The BBC have an interesting report today of a recent Parliamentary debate on the value for money of South West Trains services. However many of the points apply to other commuter services, including Southeastern.

Among the points made was that the space allowed for each commuter when the Government commissions services is less than the minimum space that EU rules require for each unshorn sheep, adult goat or calf being transported by train.

The BBC reports that figures published last month showed that for trains between 08:00 and 09:00, 38% of London services were over capacity (broadly defined as passengers having to stand for more than 20 minutes), and 81% had passengers standing when they reached London.

In the debate Rail Minister Claire Perry said that “Rail passengers should not have to stand for more than 20 minutes during a journey”.  Actually that’s Southeastern’s aspiration too, as Dartford commuter Phil Rogers has pointed out.  But that’s not the reality that Sevenoaks and other commuters face each day.  And it looks likely only to get worse when the London Bridge rebuilding affects Southeastern services from 12 January.

Esher MP Dominic Raab said that passengers were seeing their fares rising every year while having to put up with “cattle-class” travelling conditions – at the Sevenoaks Rail Travellers Association we’ve already demanded a fare freeze until Southeastern provide the service that people are paying for.

Gosport MP Caroline Dinenage said journey times were unsatisfactory too.  It took as long to travel from Portsmouth to London as it did from Doncaster to London, which is more twice the distance.  Indeed at the Southeastern Stakeholder Forum on Tuesday representatives from Chilham said that journeys now take 30 minutes longer than they did some years ago.

Rail Minister Claire Perry said that the railways were a victim of their own popularity, with passenger numbers doubling since privatisation.  But if passenger numbers have doubled then so, broadly, will have total fare income.  Indeed since for many of recent years ticket prices rose by more than inflation, so the amount of fare income must have more than doubled.  So why hasn’t that money gone into solving the chronic capacity problems – some of which have been affecting Sevenoaks and other services for decades?  Even new Southeastern services like HS1 are often reported to be full and standing from places like Ashford (~35 minutes) now!

Of course the new Southeastern franchise was launched with a fanfare that there would be “95,000 extra seats”.  However according to Phil Roger’s blog almost all of these are on off-peak services – there are no additional seats for the morning peak and only 2,000 extra seats for the evening.

Treated like sheep? If only.