers who have to wait an extra 30 minutes on the bleak, amenity-free, station or who find themselves paying an unexpected and expensive visit to Sevenoaks when their train doesn’t stop.
Southeastern say that Delay-Repay can be claimed by reference to the original (October?) timetable. That’s good news – but it is not clear on their website and you’d have to convince the claims department that you were trying to catch a train that’s not in the timetable they have.
Strangely issuing a new timetable by 2200 the night before that cancels trains or cuts stops the next day does not count against Southeastern’s PPM performance measure* – although the PPM measure would suffer if the train or the stop were in the timetable and Southeastern cancelled it on the day. Indeed the effect on the PPM figure is leveraged: not only will the cancelled stop not count, but the more reliable service to other stations can reduce knock-on delays. That creates a perverse incentive to take trains out of the timetable in advance at the slightest hint of forecast bad weather or excessive leaf fall – meaning that passengers suffer even if the weather is fine.
* The PPM measure is not part of Southeastern’s franchise commitment, but it is the measure that they put on posters at stations and on their website.
Classic. So hundreds of new houses are built in Dunton Green, and then Southeastern drastically cuts back services. This will force more commuters on the roads to Sevenoaks and Orpington. You couldn’t simply make up such a retrograde policy if you tried Richard Horton.
Well done, guys. An excellent and succinct description of this week’s despicable treatment of Southeastern’s customers. And the underhand, opaque and deceptive way they did it.
Last year I successfully claimed for a half hour delay when the service I intended to travel on between Sevenoaks and Dunton Green was cancelled but ran fast through to either Chelsfield or Orpington due to poor rail/weather conditions. I would encourage those inconvenienced to submit a claim; twice daily if both your morning and evening services do not stop.
@keith
Thanks. The difference here is the stop has actually been taken out of the timetable for the day. Will the claim department recognise that there was supposed to be a train that’s not in the timetable?
As far as I am aware it was the same situation last year when I submitted a successful claim. An amended timetable was introduced whereby one train of the two per hour did not stop at Dunton Green and possibly Knockholt as well due to the poor rail/weather conditions. I think the issue is the published timetable is what should be run and if is not and an amended/emergency timetable is introduced the railway operator is not providing the service they are contracted to run.
I realise this will be no comfort to Dunton Green/Knockholt travellers, but just wanted to add that we’ve had a “revised” timetable on the Maidstone East line since 10 October or thereabouts and not once have our morning trains run to time. In fact, they are running later than the times originally advertised before the timetable change! Add to that the increased number of passengers using the services (it was standing room only when the 7.09 left BRG late this morning – a regular occurrence – and there was a young lady sitting on the floor when we left Otford) and it makes for an increasingly uncomfortable travelling experience. And still the fares will go up in January……..
The headline today on the Southeastern website is that an amended timetable will run until Wednesday 23 November.
Only if you study the amended timetables in detail is it revealed that normal weekday services at Dunton Green and Knockholt won’t resume until Monday 12 December !