It’s been another bad month on Southeastern – 206 minutes of delay (ignoring lightning strikes!). My Delay-Repay Claims now stand at a total of £59.95 for 1 January 2014 to 30 September 2014 inclusive, with one claim still outstanding.
Keith is a SRTA member and a regular commuter from Bat & Ball to London via Sevenoaks. He keeps a detailed travel diary, and he is also our Bat & Ball correspondent reporting issues at that important but unmanned station.
Week of 1 September
A total of 22 minutes of lateness.
On 1 September the 07.23 from Sevenoaks was too crowded to board; I caught 07.27 to Cannon St and still had to stand.
Tuesday morning, 2 September was the worst day of the week with 7 minutes lateness. The 07.23 from Sevenoaks was again very busy; there were lots of people waiting at Sevenoaks for this service.
That same day the 18.00 from Sevenoaks arrived at Bat & Ball and the carriage that stopped closest to the footbridge was quite full and many people detrained there. This delayed people boarding the train; a mother boarded the train and her daughter was following her. Unfortunately the train driver closed the doors before the young child had boarded the train. However, the driver must have noticed the child trying to board the train and fortunately she opened the doors again.
On Friday 5 September the 05.43 service from Sevenoaks to London Bridge still had the on train information screen advising “Services will not be stopping at London Bridge” even though the temporary suspension of calling at London Bridge around the August Bank Holiday period had passed!
Week of 8 September
In the week starting 8 September 41 minutes of delay was experience, 19 of these on Monday evening when there were signal failures in London Bridge area.
On Saturday 13 September 13/9/14 there was a revised timetable operating on the Bat & Ball line, with trains departing three minutes earlier towards London. This was not mentioned on the weekend engineering works poster, and if there was a poster at Bat & Ball it must have been displayed in front of the station where very few people pass. We’ve previously told Southeaster that train service alteration posters must be displayed on the side of the station building to the left of the permit to travel machine; that’s where all people using the station will pass them. We will make this point again to Southeastern at the AGM on 15 October.
Week of 15 September
33 minutes of “normal” delay but no service for the majority of the day through Bat & Ball to Sevenoaks.
On Tuesday 16 September the 17.24 train from Cannon Street was only eight coaches rather than the usual twelve. No reason given for the short formation. The First Class was declassified.
On Friday 19 September, following a lightning strike in the Otford area during the night, we were informed that the signalling equipment was not functioning. Until the evening peak period there were no trains running between Bickley and Sevenoaks via Swanley; they were diverted via Orpington. Unfortunately Southeastern’s Website showed services towards Sevenoaks as being on time. It was not revealed that they were diverted and not serving stations from Swanley to Bat & Ball unless you expanded the “Calling Points” option on the Website.
Incidentally an “informed source” advised me that the problem was not so much the signalling as that the lightning strike welded the point blades at Otford Junction together therefore train services could not pass over the track.
Week of 22 September
42 minutes of delay were experienced in the week commencing 22 September, 16 of these on Monday 22 September itself.
On Friday 26 September at 20.05 the information screen at Sevenoaks Station on platform 4 was advising passengers that the 18.07 via Bat & Ball was delayed!
Week of 29 September
This was the worst week of the month for “normal” delays (ignoring the exceptional events on Friday 19 September); 68 minutes of total delay.
Wednesday 1 October accounted for 43 minutes of delay – and a delay-repay claim from me and, I hope, others. There were no services between London City Thameslink and Sevenoaks during the evening peak due to overhead power supply problems in Central London. The 18.00 and 18.18 services from Sevenoaks to Bat & Ball were cancelled, although a bus provided departing Sevenoaks about 18.20.
Bat & Ball station
By 13 September some yellow and black tape has been applied over the areas of rotting wood on the handrails of Bat & Ball Station footbridge. That’s hardly the fix that we have asking for!
On 1 September Bat & Ball Station had a new information screen! Unfortunately it’s proving not to be very reliable. On 2 October there was – very unusually! – a member of Southeastern’s staff on the platform at Bat & Ball Station. I made the most of this opportunity and pointed out to him that the new information screen was again not working, and that it has only worked about fifty percent of the time since it has been installed.