New South Western franchise: Awarded to First/MTR

[HowardGWR]

@Bob M

Did you try and fit your points into their suggested format, answering their specific questions? I plan to do this, as it will go down better with the civil servant who deals with it.

 

[The Ham]

Hmm ~90 minutes now on a 2+2 regional express unit compared to 110+ minutes on a 3+2 outer suburban unit fighting with the Surbiton/Walton/Weybridge crowd for a "fast" out of Waterloo.

Would go down like a lead balloon to those paying quite handsomely for a season ticket to London

Also, it should be noted that some of the "slow" services from Basingstoke in the peaks run fast between Farnborough and Waterloo and in the morning peak they all run fast from Woking. Also not all the peak hour services which call at Farnborough and start/terminate at Basingstoke are 450's there are several services which are 444's (i.e. 2+2 seating).

Taking both these on board there could be some peak hour services which take circa 105 minutes run by 444's which could benefit passengers west of Basingstoke. It would also mean that their train wouldn't be overloaded to/from Basingstoke as it would be Fleet/Farnborough. Which when trying to leave London in the evening peak could mean that they get a seat sooner.

Also as I said previously it would enable people going to places other than London to opt to use a different service which then frees up seats for those wanting to go to London (sometimes it's not just TOC's who are London centric in their thinking about improved train services).

It should also be noted that by extending the Basingstoke stoppers it makes journeys between stations such as Salisbury/Andover and Fleet/Farnborough more attractive attracting more people to the railways.

It also means that there are less trains terminating at Basingstoke freeing up platform space there.

All in all there I can see quite a few positives in providing extra services to Salisbury by extending the Basingstoke stoppers and relatively few negatives.

 

[HarleyDavidson]

The Basingstoke stoppers are the main culprits for screwing up the suburbans, they regularly run late, that then blocks the 2Fxx out of Woking Bay, that then knocks the 2Jxx from Hampton Court, which then knocks the 2Hxx from Shepperton, which knocks the following 2Gxx, which knocks the 2Dxx, which knocks the 2Mxx, which knocks the 2Oxx, which knocks the (well you can see what happens).

One late Basingstoke or Alton screws up the entire suburban system, wee wee poor planning, when you could just go back to the 80's, combine & divide them at Woking. They run as an 8 car and call West Byfleet, Weybridge, Walton, Surbiton, Clapham (alternates), Waterloo.

 

[The Ham]

The Basingstoke stoppers are the main culprits for screwing up the suburbans, they regularly run late, that then blocks the 2Fxx out of Woking Bay, that then knocks the 2Jxx from Hampton Court, which then knocks the 2Hxx from Shepperton, which knocks the following 2Gxx, which knocks the 2Dxx, which knocks the 2Mxx, which knocks the 2Oxx, which knocks the (well you can see what happens).

One late Basingstoke or Alton screws up the entire suburban system, wee wee poor planning, when you could just go back to the 80's, combine & divide them at Woking. They run as an 8 car and call West Byfleet, Weybridge, Walton, Surbiton, Clapham (alternates), Waterloo.

Given that the Basingstoke stoppers have a 25 minute layover at Basingstoke then I would suggest that they are being delayed due to a problem other than being ready to leave Basingstoke. That doesn't mean that it isn't down to poor planning but may not be directly their fault.

With regards to splitting/joining at Woking, although there are some services which run as a single four coach sets which would allow this there are many, especially during the peaks, which are 8 coach or even 12 coach trains (which are full) meaning that this is not possible all the time. I would guess that it is the peak hour trains which are more of a problem than the off peak trains

 

[SWCommuter]

Here is my wish list for the new Franchise for South West Lines:

Resilience: Overall resilience of network is not very good – it takes only a minor delay with a broken down train to cause hours of delays for the rest of the network. Improvements or an overhaul of the timetable would be good to improve efficiency and improve resilience.

Management of Incidents – a new emergency plan: South West Trains have not been very good at dealing with incidents on the line as is evident by the feedback they regularly receive on their Twitter handle. During the current franchise period, they have put in place an “emergency plan” to deal with most incidents. This plan involves sacrificing some lines in favour of others – the Hampton Court branch is often one of the first to be suspended impacting thousands of rail users. This is a very blunt tool for dealing with a situation and not strictly necessary. The new franchise should be required to improve this emergency plan to make it fair to all stations across the network (if cancellations are necessary, they should be made across the network, not just on one line). Trains on the Hampton Court and Thames Ditton line are only currently every 30 minutes so sacrificing this line has a huge impact on rail users who have very limited alternatives. Thames Ditton is not served by any viable alternative bus route and SWT do not have any agreements in place with Abelio Surrey Bus. It would be possible to implement a Surbiton shuttle service in cases of an incident in most situations – this would allow the rail network to be used and for alternative transport options to be taken at Surbiton. Using a shuttle service on the Hampton Court line in “emergency plan” situations should be something the new franchise should implement. There should be no further sacrificing of lines.

