Hogrider No 119 : June-August 2008

HOGRIDER 119 : JUNE-AUGUST 2008

INDEX

ON THE EDGE OF A MONSTROUS MIRE – THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN CIVILITY AND ABUSE ON THE RAILWAYS

RITUAL ABUSE AND HUMILIATION- 2

FURORE OVER SWT TICKET OFFICE PROPOSALS

DE MENEZES-STYLE SLAUGHTER SCENES RE-ENACTED AT BOURNEMOUTH

DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION BY SWT’S AUTOMATED VERBAL DIARRHOEA – 4

CONCERNS THAT STAGECOACH, THE SNP’S BIGGEST DONOR, IS DICTATING TRANSPORT POLICY IN SCOTLAND TO THE DETRIMENT OF USERS

SUBURBAN COACHES PUTTING LONG-DISTANCE PASSENGERS AT GREATER RISK OF ATTACK?

RAIL MINISTER UNDER ATTACK

SWT’S AUGUST WEBCHAT - MORE FOBBING OFF

CAN’T SWT BE HONEST ABOUT ANYTHING?

SWT TOP OF THE OVERCROWDING LEAGUE DUE TO DUFF STOCK?

WEYMOUTH-EDINBURGH CHEAPER THAN WEYMOUTH-WATERLOO DUE TO INFLATED SWT FARES

YET ANOTHER SWT TRAIN FIRE

COMPANIES WHICH ACT LIKE SWT BLAMED FOR LACK OF RESPECT AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE

SPECIAL EVENTS – FORMER TRANSPORT MINISTER CRITICISES SWT

SPECIAL EVENT AT LYMINGTON MARRED BY AWFUL SERVICE

STAGECOACH LOBBYIST DISILLUSIONED BY SWT TIMETABLE BOOKLET DOWNGRADE

SHRUG RESPONSE TO SOUTH CENTRAL FRANCHISE CONSULTATION

DISCONTENT WITH STAGECOACH EAST MIDLANDS FRANCHISE

DIARY OF A TOTTON-WATERLOO COMMUTER –17

DIARY OF A TOTTON HOLIDAYMAKER

SWT RIGHT TIME RAILWAY: DUFF STOCK, CREW SHORTAGES, CANCELLATIONS, TRAINS TERMINATING SHORT OF DESTINATION, AND STOPS AXED FOR OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE

MEDIA DIGEST

PRIVATE EYE RESEARCH AND COMMENT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ON THE EDGE OF A MONSTROUS MIRE – THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN CIVILITY AND ABUSE ON THE RAILWAYS

Governments and citizens sometimes ignore things which reasonably demand urgent attention. It took Prince Charles’ famous term ‘Monstrous Carbuncle’ to highlight the fact that architecture can be unnecessarily bleak and inhuman. On the railways, there is much to celebrate, but the treatment of customers ranges from great to obscene.

So what’s wrong? Our article ‘Wise Counsels’ in Issue No 117 [available on www.shrug.info], and under the serial headings ‘Ritual Abuse and Humiliation’ and ‘Automated Verbal Diarrhoea’, show that people are increasingly prepared to speak out against the disdainful abuse too frequently meted out in return for some of the highest fares in Europe.

Fifty years ago, you could turn up at Southampton Central, have your ticket checked at the barrier and be told the time of the train, the platform it would leave from, and where you needed to change. When passengers arrived at the last minute, the ticket inspector would call to colleagues to hold the train for a few seconds. Lack of respect for customers would likely lead to reprimand or dismissal.

In those days, excluding people from trains before departure time to manipulate punctuality figures would have caused outrage. If train operators need leeway, even after severely slowing many schedules, they should simply advertise trains as departing one minute earlier. Typically, on 02/07/08, an affable middle-aged gentleman checked with SWT’s passenger assistance (?) officer as he was about to board the 12.30 from Southampton Central to Waterloo. The officer gave the signal for the doors to slam shut in his face. The astounded gentleman turned to his female companion and said ‘WHY did he do that?’

Stagecoach Chairman Brian Souter probably hit on the root cause with his famous phrase “ethics are not irrelevant but some are incompatible with what we have to do because capitalism is based on greed”. Given the Stagecoach founders’ huge personal fortunes, much of the money attributable to taxpayers’ largesse, it’s probably fair to say that Stagecoach represents individual greed in an extreme form. When greed can be sated at public expense, without giving respect in return, why be respectful?

What we now see, particularly on SWT, is that once you have a spiteful penalty fares system that treats the lack of a ticket as deliberate fare evasion, operators have a vested interest in wrong-footing customers. So they rip out permit-to-travel machines which were considered an essential protection for customers when penalty fares schemes were introduced. They leave booking offices closed during advertised opening hours, and then say there is a strong case for reducing hours permanently. They rip out Travel Centres which are brimming with people seeking advice, while issuing leaflets which warn that obtaining the wrong ticket will render passengers liable to penalty fares. Revenue Protection Officers often behave with ruthless fervour in penalising people even where they have acted reasonably.

And don’t fall for talk of the fares system being simplified. Ticket names have simply been lengthened by three generic prefixes, ensuring that people are less likely even to remember them.

To underpin this culture, passengers need to be intimidated. So posters threaten penalty fares, and station and train tannoys use superior mid-twentieth century accents. Announcements, many of them superfluous, most of them threatening, harass people to the extent that they have even been driven off trains to keep their peace of mind. Operators who behave like this care not a damn that the stressful conditions they create are a health hazard. And government, which has seen fit to initiate a stress awareness day, looks the other way. Hear no abuse, see no abuse, but let operators speak lots of it.

During week commencing 31 August, there was a notice on Totton station saying that due to ‘unavoidable circumstances’ (inadequate staff numbers and staff having the temerity to take leave?) the ticket office would be closed from Tuesday 1 September to Sunday 6 September inclusive. Adjacent to the notice was a poster stating that 1,479 people had been prosecuted for boarding trains without a ticket, and threatening the shame of a criminal record. This station serves the fourth largest town between Southampton and Weymouth.

Andrew Gilligan’s article about the serious annoyances of rail travel [see “Driven to distraction by SWT’s automated verbal diarrhoea”] drew the following response in the Evening Standard of 28/07/08: “Andrew Gilligan’s observations of railway annoyances were spot on. These proliferate because rail transport is managed by a cartel of aggressive, unimaginative dullards. There are a number of talented, creative railway operators and engineers who struggle to make their voices heard, often being labelled troublemakers. What’s so sad is that much of what could be done to improve the rail travel experience is wholly compatible with the profit motive. The dullards just can’t see it.”

Mr Gilligan’s experience on a Virgin-Stagecoach train [see “Ritual abuse and humiliation”] is even more shocking, but is very much on par with incidents we have reported in the past. Train operators will try to claim that such humiliation and abuse is rare and down to individual members of staff. But are they not due to a culture of spiteful contempt towards passengers which has grown up under some operators? Take this exchange from SWT’s Webchat of 20/08/08:

Q: “I recently lost my gold card and was subjected to a humiliating interview under police caution before I could be issued with a replacement. Why do you treat your loyal customers as criminal suspects in this way?”

Q: “I lost my annual gold card ticket last week and was shocked that I had to undergo a humiliating interview under police caution in order to get it replaced. I am as careful as I can be and have never lost a ticket before in my life, it was just one of those things. Please can SW Trains explain to me why I was forced to go through the same degrading process that suspected criminals are subjected to? I am seriously considering never getting an annual ticket again because of this.”

A: “We are sorry that you felt uncomfortable about the interview process surrounding the replacement of your Season Ticket. We require our revenue protection inspectors who undertake these interviews to explain clearly the reasons why the interviews are being conducted. Annual Season Tickets are worth a lot of money if they fall into the wrong hands and the interview process is designed to ensure that there is nothing untoward regarding the loss of the ticket and the application for a replacement. We have a duty to protect our revenue and I am sure you will understand that if the Season Ticket was not in fact lost (i.e. if the person claiming that they have lost their ticket had in fact given/sold it to somebody else) then this exposes us to significant revenue loss. Whilst in the majority of cases this is not the case, we do need to have adequate safeguards in place. The reason why you are interviewed under caution is purely a legal technicality and by no means an indication of guilt or wrongdoing. This is a policy adopted by the vast majority of train operating companies [?]. Once again we are sorry for the discomfort you felt during the interview process.”

If you believe that reply, you will believe anything. Who would want to go through the hassle and cost of getting a replacement ticket, especially with Travel Centres ripped out and booking offices largely closed (only about 20 stations managed by SWT are staffed throughout operating hours). And annual season tickets are checked hundreds of times; it is very straightforward for staff to look for any which are in use when supposedly lost, particularly as the number of the accompanying photo-card is prominently displayed on the ticket. Is this not all about greed developing into paranoia?

RITUAL ABUSE AND HUMILIATION- 2

“INSULTED AND ASSAULTED BY A VIRGIN BUREAUCRAT” – Andrew Gilligan, Evening Standard 14/07/08

“Late last night, in the middle of Birmingham, I was physically assaulted, called a f***ing c*** and a prick, and left stranded after the last train back to London had gone. The person who did all this was not a mugger or a hooligan, or even one of my political enemies, but a member of staff of Virgin Trains. [49% Stagecoach-owned]

The provocation, I admit was pretty serious: I’d asked, politely, if I might board the 9.45pm from New Street to Euston with a bicycle. Each of the trains on this route has two sizeable bike parking areas for precisely this purpose. Strictly speaking, you need a reservation to use them, although this is almost never insisted on if space is available, as it was last night and indeed almost always is.

I explained, again politely, that it is possible to get bike reservations only at Virgin ticket offices (the website does not offer them); that I had started my journey yesterday evening from a place without a Virgin ticket office, or any other. I explained that the connection did not allow enough time to get a bike reservation at Birmingham; that for my particular journey it was, in fact, impossible to go through the bureaucratic hoops Virgin required; and that this was also the last train of the night. I even offered to take the bike’s wheels off. It made no difference: after a barrage of four-letter words, I ended up getting pushed on to the platform.

Now I’ve been kicked off half-empty trains before for the crime of bringing a bike – but never in such circumstances, and never in such a fashion. You feel, I can report, not so much angry, more amazed: even by Virgin standards, this was stone-carved, historic, off-the scale-bad.

Yet this isn’t just a personal complaint. What happened last night is a tiny example of the more general reasons why the railways in this country are broken and will never fulfil their potential.

First: they complicate things that should be simple. The bike rules are but a microcosm of the network so burdened by regulation and bureaucracy and having to agree everything with 456 different bodies that much-needed improvement has become almost impossible.

Second: they are run, at all levels, by incompetent authoritarians, of whom my train guard was an extreme specimen. Arguing with me delayed the train. Showing flexibility would have been by far the easier option – for both of us – and would have cost him nothing, except the pleasure of flexing his muscles.

Third: privatisation has turned a civilised means of travel into one that only Max Mosley could appreciate. It has erased the residual public-service culture. It’s impossible even to imagine an employee of, say, M&S behaving like that railwayman did to a customer with a legitimate, easily-solved problem.

Fourth: after our contretemps, I and the bike came home from Birmingham by taxi. To my amazement, I found that the chauffeur-driven trip cost me not much more than a standard ticket on Virgin Trains.”

LETTER FROM “ARNIE” – Evening Standard 15/07/08

“Andrew Gilligan is spot on. I visit Birmingham every month and in my experience, most Virgin Trains staff are rude and incompetent. Last week, I watched a man run down the stairs and dash across the platform to try and get on the train in time. A Virgin attendant yelled at the top of his voice and began swearing like a madman; surely a completely unacceptable way to treat customers?”

LETTER FROM LK OF READING – Evening Standard 17/07/08

“With regard to Andrew Gilligan’s problems trying to take a bike on a Virgin train: when I commuted from Reading to Staines, South West Trains would sometimes send guards on board at Bracknell to insist everybody with bikes got off. I usually refused to budge and told them I needed to get to work but it was an unpleasant experience and showed a poor approach to integrated transport.”

