Snowy Blackheath

It snowed. In case you haven’t looked out of the window. God knows how we’ll cope tomorrow, what with SouthEastern and everything. I really want to build a network of igloos on the heath, so here’s hoping there’s more snow… If you’ve got any nice pics of Blackheath, send them this way! Happy snowdays!
Here’s one from Philtocapacity on twitter:

And from David Boyle, an antisocial snowball:

Longer platforms at Blackheath?

Another interesting story on the Blackheath Village Residents Group site:

Network Rail has distributed this letter to residents living close to the station, advising that work will shortly be underway to lengthen the platforms to take 12 coach trains.

Didn’t they extend it to take 12 cars back in 2010?

Destination unknown

This morning Mrs Bugle’s train to Charing Cross mysteriously became a train to Victoria.  The driver apologised for the  ”total mess causes by this, on behalf of the company”.

I’m starting to think that the fireworks conspirators may have a point…

Touching

No trains today. Angry line of “customers”. They’ve all touched in, because there is no sign on the oystercard reader. Touching out again will cost them £1.30. “Why don’t you put a sign on the reader?”

“The management don’t want us to.”

There is no independent thought within the Borg.

Met the managers

I went to meet the managers. A nice bloke from National Rail wrote down my problem with the sliding door on a piece of paper, and said he’d tell someone. The person I spoke to from SouthEastern trains said that they don’t have a Passengers Panel. They suggested filling out the web-form on their site, or writing a letter. On paper. In 2011!

Fixmytransport.com need an email address to send things to – they can’t work with webforms yet. They mentioned Passenger Focus and London Travel Watch as possible alternatives, and gave me the email address of the head of communications – sarah (dot) boundy (at) southeasternrailway.co.uk

Dear Sarah,

Please could you find a way to allow fixmytransport.com to contact SouthEastern Railways directly?

It’s a great site, designed by the people who make the democracy-based writetothem.org theyworkforyou.com and fixmystreet.com

The reason I’m asking is because there are more than 30 people at Blackheath Station who would really like SouthEastern to reopen the sliding blue door on the ramp up from the Kent-bound platform!

See below:

http://www.fixmytransport.com/campaigns/lets-get-southeastern-to-re-open-the-sliding-blue-

Many thanks,

Blackheath Bugle

Meet South Eastern face to face tomorrow morning

As pointed out on the newly formed myblackheath blog (hopefully not run by estate agents), SouthEastern Trains are holding a Meet The Managers morning at Charing Cross station on Thursday (tomorrow) from 8am-10am. This is a monthly event whereby the SouthEastern managers stand around explaining that very few things are their fault, most things are either due to the government’s reduction of state subsidy, or Network Transport’s problems.

Please try and speak to them tomorrow if you can… A few things to consider:

* SouthEastern are owned by Govia. Govia is owned by Go-Ahead Group and Keolis. These two companies made a profit of £23.5m and £93m (€106m) respectively last year. These figures are both up from 2009. For bittersweet irony check this out: Keolis is majority owned by France’s nationalised state transport provider, SNCF. So France is allowed to have a nationalised rail system, but takes profit from our privatised system.

* Network Rail own Blackheath station, but it is managed and run by SouthEastern (see how nothing is one organisation’s fault?)

* If they wanted to open the bloody door, they could! Please sign up to the request to open the sliding door!

* They don’t like speaking to bloggers or press at these events. They also don’t like tape recorders. Go as an individual. Here’s an idea: wear your iphone headphones around your neck, and hit record before you wander up…

* Ask them how fixmytransport.com should contact southEastern. So far they don’t seem to be responding to any messages!

Here’s how it went when I met them last year.

Get the sliding door reopened

I’m using the excellent new FixMyTransport to persuade Southeastern to get SouthEastern to re-open the sliding blue door!

Who wouldn’t love a website with the tag line “Euston we have a problem”?!

Can anyone explain to me why it would be a good idea to permanently close the side exit from Blackheath station by barricading it with a bannister? Tired commuters on their way home used to love gasping out into the open air. It makes no sense to keep it locked, and makes us miserable!

