Recent content by John Bray

The NR/TfL fare discrepancy in SE London is bizarre. Anyone who knows catches a train using the contactless TfL fare, and if you to the national rail site you are told the Orpington-London Bridge single fare is £9, but fairly prominently it also mentions the £5 TfL one. I guess its just...

I was complaining about the fast service from Orpington, and got a stock answer about the slow services, which are irrelevant as they are nearly all overtaken (unless of course you have huge gaps between the fast trains). According to RTT one train isn't being removed, just its 0922 stop at...

I complained to Southeastern, and got this completely useless and irrelevant answer.

They've removed 2 fast trains from Orpington to London Bridge early morning off-peak. There is now a 38 minute gap between 9:12 and 9:50. That's one through train that now won't stop, and one Orpington starter removed. They really don't want me to go to London for the day, do they.

London Bridge with 2 tube lines, Thameslink and the bridge itself, is a lot more useful for commuters accessing the high density commercial areas. Charing Cross is the best station for leisure traffic. Victoria. with a lot of residential property, is a lot less useful as a destination. So even...

Nearly all traffic has one London station as a destination, so most passengers have no interest in intermediate stops. But Orpington is a feeder point to the whole of SE London, the best point to switch from local to regional services. So why does Sevenoaks have 6tph fast to London, but...

The change 2 years ago to only have a half-hourly fast service from Orpington to London Bridge is very regrettable. Served sometimes by Hastings trains, other times by Tunbridge Wells terminators, and even a shuttle starting at Orpington, its a muddled system, and gives a lousy service, as the 4...

What worries me about this incident is the rigid rules about signalling. A driver can see the conditions and sense the stress building in his passengers, but its the signaler in a comfortable chair in a warm room far away who makes the decisions, and is always likely to discount the experience...

Southeastern rejected one London Bridge to Orpington when a Ashford fire took out 3/4 of their network. No trains were leaving LBG, so I went via Victoria with an hour's delay, only to find the LBG trains has resumed in the meantime. Paid on appeal. Not happy they quibbled on a day when they...

SE have just rejected my delay repay claim, as after their "tickets valid on other routes" tannoy message I went from LBG to Orpington via Victoria, with hour+ delay, but they say a train left London Bridge after I'd bailed. As I'm not psychic, I'm appealing, and will take it to the ombundsman.

Southeastern's delay repay system doesn't handle Oyster or contactless well. You are asked to attach a photo of your paper ticket, its not at all clear what information from the Oyster website is needed. I cobbled together a page from screenshots, and complained.

The DLR's lack of gates keeps catching me out, as I can never remember for occasional journeys whether the validators are at street level or platform level, not helped with the complexity of the proof of route intermediate ones I don't understand. I suspect this dislike of automated systems is...

By their act of contritely going to a revenue officer and proactively reporting their mistake. If I seek out the guard on a train, I'd expect them to charge me the normal fare. If I thought I'd get a PF, I might take my chances with the barriers/inspections, and that's a slippery slope to...

Orpington has about 5.1m entry/exits and 1.1m interchanges. While its 10min from its High Street, its has solid housing for a mile around, though very limited commercial stuff. It has its own bus terminal and is on 17 bus routes. With Victoria, Thameslink and Hither Green slows its a good point...

While the PF make be valid, I do dislike the holier than thou attitude of many posters "how could anyone forget to touch in". Because we are human, and we make mistakes, because of distraction, or not noticing a little light did not flicker on an otherwise open gate at a suburban station...