FURORE OVER SWT TICKET OFFICE PROPOSALS

There has been a huge outcry against South West Trains’ proposals to reduce ticket office opening hours even further. There is clearly no financial need. The Evening Standard of 28/08/08 reported that Stagecoach has just raised its profit forecasts (its shares then rose about 30p to Ł3.30, over 3,000 per cent of their 10p value when the Strategic Rail Authority bailed out SWT with an extra Ł29 million of taxpayers’ money). The Standard’s article also reported that Stagecoach was unaffected by the credit crunch as it has surplus cash and un-drawn bank facilities that run to 2012.

Below are just a few of the manifestations of political and public anger.

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT CRITICISE SWT

EARLY DAY MOTION 1969 : SOUTH WEST TRAINS TICKET OFFICES
07/07/2008 : Whitehead, Alan

That this House notes with extreme concern plans by South West Trains to close ticket offices and cut ticket office opening hours at 114 stations; believes that such cuts cannot be justified when these stations have seen a combined increase in passengers of nearly 27 per cent. in the last year; is further concerned that the cuts will dramatically increase the number of stations that will lose their ticket offices entirely during weekends and will leave stations unstaffed at weekends and in the evening making railway stations and passengers who use them feel less secure; believes that replacing staff with ticket machines will also reduce the quality and range of services available to passengers; and calls on South West Trains immediately to withdraw its plans.

Signatures:

Alan Whitehead; Kate Hoey; John McDonnell; Peter Bottomley; David Drew; Graham Stringer; Lynne Jones; Dr William McCrea; Martin Caton; Ann Cryer; Mike Hancock; Robert Key; David Laws; Annette Brooke; Ronnie Campbell; Jeremy Corbyn; Janet Dean; Kelvin Hopkins; Edward Davey; Eric Illsley; Alan Simpson; Sandra Gidley; Vincent Cable; Ian Taylor.

OTHER POLITICAL CRITICISM

* Southampton Test MP Alan Whitehead says, “A larger number of unstaffed stations is, I think, potentially bad news for users, and not just in terms of ticket sales. Unmanned stations can become a self-fulfilling prophecy because a lot of people will think they don’t want to be fumbling around with ticket machines in the dark, and they will simply decide not to do that. That means lower demand, which then vindicates why there’s no need for staff”. (Southern Daily Echo 20/06/08)

* Eastleigh MP Chris Huhne has called SWT’s proposals “bizarre and shortsighted”, given the evidence of sharp passenger growth at almost every station where staff reduction is in prospect. He said, “Chandlers Ford station is just picking up nicely but these ticket office cuts will certainly not help it re-establish itself, having opened again so recently. The figures show there were more than 18,000 more entries and exits at Chandlers Ford in the past year than in the year before, a rise of 10.2% in just one year. This is the pattern that is also repeated at Hedge End and Netley. When I was in business, we used to say if it isn’t broken don’t fix it. For some reason, South West Trains thinks it can get the passenger growth without providing the service. The cuts in ticket office staff will not only reduce travellers’ options on special tickets, since you cannot quiz a machine, but they will also make many people feel less safe in using a deserted station”. Martin Todd, who will contest Winchester for the Liberal Democrats at the next General Election, added, “After seeing the problems at Winchester after South West Trains closed the Travel Centre there, I’m not confident that South West Trains have thought this through. Will people get the off-peak fares and discounts they’re entitled to when stations are closed? If more people are paying to travel, South West Trains should be improving the service, not cutting it back”. (Southern Daily Echo 26/06/08)

* MPs John Denham, Alan Whitehead and Sandra Gidley attended a demonstration at Southampton Central on 18/07/08, handing out leaflets about the cuts. Alan Whitehead said, “Without staff how can stations be as safe – all you will have is a button that means you can talk to someone five miles away and you won’t be able to talk to staff to make sure you get the cheapest ticket possible. If this goes ahead we may have to talk to a few ministers and see if they think South West Trains is giving the service it promised when it took on the franchise”. John Denham echoed these sentiments and added, “A lot of people will be affected by this and a lot took the leaflets away with them”. (Southern Daily Echo 21/07/08)

MAYOR OF LONDON CRITICISES SWT

* Boris Johnson has told SWT to drop its plans to close ticket offices at weekends. He intends to hold a summit with the train operating companies later this year where he will outline his expectations of them. (Evening Standard 25/07/08)

PASSENGER REPRESENTATIVES CRITICISE SWT

* David Leibling, Chairman of London TravelWatch says “We do not believe that South West Trains has made a good enough case to justify the reductions in opening hours on the scale proposed – it is simply not in the passengers’ interest. We do not accept the argument that ticket selling is a stand-alone function, which can be separated from the issue of station staffing in general, and we do not believe passengers will accept it either”. London TravelWatch also raised concerns at the reliability of ticket machines, increased demands at the times when the ticket offices are still open, meaning longer queues at those times, and passengers who were genuinely unable to buy tickets falling victim to the penalty fares scheme”. (Evening Standard 19/08/08)

* Alan Shotter, member of the former Rail Users Consultative Committee, said unmanned stations could become a magnet for youths, which can put off potential passengers. “Manned ticket offices not only have a deterrent effect, they have a reassuring effect for paying customers. It’s off-putting for people, particularly women and senior citizens, because youths congregate, get up to mischief, graffiti and other things.” (Southern Daily Echo 19/06/08)

* More than 3,000 rail users have sent written objections to PassengerFocus. Their director, Ashwin Kumar said that, as well as increased safety, passengers wanted staff at the station for advice on buying the cheapest ticket. “We fear these plans will lead to passengers paying more for their off-peak tickets than they should. Ticket vending machines are important, but until they offer all ticket types or provide advice to ensure passengers get the cheapest fares, there will be a need for station staff.” The watchdog’s research found passengers used station ticket offices instead of ticket vending machines for a number of reasons. These included requiring advice from staff, their ticket being unavailable, queues too long, and being unable to use a travel card, or unable to use the ticket machine. (Southern Daily Echo, 13.08.08)

UNIONS CRITICISE SWT

* The RMT Union is threatening industrial action, as they released figures showing big increases in passenger numbers at Fareham, Totton, Lymington Town and Chandlers Ford stations. General Secretary Bob Crow said, “SWT’s planned cuts would leave stations unstaffed, particularly at weekends, but also at night, and that will only make railway stations and the passengers who use them less secure. CCTV has its uses, but it is no substitute for the presence of trained uniformed staff.” (Southern Daily Echo 24/06/08) Bottom of Form

* A Transport Salaried Staff Association spokesman said, “Unmanned stations will be more dangerous and expensive for the public and the company’s huge profits last year do not make this economically justified. The people who lose out will be the customers who no longer get the personal touch”. (Southern Daily Echo 21/07/08). General Secretary, Gerry Docherty, said “Stagecoach is putting profits before passenger services”. (Evening Standard 15/07/08)

* RMT and TSSA have both lobbied passengers at Waterloo station. “In survey after survey passengers have expressed fears of not having staff at stations and on trains; concerns highlighted by the Evening Standard’s heavily endorsed Safer Stations campaign, prompted by the murder two years ago of City lawyer Tom ap Rhys Pryce, 31” (Evening Standard 15/07/08)

PUBLIC CRITICISES SWT (small selection)

* “Whatever happened to customer service at South West Trains, Southampton Central? The closure of the Travel Centre in September and the subsequent reduction of retail staff will place many older people at a disadvantage when it comes to arranging their travel itineraries. “We must move with the times,” says the company. “We must be innovative. People are buying their travel tickets more online and on the telephone. We will provide vending machines that will help us do our jobs.” The taking away of a dedicated facility like the travel centre may save them some money but will not help those travellers that prefer to see and speak to a trained staff member. Now, SWT plans to close the whole retail facility for an hour or more once a week for staff training! [One and a half hours, and 2 hours at Basingstoke!] What price now their own mission statement to provide the travelling public with the “best customer service they have ever had?” ROBERT FORD, Southampton.” (Southern Daily Echo 12/07/08)

* “I am a registered disabled person and only use the travel centre at Southampton Rail Station if possible. I am deaf and cannot understand what they are talking about at the ticket office as I find the glass partition gets in the way. Like many others who use the travel centre, I find the female staff have a great deal of patience with me and if I do not understand them they write everything down. I have never found that with the ticket office people who have no patience. I have a railcard and therefore do not use ticket machines, have never bought tickets on the Internet and do not use telephones because of my disability. Will the ticket staff all go for deaf awareness training as I have found out not many deaf people can understand them. I can understand a woman better than a man. They should keep the travel office open for people like me and many others who also get confused with the ticket office. I can see very large queues as people try to make sense of what tickets they get and how their travel is planned. MRS D WOOD, Bitterne Manor, Southampton.” (Southern Daily Echo 02/08/08)

* “Whilst the reduction in ticket office opening hours on South West Trains is supposedly subject to consultation, a poster on Totton station states that SWT ‘will’ be changing the hours. Similarly, a poster appeared at Southampton Central stating that the ticket office would close from 11.30am to 1pm on Tuesdays for staff training, and passengers should book online or use the ticket machine. Worse still, Southampton travel centre is to close, probably to make way for a retail outlet as at Guildford. Scores of SWT stations look set to be unstaffed for days at a time, yet Passenger Focus’s poll has found that 76 per cent of passengers think stations should be staffed at all times. Only 20 per cent of peak passengers and 37 per cent of off-peak passengers now consider SWT gives value for money, compared with 21 and 42 per cent last year. SWT’s parent company, Stagecoach, started asset-stripping in Hampshire by disposing of Southampton bus station. The two founders have received Ł250 million in bonuses over two years. DENIS FRYER , organiser, South Hampshire Rail Users’ Group.” (Southern Daily Echo 02/08/08)

* “We have recently been away, so were unaware of the plans to close the travel information office at Southampton Central station until reading K Glasspell’s letter (July 27). “Most people having the Internet” is no excuse whatsoever, as obviously the people waiting to be served haven’t got any other source of help or they wouldn’t be there! Please, South West Trains, have second thoughts and keep this valuable office open. Bad enough for those of us without the Internet to miss out on very cheap fares, so please don’t deprive us of the information centre. We pay for it with higher fares! MR AND MRS W H CLAYTON, Southampton.” (Southern Daily Echo, 06/08/08)

* “Typical of how businesses behave in a recession, so only to be expected. For me, South West Trains has priced themselves out of the market. Compare the cost of travel from Southampton to London using SWT and Southern. BOB444” (Southern Daily Echo, 20/06/08)

* “The letter in this week’s Echo spoke of rural problems which may arise if fewer staff are employed at smaller stations. I can see an urban problem at Southampton Central even sooner. Last week when I renewed my travel card at the travel centre at Southampton Central station I was told that the centre will close next month, which begins next week. It always seems ver busy to me, and is invaluable for reserving seats, booking ahead, route planning and renewing rail cards. I was told that all these transactions will take place at the ticket counters. Can someone from Central station please explain how feasible it is to carry on these operations, at the same time as commuters are queuing to buy tickets for imminent journeys? CHERILLE WHITE, Southampton.” (Southern Daily Echo 30/08/08)

SWT RACES TO UNDERMINE SENIOR POLITICIANS’ INITIATIVE

Letter to:
Rt Hon John Denham MP
Dr Alan Whitehead MP
Mrs Sandra Gidley MP

21 July 2008

South West Trains’ Ticket Office Opening Hours

Congratulations on your initiative at Southampton Central station on 18 July, urging passengers to reject proposals by South West Trains to reduce ticket office opening times at 114 stations.

I fear that Stagecoach attempted to distract passengers. At 06.20 on the 18th I spotted a SWT official putting up a poster, inside the main station entrance, which said that London Travel Card operators would be conducting a survey at the station that day, and that Ł2 would be donated to charity when people completed a questionnaire. I have never heard of such a survey in the past, nor of such short notice being given of any passenger survey by a train operator. It is not clear why anyone would want to conduct one in Southampton now, especially as passengers in London are being urged to use Oyster Cards wherever possible.