Please come and support me at

http://www.fixmytransport.com/campaigns/lets-get-southeastern-to-re-open-the-sliding-blue-

Thanks!

PS – The shortened version is bit.ly/openthisdoor which would probably fit on a sticker :)

SouthEastern trains enthuse about the wonderful steps

Following on from yesterday’s nonsense, there’s another PR inflected piece of tosh here:

Network Rail Blackheath Station becomes accessible for everyone

But with an added helpful soundbite from those experts in timeliness, SouthEastern trains. Vince Lucas, service delivery director, enthuses:

“For our passengers at Blackheath the completion of this project is a real improvement that they can see for themselves. The station is vital to the local community and encouraging more and more people to use trains has to be a good thing. As with other stations which have benefited from similar schemes, we are sure that more passengers will now start to use the train to get around.”

Yes it’s great Vince. I’m sure I will continue to choose SouthEastern over and above the wide range of other train operating companies available to me from Blackheath station, skipping down the beautifully rendered steps as I do so.

SouthEastern stats to be scrutinised

“University to look at Southeastern punctuality figures“

Spotted by Joshua – hopefully it will be truly independent.

Meet the SouthEastern Managers…

Yesterday the SouthEastern Trains managers did their regular Meet the Manager thing at Charing Cross Station.  Managers stand around in the main part of the station, answering questions from commuters.

It’s a good idea, and I imagine it takes some guts to do, especially after the recent snow chaos, and subsequent allegations over stats massaging.

So I had the bright idea of going along, trying to find the most senior manager, and putting some questions to them, for the blog.  The first man I approached happened to be Charles Horton, the Managing Director.  He absolutely refused to be recorded, saying that today was for customers, not for interviews.  Despite explaining that I am a customer, and much waving of season tickets, he would not talk to me unless I switched it off.

So I did, which means that none of the following is verbatim.  Your loss, Charles.

We spoke about the snow and the revised timetable.  He completely denied that the reduction in timetable was designed to avoid big customer payouts, saying that their only concern was avoiding trains full of passengers getting stuck.  When I asked him what was different about SouthEastern, compared to the adjacent networks which operated a better service, he claimed it was due to the way SouthEastern’s lines were structured compared to the others – for example SouthWest Trains run a straight line in and out of Waterloo, whereas SouthEastern’s route has junctions and forks in it.  This sounded thoroughly unconvincing, but hey, I guess he has to come up with something.

I desicribed the difference between claiming a refund from London Underground (fill out a form in the station or online, and send it in) with that of SouthEastern Trains (several different methods, each more byzantine than the next).  He agreed that theirs was more complex, but claimed that this was due to the rules set in place by National Rail and the government.

I asked him whether he believed that the breaking up of the railway into multiple train operating companies allows everybody to absolve themselves of responsibility.  He refused to be drawn on any personal opinions about anything around this, and basically took a pragmatic attitude – “we are where we are”, claiming that the procedures drawn up by the government mean that SouthEastern are highly sensitive to customer satisfaction.  One example he gave was “discretionary travel” (people without season tickets), which he said SE trains relies on heavily- if they can’t operate a good service, then people will use other means of transport.

When I asked which of his competitors train companies I should be using from Blackheath if I wasn’t happy with his service, he acknowledged that they have a monopoly in a given area, but again went back to “that’s just the way it is set up”.

I pointed out the poor state of Blackheath station – not because I expect the managing director to have an intimate knowledge of every station (he was quick to point out that he could not), but because walking through a station with peeling paint, ceilings covered with plastic bags and gaffer tape, and plaster falling off the walls, sends a clear psychological message to your customers that you don’t give a shit about them.  He muttered something about “water-egress” at that station.  I have no idea what that means… I’ve seen water flowing down the steps occasionally, but you’d think that a lick of paint wouldn’t break the (£61.5m profit last year) budget.

To conclude, the problem isn’t SouthEastern trains per se.  They’re a private company, looking to maximise revenue for their shareholders within the boundaries set out by the government.  The problem is the splitting of the railway into multiple companies.  If there’s anything worth campaigning for, railway-wise, it would be the re-combining of the TOCs into a single body.  At this point, I wouldn’t even care if it was a private company – at least it would stop the buck-passing…