Southeastern Poor Performance Continues

[ScotGG]

Well an army of cleaners descends on them at termini, and does the best job they can during a fast turnaround. Don’t want a dirty train? Don’t leave your filth on there.

Not talking about everyday rubbish (most trains get that) but the embedded dirt in every heating grill, seats, broken doors, etched windows and seats. They havn't been maintained in years. Some idiots may etch but SE could at least do deep cleans once a year. They are disgusting and taking every excess Metro and coffee cup doesnt change that. Markedly worse than almost every other TOC.

 

[ScotGG]

You get more people putting feet up on SE as never any staff on Metro trains to fine or warn people not to.

 

[GatwickDepress]

The state of Networkers and 376s are pretty dire. The cleaners do a damn good job keeping the trains free of litter, but they really do need a deep clean or some sort of interior overhaul. Its quite a contrast going from travelling on of the brilliantly refreshed mainline Electrostars to a grotty Networker.

 

[Bromley boy]

The state of Networkers and 376s are pretty dire. The cleaners do a damn good job keeping the trains free of litter, but they really do need a deep clean or some sort of interior overhaul. Its quite a contrast going from travelling on of the brilliantly refreshed mainline Electrostars to a grotty Networker.

Certainly can’t disagree with any of that. No idea why they’ve been allowed to decline into such a state (well, aside from the obvious desire to save money!).

 

[Lukespenceruk1]

Networkers definitely need a good clean and a technical and interior overhaul, but that’s it. No need to replace them. They are still reliable units and fit for purpose.

I never thought the 376’s where the best units to be used, but southeastern are stuck with them.

So they need to look into more comfortable seat and a better configuration layout in my view.

 

[SEClass375]

Networkers definitely need a good clean and a technical and interior overhaul, but that’s it. No need to replace them. They are still reliable units and fit for purpose.

I never thought the 376’s where the best units to be used, but southeastern are stuck with them.

So they need to look into more comfortable seat and a better configuration layout in my view.

I think they are doing some works on them involving adding an accessible toilet. I'm yet to travel on one of these units (apart from a /9) so I dont know if they are doing a heavy duty clean at the same time.

 

[Class465fan]

I think they are doing some works on them involving adding an accessible toilet. I'm yet to travel on one of these units (apart from a /9) so I dont know if they are doing a heavy duty clean at the same time.

That is correct. They have begun works with installing the PRM mods for the /1s.

 

[ScotGG]

I think they are doing some works on them involving adding an accessible toilet. I'm yet to travel on one of these units (apart from a /9) so I dont know if they are doing a heavy duty clean at the same time.

They aren't. A decade of accumulated filth, broken interior doors, bubbles all over the flooring and inaudible audio systems remain.

http://www.fromthemurkydepths.co.uk/2017/12/27/the-continuing-decline-of-southeastern-trains/

Those pics don't really show the horror of many heating grills. No cleaning for many, many years.

 

[NorthKent1989]

Thank you Bromley boy, I appreciate that. It took a long time to get over. I enjoyed that job very much, but finally moved on. I put my best foot forward and went back to university without looking back. I worked for Deliveroo for a while which was good fun.

Well, of course I blamed the railway for the 30 - 90 minute delays and missed connections I had to put up with. But in the grand scheme of things it wasn't responsible for everything. Yes I did go on some long journeys but the start times allowed me enough time to arrive on time.

I did look at renting closer to London but boy the rents are expensive.

My starting point was Sandwich, Deal or Walmer depending on where I had stayed the night before. As these stations didn't (and still don't) have services as early on a Saturday, I would say at friends' house and start from Dover Priory instead. Occasionally I stayed at a friend's in Orpington or Hayes & Harlington. My end point was either Bedford, Canterbury, Faversham, Southampton Central, Basingstoke, Battersea Park, Croydon, Luton, Hayes, Vauxhall or Greenwich depending on what I was schedule for that week.

It became awfully tiring so I swapped with a colleague and was commuting to London locations only after that. I thought this would make things easier. This is where the trouble started - my employer stopped subsidising my season ticket. As a result I could only afford non-highspeed ticket and was forced to sit for at least 2 hours to get to London, not including changing train at Dover Priory - this experience is where a lot of my argument for bringing back fast Ashford - Tonbridge services comes from! When the trains were on time this allowed me to be 20 minutes early. However this was rarely the case and I was often up to 40 minutes late.

Could some this have been prevented by buying a high speed ticket? Yes definitely. However I simply couldn't afford it and I still would probably have been late having to use the Underground. I wasn't on this forum back then. Looking back I could have bought several loop hole tickets. Oh well.

My point still stands though, people shouldn't have to allow an hour or two for delay to avoid being late for work.

My sympathies I know what its like to weight up options: Pay high rents and live in zone 3 for cheaper travel or buy a flat cheaper than London rent but pay high travel, I moved from Upper Sydenham (local stations Forest Hill or Sydenham Hill depending on which office I was based at; Bank or Green Park) I relocated Rochester two years ago, got a new job near Southwark and use the North Kent line, (can't afford HS1 sadly).

Sounds like you've had a hellish time of it with your commutes and 5am starts.

 

[NorthKent1989]

In fact the Vic-Orpington services are BETTER than before as they are beneficiaries of the 377 influx cascading 465s; regularly now 8 cars instead of 4 or 6, even off peak.

I quite agree, all the trains on the Penge East line are now a brilliant 8 car train, and that line manages well on just a "basic" 4tph

 

[KingJ]

Those pics don't really show the horror of many heating grills. No cleaning for many, many years.

Isn't this a bit of a fire risk? Hot heating elements with plenty of fluff embedded around them doesn't sounds like a good combination.

As a mainline commuter, it seems like performance has significantly declined since the start of the year. Checking on Recent Train Times over the last 4 weeks there's some peak time trains that are only achieving 20% arrival within 5 minutes of their scheduled time, which is pretty dire. Certainly a few major bits of disruption over the last few weeks haven't helped things (such as the Charing Cross gas leak and the New Cross broken rail) but even accounting for that, things don't seem great.

 

[Shug]

Interesting how TOC’s are lambasted for delays with little regard to the facts, the ORR report stats state

At the end of 2016-17 Network Rail delay caused to SE was higher than for any TOC (71% versus the average of around 60%)

It would be interesting to see the actual figure for the start of the year at London Bridge.

Whilst I appreciate frustration around some service recovery decisions why do people always blame the TOC for infrastructure issues and not take NR to task? 71% of your delays out of your control must be extremely frustrating along with taking all the abuse the Twitter brigade feel that they have the right to inflict.