Interestingly, SWT’s website suggests that the company is consulting widely on ‘proposed’ changes to ticket office opening hours, but a poster at Totton station simply says that opening hours ‘will’ be changed, with 05.40–10.00 shown for Mondays to Fridays and no weekend opening. I’m afraid that Stagecoach ‘consultation’ involves telling people what the company has decided to do and then ignoring protests.

We went through the same process last year, when off-peak and Saturday journey times between Totton and Waterloo, New Milton and Christchurch were all increased by 30 minutes, producing the slowest inter-urban journeys in the South East. Two of us made the effort to visit Marsham Street, after DfT officials had indicated that they were prepared to discuss improvements, but they reneged in the presence of a SWT official. The service being operated is nothing like the DfT’s Service Level Commitment, which included faster hourly Waterloo-Eastleigh journeys (going through to Weymouth) and direct hourly services between Waterloo, Swaythling and St Denys, in addition to a somewhat better service pattern from Totton.

Incidentally, I note that the DfT’s public consultation on renewing the Southern franchise includes a requirement for many stations to be staffed for longer hours to improve customer service and security. It seems that people can have a good service provided Stagecoach doesn’t hold the franchise.

The removal of SWT Travel Centres, except at Waterloo, means that people wanting to book complicated journeys, other than on-line, will need to go to booking offices, where their long transactions will greatly inconvenience passengers just wanting to travel locally. That’s a reason for longer booking office opening hours. Perhaps SWT hopes to get more penalty fares from people who board without a ticket to avoid waiting an hour for the next service.

Interestingly, SWT has made much of its ‘improvements’ at Southampton Central. They first claimed that these changes cost Ł250 million, but reduced the figure to Ł250,000, after I publicly challenged it. I then received an e-mail, from someone I had never heard of, saying that ‘m’ and ‘k’ are close together on computer keyboards!

One of the main ‘improvements’ was an extension to the reception area on platform 1, which was provided with token seats. But who would want to wait for a train in this relatively remote area between the Travel Centre and the pavement? It’s pitifully obvious that this was done so that, when the Travel Centre is ripped out, there will be a reasonable amount of space for a retail outlet (Guildford Travel Centre is now converted to a Marks and Spencer.). I wonder whether DfT realized this when they awarded the franchise?

As you know, passengers using First Group’s Cardiff-Portsmouth services through Romsey and Southampton endured well over a year of misery before First took remedial action. Tony Ambrose, who organised the one-day fares strikes on the line, and drew public attention to the cattle-truck conditions which passengers had suffered, gave a very thoughtful account of these events at this year’s RMT Parliamentary seminar.

I was appalled how Mr Ambrose was sharply ‘put down’ by Tom Harris, who argued that everything he had said was wrong. Mr Harris argued that the remedial action which had now been taken showed the strengths of the franchise system. I’m afraid I disagree that a system which creates over a year of misery for passengers struggling to and from work particularly commends itself. Mr Harris seems to have no empathy with passengers. Perhaps he could use his blogs to consult on railway issues rather than worry about whether people are miserable?

Mr Harris also said that no other company had been threatened with loss of a rail franchise for contractual failure. Wrong again; Stephen Byers was threatening Stagecoach with loss of the SWT franchise just before he stepped down.

I fear there is a very real issue about passenger satisfaction with the railways being misrepresented. Brian Mawhinney presented privatisation in terms of making the railways customer-responsive like the Sainsburys of this world. But the new official figures show that 20% of peak and 37% of off-peak passengers now think SWT gives value for money. These figures are down from 21% and 42% a year ago. With that level of satisfaction, Sainsburys would have been bankrupt long ago. What the figures show is that SWT tends to score highly on things like cleanliness of trains, upkeep of trains and cleanliness of stations, which should be taken for granted.

SWT didn’t actually help provide a true picture when their own on-line poll showed that only one third of the respondents thought Stagecoach should have kept the franchise, yet they published a figure of 61%.

I note that the Southern Daily Echo of 16 July contained yet another letter of complaint (this time from a Woolston resident) about the lack of a bus station in Southampton. The popular facility in the Marlands was destroyed when Stagecoach first got out of debt by buying Hampshire Bus and selling off the less profitable southern Hampshire services and the bus station for more than they had paid for the whole operation.

Stagecoach Chairman Brian Souter has more recently threatened to do the same across England if the Government introduces powers for a measure of re-regulation to give people the services they need. He appears to have scuppered similar proposals by the Scottish Executive by becoming the SNP’s biggest donor, though I spotted in the Sunday Herald of 29 June that Labour MSP Charlie Gordon is now attempting to revive re-regulation.

I imagine that Tom Harris neither knows nor cares about any of this, but it would be good if Stagecoach’s appalling conduct could be brought to Ruth Kelly’s attention.

Finally, a prediction. Some of us are concerned that SWT may (whether or not she realizes it) be preparing Jocelyn Pearson of Passenger Focus, our independent passenger champion, to be the next chairman of their Passengers Panel, in succession to Sir Alan Greengross. Sir Alan himself was Chairman of the former London Passengers Transport Committee, but now uses his pages in SWT’s e-motion magazine to justify Stagecoach policy and, occasionally, attack MPs. Ms Pearson was notably praised by SWT in a recent issue of e-motion, and last week was to join SWT officials in a ‘Meet the Managers’ session at Waterloo. Great that she could attend, but shouldn’t she be with the passengers?

Denis Fryer, Organiser, Southampton Rail Users’ Group)

SOUTH HAMPSHIRE RAIL USERS’ GROUP SUBMISSION TO PASSENGER FOCUS

To: PassengerFocus

Copy for information:
MPs in the South West Trains area
Louise Ellman, Transport Committee
Marianna White DfT
RMT
Christian Woolmar
Andrew Gilligan

Date: 27 July 2008

Survey on proposed cuts in ticket office hours at 114 SWT stations

I am grateful for the opportunity to respond to your survey on behalf of the South Hampshire Rail Users’ Group. The narrow issues arising from these proposals are of considerable consequence but, equally importantly, there are related issues such as the destruction of travel centres and inhuman revenue protection policies against people who do not manage to obtain the correct ticket.

General comments

* Having spoken to a number of my fellow SWT commuters and SWT staff I have no doubt that these proposals are widely resented. People already find that SWT’s customer services are often poor and unreliable, and that ticket office opening hours are inadequate and frequently not honoured.

* Many SWT stations would be completely unstaffed but for the presence of booking clerks. Yet your own poll found that 76% of respondents thought that stations should be staffed at all times.

* The proposals have attracted cross-party condemnation. Boris Johnson opposes them [Evening Standard 25/07/08]. Three prominent local MPs - John Denham (a senior government minister), Alan Whitehead (a former government minister) and Sandra Gidley (a Liberal Democrat spokesperson) – oppose them and handed out leaflets at Southampton Central on 18/07/08 [Southern Daily Echo 21/07/08].

* Eastleigh Liberal Democrat MP, Chris Huhne, considers the proposals amount to a breach of the franchise agreement [Southern Daily Echo 19/06/08]. This appears to be correct: the contract reportedly stated that there should be “more visible staff at stations” [Evening Standard 22/09/06].

* If the Department for Transport approves the proposals, this will be not only a serious betrayal of passengers but also a stark demonstration of double standards. Note this report on the launch of bidding for the neighbouring Southern franchise: “Inspired by two Evening Standard campaigns – Safer Stations and A Seat for Every Commuter – bidders have been told they must make travel safer, with staffing hours extended at 50 stations and improved CCTV across the franchise and they must also increase capacity by 25 per cent” [Evening Standard 22/05/08].

* In addition to contractual obligations and double standards, the proposals involve a clear breach of trust by the parent company, Stagecoach. In the course of bidding for the new SWT franchise, Stagecoach produced a prospectus [‘Building on success: Stagecoach and the South Western Franchise’]. This stated: “Stagecoach’s success has been built on listening to customers and using their special insight to improve services even further. Local managers are empowered and encouraged to build relationships with the communities they serve – consultation lies at the heart of the Stagecoach approach. We believe that together we can deliver the safety standards, operating performance, customer service, innovation and ongoing improvements that our customers deserve.”

* If those sentiments had been honest, then Stagecoach should be keen to ensure proper consultation, but SWT evidently tried to distract passengers from the MPs who attended Southampton Central on 18/07/08. At 06.20 I spotted an official putting up a poster, inside the main station entrance, which said that London Travel Card operators would be conducting a survey at the station that day, and that Ł2 would be donated to charity when people completed a questionnaire. I have neither heard of such a survey in the past, nor of such short notice being given of any passenger survey by a train operator. It is not clear why anyone would want to conduct one in Southampton now, especially as passengers in London are being urged to use Oyster Cards wherever possible.

* Interestingly, SWT’s website refers to consultations on the ‘proposed’ changes to ticket office opening hours. The second version of the survey poster at Totton station simply says that the ticket office opening hours ‘will’ be changed (and then shows the ‘proposed’ new times as 05.40–10.00 on Mondays to Fridays with no weekend opening), and that monitoring had ‘clearly’ demonstrated the case for change. The original poster even omitted your Freepost address. In addition, a consultation which will affect many thousands of rail users should not be held at the peak of the summer holiday season. I therefore suggest that the survey is seriously flawed.

* On the above evidence, it seems that SWT is deliberately undermining your survey with dirty tricks. It needs to be borne in mind that Stagecoach started profiteering by disposing of Southampton bus station for commercial development and destroying the Darlington bus company (an act described by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission as ‘deplorable, predatory and against the public interest’). Despite the strength of defamation laws in this country, the High Court refused to block the World in Action programme ‘Cowboy Country’ about its activities.

* Over the past two years, Stagecoach founders Brian Souter and Ann Gloag, whose huge business rewards have largely been founded on public subsidy, have shared bonuses totalling about a quarter of a billion pounds. In addition, Stagecoach has become the Scottish National Party’s biggest donor, and the party has dropped its longstanding commitment to reintroduce a degree of regulation in Scottish bus services. Labour MSP Charlie Gordon has introduced a bill to resurrect the issue but laments: "My bill would empower local authorities to intervene in parts of the country where there has been market failure in terms of bus provision." He added: "I think Lothian Buses would support it, and I think First Group would listen to what I have to say. However, I think it is inconceivable that Brian Souter would agree to it, as I have been told he doesn't like similar proposals at Westminster.” [Sunday Herald 29/06/08]

* The SNP is now flourishing as never before. It is an affront to democracy that public policy can be undermined in this way, but in keeping with Brian Souter’s famous remark to Scotland on Sunday that “Ethics are not irrelevant but some are incompatible with what we have to do because capitalism is based on greed”.

* Regular rail users are intelligent enough to recognise that some train operators are much better than others. You may recall that I queried SWT’s on-line poll about whether Stagecoach should have won another SWT franchise. SWT published a result of 61% in favour when the poll was still open and showing 33%. This was rank fraud, and manipulation of public opinion in a shameless fashion. Imagine a general election in which nobody was told that votes would cease to count long before the booths closed! I was therefore disappointed by PassengerFocus’ response that people should vote earlier in SWT polls to ensure that their views count.

* Things seem to have gone seriously downhill since John Prescott insisted that the interests of passengers should be paramount. It is extraordinary that Rail Minister Tom Harris is so out of touch with public opinion that he told this year’s RMT Parliamentary Seminar that he didn’t care who ran a franchise. He even opined that corrective improvements on First Great Western showed the strengths of the franchise system and had nothing to do with repeated public protests. What merit is there in a system which condemns commuters to more than a year of cattle truck conditions? Perhaps Mr Harris is planning to join the SNP. Either way, he must think rail users are idiots. * Against this background, I do hope that Passenger Focus will be persistent in its efforts to thwart SWT’s proposals. You may remember the much-missed Gwyneth Dunwoody’s assessment that the former Rail Users Consultative Committees had not been persistent enough.

Specific issues

* Staffing of stations is about much more than sale of tickets. It is about passenger security, environment (avoidance of vandalism and litter accumulation), help and advice, and accessibility. And people like a personal touch in any sphere of activity. National Westminster’s TV commercials, for example, are sharply focused on just that.