Increased Frequency. The Wessex Route Study by Network Rail ( http://www.networkrail.co.uk/Public...ssex-route-study/Wessex-Route-Study-Final.pdf )
invited comments for improvements to the South West Mainline. One of the areas for improvement identified was increased frequency for trains within 30 miles of central London with a minimum of 3 or 4 trains per hour (tpb). Conditional Output 14 (CO14) proposed increasing the number of trains on the Thames Ditton/Hampton Court line to 3-4tph. These stations are only 14-16 miles from Central London but poorly served in terms of frequency with only a 30 min service into London. Crossrail 2 project proposes a 4tph service for this line but this will only be of benefit from 2030 and beyond. The demand for the service is here now – as is evidenced by gate entries/exits on this line. There are other stations on the network with less users but a more frequent service. Hampton Court Palace is also a major nationally significant visitor attraction and the infrequent service puts visitors off. The new franchise should double the number of services on this line. Ideally, this would be a 4tph service in each direction direct to Waterloo with 2tph offered as semi-fast . If this is not possible with some timetable reconfiguration, this could be achieved in the interim, as proposed in the consultation document, by a 2tph direct to Waterloo and 2tph running a shuttle to Surbiton if the pathways are congested from Raynes Park inwards. The Hampton Court/Thames Ditton line should be consider a vital component of the suburban/”metro” service.

Line Speed: The line speed for several services is now slower than it was a decade ago – the distance from Hampton Court to Waterloo is only 14 miles yet takes almost 40 minutes in peak. Surbiton fast services used to be around 15-16 minutes and now take around 20 minutes. Improvements should be made to increase the line speed, acceleration/deceleration times and timetable improvements made to increase journey times.

Stock: The Class 455 trains used on the suburban trains are old and should be replaced before their official end of life. There are lots of train faults involving these units. If replacement isn’t an option, air-conditioning should be retro-fitted to these units. In summertime, these trains are unbearably hot with very little ventilation. There are many incidents involving people being ill because of the lack of AC on these trains.

Delay Repay: Currently, South West Trains offer a 60 minute delay compensation scheme. This is now behind with industry competitors and is not fair to passengers. The new franchise should be part of the delay-repay scheme and compensate travellers if the journey is delayed for 30 minutes as a minimum. Ideally, there should be compensation offered in line with TfL underground users where compensation is paid after just 15 minutes delay. The mechanism for compensation should also be automatic, similar to the scheme introduced recently by Virgin Trains. Next year the Essex-based C2C service will offer automatic refunds to registered passengers, after delays of as little as two minutes. There is clearly a trend for improving compensation to passengers and the new franchise should implement these features at the start of the franchise. There has been a perception that South West Trains have been paid for Network Rail delays after 30 minutes but only paying their customers after 60 minutes and thus profiting from delays – this should certainly not happen with the new franchise.

Smart Ticketing: This was promised as part of the South West Train franchise but has only been partially delivered. It has not been fully rolled out across the network. There should be financial penalties for not delivering on Franchise Agreements in full. Smart Cards should be rolled out as soon as possible across the whole network and be useable on the Underground. Ideally, the smart tickets should be extended to integrate with other transports modes (e.g. integrated with PlusBus type schemes). I still currently use a paper ticket despite living in Zone 6 and do not wish to use the Oyster as it is very difficult to claim for delays if using an Oyster card on South West Trains network – for Oyster or contactless users, this should be made easier. The new franchise should look to remove paper season tickets.

Wifi: Good quality Wifi should be made available on all services. Improvements should also be made in conjunction with mobile phone operators (new masts or on board signal boosting) as there are several black holes on the network (e.g. just south of Clapham Junction).

Short Formations: South West Trains have ran services in short formation. There should be a financial penalty for the new franchise for doing this as the impact this has on passengers is enormous. Extra trains should be purchased to allow for maintenance of existing stock and to allow for some overflow capacity.

Weekend Service: South West Trains often run 4 train cars during the weekend which are full to capacity/standing room only. The new franchise should provide more capacity during the weekends.

Boxing Day: Train services should be provided on Boxing Day. This is a key trading day and important to the UK economy. Other train operating companies provide a service on this day. The new South West Mainline franchise should provide a service on this day.

Earlier & Later services: Train services should be provided earlier and later to allow for people getting to work early or going out in central London. There should be an infrequent service through the night. Southampton Airport is on the mainline and other rail networks with an airport offer an infrequent night service/very early morning service.

Splitting the Franchise? Would it make sense to split the franchise in 2 to offer more competition – e.g. maybe have TFLRail run the metro lines – Hampton Court, Kingston Loop, Chessington South, Epsom and another franchise run the mainline.

In conjunction with the new franchise, the Network Rail Alliance (the New Franchise + Network Rail) should look into the following:

Surbiton Station Capacity: This station gets very overcrowded. The entrance and exit capacity to platforms is very limited with a single stairway to each platform. When two trains arrive at the same time as happens frequently in evening rush hour, there can be dangerous overcrowding. Capacity should be improved by doubling the number of stairs to the platforms and doubling the number of ticket barriers at the entrance and exit.

Connecting the Airports: Surrey and South West London are not very well connected with Heathrow Airport. Network Rail should look to connect the South West network to Heathrow Airport. This would be possible with a connection on the Feltham/Staines line (Heathrow Airtrack). It would also be relatively easy to tunnel between Hampton Court and Heathrow Airport with most of the tunnel travelling under parkland with a stop on the Staines line at Feltham. It would also be good if South West line could take over the Guildford to Gatwick Airport line.

