End of SWT Franchise?

[infobleep]

Worplesdon (correct spelling!) is so quiet during the off peak that you could get away with it becoming a peak hours only station.

It would benefit being closed completely and moved about a mile south towards Guildford and put on or very near Salt Box Road, which would then serve Jacobs Well, Stoughton, Bellfields & Slyfield Industrial Estate as well as Worplesdon, because it would actually be nearer to it than its current location.

I agree with moving it closer. Then perhaps may be it would be more used off peak as well.

How does Witley fare off peak? That's the middle of nowhere I believe.

 

[Kite159]

Not sure which thread to put this into without creating a new one. But SWT's 159103 has finally returned to Salisbury Depot within the past week, It has received a Newer Revised livery, New Seat Covers, New Carpet and New Disabled Bog but that's it. Basically a C6 and no new talked about seats or plug sockets.

I wondered when it would return from its holiday.

I shall keep an eye out for it.

 

[RichardN]

I agree with moving it closer. Then perhaps may be it would be more used off peak as well.

How does Witley fare off peak? That's the middle of nowhere I believe.

Manages to support a coffee outlet in the morning peak, plus serves a big public school. Basically an hourly service off peak and half hourly in the peak. The curved platforms seem to be awkward for guards when using SDO. Incidentally when I got back there last night on a nine coach 444/450 hybrid, it struck me that SDO on a per coach basis will be harder on the SWT fleet than for Southern with their standard (coach) length 377s. e.g Witley would be 8 / 450 , but 7 / 444 etc.

 

[infobleep]

Manages to support a coffee outlet in the morning peak, plus serves a big public school. Basically an hourly service off peak and half hourly in the peak. The curved platforms seem to be awkward for guards when using SDO. Incidentally when I got back there last night on a nine coach 444/450 hybrid, it struck me that SDO on a per coach basis will be harder on the SWT fleet than for Southern with their standard (coach) length 377s. e.g Witley would be 8 / 450 , but 7 / 444 etc.

How does it fair off peak vers Worplesdon being used off peak?

 

[RichardN]

How does it fair off peak vers Worplesdon being used off peak?

No idea. I've only used it in the peak so far.

 

[Matt Taylor]

Witley fares very much the same as Worplesdon. Witley is the worst station on my route card for SDO, with a 12 car it's front eight only which means trying to despatch from the far end of the platform with a tight curve that goes against you and a narrow platform making visibility difficult, it requires walking at least three coach lengths to be able to see that the front set of doors are secure before then walking back three coach lengths to close your local door and signal the driver.

 

[TEW]

Always seem to be more people who want Witley Off Peak than Worplesdon. Makes sense as Witley has slightly higher usage figures than Worplesdon, and also marginally higher than Milford.

 

[7031]

Preferred the old livery :cry:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/colin...RzH-bcGRNR-ejfWMY-82n4GJ-6yVE2F-anNjWs-ehQtWV

[/IMG]

Oh wow, well I'm not a fan haha. I'm just amazed that SWT thought it needed go faster stripes.

 

[LAX54]

Official statistics don't tell the whole story, partly because they're fudged by the industry and partly because the timetables are defined by the industry to suit the fudged statistics. If you use real-world data then a different story, more in line with customer experience, emerges. Here's a typical commute (times from RTT):

2C18 08:02 BCE-SNS
Tue 30 Jun, 2L BCE, 2L SNS
Wed 1 Jul, 3L BCE, 6L SNS
Thu 2 Jul, 3L BCE, 3L SNS
Fri 3 Jul, 2L BCE, 2L SNS
Mon 6 Jul, 2L BCE, 2L SNS
Tue 7 Jul, 3L BCE, 5L SNS

2S18 08:33 SNS-AFS
Tue 30 Jun, 1L SNS, 1L AFS
Wed 1 Jul, 5L SNS, 5L AFS
Thu 2 Jul, 2L SNS, 2L AFS
Fri 3 Jul, 2L SNS, 2L AFS
Mon 6 Jul, 2L SNS, 2L AFS
Tue 7 Jul, 5L SNS, 5L AFS

2C91 17:07 AFS-BCE
Tue 30 Jun, 8L AFS, 16L BCE [1]
Wed 1 Jul, didn't run [2]
Thu 2 Jul, 1L AFS, 1L BCE
Fri 3 Jul, 1L AFS, 6L BCE
Mon 6 Jul, 6L AFS, 6L BCE

[1] This is misleading as it was so late it ran fast ACT-RDG and customers were dumped at ACT to wait for the following train, eventually arriving 24L BCE.