* SWT has never been strong on security. CCTV cameras provide no immediate, on the spot, protection when it is needed. Stations are often unstaffed at times when they are advertised as staffed. Ticket gates are supposed to enhance security, yet this assumes that troublemakers never have tickets. On SWT, gates are usually left open after 10pm. Assaults on stations tend to occur after 11pm. Gates have to be attended when in use, and it is the staff presence rather than the gate which affords the protection.

* Many SWT stations saw the arrival of rat traps last year. Clearly it is the accumulation of discarded food, rather than the train service, which attracts the rats! Weekends, when stations are left unstaffed for the longest periods, present the greatest risks.

* Turning to vandalism and graffiti, SWT must realise that reduction in staffing will leave stations more vulnerable. So they are disposing of their much-hyped Travelsafe officers in favour of 40 Rail Community Officers with powers to issue fixed penalty notices for trespassing, graffiti and anti-social behaviour and confiscate alcohol from under-aged drinkers. [Southern Daily Echo 24/07/08]. Perhaps these are intended to be the ‘more visible staff at stations’ which we were promised. Given that they are likely to patrol in pairs or groups, they are barely enough to cover even the stations on the Kingston circle! And, unlike ticket office clerks, they will add nothing to customer service, be it sale of tickets or being on hand when needed by disabled people. In any case, preventing problems through the presence of staff is always likely to be more satisfactory than reacting to problems which arise through their absence.

* SWT’s propaganda refers to their ticket machines as being ‘easy-to-use’. All ticket machines can be bewildering. Many passengers have little knowledge of the national rail map or travel possibilities, time bands for ticket types, or the difference between a travel card and a railcard. They need personal assistance.

* Ticket machines may also reject perfectly good coins or notes, or even credit or debit cards, and they cannot always give change. The modern ScotRail ticket machine at Camelon recently refused one of my cards and accepted the other, even though both cards worked fine elsewhere.

* Although much has been claimed about the simplification of the fares system, the only real change is that the vast range of ticket types will be allocated among three generic names. Your poll found that 39% of respondents don’t understand the fares system at all. How many senior citizens with railcards know, or are told, that if they want to travel to Waterloo on the 07.30 from Southampton they will save a lot of money by booking to Peterborough? And how many in Weymouth realise that the early morning fare to Waterloo, set by SWT, is marginally more than the fare to Edinburgh on the same train, which isn’t?

* Many stations are served by several operators, so downgrading customer service affects other operators’ passengers. In addition, it can complicate obtaining the cheapest fares even more. The exploitive fares which SWT introduced last year, and which your poll found will result in 74% of respondents using rail less, can be almost three times as much as the corresponding product on Southern. Your latest passenger satisfaction statistics for SWT are appalling. Value for money is the acid test of satisfaction, yet 20% of peak and 37% of off-peak passengers now think SWT gives value for money, down from 21% and 42% last year!

* SWT’s new exploitive fares to London mean that it is often much cheaper to buy a return ticket from, say, Southampton to Basingstoke, and another from Basingstoke to Waterloo. Will machines allow passengers to do this and, if not, is it not the case that they are being illegally denied the cheapest fare for their journey?

* Suppose passengers find the ticket machine so daunting that they board without a ticket? Posters on SWT stations declare ‘No ticket: No excuse’ and refer to criminal convictions. Their leaflets make clear that passengers are liable for penalty fares even when they have inadvertently purchased the wrong type of ticket.

* A Southampton resident recently told me that her son had travelled with a valid ticket, but lost it. He showed the receipt to revenue protection officers, who ignored it and took him to court. I advised her to contact the Legal Aid Advice Line. SWT’s lawyer offered no evidence in court and the sympathetic clerk obtained an assurance that no alternative charges would be brought.

* We all recognise that the absence of staff on a station can make train services inaccessible to disabled people and exacerbate social exclusion. It seems cynical therefore, that SWT recently mounted a token exercise at Woking station aimed at giving a handful of selected disabled people the confidence to travel by train. Fine for them to board at Woking, but their travel opportunities will be restricted by staff reductions at stations down the line. No use waiting for a Rail Community Officer who may be 100 miles away.

* Then there are refunds. When trains are running late, SWT omits stops at the drop of a hat, and the station screen suddenly announces that your train is cancelled and there will be no other service for an hour. At least if the ticket office is open you can get your fare refunded.

* There is also an issue of access to ticket machines. Suppose an elderly couple, or a party of continental students, are struggling to get tickets... Your train comes and, if you miss it, you will perhaps be delayed for an hour in appalling weather conditions, or condemned to miss an important appointment or connecting train.

* Journalist Alan Williams writes [‘Modern Railways’ August 2007] of how a SWT ticket machine refused to accept a range of his cards which were working in machines elsewhere. He then had to sort out coins as his train approached, but none of the passengers in the queue which had built up behind him had time to purchase a ticket.

Travel centres

* At smaller stations, ticket offices sell tickets and rail cards and provide information and advice. At busy stations, travel centres can take the pressure off ticket clerks by providing the information and advice, and dealing with more complicated booking requests. So ticket offices and travel centres play a complementary role. In practice, both may become very busy and have long queues. I have seen the queues at Southampton Central stretching to the pavement outside the station, especially on Saturday mornings.

* It is extraordinary therefore that SWT is already in the process of closing all its travel centres except Waterloo. I recently arranged a ticket and reservation to Aberdeen at Waterloo. Only two positions were staffed and the more senior member of staff became extremely agitated as the queue grew.

* SWT is apparently profiteering from the travel centre closures. The former facility at Guildford is now let to Marks & Spencer. SWT has made much of its ‘improvements’ at Southampton Central. It first claimed that these cost Ł250 million, but reduced the figure to Ł250,000, after I publicly challenged it. One of the main ‘improvements’ was an extension to the reception area on platform 1, which was provided with token seats. This is a relatively remote area between the Travel Centre and the pavement and generally ignored by passengers. It is pitifully obvious that the extension was put in so that, when the Travel Centre is stripped out, there will be enough space for a retail outlet.

Examples of reduced opening hours

* Southampton Central This has not even been subject to consultation. But the reception area has a poster saying that the ticket office will be closed from 11.30 to 13.00 on Tuesdays for staff training. The poster advises passengers to get their tickets on-line [!!!] or use the ticket machine. This is probably the major SWT station outside the London suburban area. Southampton has a multi-ethnic population, 40,000 university students (many from overseas), and a high percentage of Eastern European immigrants. Things like this can make Britain the laughing stock of the world.

* Totton This is the fourth largest town between Southampton and Weymouth. With the neighbouring Waterside area, Totton station serves over 60,000 people. The ticket office is supposed to open from 05.40 to 12.30 on Mondays-Fridays. However the ticket clerk is considered available for relief duties elsewhere. The station has therefore been unstaffed for days at a time, and opening at the appointed time is exceptional. The station is very secluded because of adjacent industrial units, and is not somewhere where vulnerable people like to linger.

* Totton has never had an attractive service, but last year trains to London, New Milton and Christchurch all had their journey times increased by 30 minutes, giving some average journey speeds of under 20mph. Local services and busy shoulder-peak trains used by scores of Totton residents were axed. This followed the replacement of soft-seated InterCity trains by hard-seated suburban and quasi-suburban stock in a reorganization of rolling stock to reduce leasing costs. When challenged about the downgraded service, SWT said they were monitoring the position to see whether passenger usage at Totton dropped. The ticket office will in future open only from 5.40 to 10.00, and remain closed at weekends. This is a case of an urban station, with considerable potential, being downgraded to a rural halt.

* St Denys This is a large junction station that acts as a railhead for Eastern Southampton, which contains some of the city’s least affluent areas. There is a basic hourly service of one train each way on each route. This is exactly half the level of 50 years ago. The two westbound trains, for passengers who want to change to other services at Southampton Central, run 6 minutes apart. The return services run 9 minutes apart. St Denys station looks very neglected and, like Totton, is secluded. The current ticket office opening hours of 06.10-13.30 on Mondays-Fridays will be reduced to 07.00-10.45. Weekend opening will be abandoned. However, in practice I have never seen staff there on a Sunday. This is another station which is being downgraded despite considerable potential for development.

* I do not propose to go through our local stations one-by-one, but many of them have unrealised potential. It is very relevant that the Southampton area has the fastest-growing population south of a line from London to Bristol. Also, it is remarkable that stations in Hampshire which are not served, or exclusively served, by SWT – for example, Emsworth, Romsey, Swanwick, and Portchester – have much better frequencies than comparable stations served exclusively by SWT, such as Totton and New Milton.

Knock-on effects

* The potential repercussions of unstaffed stations are not always obvious. You may have seen the complaint below by journalist Andrew Gilligan about his attempted journey on Virgin Trains, which is 49% owned by Stagecoach. It inevitably suggests that staff working for organisations like Stagecoach are reflecting Brian Souter’s ethically-limited stance and the very apparent inhumanity and contempt which it engenders:

Yet this isn’t just a personal complaint. What happened last night is a tiny example of the more general reasons why the railways in this country are broken and will never fulfil their potential.

REPLIES

Equality impact assessment

* The Department for Transport has long said that the railways are a public service, publicly specified, and privately delivered. Companies have received huge sums of taxpayers’ money, and in recent years the Department has managed franchises much more tightly.

* Presumably, therefore, the proposals are a public policy issue and subject to equality impact assessments. Clearly there are implications for disabled people, and for people from ethnic minorities who may find English difficult and need face-to-face assistance, not to mention Southampton’s considerable Polish population.

* Have you seen the Equality Impact Assessment, and would it be possible to have a copy please? An e’mail would be fine. If not, I will try a Freedom of Information request.

[FOLLOW-UP NOTES

* It may be that one of the first tasks of the Rail Community Officers will be to apprehend Metropolitan Police officers who have been using their passes illegally to evade paying for train travel. (London Lite 08/08/08)]

* The Department of Transport has said it is not required to undertake an Equality Impact Assessment. We trust they have conferred, as a minimum, with the Office for Disability Issues.]

DE MENEZES-STYLE SLAUGHTER SCENES RE-ENACTED AT BOURNEMOUTH

A 21-year old black man who travelled from Southampton Central to Bournemouth on Saturday 05/07/08 had a nasty shock as he completed his journey. He had just alighted from the train and was shaking hands with a friend, when armed police swooped on him and made him lie face-down on the ground. He was then handcuffed, frogmarched to a toilet, searched, and taken to a police station where he was found to be completely innocent. Police claimed to have thought that the man had been involved in an earlier incident in which someone had been threatened with a weapon in Basingstoke. The victim told the media, unsurprisingly, that this had been the most traumatic experience of his life and he intends to press for a full independent inquiry.

As the huge Metro headline of 08/07/08 declared, “A chilling echo of De Menezes”. The Southern Daily Echo of the same date reported that the man had been ‘identified’ by a British Transport Police officer on the train from Southampton. Interestingly, the London Lite, also of 08/07/08, reported government figures showing that black people are seven times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people. Such incidents inevitably give rise to suspicions of racial prejudice.

In the Southern Daily Echo of 26/07/08, popular broadcaster Fred Dinenage comments: “The man confronted by armed police on a crowded railway station in Dorset has described the moment he was surrounded by guns. “Writing on his website, ‘Zuby’ – a 21-year-old hip-hop singer from Bournemouth (real name Nzube Udezue) - said the incident was ‘shocking, confusing and scary.’ Which, I would imagine, is probably the understatement of the year.”

It would be interesting to know whether Stagecoach had a hand in this chain of blunders. On 11/06/08, periodical station announcements had been made at Southampton Central and Basingstoke stations that dedicated British Transport Police teams were now maintaining a high-visibility presence on SWT for passenger security. Stagecoach’s normal attention to security can be judged by the fact that for years they have left station gates open from 10pm, at the approach of the very time of day when most assaults occur on the railways. The incident at Bournemouth is the more shocking because it happened just after 6pm and the victim was apparently behaving in a perfectly normal and civil manner.