Improving Signalling & Points: There have been multiple signal failures and points failures over the last few years – in particular at Waterloo or Wimbledon. Network Rail should ensure that the signal equipment and points are upgraded as a priority.

 

[swt_passenger]

I'd give up on your 455 proposal. You do know they are going through a re-tractioning programme to give a further 10 year life with reduced maintenance needs - which allows for the depot space for the 707s at Wimbledon?

'Splitting the franchise' will be achieved by Crossrail 2.

 

[SWCommuter]

I'd give up on your 455 proposal. You do know they are going through a re-tractioning programme to give a further 10 year life with reduced maintenance needs - which allows for the depot space for the 707s at Wimbledon?

Yes - I was vaguely aware - they've all had a new lick of paint, I know that much. However, the lack of air-con is a big issue.

'Splitting the franchise' will be achieved by Crossrail 2.

Yes, but it could also be done as part of the new franchise. TFLRail now run the Liverpool Street-Shenfield line now in advance of Crossrail - it could also happen on the SW Lines.

 

[swt_passenger]

Yes, but it could also be done as part of the new franchise. TFLRail now run the Liverpool Street-Shenfield line now in advance of Crossrail - it could also happen on the SW Lines.

Once Crossrail 2 reaches a certain stage no doubt that would happen anyway, initially by requiring SWT of their successors to divide up a separate business unit, as was done by Abellio GA.

...but if done like on the other Liverpool St 'Overground' routes (the old West Anglia inners) it would make very little difference to performance or capacity. The original LO network inherited from Silverlink started from an incredibly low baseline, so the idea that transferring SWT's inner suburban routes to TfL would automatically provide massive improvement is somewhat debatable. Likewise most SWT inner suburban stations aren't that bad in comparison to some other areas.

What would be the downside of TfL potentially removing guards for instance?

 

[hwl]

Once Crossrail 2 reaches a certain stage no doubt that would happen anyway, initially by requiring SWT of their successors to divide up a separate business unit, as was done by Abellio GA.

...but if done like on the other Liverpool St 'Overground' routes (the old West Anglia inners) it would make very little difference to performance or capacity. The original LO network inherited from Silverlink started from an incredibly low baseline, so the idea that transferring SWT's inner suburban routes to TfL would automatically provide massive improvement is somewhat debatable. Likewise most SWT inner suburban stations aren't that bad in comparison to some other areas.

What would be the downside of TfL potentially removing guards for instance?

With TfL's operating grant being cut/eliminated in the autumn statement don't expect Tfl to be taking on any more in the near future, the cash flow isn't there.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Here is my wish list for the new Franchise for South West Lines:

Resilience: Overall resilience of network is not very good – it takes only a minor delay with a broken down train to cause hours of delays for the rest of the network. Improvements or an overhaul of the timetable would be good to improve efficiency and improve resilience.

Unlikely to improve - the timetable is all about capacity maximisation and that won't change who ever operates it.

Management of Incidents – a new emergency plan: South West Trains have not been very good at dealing with incidents on the line as is evident by the feedback they regularly receive on their Twitter handle. During the current franchise period, they have put in place an “emergency plan” to deal with most incidents. This plan involves sacrificing some lines in favour of others – the Hampton Court branch is often one of the first to be suspended impacting thousands of rail users. This is a very blunt tool for dealing with a situation and not strictly necessary. The new franchise should be required to improve this emergency plan to make it fair to all stations across the network (if cancellations are necessary, they should be made across the network, not just on one line). Trains on the Hampton Court and Thames Ditton line are only currently every 30 minutes so sacrificing this line has a huge impact on rail users who have very limited alternatives. Thames Ditton is not served by any viable alternative bus route and SWT do not have any agreements in place with Abelio Surrey Bus. It would be possible to implement a Surbiton shuttle service in cases of an incident in most situations – this would allow the rail network to be used and for alternative transport options to be taken at Surbiton. Using a shuttle service on the Hampton Court line in “emergency plan” situations should be something the new franchise should implement. There should be no further sacrificing of lines.

Increased Frequency. The Wessex Route Study by Network Rail ( http://www.networkrail.co.uk/Public...ssex-route-study/Wessex-Route-Study-Final.pdf )
invited comments for improvements to the South West Mainline. One of the areas for improvement identified was increased frequency for trains within 30 miles of central London with a minimum of 3 or 4 trains per hour (tpb). Conditional Output 14 (CO14) proposed increasing the number of trains on the Thames Ditton/Hampton Court line to 3-4tph. These stations are only 14-16 miles from Central London but poorly served in terms of frequency with only a 30 min service into London. Crossrail 2 project proposes a 4tph service for this line but this will only be of benefit from 2030 and beyond. The demand for the service is here now – as is evidenced by gate entries/exits on this line. There are other stations on the network with less users but a more frequent service. Hampton Court Palace is also a major nationally significant visitor attraction and the infrequent service puts visitors off. The new franchise should double the number of services on this line. Ideally, this would be a 4tph service in each direction direct to Waterloo with 2tph offered as semi-fast . If this is not possible with some timetable reconfiguration, this could be achieved in the interim, as proposed in the consultation document, by a 2tph direct to Waterloo and 2tph running a shuttle to Surbiton if the pathways are congested from Raynes Park inwards. The Hampton Court/Thames Ditton line should be consider a vital component of the suburban/”metro” service.

