During the London Bridge rebuilding services will be overcrowded.  Sevenoaks passengers need the flexibility to get onto any London train they can, and then use tubes or buses to get to their normal station.  Yet despite years of planning for the engineering work, Southeastern, Transport for London and the Department for Transport have still not sorted out this vital detail.

The Sevenoaks Rail Travellers Association has regularly asked for an assurance that there will be free tube and bus travel between “London Terminals” stations – Charing Cross, Waterloo East, London Bridge, Cannon Street and Victoria – for all rail ticket holders.  This would allow people more journey options to avoid overcrowding, especially at times of disruption.

In the morning peak this flexibility would mean that people unable to get onto the very crowded London Bridge and Cannon Street trains would be able to get onto the less crowded Waterloo East and Charing Cross trains, and then get to the City on the tube or the bus.  In the evening peak it would mean that they could go to Charing Cross or Waterloo East if more convenient.  During the day and the late evenings – when intervals between trains at each London station will be much longer than now – people could use the tube to get to the most convenient train.

Southeastern have acknowledged the need for this flexibility.  On their website it says:

Ticket acceptance during this work The Department for Transport, Transport for London and Train Operators are working together to agree ticketing arrangements for the longer term closures and discussions are ongoing. We will update passengers in early October. (image)

Unfortunately it’s now the second half of October and at SRTA’s Annual General Meeting the Southeastern representative told us that it had not been possible to reach agreement between the parties involved.

We are appalled that in the years of planning for the London Bridge rebuilding this simple but vital detail has not yet been sorted out.  Southeastern have published draft timetables from January 2015, but people cannot be expected to think about alternative routes unless they know that they will not be out of pocket.

What’s going on?  The organisations concerned are tight-lipped, but it seems as though – as so often in the Balkanised railway system – it is a question of “who is going to pay?”  Yet looked at from the point of view of the system as a whole it should be easy to find a solution:

• what does it actually cost in terms of real outgoings by the parties concerned?  Surely very little.  TfL are going to run the same number of tube trains and buses.  Longer opening of Cannon Street – which does need extra staff – has reportedly been agreed.  Passengers would still pay the “London Terminals” fare.  It is hard to believe that ticket flexibility would cannibalise much existing TfL fare income.
• there’s a £6 billion extra budget for the Thameslink project including the London Bridge rebuilding, so the companies are not exactly short of cash.
• Southeastern have just been given a new Franchise by DFT, with new financial terms, specifically to cover the London Bridge rebuilding project.  Presumably, although DFT will not let the public see the terms of this Franchise, this financial settlement took into account any extra amounts payable by SER to TFL?
• Fares are due to rise by 2.5% in January (unless the Government back our proposal for a fare freeze), which creates even more financial headroom.

In short, playing at shops within the railway industry seems to be getting in the way of giving passengers the service they need.  The tickets people pay for say “London Terminals”; they should mean it.

It’s time for someone – if necessary Rail Minister Claire Perry – to knock some heads together.

Update 28 October: It appears that at long last a deal has been done – see http://srta.org.uk/wp/posts/883