The repercussions of the slaughter (the word perfectly fits the manner of the killing) of Jean Charles de Menezes are little abated and there was press speculation (for example, in the Guardian) on the third anniversary of his death that Sir Ian Blair might still be forced to resign. It’s great that Boris Johnson now wants him to go. Meanwhile, following the Bournemouth incident, a man of Cypriot origin has spoken out, saying that he had suffered a similar experience in Liverpool. This incident was recorded on video and, from the victim’s account, the police appear to have been remarkably laid back about it. He complains of police violence and plans to sue them.

DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION BY SWT’S AUTOMATED VERBAL DIARRHOEA – 4

“In a recent, little-reported speech, the Mayor, Boris Johnson, called for action against the “minor, everyday irritations” of living in London which “when added together can become a major burden”. This is a potentially very fruitful approach. In transport alone, there are hundreds of things which annoy significant numbers of people, which could be easily changed – overnight, sometimes – and which really could ease the burden of our travelling lives, a little. Here are a few of mine. -------

While providing too little information when you need it, the railways provide far too much when you don’t. On a 35-minute South West Trains journey from London to Farnborough recently, we were subjected to no fewer than 24 recorded announcements, each enunciated by an honours graduate of the Patricia Hewitt Academy of Patronising Diction. Eight of the announcements read out the entire list of stops to Southampton. Three reminded us that the train was covered by CCTV. Four advised us to “do try to keep all your items with you”. Two told us that safety information was displayed in all coaches. One, incredibly, even ordered us to report any beggars (those well-known scourges of Surrey commuter trains) to the authorities. A beggar, SWT, is at least human, and would be as manna from heaven compared to the constant, computerized harassment provided by you”. [Andrew Gilligan, Evening Standard 24/07/08]

CONCERNS THAT STAGECOACH, THE SNP’S BIGGEST DONOR, IS DICTATING TRANSPORT POLICY IN SCOTLAND TO THE DETRIMENT OF USERS

(From Sunday Herald, Glasgow, 29/06/08)

“Labour MSP Charlie Gordon plans to introduce legislation to regulate the bus network - a policy opposed by Stagecoach owner and SNP donor Brian Souter. The policy would take power away from bus companies and give local authorities control over lucrative routes.

Gordon, who represents Glasgow Cathcart, will launch his draft Bus Regulation (Scotland) Bill when MSPs return from the recess in the autumn. Labour believes the status quo, in which a deregulated bus network means companies can cherry-pick the best routes, leaves some areas of Scotland isolated by poor services. Gordon's bill would give councils the power to intervene in the market and tender services through existing "quality contracts", set up by the former Labour transport minister Sarah Boyack. The new legislation would allow local authorities to award lucrative routes to bus operators on the condition they served lower density areas as well. The beefed-up quality contracts would also contain safeguards for workers' terms and conditions, Gordon said.

The bill is likely to put pressure on the SNP government, as the Nationalists' biggest donor runs one of Scotland's most prominent bus companies. Brian Souter, who runs Stagecoach, provided the SNP with Ł500,000 to fight their successful election campaign, a donation that gave the Nationalists a financial edge over their rivals.

The Souter donation coincided with the SNP declining to include a pledge to re-regulate the bus network in its manifesto. The party had included the policy in its 2003 Holyrood manifesto, while activists also backed the move at the SNP conference three years later. The policy was later dropped amid claims the SNP hierarchy did not want to make a promise that would alienate one of its main supporters.

Gordon said of his plans: "My bill would empower local authorities to intervene in parts of the country where there has been market failure in terms of bus provision." He added: "I think Lothian Buses would support it, and I think First Group would listen to what I have to say. However, I think it is inconceivable that Brian Souter would agree to it, as I have been told he doesn't like similar proposals at Westminster.”

A spokesman for Stagecoach said: "I would describe this proposal as unnecessary and misguided. Partnership between operators and local authorities in Scotland means bus use in Scotland is thriving. It would be tampering with a system that is benefiting passengers and which is good for the economy."

Green MSP Patrick Harvie said: "We're pleased that Labour are bringing forward a bill on bus re-regulation, despite eight years of inactivity when they were in power. Just this month, parliament voted by a substantial margin for a Green amendment on this issue, so the timing is good, provided Labour's ideas go far enough and can deliver the improved bus services and reduced fares we need to see across Scotland."

An SNP spokesperson said: "We will study the details of his proposal in due course." ”

[ Private Eye (issue 1215) commented on this statement, “No matter which party wins the Glasgow by-election on 24 July, the power in Scotland continues to lie elsewhere”.] EARLY DAY MOTION 2085

LOTHIAN BUSES

17.07.2008

Moffat, Anne

That this House congratulates Lothian Buses, the only publicly-owned bus company in Scotland and the largest in the UK, on winning the prestigious Best UK Bus Operator award in 2008.

Signatures: Anne Moffat, David Hamilton, Nigel Griffiths, Jim Devine, Michael Clapham, Jim McGovern, John Robertson, Jim Sheridan, Alan Simpson, Dennis Skinner, Geraldine Smith, Jim Hood, Lindsay Hoyle, Brian Jenkins, Kevan Jones, Andrew Mackinlay, Dan Norris, Albert Owen, Ian Cawsey, Michael Connarty, Jim Cunningham, Brian H Donohoe, Jon Trickett, Anthony D Wright, Peter Soulsby, Kelvn Hopkins, Lynne Jones, John McDonnell, Ann Cryer, Rudi Vis, Chris McCafferty, Martin Caton, Jeremy Corbyn, Paul Truswell, Katy Clark, John Leech.

SUBURBAN COACHES PUTTING LONG-DISTANCE PASSENGERS AT GREATER RISK OF ATTACK?

The Metro of 05/08/08 shows CCTV pictures of youths from Bournemouth launching a vicious attack on a middle-aged IT manager in order to steal his laptop. The pictures clearly illustrate how exposed to risk passengers are when they sit in the very open seating environment of SWT’s class 450 suburban units. Such coaches were never designed for longer-distance travellers who may want to use their laptops. If you are attacked while balancing a laptop on your knee, your instinctive reaction will be to clutch the laptop, but then you have no hands free to ward off your assailant.

RAIL MINISTER UNDER ATTACK

HIGH-PROFILE FIASCO AT DfT

The Department for Transport last year decided to refer the Rolling Stock leasing companies to the Competition Commission on the basis that they were making Ł34m to Ł177m a year too much on former BR stock allocated to them at privatisation.

The Commission’s report is scathing. It found that DfT undermines the advantages of new trains by limiting benefits to the lives of short franchises rather than the 30-year lives of the trains themselves. In specifying train fleets at franchising, DfT denies choice and so distorts the market. DfT’s prohibition of new trains in some franchise bids denies choice and restricts market opportunities. DfT refusal to meet the cost of new trains restricts market choices at re-franchising.

The Commission is particularly scathing about the DfT’s decision to allow a 4% increase in rolling stock to meet a 58% increase in passengers. Overall, far from profiteering, the Rolling Stock Companies have tended not to increase capital rentals as far as they profitably could when rolling stock has been re-leased. It hardly helps, of course, when modern trains like the Wessex Electrics are left idle for two years when the terms of a franchise permits a train operator to reduce their leasing charges whatever the cost in lost comfort to passengers paying some of the highest fares in Europe.

The professional magazines are scathing. Modern Railways, September edition, says, “In Modern Railways’ 46 years we cannot recall a time when the Department of State responsible for the railways combined incoherence in the formulation of policy, incompetence in its implementation and all-round financial profligacy to such a degree.” Nigel Harris, editor of RAIL, says in Issue 599, “I read the Competition Commission’s 182-page investigation into the Department for Transport’s complaints about the rolling stock leasing companies with a heavy heart – but no surprise. It is a predictable but damning verdict on DfT arrogance and hypocrisy”.

Private Eye picks out some key points from the report, such as: “Franchises which rely on those [ex-BR] trains have no alternative because spare trains aren’t available, so the leasing companies are free to set ludicrous charges. When the Northern Rail franchise was devised, officials could have threatened to buy new trains unless charges for the old ones were cut substantially. Instead they vetoed new trains”.

DfT CLEARLY PUTTING PROCESSS BEFORE OUTCOME

Remember how DfT almost won an award for the excellence of the franchising process on SWT? The process resulted in another 10 years of misery through award to Stagecoach, which would still have time left in charge of the franchise had the previous term not been slashed through its own abominable performance (resulting in threats of expulsion from the then Transport Secretary, Stephen Byers).

At this year’s RMT Parliamentary Seminar, it was remarkable to hear Mr Harris trying to argue that the franchising system is so strong that he’s not concerned about who runs a franchise. Alas, didn’t he know about Stagecoach’s proposals on ticket office opening hours? And didn’t he care about the misery inflicted on Great Western passengers for over a year (largely due to a contract which his department had designed) before his wonderful franchise process sorted it out?

Mr Harris seemed rather like an actor who knows his lines inside-out and back-to-front but has no feeling for what the play is really about, or perhaps a statistician who loves his figures too much to care about the facts behind them. John Prescott understood what the play was supposed to be about – putting the interests of passengers first and being responsive to their needs (hadn’t Brian Mawhinney said so in justifying privatisation in the first place?)

Mr Harris claims to be “modally agnostic” so presumably cares little about the major implications of transport choice for global warming and the survival of millions in the arid zones of the world. Perhaps also, he should read the report by the World Health Organisation which states that “toxic” policies are affecting the majority of the world’s people – unhealthy transport policies are a contributory factor in ill health and low life expectancy, with huge gaps between different parts of cities like London and Glasgow.

Mr Harris has publicly stated that it is a cause to be happy that, “There are more two-car homes in Britain today than there are homes without a car at all." This sinisterly echoes Margaret Thatcher’s infamous scorn for bus users. The Evening Standard of 10/06/08 asks whether Labour’s policy on railways is to the right of the Tories. In an interview for the BBC Wales TV programme ‘Week in, Week out’ Mr Harris reportedly said Labour would have privatised the railways had British Rail still existed when the party came to power in 1997. Odd, because Tony Blair was elected after calling for a “publicly owned, publicly accountable” railway. It is the Tories who now appear to regret how the industry was privatised. David Willetts and Chris Grayling called for reintegration, and only recently, after Labour’s local election disaster, Ian Gibson MP called on Gordon Brown to renationalise the railways.

Mr Harris always likes to praise the innovation of the private companies. Looked at from the perspective of South Hampshire, where there was innovation, DfT has destroyed it. All types of railway come together in the County. Inter City and the London commuter sectors had always done well under BR and Sir Bob Reid’s provincial sector (later “Regional Railways”) saw a huge renaissance on secondary routes. Sir Bob anecdotally answered questions with another, “What’s best for the passenger?” Passengers didn’t like changing trains, so regional routes were joined up with new direct services. Especially good for disabled people. Suddenly you could travel direct from South Hampshire to South West Wales and, following privatisation, to the Marches and right through to Penzance.

DfT stripped away all these direct services when it redesigned the Greater Western and Wales & the Borders franchises. The summer of 2008 is the first for over half a century without any direct service between South Hampshire and the West of England. Never mind that Southampton-Portsmouth is the largest urban area, and Southampton’s population the fastest growing, south of London.

Similarly, Cross Country services developed to the point where South Hampshire had almost hourly services to Scotland. By the end of 2008, DfT will have swept this away as well, and henceforth will require Arriva to curtail trains at Manchester. So, far fewer towns linked to South Hampshire by direct services and much less convenience for disabled people, not to mention huge numbers of young people (40,000 university students in Southampton alone, and it was the will to get them on to public transport which led to the city’s Uni-Link bus network being established). Presumably it was too much trouble for DfT to undertake an Impact Assessment.

No doubt Mr Harris sees the latest timetable between Southampton and Weymouth as a great innovation. And so it is, if you like twice-hourly services running 10 minutes apart, and agree that the remote industrial halt at Holton Heath needed to acquire hourly semi-fast London services and Totton, the fourth largest intermediate town on the route, with an increasingly used station, deserved to lose them.

BLOGGING WHILE THE RAILWAYS ARE IN A MESS

“TOM-FOOLERY” (Private Eye 25/07/08)

“Why is everyone so bloody miserable?” rail minister Tom Harris famously asked in his blog. Well, one reason is that Tom Harris is rail minister.