Line Speed: The line speed for several services is now slower than it was a decade ago – the distance from Hampton Court to Waterloo is only 14 miles yet takes almost 40 minutes in peak. Surbiton fast services used to be around 15-16 minutes and now take around 20 minutes. Improvements should be made to increase the line speed, acceleration/deceleration times and timetable improvements made to increase journey times.

There is no realistic chance of 4tph till Crossrail 2 and the service will be all stops, there will be no fast or semi fast and I'd expect the Surbiton fasts to go semi fast with more stops as well. Increasing passenger numbers mean longer dwell times

Stock: The Class 455 trains used on the suburban trains are old and should be replaced before their official end of life. There are lots of train faults involving these units. If replacement isn’t an option, air-conditioning should be retro-fitted to these units. In summertime, these trains are unbearably hot with very little ventilation. There are many incidents involving people being ill because of the lack of AC on these trains.

The 455s will be retractioned soon so there is very little chance on them being retired soon, this should also reduce the fault levels.

Delay Repay: Currently, South West Trains offer a 60 minute delay compensation scheme. This is now behind with industry competitors and is not fair to passengers. The new franchise should be part of the delay-repay scheme and compensate travellers if the journey is delayed for 30 minutes as a minimum. Ideally, there should be compensation offered in line with TfL underground users where compensation is paid after just 15 minutes delay. The mechanism for compensation should also be automatic, similar to the scheme introduced recently by Virgin Trains. Next year the Essex-based C2C service will offer automatic refunds to registered passengers, after delays of as little as two minutes. There is clearly a trend for improving compensation to passengers and the new franchise should implement these features at the start of the franchise. There has been a perception that South West Trains have been paid for Network Rail delays after 30 minutes but only paying their customers after 60 minutes and thus profiting from delays – this should certainly not happen with the new franchise.

Smart Ticketing: This was promised as part of the South West Train franchise but has only been partially delivered. It has not been fully rolled out across the network. There should be financial penalties for not delivering on Franchise Agreements in full. Smart Cards should be rolled out as soon as possible across the whole network and be useable on the Underground. Ideally, the smart tickets should be extended to integrate with other transports modes (e.g. integrated with PlusBus type schemes). I still currently use a paper ticket despite living in Zone 6 and do not wish to use the Oyster as it is very difficult to claim for delays if using an Oyster card on South West Trains network – for Oyster or contactless users, this should be made easier. The new franchise should look to remove paper season tickets.

Both likely to happen.

Wifi: Good quality Wifi should be made available on all services. Improvements should also be made in conjunction with mobile phone operators (new masts or on board signal boosting) as there are several black holes on the network (e.g. just south of Clapham Junction).

Wifi will happen but don't expect it to be good or the signal near clapham to improve.

Short Formations: South West Trains have ran services in short formation. There should be a financial penalty for the new franchise for doing this as the impact this has on passengers is enormous. Extra trains should be purchased to allow for maintenance of existing stock and to allow for some overflow capacity.

Weekend Service: South West Trains often run 4 train cars during the weekend which are full to capacity/standing room only. The new franchise should provide more capacity during the weekends.

Boxing Day: Train services should be provided on Boxing Day. This is a key trading day and important to the UK economy. Other train operating companies provide a service on this day. The new South West Mainline franchise should provide a service on this day.

Earlier & Later services: Train services should be provided earlier and later to allow for people getting to work early or going out in central London. There should be an infrequent service through the night. Southampton Airport is on the mainline and other rail networks with an airport offer an infrequent night service/very early morning service.

Splitting the Franchise? Would it make sense to split the franchise in 2 to offer more competition – e.g. maybe have TFLRail run the metro lines – Hampton Court, Kingston Loop, Chessington South, Epsom and another franchise run the mainline.

Alliance are effectively dead outside Scotland. Competition potential isn't good for extracting maximum franchise revenue for DfT

In conjunction with the new franchise, the Network Rail Alliance (the New Franchise + Network Rail) should look into the following:

Surbiton Station Capacity: This station gets very overcrowded. The entrance and exit capacity to platforms is very limited with a single stairway to each platform. When two trains arrive at the same time as happens frequently in evening rush hour, there can be dangerous overcrowding. Capacity should be improved by doubling the number of stairs to the platforms and doubling the number of ticket barriers at the entrance and exit.

Hope for some improvement with Crossrail 2

Connecting the Airports: Surrey and South West London are not very well connected with Heathrow Airport. Network Rail should look to connect the South West network to Heathrow Airport. This would be possible with a connection on the Feltham/Staines line (Heathrow Airtrack). It would also be relatively easy to tunnel between Hampton Court and Heathrow Airport with most of the tunnel travelling under parkland with a stop on the Staines line at Feltham. It would also be good if South West line could take over the Guildford to Gatwick Airport line.