[2] Ran fast CLJ-VIR so there was no service

In other words, every train was late or didn't arrive.

To this can be added the late-notice cancellation of the 1st May 06:50 BCE-RDG which caused me to miss a connection and pay for a taxi instead of the planned bus to arrive at my meeting on time.

And the twice recently when SWT ran no trains at all for the above commute during the evening peak, meaning that I had to drive thirty miles to collect someone. What did SWT do on those two occasions? Did it provide good customer service by giving useful information and arranging alternative transport? No, it did absolutely nothing.

And finally, SWT takes two months to reply to emails; not that the reply says anything helpful.

Perhaps one can see why I hope that another company will take over this franchise; a company that will run a reliable service and, when things go wrong, provide excellent customer service.

Of those listed above, only 2 or 3 stand out as 'late' I dont think anyone would count 2 and 3 mins as 'late' ! and 3 (three) trains over 3 weeks !!

 

[infobleep]

Of those listed above, only 2 or 3 stand out as 'late' I dont think anyone would count 2 and 3 mins as 'late' ! and 3 (three) trains over 3 weeks !!

2 - 3 mins is just a minor delay but if it cases me to miss a connecting train then it's not so minor any more.

 

[FenMan]

2 - 3 mins is just a minor delay but if it cases me to miss a connecting treat then it's no so minor any more.

Agreed. It continues to be frustrating that performance stats don't include key interchanges along the route. Perhaps someone could invent a lobby group to represent passengers' interests? :roll:

 

[HH]

Connections should never be so tight that being 2 minutes late causes you to miss them.

 

[tsr]

Connections should never be so tight that being 2 minutes late causes you to miss them.

Some stations - even some fairly major ones - have official minimum connection times of between 2 and 5 minutes. Though I'm not saying that's the case here.

 

[Ken Hunter]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-33582013

Interesting piece from BBC Scotland business editor. He has a point. In Scotland we have a private monopoly instead of a public one. Little in the way of choice.

 

[infobleep]

Some stations - even some fairly major ones - have official minimum connection times of between 2 and 5 minutes. Though I'm not saying that's the case here.

Woking is officially 5 minutes. At least 5 times a year in the evening I will miss my connecting train. As I don't keep records it could be even higher.

One week I think it was 2-3 times in the same week. Once missed it means a 20-25 minute wait for the next train. If the next train is also late then my delay will be even longer than that.

In this case there may not be a note anywhere about delays because it's just trains being delayed by 4 minutes or so and not considered important enough to mention.

 

[HH]

5 minutes is generally seen as adequate. If it was 10 minutes that's an extra 5 minutes you have every day, so if you only miss the train a handful of times then clearly a pretty good balance was struck. Mind you, Woking is a fairly easy station to make a change at, plus SWT have that nice padding in the TT. Elsewhere 10 minutes might be safer.

 

[TEW]

Depends which platforms you are using at Woking. Anything involving Platform 3 and suddenly a 5 minute connection is pretty tight.

 

[Stigy]

I agree with moving it closer. Then perhaps may be it would be more used off peak as well.

How does Witley fare off peak? That's the middle of nowhere I believe.

I saw an old new paper article a while ago that stated there were plans to put a railway station at or around park barn in Guildford....obviously it never happened, and it's probably just as well....

 

[455driver]

Witley fares very much the same as Worplesdon. Witley is the worst station on my route card for SDO, with a 12 car it's front eight only which means trying to despatch from the far end of the platform with a tight curve that goes against you and a narrow platform making visibility difficult, it requires walking at least three coach lengths to be able to see that the front set of doors are secure before then walking back three coach lengths to close your local door and signal the driver.

Cant you release from the cab of the 9th coach, key off and walk forward, key on in the 3rd or 4th coach and despatch from there?
That's what we used to do at Virginia Water on the up Weybridges!

 

[Matt Taylor]

You could, but that's not how I was taught, there's a similar issue at Liss on the up. I'd prefer to do it how I was taught and just keep logging the delay reports!

 

[vikingdriver]

Cant you release from the cab of the 9th coach, key off and walk forward, key on in the 3rd or 4th coach and despatch from there?
That's what we used to do at Virginia Water on the up Weybridges!

Fine until you need to re-release the doors quickly because someone decides to get stuck in them, then you have an sdo incident!

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Are there not more issues involved than local -ish journeys..?

 

[455driver]

Fine until you need to re-release the doors quickly because someone decides to get stuck in them, then you have an sdo incident!

The doors will automatically re-open if they detect an obstruction so no need to cause on SDO incident.