After nearly two years in the post, Harris still has an amazingly weak understanding of Britain’s rail system. He’s been telling people how “successful” the system is and how British Rail in the 1980s was “considered a basket case” which “consumed huge sums of public funding”.

Perhaps his aides should tell him how the rail system has recently been consuming four or five times more public funding than BR received at the height of the 1980s boom, despite the extra revenue from all the eye-watering fare rises since privatisation. Perhaps they should also remind him that Network Rail has a Ł20bn debt (more than three times its annual revenue) and that his government has decreed that ticket prices must rise steeply so fare revenue in 2014 will be 80 percent higher than in 2007.

Harris happily admits Labour inherited “a botched privatisation”, as if his party had corrected the flaws. But Labour’s only innovation is Network Rail, hardly a model of efficiency. Labour gave it a bizarre structure so it didn’t inherit Railtrack’s obsession with profits and share price yet could still be classed as a private company and keep its debt off Treasury books.

As when the Tories “botched” it, the railway remains an ugly mix of commercial, interests, often in conflict. Without an equivalent to the BR board, no rail managers provide overall leadership. Harris and his mandarins are trying to fill the vacuum – the very ones who organised the disastrous GNER and First Great Western [and South West Trains] franchise and made such a bureaucratic dog’s dinner of adding two more carriages to each Pendolino train. Their response to record oil prices has been to order new diesel trains intended to last beyond 2040, while still having no programme to electrify more lines.

Profits which a nationalised railway could reinvest (or not amass in the first place) are leaking out: Richard Branson alone pocketed Ł24m last year from his 51 percent stake in Virgin Rail. Meanwhile hundreds of managers, regulators and monitors are employed in backrooms to stop the dysfunctional railway falling apart, to organise or bid for new franchises or to argue over how much cash Network Rail deserves. Even then, masses of outside consultants and lawyers are still apparently needed.

Harris cites “record” passenger numbers as evidence of success: “last year the railway carried over 1.2bn passengers.” In reality, the revenue-allocation computer gave the train companies 1.2bn packets of money. Cash paid for a ticket from A to B is divvied up between multiple companies if the journey could be made on more than one company’s trains. So it’s still one journey by one passenger, but in Harris’ parallel universe it counts as more than one “passenger”.

Instead of crowing over fictitious statistics, Harris might reflect on how much more capacity the rail network would have today, how many more passengers would use trains and how much cheaper the fares would be if BR had survived and received the massive wads of cash the privatised railway has swallowed.”

“REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL? WELL, IT MADE US LAUGH” (The Times 27/06/08)

A short article in the Times gently ridicules Mr Harris’ blog, called AND ANOTHER THING, and then ends: “The minister also offers his general election prediction – a “Labour majority of between 80 and 100.” Now that really did make us laugh.”

UNCONCERNED ABOUT SOCIAL EXCLUSION?

The Campaign for Better Transport has warned that passengers who buy their tickets on the day of travel are being priced off the railways. The return fare from London to Penzance costs Ł257 – 8 times the Ł30 price of two singles bought in advance. London-Preston is Ł238, compared with the Ł33 advance fare. London-Birmingham is Ł123 compared with Ł21 for an advance ticket. London to Newcastle is Ł249, compared with Ł42 in advance. Tom Harris says people should expect to pay more because the quality of trains has improved, and “There is no evidence that fares are putting people off using the trains. As long as people have more access to lower fares with the internet that is a workable and affordable system”.

Great. If you can’t afford a PC, you’ll find it a big effort to get an affordable rail ticket, especially with booking offices and travel centres closing. So much for social inclusion! And hasn’t Mr Harris noticed that the official statistics on passengers who think rail fares offer value for money are a national disgrace at below 50%, with troughs like 20% peak and 37% off-peak on SWT. If you take into account all the respondents who will have managed to get very cheap tickets, the implication is that there is huge opposition to full fares.

[Fares soared on what is now SWT when Inter City-type Wessex Electrics were introduced; now they have soared again after these trains were replaced by spartan Desiros with people commuting from Portsmouth to Waterloo in suburban coaches.] UNCONCERNED ABOUT PASSENGER STRESS?

The Government’s National Stress Awareness Day appears not to have been widely noticed. A Government white paper considers rail passengers need 4.83 square feet of space, whether standing or sitting. This is less than half the space designated under EU regulations for goats, chicken, calves and sheep.

AND ANOTHER THING!

The name’s Tom Harris and this is my Blog;
My life like yours is one joyous slog.
You pay thousands to stand on SWT
But it’s great you’re helping the SNP!
The train’s often cancelled because it’s duff?
Cheer up, we all know life can be tough.
In suburban stock, close companionship’s free
So stop all this ranting about DVT!
Services much slower, yet they’ve no time to call?
You forget how the numbers of late trains fall.
You mislay your season, the caution’s a shock?
Rejoice, rejoice that you’re not behind lock!
Booking offices closed, but why do you care?
There’s a super safeguard called penalty fare.
SWT’s extra 29 million was really well spent:
250-million bonuses; shares up 3,000 per cent
If a franchise collapses, have no fear
My remedies take no more than a year.
Everything’s fine by my statistical tools
And all agree, except bloody fools!

More seriously, though, if the Government still hopes to avoid the electoral abyss, in railway terms it could do nothing better than put customers back to centre-stage, where they properly belong, and kick out greed-crazed operators.

SWT’S AUGUST WEBCHAT - MORE FOBBING OFF

The summer round of SWT’s six-monthly ‘Webchat’ was held on 20 August, in line with the apparent tradition that it should take place when large numbers of regular commuters are on holiday. Answers to 117 questions appeared on SWT’s website. Interestingly, these ran from Question 5 to Question 133, so 16 questions (12%) were presumably too embarrassing to publish.

Questions 1,2,3,4,6,7,15,25,45,68,69,70,92,98,127 and 128 were left unanswered. With only one of the first 6 questions getting a reply, it appears that people who took the trouble to put their questions early, probably because they felt they had important points to make, were ignored.

We can reveal one question which was submitted and received an automated acknowledgement of receipt, but was left unanswered:

“Many journeys from Eastleigh, Swaythling, St Denys and Totton slower than under DfT’s Service Level Commitment; trains with hard seats, and security risk from limited adjacent luggage space, on Waterloo-Weymouth; Woking commuter growth met by suburban stock on Portsmouth line instead of longer Salisbury trains; Travel Centres destroyed; presence of ‘facilities managers’ to be reduced at over 100 stations, but permit-to-travel machines removed and penalty fares for those who buy wrong ticket; station gates open in late evening when attacks on passengers most common; big increases in car park charges; morning fares from Hampshire to London up to 3 times as dear as on Southern. Only 20% of peak and 37% of off-peak passengers think SWT is value for money, and one third of respondents to your poll as confirmed by PassengerFocus (against published figure of 61%), thought Stagecoach should have kept the franchise. Urgent remedial action given soaring profits?”

We don’t know whether any of the Webchat questions were ‘plants’ by people connected with SWT or its staff. It seems hard to believe that their poll on whether Stagecoach should have kept the franchise could have fallen from 61% in favour to only around 30%. The implication is that there were internal and SWT-connected votes early on and, given SWT’s recent advert in the Evening Standard, displaying one of the comfortable Wessex Electric trains which they had disposed of 18 months previously, the company deserves little credibility.

Just a tiny sample of how passengers are fobbed off:

QUESTION 9

“The new ticket machines are a great improvement on the old ones but they still don't offer every ticket, such as Plusbus, or advance tickets. There no longer seems to be an option to get a permit to travel and buy the exact ticket I want on the train or at an interchange. If the ticket I want is not available from the machine, what am I supposed to do? Name withheld, 19 August 2008 12:38”

ANSWER

“We have a process for deciding which destinations to offer on the ticket vending machines based on the demand from each station. We are working on software improvements that will be deployed throughout 2009 that will allow us to further expand the number of destinations and ticket types that we offer. From the end of October 2008, we will be introducing a ticket-on-departure facility at every station ticket vending machine, which will enable you to purchase any ticket from either the internet or a telesales call centre number and collect your ticket from your departure station. A ticket purchased in this way would be available for collection from the machine within 30 minutes of the purchase being made.”

REALITY

Lots of bureaucratic tattle about processes, but the questioner isn’t given any clue about what he should do if he turns up at a station less than about 40 minutes before his train is due to depart, and finds the ticket he requires isn’t available from the machine.

QUESTION 10

“The service from New Milton to London is effectively one train an hour now compared to two, because the xx23 train gets overtaken by the xx36. The stopping train now connects with the semi-fast not the fast. The same effect can be seen at Christchurch and Pokesdown. Why can the fast and semi-fasts from Weymouth to London not be swapped to restore the opportunity for two trains per hour? The service from London is not affected; however why not make the connection from the fast to the stopper at Southampton not Brock and so remove that frustrating 25 minute wait at Brock on the stopper? Name withheld, 19 August 2008 12:44”

ANSWER

“The connectional arrangements at Brockenhurst changed last December with the introduction of the revised timetable west of Southampton and the introduction of two trains per hour to Weymouth. Whilst the current timetable is not totally ideal [!!!!!!!] for all of the stations on the route, any changes would involve arranging it around other services on the route. Thank you for your suggestions regarding the swapping of the pathways and the connectional arrangements at Southampton. However, they are not possible with the single line track section between Moreton and Dorchester, and the working of the CrossCountry service from Bournemouth. Southampton is also a very congested station and we would not wish trains to occupy platforms longer than we do currently.

REALITY

The South Hampshire Rail Users’ Group has put forward various ideas for improvements, all based on swapping the paths of the fast and semi-fast trains in both directions. The Department for Transport was interested in discussing changes, but SWT apparently vetoed this prior to a tripartite meeting last year. SWT’s reply about problems on the single track section assumes the writer did not envisage that the paths would be swapped in both directions. In addition, the reply refers to not holding trains at Southampton Central longer than at present. The questioner does not suggest this. No reason whatever why the slower train can’t be overtaken at Eastleigh, as at present, whilst passengers make their connections at Southampton. Our Group’s suggestions included the westbound services passing at Eastleigh also, instead of Southampton as at present, which would ease congestion at Southampton.

QUESTION 16

“Ticket [Vending] Machines. Since my local station now has 3 TVMs, it is surprising how often the machines are all free despite large queues for the booking office windows. Have you ever considered providing a fairly detailed TVM instruction leaflet for passengers to take away and read at their leisure, or a 'tutorial' option on the machines, or perhaps a simulated TVM on your website? (I believe Southern have this.) Paul Scott, 19 August 2008 13:57”

ANSWER

“The TVM Action Group is currently trialling a leaflet explaining how the ticket vending machines (TVMs) work. The difficulty is deciding how much information to give as we could end out with a book rather than a leaflet.[!!!!!!] Therefore the end result will be ideal for some but not all. As for the on screen tutorial, we are currently working with our supplier to produce a 'novice user' guide for the TVM. This will take passengers through their ticket purchase step by step. This software will not be available until approximately the end of 2009.”

REALITY

A welcome admission at last that ticket machines are so complicated to use that you may need a book to understand them!

QUESTION 23

“Is it really necessary for your army of ticket checkers to have ‘police protection’ at commuter rush hour as I recently witnessed at Teddington. Would it not be more effective use of police time to patrol ‘problem’ off peak trains? Name withheld, 19 August 2008 17:03”

ANSWER

“The recent establishment of a new Neighbourhood Policing Team at Clapham has meant that there has been a lot more joint working between our revenue protection employees and British Transport Police (BTP). The reason for this is not necessarily to offer protection for our employees as they are quite capable of completing their duties independently. However, from a policing point of view, it is advantageous for the police to 'piggy back' our revenue protection activities. The main reason for this is that, quite often, ticketless travellers coming off trains are also of interest to the police authorities (e.g. drugs possession, wanted for arrest). Therefore the joined up approach is mutually beneficial. Off-peak trains are regularly patrolled by core BTP officers as well as South West Trains-funded BTP officers and Rail Community Officers. Our website contains more information about the role of these employees.”