Improving Signalling & Points: There have been multiple signal failures and points failures over the last few years – in particular at Waterloo or Wimbledon. Network Rail should ensure that the signal equipment and points are upgraded as a priority.

Some work has already happened at Wimbledon which will be completed in 2016 and Waterloo is being tackled over the next 2-3 years.

 

[HarleyDavidson]

Once Crossrail 2 reaches a certain stage no doubt that would happen anyway, initially by requiring SWT of their successors to divide up a separate business unit, as was done by Abellio GA.

...but if done like on the other Liverpool St 'Overground' routes (the old West Anglia inners) it would make very little difference to performance or capacity. The original LO network inherited from Silverlink started from an incredibly low baseline, so the idea that transferring SWT's inner suburban routes to TfL would automatically provide massive improvement is somewhat debatable. Likewise most SWT inner suburban stations aren't that bad in comparison to some other areas.

What would be the downside of TfL potentially removing guards for instance?

The levels of trouble will increase at an exponential rate, that's what.

 

[Sebastian O]

Definitely an angry Hampton Court commuter upset at 455s being cut occasionally.

Just get one of the plethora of buses outside (or a short walk) - 411/111/216 et al.

 

[SpacePhoenix]

If SWT did loose their "Metro" routes to LO would it just be the 455s and 456s that would transfer over ot would their 707s transfer over as well?

 

[fandroid]

I would definitely go with the Boxing Day service reinstatement. Weekend loading on the main line are now so great that getting a seat can be tricky. That would indicate that a Boxing Day service is quite likely to wash its face financially. Exceptions for major engineering work of course. A problem the main line faces is that it's not just a service to London anymore. Therefore, speeding things up by missing out stations will annoy a lot more people than it pleases. The intervals between trains at any single station have become bizarre. E.g. Basingstoke gets 5 fast/semifast trains to London every offpeak hour. The sad thing is that three of them are crammed into 13 minutes! A previous writer has mentioned the sad state of affairs at Christchurch. The whole timetable needs to be rethought, especially for the offpeak, when cramming in every last unit is not necessary. As for train lengths, any main line train less than 8 coaches long should be banned from Waterloo. Imagine the pain and anguish when the crowd sees the platform indicated for a train to Woking and Basingstoke, only to find it's a single class 158 unit with three coaches!

 

[HarleyDavidson]

OK, I'll work Boxing Day when you lot who purportedly work in offices, do the same!

No? Thought not.

 

[swt_passenger]

If SWT did loose their "Metro" routes to LO would it just be the 455s and 456s that would transfer over ot would their 707s transfer over as well?

The 707s are mainly for the Windsors. I think they go too far for TfL to be interested.

 

[LLivery]

The 707s are mainly for the Windsors. I think they go too far for TfL to be interested.

I believe TfL wants the Windsor and Chertsey lines if SWT is devolved. They are essentially suburban services that end just outside the boroughs. It was on the South London Metro devolution map published a few months ago by City Hall I think it was.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
As for splitting the franchise for "competition" I ask - what competition? People in Staines, Richmond, Surbition and Twickenham will still get the semi-fasts/fasts into London Waterloo and Clapham Jun, everyone else will still get the slows. Competition is a nonsense on a suburban network.

 

[Goldfish62]

The 707s are mainly for the Windsors. I think they go too far for TfL to be interested.

Not true. TfL want the lines out to Windsor and Weybridge via Staines.

 

[Sebastian O]

OK, I'll work Boxing Day when you lot who purportedly work in offices, do the same!

No? Thought not.

It's called a bank holiday lieu day.

 

[The Ham]

OK, I'll work Boxing Day when you lot who purportedly work in offices, do the same!

No? Thought not.

I work in an office and I don't work any bank holiday or Saturdays or Sundays, yet for the majority of those there are train services.

There are industries (i.e. construction) who mostly shut down for Christmas, yet others (like retail) who do not.

Just because one industry does one thing it doesn't mean that the all should.

There are a LOT of people for whom Boxing Day is a work day (retail, healthcare, emergency services, etc.) and even some for whom Christmas Day is a work day.

Please note I am not saying the rail should or should not operate on Boxing Day, I am just saying that it is unfair to state that because some don't have to work that day that you shouldn't have to when there are quite a few who still do (and have jobs where there is no prospect of not being able to always have Boxing Day off).

A lot of people would say that they wouldn't work Boxing Day (where they currently don't have to), however there would probably be some who would if the deal was attractive enough to do so. Depending on the individual depends on whether more pay (i.e. double pay) or more time off (i.e. two days in lieu) would swing it.

 

[Helvellyn]

Resilience: Overall resilience of network is not very good – it takes only a minor delay with a broken down train to cause hours of delays for the rest of the network. Improvements or an overhaul of the timetable would be good to improve efficiency and improve resilience.

Not sure how to do that unless you start stripping trains out of the timetable, or DfT accepts increased staf costs to have more Drivers/Guards. The network is full, there isn't really run to add any more trains, so if it goes wrong the knock-on effects quickly ripple. Think of someone slamming their brakes on in heavy motorway traffic - you quickly get a tailback as the reaction ripples through the traffic.

