Anyone unlucky enough to be a regular railwaly commuter between Brighton and London will have found it impossible to ignore the current furore surrounding the new winter timetable, which comes into effect on December 15th. My friend Jen has featured in the Brighton Argus recently, complaining bitterly about the changes. So what's it all about?!
In a bid to meet new government targets, the number of Victoria services is being increased, while the number of trains calling at London Bridge and Clapham Junction is actually being reduced at peak times. The practical impact is that commuters will have to spend on average five hours a week longer on the trains, and rather than having a single uninterrupted journey, they will have to change at Hove or Haywards Heath. The chances of getting a seat when boarding an already-packed train are... not good. And when one pays £3,500 for the privilege... you can understand peoples' fury. On top of this, train fares are going up by an average of 7% in January, adding another £200 a year to the average commuter's bill.
According to the Southern Rail boss Chris Burchell, this genius plan all came out of a 3-year strategic review, in which nobody raised any serious objections... because they never actually asked anyone at London Bridge or Clapham stations. They asked commuters at Victoria, who naturally aren't bothered about services to other stations - and were therefore able to report that 10/10 commuters said they didn't mind the London Bridge connections being reduced. They might have well asked a drainpipe if it cared about an eBay bid on a Morris Minor - quite what these market research companies use to think with is beyond me, but it does make me wonder if money changed hands to guarantee a favourable outcome to support the new government plans.
Today Chris Burchell is being grilled (electronically) on The Argus website. Many of the questions and comments are of a very emotive and personal nature - such as "taking away precious contact time between daddy and baby" - and I have every sympathy with the poor commuters who will be suffering under this ludicrous regime.
The rail industry in the UK is a complete joke. Despite being privatised, it now costs the taxpayer more in subsidies than it ever did under public ownership. Compensation schemes between operators are a farce, while on an individual level monthly or yearly ticket holders are unable to claim compensation for late or cancelled services. Service are run to meet targets, not to meet the needs of the users. You still cannot take a bicycle on mainline trains between 07:00 and 10am, and wheelchair users must often book up to a week in advance to receive help boarding trains.
I have three suggestions to commuters who want to end this misery:
1) Give up your season ticket and get in your car.
2) Leave your job for one nearer to home.
3) Move to London.
I predict that the first political party which vows to clear up this mess will do very, very well. Now where's my manifesto...?
