Southeastern attack Network Rail

[infobleep]

Why would anyone want a rail franchise if they are going to make a loss?

 

[Llanigraham]

On various occasions no work has been carried out for the whole distance as far as I can see.
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On occasions I was expecting to see stop boards etc in place with a particular possession - they were not present and trains were running past.

Exactly, as far as you could see. That does not mean that no work was taking place.

If it was a Line Blockage there are no Stop Boards.

 

[The Planner]

Two instances I am aware of and NR keep saying no every year.

Depends on what is being asked for, but if for whatever reason we ask for EAP to shave 10 minutes off to get an ECS or something through we tend to get it and then we have shot ourselves in the foot as it then rolls over.

 

[MedwayValiant]

It has to be said that the old Rochester station was better suited to RRB operations than the new one is.

It's becoming rather apparent to people in Rochester that the old station was preferable in quite a few ways. It is indeed less well suited to RRB operation than the old one was, and that's just for starters.

The new station is on the wrong side of a very busy road, and while there are two pedestrian crossings which you can use, neither is within 200 yards of the station entrance and both are built such that pedestrians from the town centre are funneled away from the station. Inevitably that's causing people to cross the road freestyle, which we should not be encouraging. We were told by Medway Council that there would be either a pelican crossing immediately adjacent to the station or a subway, but neither thing has been built.

The old station had bike parking boxes; the new station doesn't. The old station had a shop; the new station doesn't. The old station had a taxi rank; the new station doesn't. We were told by Medway Council that the new station would be accessible from both sides, to open up the new development on the north side of the railway. It isn't, though.

But the thing which has been the most contentious locally is bus access. The frequent buses from Chatham to Strood pass the new station, and Southeastern is using this to claim that the station has "better bus access" than the old one. Which it does, if you're approaching it from Chatham or Strood. Which you're not, because those two towns have stations of their own.

On the other hand, the two bus routes which serve Rochester's residential areas don't go anywhere near the new station. One of them went right past the old station and the other went within 200 yards, but they don't serve the new station and Arriva says that it has no plans to change this. (The Arriva Kent Facebook feed gets ask the question several times a week. Then again, the Arriva Kent Facebook feed is run from Luton, by a person who has probably never been to Rochester.)

Sure, the upside is that the new station can accommodate 12 car trains. But there is no other obvious way in which it scores over the old one.

 

[ComUtoR]

New station :

24Hr staff
Additional TVM (soon™)
Baby changing
Coffee shop (soon™) (late Feb apparently)
121 car park spaces.
12 car trains

New seats, facilities, shelter and overall a huge improvement over the previous station buildings.

 

[ScotGG]

Another TVM is welcome. Why did it only open with one? Was a second always planned or a recent decision after seeing one is inadequate?

 

[455driver]

I think sometimes we are too quick to blame the TOC, Sure it is their fault when the trains are dirty or shortages of staff, no spare trains to cover maintenance some "incidents"

What about when the train is short formed because a unit hit a tree the day before?
What about a short form/cancellation because a couple of units need an underframe clean because they were involved in a fatality the day before?

To say 'its the TOCs fault they don't have any spare trains' just shows how little you know/ want to know!

Maybe you should look into the stock provision which is stipulated by DaFT etc!

 

[HH]

Why would anyone want a rail franchise if they are going to make a loss?

You clearly don't understand that firms are not some great amorphous monster, they are a collection of people. Have you ever been to an auction? If you have, you should understand why some bidders bid too much.

 

[MedwayValiant]

Additional TVM (soon™)

Well, we'll see. I think it's nine years since Southeastern first said they were planning a second TVM at Rochester, but the issue came to a head last month when local press ran pictures of what it claimed as a 30 minute queue for the one TVM.

I'd hoped that when the new station opened the ticket office would be open seven days a week, but sadly it's still closed on Sundays. I'm all in favour of everyone having the right ticket, but Southeastern do need to do more to make it possible to buy one at Rochester.

If that can only be done by reducing ticket office hours at another station, Bickley comes to mind. Ticket office open seven days a week, even though it's a fairly quiet station off peak and a lot of the people who do use it are using Oystercards.