Management of Incidents

– a new emergency plan: South West Trains have not been very good at dealing with incidents on the line as is evident by the feedback they regularly receive on their Twitter handle. During the current franchise period, they have put in place an “emergency plan” to deal with most incidents. This plan involves sacrificing some lines in favour of others – the Hampton Court branch is often one of the first to be suspended impacting thousands of rail users. This is a very blunt tool for dealing with a situation and not strictly necessary. The new franchise should be required to improve this emergency plan to make it fair to all stations across the network (if cancellations are necessary, they should be made across the network, not just on one line). Trains on the Hampton Court and Thames Ditton line are only currently every 30 minutes so sacrificing this line has a huge impact on rail users who have very limited alternatives. Thames Ditton is not served by any viable alternative bus route and SWT do not have any agreements in place with Abelio Surrey Bus. It would be possible to implement a Surbiton shuttle service in cases of an incident in most situations – this would allow the rail network to be used and for alternative transport options to be taken at Surbiton. Using a shuttle service on the Hampton Court line in “emergency plan” situations should be something the new franchise should implement. There should be no further sacrificing of lines.

No idea on this. I've always been told the sacrificing is to try and take some pressure off the network. Surbiton - Hampton Court shuttles do happen (unless my BlackBerry tells lies). West of England services are also routinely terminated at Basingstoke - partly because they are the most self-contained unit/crew diagrams and also to try keep right-time starts from Basingstoke because if it goes wrong West of Salisbury due to the long single line stretches the whole timetable down there can be shot for the day. Dorking services seem to be the other ones that get cut. I think the problem is that other services inter-work, so cutting them isn't as straight forward, e.g. a Basingstoke stopper into Waterloo is usually an Alton back out (and vice versa).

Increased Frequency

. The Wessex Route Study by Network Rail ( http://www.networkrail.co.uk/Public...ssex-route-study/Wessex-Route-Study-Final.pdf )
invited comments for improvements to the South West Mainline. One of the areas for improvement identified was increased frequency for trains within 30 miles of central London with a minimum of 3 or 4 trains per hour (tpb). Conditional Output 14 (CO14) proposed increasing the number of trains on the Thames Ditton/Hampton Court line to 3-4tph. These stations are only 14-16 miles from Central London but poorly served in terms of frequency with only a 30 min service into London. Crossrail 2 project proposes a 4tph service for this line but this will only be of benefit from 2030 and beyond. The demand for the service is here now – as is evidenced by gate entries/exits on this line. There are other stations on the network with less users but a more frequent service. Hampton Court Palace is also a major nationally significant visitor attraction and the infrequent service puts visitors off. The new franchise should double the number of services on this line. Ideally, this would be a 4tph service in each direction direct to Waterloo with 2tph offered as semi-fast . If this is not possible with some timetable reconfiguration, this could be achieved in the interim, as proposed in the consultation document, by a 2tph direct to Waterloo and 2tph running a shuttle to Surbiton if the pathways are congested from Raynes Park inwards. The Hampton Court/Thames Ditton line should be consider a vital component of the suburban/”metro” service.

There is no capacity to add anything new into Waterloo. Doing so would make your demands for a resilient timetable even less likely! Could see the logic for a Hampton Court shuttle, but other lines could equally say they want extra services. Should there also be a Surbiton - Guildford shuttle via the New Line to give Oxshott, etc, a 15 minute service?

Line Speed

: The line speed for several services is now slower than it was a decade ago – the distance from Hampton Court to Waterloo is only 14 miles yet takes almost 40 minutes in peak. Surbiton fast services used to be around 15-16 minutes and now take around 20 minutes. Improvements should be made to increase the line speed, acceleration/deceleration times and timetable improvements made to increase journey times.

Retractioned 455s might help with quicker acceleration, but dwell times are a big issue due to the numbers of people travelling. I (and other Guards) are constantly being reminded about T-30 (starting the dispatch process 30 seconds before departure) to get the train away on time. It can be a challenge off peak even with people with buggies, wheelchairs, people wandering down to where they want to board, etc.

Stock

: The Class 455 trains used on the suburban trains are old and should be replaced before their official end of life. There are lots of train faults involving these units. If replacement isn’t an option, air-conditioning should be retro-fitted to these units. In summertime, these trains are unbearably hot with very little ventilation. There are many incidents involving people being ill because of the lack of AC on these trains.

I like working 455s! Okay, can be hot in summer but I don't think they will get air-con. The new traction motors should make them more reliable, but the 455s do win awards for reliability so they can't be that bad.

Delay Repay

: Currently, South West Trains offer a 60 minute delay compensation scheme. This is now behind with industry competitors and is not fair to passengers. The new franchise should be part of the delay-repay scheme and compensate travellers if the journey is delayed for 30 minutes as a minimum. Ideally, there should be compensation offered in line with TfL underground users where compensation is paid after just 15 minutes delay. The mechanism for compensation should also be automatic, similar to the scheme introduced recently by Virgin Trains. Next year the Essex-based C2C service will offer automatic refunds to registered passengers, after delays of as little as two minutes. There is clearly a trend for improving compensation to passengers and the new franchise should implement these features at the start of the franchise. There has been a perception that South West Trains have been paid for Network Rail delays after 30 minutes but only paying their customers after 60 minutes and thus profiting from delays – this should certainly not happen with the new franchise.

