A total of 105 minutes lateness – Southeastern 20, Thameslink 85 – a better month for Southeastern, but worse for Thameslink.

Delay Repay Claims: total 1 January 2017 to 30 June 17 inclusive = £62.30

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 05 June 2017

Total lateness 6 minutes: Southeastern 2, Thameslink 4

• Monday 05 June – There was no current train service information available at Bat & Ball station this morning. The information screen at the entrance to the station has now not been working for over a week and today both platform information screens were only displaying “Welcome to Southeastern”. I advised Southeastern of this, I wonder how long it will take them to deal with this problem.
• Tuesday 06 June – The 06.24 from Bat & Ball to Sevenoaks arrived there one minute late today. The 06.31 departure from Sevenoaks to Waterloo East departed six minutes late but made up time and arrived in London two minutes late.
• Wednesday 07 June – The 06.24 from Bat & Ball to Sevenoaks arrived there on time today. The 06.31 departure from Sevenoaks was one minute early arriving at Waterloo East this morning. I travelled home on the 15.43 service from Waterloo East which arrived three minutes early at Sevenoaks. The 16.21 to Bat & Ball was on time. For once, no delays at all!

Week of 12 June 2017

Total lateness 13 minutes: Southeastern 6, Thameslink 7

• Tuesday 13 June – The information screen at the entrance to Bat & Ball station has now not been working for over two weeks.
• Thursday 15 June – My destination is Wareham today and then to travel on the new rail service from there to Swanage. The 07.40 from Bat & Ball to Sevenoaks arrived six minutes late. The 07.51 to Waterloo East was too full therefore I waited for the 08.03. This train had plenty of seats and arrived in London on time.
• Friday 16 June – Heading to Lewes today. I travelled on the 07.56 from Bat & Ball to Otford which was on time. Whilst I was waiting for the 08.10 to Victoria high above the station what appeared to be a crow was attempting to chase a buzzard away from the area. The 08.10 to Victoria was a class 377 train today, on departure from Otford an onboard announcement advised passengers that this is the 08.10 Thameslink service to Victoria. According to the timetable this is a Southeastern service! It arrived in London five minutes late. The Royal Train was alongside a platform at Victoria. I bought my ticket for this journey yesterday using a self-service ticket machine at Waterloo station. The off-peak fare with Gold Card discount was £18.55 and was valid between London Terminals and Lewes. The machine did not offer the cheaper ticket, (£18.50), only valid between Victoria and Lewes.

Week of 19 June 2017

Total lateness 12 minutes: Southeastern 7, Thameslink 5

• Monday 19 June – The information screen at the entrance to Bat & Ball station has now not been working for over three weeks. The 06.24 from Bat & Ball to Sevenoaks arrived there on time today. The 06.31 departure from Sevenoaks was one minute late arriving at Waterloo East this morning. I returned home on the 15.43 from Waterloo East which arrived at Sevenoaks two minutes early. The 16.21 to Bat & Ball was on time. I am advised by a fellow Bat & Ball commuter that Thameslink had problems later at Sevenoaks and a train was cancelled because the driver could not remember the start-up procedure for the new Class 700 trains!
• Tuesday 20 June – The 06.24 from Bat & Ball to Sevenoaks arrived there on time today. The 06.31 departure from Sevenoaks was one minute early arriving at Waterloo East this morning. I travelled home on the 15.43 from Waterloo East which arrived at Sevenoaks two minutes early. The 16.21 to Bat & Ball was on time. According to some people who regularly travel from Bat & Ball station the ticket issuing machine there will not accept all credit cards, some issuers cards do not work. This apparently is a common fault with some types of ticket machines on Southeastern stations. This evening the information screen at the entrance to Bat & Ball station was working again.
• Wednesday 21 June – The 06.24 from Bat & Ball to Sevenoaks arrived there on time today. The 06.31 departure from Sevenoaks was two minutes early arriving at Waterloo East this morning. I discovered at about 15.05 today that Southeastern services were likely to be delayed until about 16.30 this afternoon. This was following an incident at Hither Green when a person jumped in front of a train this morning. I checked the National Rail Enquiries Website and the 15.43 from Waterloo East was shown as delayed and not likely to make a connection with the 16.21 departure from Sevenoaks to Bat & Ball. I quickly closed down my computer and hurried to Waterloo East in an attempt to travel home on the 15.33 Tunbridge Wells service and hopefully achieve a connection with the 16.21 to Bat & Ball. I arrived on platform C at Waterloo East just as the delayed 15.13 departed at 15.33. The 15.33 to Tunbridge Wells was also running late and departed at 15.35. This service was four minutes late arriving at Sevenoaks where the 16.00 to Bat & Ball could still be seen alongside platform four. The driver for this service had been delayed and arrived at Sevenoaks on the same train as me. However, the 16.00 departure was shown as running fast to Bromley South via Orpington which was of no use to the majority of people waiting on platform four at this time. It departed at 16.15. Fortunately, the 16.21 service ran, arriving two minutes late at Bat & Ball.
• Friday 23 June – My destination is Southampton today. I commenced my journey on the 08.00 from Bat & Ball, this train was three minutes late at both Bat & Ball and Sevenoaks. The 08.12 from Sevenoaks to Waterloo East departed two minutes late but was on time arriving in London. My journey to and from Southampton was uneventful.

Week of 26 June 2017

Total lateness 74 minutes: Southeastern 5, Thameslink 69

• Tuesday 27 June – The 06.24 from Bat & Ball to Sevenoaks arrived there one minute late today. The 06.31 departure from Sevenoaks was four minutes late arriving at Waterloo East this morning. This was due to an unexplained extended station stop at London Bridge. The 15.43 was cancelled today therefore I travelled home on the 15.48. This train was two minutes late arriving at Sevenoaks at 16.21. I imagined seeing the 16.21 to Bat & Ball leave as we arrived but this train had not arrived at Sevenoaks on its inward journey. The 16.30 to Bat & Ball pulled in to platform three and departed soon after the 16.21 service arrived at platform four. The 16.30 arrived at Bat & Ball on time. Presumably the late running 16.21 ran fast to Bromley South via Orpington.
• Wednesday 28 June – A very bad start to the day by Thameslink. The 06.24 and 06.42 to Sevenoaks, and the 06.48 to London were all cancelled. No reasons given, and the media were not reporting any problems with Thameslink service this morning. However, I understand that Thameslink were experiencing train failures, perhaps they got too wet due to the continuous overnight rain! The 07.10 service was three minutes late arriving at Sevenoaks I travelled to Waterloo East on the 07.23 departure which arrived in London on time.
• Friday 30 June – A day off work but I did travel to Bromley South to go shopping. The 14.33 from Bat & Ball arrived at Bromley South one minute late. I returned on the 16.14 service which arrived four minutes late at Bat & Ball.
• Saturday 1 July – My destination is Sittingbourne today. I travelled on the 08.33 from Bat & Ball to Swanley and then the 09.08 to Sittingbourne, all on time. I returned on the 15.30 departure from Sittingbourne changing on to the 16.26 service from Swanley to Bat & Ball where it arrived four minutes late. I noticed today that two of the CCTV cameras at Bat & Ball station have been interfered with and they now point down towards the ground. Obviously not very effective now; however, I have thought that some, if not all, are dummies. If they are genuine I wonder how long it will take for them to be repositioned.

Editor’s note: After producing his excellent and detailed travel diary for several years Keith will be retiring in October. If another regular commuter would like to contribute a regular travel diary from Autumn onwards then please let the Secretary know on secretary [at] srta [dot] org [dot] uk.