REALITY

An interesting confession that police time is being wasted on revenue protection-related duties, while reports continue of passengers being attacked on SWT trains and stations. And we thought from BTP presentations that the organisation was a remarkably thin blue line.

QUESTION 101

“I asked last time if it is possible for there to be a connection between your Portsmouth - Southampton and Southampton - Salisbury services. Would the slight change in timings be possible, I am regularly able to make the change, even though journey planners can't show it. Thanks. Paul Scott, 20 August 2008 14:31

ANSWER

“I am afraid that it is not possible to retime the Salisbury service later from Southampton, as by doing so it would delay the following Bournemouth-bound CrossCountry service in the Redbridge area.”

REALITY

The real problem is the huge amount of slack in SWT schedules – a case of improving performance by lowering standards. Southern allows 31 minutes for all-stations between Fareham and Southampton; slow-accelerating BR diesel trains were allowed 34 minutes half a century ago, and SWT now allows 36 minutes. What this means is that the Portsmouth-Fareham-Southampton train could easily be accelerated to connect with the train to Salisbury.

QUESTION 113

“I am a 91 year old Pensioner who regularly uses Netley Station to visit my mother on the weekends. The Council in this area supplies me with special tokens for reduced rail travel. These tokens will be useless at weekends when you propose to close Netley station ticket office. As a Local resource we depend on the ticket office and there are a lot of people in my situation who will be lost if your proposals go ahead. I may never see my mother again, how can you be serious about your proposals? Alistair Vannet, 20 August 2008 15:08”

ANSWER

“We do not have any proposals to close any ticket offices completely, only to reduce the number of opening hours where it makes commercial sense in order to provide a more cost effective sales outlet. Netley station will still remain open between 06.10 to 10.10 Monday to Friday inclusive and therefore you would be able to use the station at these times, purchasing your ticket in advance whilst utilising your council issued transport tokens.”

REALITY

So elderly disabled people are expected to make two journeys to their station just for one train journey, to increase Stagecoach’s soaring profits even further. As the Stagecoach prospectus for the new franchise said, “Stagecoach’s success has been built on listening to customers and using their special insight to improve services even further... We believe that together we can deliver the safety standards, operating performance, customer service, innovation and ongoing improvements that our passengers deserve”. The spirit of Stagecoach Director Brian Cox obviously lingers. He referred to passengers who complained of the dreadful service after the first SWT franchise was awarded to Stagecoach as “fully paid up members of the Hindsight Club”.

CAN’T SWT BE HONEST ABOUT ANYTHING?

MISLEADING ADVERTISEMENT

* The Evening Standard of 30 July contained a SWT advertisement extolling the virtues of travel by rail from Waterloo to Southampton Airport …. complete with a picture of one of the comfortable Wessex Electric trains which they disposed of 18 months ago as part of a rolling stock reshuffle which saw these units replaced with much cheaper-to-hire Junipers, whilst Spartan rough-riding and hard-seated Desiros took over their duties on the Southampton main line.

PUBLISHED RESPONSE FROM SOUTH HAMPSHIRE RAIL USERS’ GROUP

* The Evening Standard of 01/08/08 contained our response: “South West Trains’ advertisement for its Waterloo-Southampton Airport service was most enticing. However, SWT long ago ditched InterCity trains of the type illustrated for cheaper ones with hard-seated coaches. Parent company Stagecoach’s two founders have enjoyed recent bonuses totalling a quarter of a billion pounds, but only a fifth of peak-time passengers think SWT gives value for money.”

ATTITUDE TO SOCIAL INCLUSION MISREPRESENTED

* From SWT leaflet: “Our aim is to ‘work to provide an inclusive railway, which is available to as many people as possible through positive moves to increase accessibility.” The leaflet continues: “Some stations are unsuitable for passengers who need assistance because they are not staffed for all or part of the day. In these cases, we recommend you book in advance and we can then relocate staff to help you.” The leaflet’s map shows that only about 20 stations managed by SWT have staff available all the time, and now staffing hours are to be cut at 114 other stations. Quite what that has got to do with working to provide an inclusive railway, rather than with Stagecoach’s stance of ‘greed before ethics’, is anyone’s guess!

WONDERFUL OUTING THAT NEVER WAS

* SWT’s ‘e-motion’ (electronic verbal diarrhoea?) magazine can be extraordinarily inventive in the course of presenting the company in a good but wholly misleading light. It now seems, unsurprisingly, that enthusiastic accounts of outings on SWT trains are dreamed up in the comfort of the authors’ own homes or offices. The July-August edition of e-motion contains an article by a Paul Murphy about the new Sunday bus link from Brockenhurst station to Lyndhurst. Mr Murphy tells us his previous Woking-Lyndhurst journey was by car in “teeth-gnashing, gear crunching, bumper-to-bumper traffic”. This time his family took the train from Woking to Brockenhurst, using their railcard, with the bus link having clinched their decision not to go by car. They duly hopped on the bus which took them through ‘leafy lanes’ past Brockenhurst College and Brockenhurst village. By ‘leafy lanes’ Mr Murphy presumably means the A337, noted for heavy traffic off the Yarmouth-Lymington ferries. We wonder whether he inadvertently boarded the Tardis, because the magazine was available in hard copy at Waterloo station on 4 July …. And, as the article tells us, the new bus service started on 6 July!

NOTES

Ashurst station is being designated a New Forest gateway, and will also get a Sunday bus link with Lyndhurst. Local government is subsidizing the bus links.

In addition, local government is providing floral displays at Ashurst station, whilst Stagecoach is introducing car parking charges to complement the recently downgraded train service.

Buses run on all Sundays in July, August and September and on August Bank Holiday Monday. Times:

Brockenhurst station-Lyndhurst coach park: 10.25 and half-hourly to 18.25

Ashurst station- Lyndhurst Park Hotel and Coach Park: 09.50 and hourly to 17.50.

Lyndhurst coach park-Brockenhurst station: 10.40 and half-hourly to 18.40.

Lyndhurst coach park-Ashurst station 10.27 and hourly to 18.27 (buses leave Lyndhurst Park Hotel 1 minute later than from the coach park)

SPOT THE ANOMALY

* On 13/08/08 the 22.05 Waterloo-Poole was advertised as axed between Waterloo and Southampton ‘due to disruptive passengers’. This is the last service from London to some stations between Brockenhurst and Bournemouth, so the 22.35 Waterloo-Poole made extra stops. This latter change was advertised as ‘due to no crew being available earlier’!!! Perhaps SWT was squeamish about advertising the true reason for the curtailment of the 22.05, because the 19.35 Waterloo-Weymouth was also axed between Waterloo and Southampton due to no crew?

SWT TOP OF THE OVERCROWDING LEAGUE DUE TO DUFF STOCK?

SWT’s 08.02 Woking-Waterloo and First Capital Connect’s 07.15 Cambridge-Kings Cross are Britain’s most overcrowded trains, with passengers 76% in excess of capacity. This was reported in the London Paper of 05/08/08. The 08.02 from Woking is a local stopping service; interesting to note that, on the following two days, the preceding such service, the 07.47 from Woking, was reduced from 12 to 8 coaches.

WEYMOUTH-EDINBURGH CHEAPER THAN WEYMOUTH-WATERLOO DUE TO INFLATED SWT FARES

Barry Doe draws attention in RAIL, Issue 596, to the fact that Weymouth-Waterloo (wholly within SWT) can be dearer than Weymouth-Edinburgh where Stagecoach doesn’t set the fare. An early morning standard class day return from Weymouth to Waterloo is Ł91.50 and you cannot use a railcard. If you have a railcard, it will cost you only Ł89.10 for a Saver return to Edinburgh on the same train from Weymouth!

If you travel on the 07.30 from Southampton Central to Waterloo you have to pay the full SWT return fare of Ł57.70. You could do better to book a Saver return to Peterborough, if you have a railcard. Your return journey to Waterloo, will then cost you only Ł38.60 on the same train.

YET ANOTHER SWT TRAIN FIRE

A passenger had a dreadful experience on the 06.34 from Liss to Waterloo. The train trundled out of the station after being delayed by a mechanical fault. There was then a scream of brakes, an acrid burning smell, and clouds of grey smoke. Everyone was told to move to the end of the carriage. At the next station, Liphook, things were so bad that passengers were told to evacuate the station as well as the train. The crew got to work with fire extinguishers. About 70 people eyed the solitary taxi in the car park. Eventually a school bus was commandeered to take them, in horribly crushed conditions, to Haslemere, where the next London train had just pulled out. They were then packed into the next train like cattle. (Sunday Telegraph, 29/06/08)

COMPANIES WHICH ACT LIKE SWT BLAMED FOR LACK OF RESPECT AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE

This letter in the Southern Daily Echo of 22/07/08 offers interesting insight into how people condemn transport operatives who ignore passengers with SWT-like contempt:

“It doesn’t really surprise me that teenagers don’t respect adults. While going through Bitterne at 4pm on July 16 my wife and I were discussing the crossing in West End Road. My wife remarked how frustrating it can be if you want the bus on the other side.

The lights changed and we crossed over. There were two buses at the stop, the one at the rear being an 8A. As we passed the door a teenage schoolgirl attempted to attract the driver’s attention by tapping the door so she could get on. Instead of opening the door the driver proceeded to pull out from behind the first bus at the stop. The girl then attempted to run after the bus as it pulled in just in front of the other bus because of the traffic, queued from the lights.

I wonder what that driver would think if his daughter was late home because a bus driver ignored her like that? …” [NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED]

SPECIAL EVENTS – FORMER TRANSPORT MINISTER CRITICISES SWT

Former Transport Minister, John Spellar MP, has severely criticised SWT for the inadequate service the company provided for the Farnborough Air Show (London Lite; 18/07/08). He considers that it created a very poor impression and could have a huge cost to the country through lost aircraft orders.

SWT protested that they had provided extra services. However, these comprised a few extra stops by longer distance trains in normal service. Exactly the same happened at Wimbledon during the tennis championships, though Wimbledon is at least served by the Underground, First Capital Connect and Croydon Tramlink in addition to SWT.

Interestingly, such extra stops are usually concentrated on the Waterloo-Weymouth services which SWT protests that it is unable to stop at Totton, the fourth largest town between Southampton and Weymouth, because of time constraints. Yet Farnborough and Wimbledon are on higher-speed stretches of line than Totton, and a stop costs more time therefore. A case of extra stops OK for a quick money-grabbing windfall, but not to maintain decent services for commuters paying the highest fares in Europe to travel in cramped, rough-riding, and hard-seated trains?

Then there are the smaller events. SWT certainly spared no expense to help people attending the London-Brighton cycle race on 15 June. Their website advertised that, in view of the race, the 06.48 Portsmouth-Waterloo would comprise a 12-coach suburban train, and the 07.24/07.54 Epsom-Waterloo and 07.35/08.05 Hampton Court-Waterloo would all be formed of 8 coaches. Less than blanket coverage of the SWT network?

To be fair, on Saturday 30 August - day of the Bournemouth Air Show – SWT’s website did show that additional trains were planned to run from Bournemouth to Brockenhurst at 18.47 and 19.47 ‘as shown’. This being SWT, no details were shown of course, but the trains were presumably to help move passengers for Christchurch and New Milton. With such a trash timetable, normal departures from Bournemouth to these stations are at 05 and 21 minutes past each hour, with huge 44-minute gaps.

Whilst SWT generally flaunts minor service changes as big deals, it sometimes seems as if it feels the need to manufacture good news stories from scratch. So 7 July was a ‘Try the Train Day’ event at Woking. SWT provided a reception for a handful of disabled people, by invitation only, who might lack confidence or information to use train services. Hang on! Hogrider has recorded various incidents of the neglect or poor treatment of disabled people. And entrenched policies like omitting stops, terminating trains short of destination and not holding connections for even a few seconds are all likely to have a particularly negative impact on disabled people. Pity the poor wheelchair user who had settled into the duff 16.35 Waterloo-Weymouth on 4 July, only to find himself in the middle of a near-scrum as angry passengers poured past him en route to the replacement train!