Well that's what DfT specified. I suspect it will change in the new franchise.

Smart Ticketing

: This was promised as part of the South West Train franchise but has only been partially delivered. It has not been fully rolled out across the network. There should be financial penalties for not delivering on Franchise Agreements in full. Smart Cards should be rolled out as soon as possible across the whole network and be useable on the Underground. Ideally, the smart tickets should be extended to integrate with other transports modes (e.g. integrated with PlusBus type schemes). I still currently use a paper ticket despite living in Zone 6 and do not wish to use the Oyster as it is very difficult to claim for delays if using an Oyster card on South West Trains network – for Oyster or contactless users, this should be made easier. The new franchise should look to remove paper season tickets.

This was explained to us at Smart card training earlier in the year. The franchise commitment was to just get a scheme in place, whuch happened. The problem getting into London was down to TfL not upgrading their infrastructure for so long, and now it has happened people are being moved over to Smart (Portsmouth Direct so far from notices up at the Depot).

Wifi

: Good quality Wifi should be made available on all services. Improvements should also be made in conjunction with mobile phone operators (new masts or on board signal boosting) as there are several black holes on the network (e.g. just south of Clapham Junction).

444/450 fleet now fitted, and the 458 fleet gets down next year. Not sure about 455/456 and 158/159 fleet - possibly next franchise?

Short Formations

: South West Trains have ran services in short formation. There should be a financial penalty for the new franchise for doing this as the impact this has on passengers is enormous. Extra trains should be purchased to allow for maintenance of existing stock and to allow for some overflow capacity.

I always thought there was a penalty for a short formation, just as there is for cancelling trains or missing out stops?

Weekend Service

: South West Trains often run 4 train cars during the weekend which are full to capacity/standing room only. The new franchise should provide more capacity during the weekends.

A lot of capacity has just been added on a Sunday, and trains strengthened on a Saturday. Your beloved Hampton Court branch has got a few extra weekend and evebing services has it not?

Boxing Day

: Train services should be provided on Boxing Day. This is a key trading day and important to the UK economy. Other train operating companies provide a service on this day. The new South West Mainline franchise should provide a service on this day.

Mixed feelings on this one. Can see demand for a special timetable running on core routes. But you've got to get the staff in to run it all (not as easy as saying it has to happen). Maybe a trade off could be no Easter Sunday services? I mean, what is open on Easter Sunday? Trains are literally dead!

Earlier & Later services:

Train services should be provided earlier and later to allow for people getting to work early or going out in central London. There should be an infrequent service through the night. Southampton Airport is on the mainline and other rail networks with an airport offer an infrequent night service/very early morning service.

You have an 04:52 Southampton Central - Waterloo train, and a new 05:20 Southampton Central - Waterloo train has just been introduced. Back from London there is an 00:05 to Bournemouth and an 01:05 to Southampton Central. I don't think you need much more than that. Plus need to allow time for engineering work overnight. Basingstoke - Eastleigh is a heavily used two-track railway.

Overnight closures of the line Basingstoke-Salisbury and Haslemere-Petersfield were limited to Mon-Thu night to avoid Sun/Fri that are busier late evening. The work between Basingstoke-Eastleigh after Christmas will be the same. So there seems to be an effort to keep people off buses on the two busier nights.

Splitting the Franchise?

Would it make sense to split the franchise in 2 to offer more competition – e.g. maybe have TFLRail run the metro lines – Hampton Court, Kingston Loop, Chessington South, Epsom and another franchise run the mainline.

Why? Again, this would make your service resilience worse not better (and you want a more resilient timetable that recovers from disruption don't you?). The more TOCs, the more crews, trains, etc.

Surbiton Station Capacity

: This station gets very overcrowded. The entrance and exit capacity to platforms is very limited with a single stairway to each platform. When two trains arrive at the same time as happens frequently in evening rush hour, there can be dangerous overcrowding. Capacity should be improved by doubling the number of stairs to the platforms and doubling the number of ticket barriers at the entrance and exit.

I thought the Art Deco station was listed? Might make redevelopment harder.

Connecting the Airports:

Surrey and South West London are not very well connected with Heathrow Airport. Network Rail should look to connect the South West network to Heathrow Airport. This would be possible with a connection on the Feltham/Staines line (Heathrow Airtrack). It would also be relatively easy to tunnel between Hampton Court and Heathrow Airport with most of the tunnel travelling under parkland with a stop on the Staines line at Feltham. It would also be good if South West line could take over the Guildford to Gatwick Airport line.

If this happened it would be branch from Staines, as all the proposals have talked about, rather than a tunnel from Hampton Court!

Reading-Guildford-Gatwick would be good, in my view, to be part of the new franchise. Ideally with the line electrified with third rail. But I also think Portsmouth-Salisbury-Cardiff should be part of the franchise (possibly cut back to Bristol) as well as Weymouth-Bristol.

