Dear Southeastern Trains. You Suck.

If you’re coming home from Charing Cross tonight, the last train back to Blackheath is at 20.32. Yes, you read that correctly. We have less than an inch of snow, and our last train is before the watershed. From their website:

London Charing Cross to Dartford via Bexleyheath

The first service departs London Charing Cross at 0702 calling at Waterloo East, London Bridge, Lewisham, Blackheath, Kidbrooke, Eltham, Falconwood, Welling, Bexleyheath, Barnehurst and Dartford. Services leave at 02 and 32 mins past the hour through the day. The last service departs at 2032.

Or you can take an Interchange Opportunity at Lovely Lewisham by taking their last train, which leaves Charing Cross at 2036.

Also, according to this site:

All Southeastern ticket holders can use High Speed services at no extra cost and tickets will be accepted on London Underground on reasonable routes

As Brenda pointed out on another post:

A harrassed member of staff was reported as saying the reason they are running a reduced service today and tomorrow is if they try to run a full service & fail, they’re liable for penalties and we can claim refunds.

If they run the reduced service they’ve advertised, then they’re not liable.

Perhaps we could send the SouthEastern executives to India to speak to the Railway King?

“Interchange Opportunities” again

I’m taking advantage of our Interchange Opportunities again today. At Lewisham, as there are no trains from Blackheath. But never fear, our local conservative councillor Spencer Drury knows whose fault it is:

“As a Parliamentary Candidate for Greenwich and Woolwich and Leader of the Conservative Group, I will be campaigning to reverse these changes which seem to be a side-effect of a set of central government requirements to run an all day Orpington service via Lewisham. In the short term, the more feedback that we have about people’s difficulties, the more we can use to sort out the problems, so please encourage everyone to feedback their problems and we will use this to back up our views during the timetable review next year.”

He then added (inside my head):

“I mean, who split up the railway anyway- what were they smoking when they thought that would work? How can you have a free market mechanism when there are only one set of rails from A to B?!”

Except he didn’t say that last bit. In other news, all public transport is now free, and 4x4s are now outlawed, unless being pulled on a rope by Boris Johnson.

And when the train announcements say “we are operating a revised timetable today”, do they mean revised for better or worse?

No trains for an hour

No trains from Blackheath due to a thimbleful of snow. Allegedly still running from Lewisham.