Coffee shop (soon™) (late Feb apparently)

Not Costa Coffee please! The old station had an independent coffee shop / newsagent, but its proprietor declined to take space at the new station for (what was reported as) three times the rent.

Car parking I'll give you, since it was a definite weakness of the old station. The car park at the new station is Medway Council's rather than the railway's, but for the first week or so of the new station's existence the TVM was still selling car park tickets that were only valid at the old station! That's the sort of thing that someone should have thought of, but can be excused for not doing.

I'm less able to comment on the facilities inside the barriers, since we've only had trains for one of the last nine weekends, and I don't use a train to go to work during the week.

 

[Antman]

It's becoming rather apparent to people in Rochester that the old station was preferable in quite a few ways. It is indeed less well suited to RRB operation than the old one was, and that's just for starters.

The new station is on the wrong side of a very busy road, and while there are two pedestrian crossings which you can use, neither is within 200 yards of the station entrance and both are built such that pedestrians from the town centre are funneled away from the station. Inevitably that's causing people to cross the road freestyle, which we should not be encouraging. We were told by Medway Council that there would be either a pelican crossing immediately adjacent to the station or a subway, but neither thing has been built.

The old station had bike parking boxes; the new station doesn't. The old station had a shop; the new station doesn't. The old station had a taxi rank; the new station doesn't. We were told by Medway Council that the new station would be accessible from both sides, to open up the new development on the north side of the railway. It isn't, though.

But the thing which has been the most contentious locally is bus access. The frequent buses from Chatham to Strood pass the new station, and Southeastern is using this to claim that the station has "better bus access" than the old one. Which it does, if you're approaching it from Chatham or Strood. Which you're not, because those two towns have stations of their own.

On the other hand, the two bus routes which serve Rochester's residential areas don't go anywhere near the new station. One of them went right past the old station and the other went within 200 yards, but they don't serve the new station and Arriva says that it has no plans to change this. (The Arriva Kent Facebook feed gets ask the question several times a week. Then again, the Arriva Kent Facebook feed is run from Luton, by a person who has probably never been to Rochester.)

Sure, the upside is that the new station can accommodate 12 car trains. But there is no other obvious way in which it scores over the old one.

I agree with you that apart from being able to accommodate 12 car trains and the increased car parking there is no real advantage over the old station. The long walk to and from the 145 bus stop is a particularly sore point but I can't see how Arriva could reroute it to the new station with inconveniencing other users.

 

[MedwayValiant]

Not easily, certainly, but Arriva and Southeastern have both been slightly naughty about this. When the new station was first announced, Southeastern said that it "would" be served by the same buses which served the old station (and more besides), but that was news to Arriva. And then a few months before it opened, Arriva said they were "thinking about it" - when as far as anyone knows, they never had any intention.

The best solution to the issue would probably be to introduce a new route, which I'm mentally calling 146. It might run Asda - City Way - Delce Road - New Rochester Station - Strood Station (which has no bus service at all at present). Half hourly would be adequate if they got the timings right, in which case it would need two buses to operate.

 

[crazyjimmy]

I agree with you that apart from being able to accommodate 12 car trains and the increased car parking there is no real advantage over the old station. The long walk to and from the 145 bus stop is a particularly sore point but I can't see how Arriva could reroute it to the new station with inconveniencing other users.

The 145 bus is an issue and the suggestion for the "146" would certainly seem to be worthy of consideration.

Regarding 12 car trains I'm sure these used to stop at Rochester in the past with selective door opening so I'm not sure if I see the big advantage of this?

On a different note I missed the first train from Rochester this morning as it was replaced by an earlier bus - this was shown on the engineering works poster (which is now placed away from any route I ever take in to, out of or through the station) and is apparently considered a late night train service...

Jimmy

 

[bb21]

Why would anyone want a rail franchise if they are going to make a loss?

They don't set out to make a loss. It's a risk but at the same time an opportunity.

Having the assets (capital) sitting around doing nothing is the worst thing you can do.

I doubt the government will allow risk-free profits to be made (after inflation adjustments), although I know lots of people on this forum would like to think so.