Improving Signalling & Points:

There have been multiple signal failures and points failures over the last few years – in particular at Waterloo or Wimbledon. Network Rail should ensure that the signal equipment and points are upgraded as a priority.

Meant to be happening, and it feels like there are less delays due to these issues, but still get the big failures that cause it all to go Pete Tong.

 

[The Ham]

Moving the Reading Gatwick services is a difficult one, as although it looks reasonable there would be some difficulties. Not only does the line need electrifying (no reason that dual voltage units wouldn't be needed elsewhere by the time it is done) but you would want to platform lengthen key stations to allow whatever EMU's you use. Neither are different but do push the cost of electrification up.

For instance you wouldn't want Farnborough North as SDO in the morning peak due to the number of people getting off (200 people probably isn't too bad a guess, but I wouldn't be suprised if it were more, given the 3 coaches can be full and rammed on approach and there are a choice of seats for those getting on).

3tph will help spread the load, but could also attract more to use the trains.

 

[Goldfish62]

OK, I'll work Boxing Day when you lot who purportedly work in offices, do the same!

No? Thought not.

I'll look forward to travelling on a Boxing Day service driven by your good self in the future when I have a break from my doss of an office job.

 

[miami]

OK, I'll work Boxing Day when you lot who purportedly work in offices, do the same!

No? Thought not.

Hopefully not working this year, unless I'm called in again. Can't say the same for my colleagues though.

Never understood why the rail industry is so special, when retail, air, coaches, power, hospitals etc carry on as normal.

 

[HarleyDavidson]

Hopefully not working this year, unless I'm called in again. Can't say the same for my colleagues though.

Never understood why the rail industry is so special, when retail, air, coaches, power, hospitals etc carry on as normal.

There are times when I think you have to be "special in the head" to want to work on the railway, especially on the last one's out of London on a Friday & Saturday night & New year's eve! :roll:

Anyway this discussion has been done to death, for many routes it gives the engineers two days of uninterrupted access to the tracks to do their vital work, without which we couldn't run the services you lot depend on.

There'd be some serious rowing going on if the work wasn't done and major delays & accidents ensued.

 

[Goldfish62]

Hopefully not working this year, unless I'm called in again. Can't say the same for my colleagues though.

Never understood why the rail industry is so special, when retail, air, coaches, power, hospitals etc carry on as normal.

Not forgetting that TfL run a full Sunday bus and tube service on Boxing Day and bus services on Boxing Day elsewhere are also on the increase. Let us also not forget our continental cousins, who generally run a full train service over Christmas.

Anyway, Merry Christmas to one and all!

 

[HarleyDavidson]

Not forgetting that TfL run a full Sunday bus and tube service on Boxing Day and bus services on Boxing Day elsewhere are also on the increase. Let us also not forget our continental cousins, who generally run a full train service over Christmas.

Anyway, Merry Christmas to one and all!

You might find that TOCs would get more interest from their staff if they paid what BR used to in that it was paid at an enhanced rate usually Tx1.75, plus a day in lieu, but TOCs won't do that, so you won't much if any the interest from staff. You've got to make it worth my while.

SWT cut the drivers RD and overtime payment to basic time, which actually equates to less than a days pay in real terms, so a significant amount of drivers told them what they could do with their RDs and overtime. Now there's times when they simply cannot get drivers to cover the service, so they get a cancellation or two.

 

[Goldfish62]

You might find that TOCs would get more interest from their staff if they paid what BR used to in that it was paid at an enhanced rate usually Tx1.75, plus a day in lieu, but TOCs won't do that, so you won't much if any the interest from staff. You've got to make it worth my while.

SWT cut the drivers RD and overtime payment to basic time, which actually equates to less than a days pay in real terms, so a significant amount of drivers told them what they could do with their RDs and overtime. Now there's times when they simply cannot get drivers to cover the service, so they get a cancellation or two.

I doubt if it's anything to do with staff interest. Other transport outfits find no problem in getting volunteers for Boxing Day. Indeed South Eastern have run such services in the past and made a profit on them. It's more the deadhand of DfT and TOC management that stops it becoming widespread.

 

[HarleyDavidson]

But what do Southeastern pay? Do they get a enhanced rate of pay, do they get lieu day?

You won't find many volunteers of you just pay basic, because after tax and NI you're working for less than a day's pay. That's why I won't even entertain it.

I don't care if the city/office lot want to go to the sales or shopping, plenty of time to do that at other times or online.

 

[Bletchleyite]

My Mum used to work in a bank call centre and they paid double time plus time off in lieu. Unsurprisingly there were always plenty of volunteers.

 

[Goldfish62]

But what do Southeastern pay? Do they get a enhanced rate of pay, do they get lieu day?

You won't find many volunteers of you just pay basic, because after tax and NI you're working for less than a day's pay. That's why I won't even entertain it.

I don't care if the city/office lot want to go to the sales or shopping, plenty of time to do that at other times or online.

Why do you keep referring to the "office/city" lot as if they're the only people who use your trains. You do run a public service you know.

Of course SWT would have to offer incentives. GWR and some other TOCs run their entire Sunday service on volunteers.