FINALLY, WHAT ABOUT THE OLYMPIC SAILING EVENTS IN WEYMOUTH? WILL VISITORS FROM AROUND THE WORLD BE IMPRESSED THAT THEY ARE WHISKED FROM CENTRAL LONDON TO THE MAIN OLYMPIC SITE IN JUST 7 MINUTES ABOARD STATE-OF-THE ART JAVELIN TRAINS, WHILST LONDON TO WEYMOUTH COSTS THEM A SMALL FORTUNE FOR AN ALMOST THREE-HOUR DRAG IN SPARTAN STAGECOACH TRAINS?

SPECIAL EVENT AT LYMINGTON MARRED BY AWFUL SERVICE

The 2-5pm event to mark the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Lymington-Brockenhurst line on 12 July was hot on razzmatazz, but awful for passengers.

The normal train service operated, with just a 3-coach train. However, a locomotive was attached, presumably because the ancient slam door stock on the branch is prone to break down, leading to suspension of service. The inadequate train got so overcrowded that passengers were physically constrained from boarding at Lymington Town and some had to wait up to an hour. A woman travelling from Canada to Lymington couldn’t even get a taxi at Brockenhurst and was told to try again 2 hours later.

Presumably because someone on SWT didn’t understand pounds, shillings and pence, posters advertised a flat-rate fare of 20p, to reflect the original first class fare of 1s 6d. On that basis the amount should actually have been 7p or 8p. Apparently only 1,000 special tickets were available, and this was far too few. (A visitor to the event understood from SWT’s Jane Lee that the tickets had been printed free of charge by the Isle of Wight Railway.) Some people therefore had to pay by putting money in buckets whilst some ordinary passengers were charged full fare at booking offices – one woman complained of paying Ł1.90 for the 2-minute journey from Lymington Pier to Lymington Town.

STAGECOACH LOBBYIST DISILLUSIONED BY SWT TIMETABLE BOOKLET DOWNGRADE

Stagecoach lobbyist Barry Doe once used his column in ‘RAIL’ magazine to state that he was ‘privileged’ to update the bus links in SWT’s ‘superb’ timetable booklet. Now the booklet has contracted, shows only SWT services in the case of shared routes, and is very difficult to obtain. He is asking people to contact SWT to suggest returning to the old format and charging.

Clearly he still doesn’t want to gain SWT’s opprobrium, since he has also used his column to mount a high-profile attack on Arriva for introducing time restrictions on Saver tickets on its Cross Country services. We cannot recall his having attacked Stagecoach for its 20% increases on morning day return tickets to London.

Below is the text of an e’mail (not from Mr Doe), in anonymous form, received by South Hampshire Rail Users’ Group on 02/07/08:

“You may be interested in my attempts to obtain a timetable from SWT. I use the full SWT timetable but was told by my local station that there wouldn't be many available and only the bigger stations would have them. I asked at Basingstoke (didn't know), Winchester (none) and Portsmouth Harbour ('you need to contact SWT'!). So I phoned and the SWT person caused an argument as she wouldn't take my details and send me one. So my comment turned into a complaint, especially as I was told that they weren't printing them 'to save energy' (i.e. to save money). I tried the web site three times but it rejected my submission. Then I e-mailed to be told that the web site was faulty. In the end I got a timetable which I need as I use three SWT trains per day due to variability of the service and the lack of the much-vaunted clockface times. Unfortunately the SWT timetable no longer contains FGW trains from Portsmouth to Salisbury and beyond or Southern trains beyond Havant so I have had to obtain those separately. All I wanted was a timetable!”

SHRUG RESPONSE TO SOUTH CENTRAL FRANCHISE CONSULTATION

To: Department for Transport

Date: 3 August 2008

Copy: Passenger Focus

SOUTH CENTRAL FRANCHISE CONSULTATION

1. I am responding to your consultation on behalf of the South Hampshire Rail Users’ Group, and am grateful for the opportunity to comment.

Things people would like protected

2. South Hampshire is on the fringe of the Southern area. However, we scored big service gains in the new December 2007 timetable and hopefully all of these will be protected. Specifically:

* Portsmouth-Victoria is now fast enough to be a real alternative to SWT’s generally more expensive and less comfortable Portsmouth-Waterloo service. Southern’s off-peak fare structure needs to be retained as well as their improved timetable.

* The Southampton-Brighton and Brighton-Ashford services now connect, realising longstanding aspirations for improvements in this South Coast corridor.

* Southampton-Victoria trains now stop at Redhill, with good connections for Tonbridge. Along with the coastal corridor from Southampton to Ashford, this means that travel between South Hampshire and Kent without going via London is now a much more realistic option than before.

Improvements

3. The proposed Sunday service between Southampton and Brighton is very welcome news. However passengers have some other aspirations. Specifically:

* The re-introduction of Sunday services between Southampton and Gatwick Airport. Airports are busy seven days a week and Sunday travel to Gatwick via Clapham Junction can be slow, as well as inconvenient for people with heavily luggage or who are frail or disabled. * The re-introduction of a more frequent service at some local stations between Fareham and Southampton. * The re-introduction of direct Gatwick Airport-Bournemouth services.

The Portsmouth-Southampton line

4. The Portsmouth-Southampton conurbation is the largest urban area, outside of Greater London, south of a line from London to Bristol. In addition, the Southampton area has the fastest-growing population south of the same line, which is to some extent due to Polish immigration. Finally, Southampton has some 40,000 students at two universities (Southampton and Solent).

5. Incongruously, therefore, the frequent train services at stations westwards from Brighton end at Swanwick, which serves the western wards of Fareham. West of Fareham, Southern is now the major operator, with 2 trains per hour, whilst South West Trains and Great Western each operate 1 train per hour. SWT runs an hourly all-stations service between Portsmouth and Southampton, whilst Great Western operates hourly between Portsmouth and Cardiff, with no stops between Fareham and Southampton.

6. Another disadvantage of the current timetable is that trains from Portsmouth to Southampton normally leave 9 minutes apart in each hour, while trains from Southampton reach Portsmouth 5 minutes apart in each hour. SWT has removed former connections between Southampton-Eastleigh and Eastleigh-Portsmouth trains, whilst the new Southern timetable has lengthened connections at Fareham between Southampton-Victoria, and (Eastleigh –) Fareham – Portsmouth services.

7. Paradoxically, there is now a much better spread of services between Southampton and Chichester than between Southampton and Portsmouth.

8. From 1957 until 1983, there was an additional Southampton-Portsmouth service, which meant twice-hourly services at St Denys, Woolston and Netley. This has been ‘suspended’ since 1983, when Southampton tunnel was re-lined, with only one track available for many months.

9. The present position is extraordinary. Southern provides some stops into Southampton in the morning peak, but none back in the evening. So on Mondays-Fridays there are 5 trains from Netley to Southampton from 7.02 to 08.15, but then just an hourly service from Southampton to Netley in the evening peak.

10. The huge population in this corridor seems to be ill-served both because there are 3 operators, and because one of them is Stagecoach. (What other operator would be content with basic hourly off-peak services in peak periods over such a populous corridor? Hampshire County Council aspired to frequent rapid transport services between Portsmouth and Southampton, as an extension of the ditched South Hampshire Metro from Portsmouth to Fareham via Gosport)

11. The remedy may lie in transferring the Southampton-Portsmouth line to the Southern franchise, as a further step in integrating services along the Southampton-Ashford corridor. Southern’s trains are quicker than SWT’s. For example, Southern’s 08.25 from Fareham takes 31 minutes to Southampton, calling at all stations. SWT’s all-stations trains take about 33-36 minutes (before electrification, the BR diesel timing was about 34 minutes).

Southampton-Gatwick on Sundays

12. Between electrification of the Southampton-Portsmouth line 1n 1990 and privatisation, the Sunday Victoria-Portsmouth trains reversed at Portsmouth Harbour and continued as the all-stations service to Southampton. Privatisation meant that the Victoria-Portsmouth leg went to Southern and the Portsmouth-Southampton leg to SWT. The timetable has hardly changed since, apart from Stagecoach cutting the Southampton service back to Portsmouth & Southsea.

13. Transferring the Portsmouth-Southampton line to Southern would mean that the Southampton-Portsmouth-Gatwick-Victoria Sunday service could be instantly restored at nil cost, though a faster service would be preferable if funds are available.

Gatwick-Bournemouth

14. Bournemouth is one of Britain’s few international resorts and it would be good for tourism if the Victoria-Southampton service could be extended to Bournemouth as in the past. SWT’s services between Waterloo, Southampton, Bournemouth and Weymouth bear only limited resemblance to the Service Level Commitment for the current SWT franchise, so they would have no grounds for complaint about a DfT intervention to accommodate a Southern service to Bournemouth.

DISCONTENT WITH STAGECOACH EAST MIDLANDS FRANCHISE

* “What will happen at the intermediate Midland main line stations on the Stagecoach East Midlands Trains route south of Leicester, when passengers and Members of Parliament realize that they only get one train per hour from December 2008, rather than 2 trains per hour (semi-fast) as now? The Nottingham service is to remain; the Derby service and a “one change” facility to/from Arriva Cross Country services at Derby will be lost.

Also the ‘fast’ Sheffields all have their Bedford stops removed from the proposed December 2008 timetable change, and Luton does not fare any better. Bedford is a logical interchange station between EMT, Marston Vale (London Midland to Bletchley) and First Capital Connect (Thameslink) services. Looking to the future, Bedford may also be the interchange with the East-West Rail Link.

The rail user groups along the southern end of the Midland main line believe that protests may soon develop, similar to those on First Great Western. A reasonable request has been made to EMT to restore two trains per hour by putting a stop in a fast Nottingham service at Kettering (to connect with the St Pancras-Corby trains) and also to give Leicester-Corby passengers a service in the other direction. This has been refused by EMT. At Luton, the main station at Midland Road will only be served by the Kettering/Corby trains.

Rail users guess Patrick Hall MP (Bedford and Kempston), Kelvin Hopkins MP (Luton North) and Margaret Moran MP (Luton South) will soon be making their presence felt with the Rail Minister Tom Harris.

Passengers do want to travel from Luton and Bedford to/from stations in the East Midlands and Yorkshire – and the M1 goes from Brent Cross to Leeds. A pity that the EMT service to be offered from the December 2008 timetable will not do the same! From direct services now to a situation where two changes may be necessary in the future is very bad news indeed. Passengers south of Leicester are being sacrificed to those north of there. The so-called fifth train an hour from St Pancras to Corby is of little use as it doesn’t connect with any services at Kettering to/from Leicester and the north. Andrew Long MSc FCILT, Flitwick, Bedford.” [Modern Railways, July 2008]

* “I was staggered and disappointed when I realized that the proposed EMT recast timetable will not include any direct trains from Sheffield to the East Midlands Parkway station and hence the airport. It appears that a change is needed at Derby. At a time when the M1 is becoming more and more unreliable for travellers due to congestion and the not infrequent closures because of accidents. I was hoping that a regular direct rail service to the new station would make life a lot easier for air travellers from South Yorkshire – but apparently not. John Bramall, Sheffield”. [Modern Railways, July 2008]

* “---I was again struck by the lack of any improvement to services from East Anglia to either Liverpool or Sheffield – not least in capacity. East Anglia continues to grow in population, so why are we ignored and no effort made to make significant travel time improvements on this route to get more people out of their cars? County Councillor Geoff Heathcock, Cambridge [Modern Railways, July 2008]

* “Overcrowding on this (Norwich-Liverpool) route is dire. I travel the route weekly at different times of day. Since the train formations were reduced last year, every service I’ve travelled on has had customers who were forced to stand for the whole hour’s journey from Manchester to Sheffield. This is unacceptable. (David Shaw, Nottingham) [RAIL, Issue 599]

* “Sheffield is an elegant Victorian station much improved lately and popular with local people who use it as a thoroughfare, as it is in a slight dip between a major housing estate, Park Hill – currently the subject of a major regeneration scheme – and the city centre. Stagecoach wants to cut off the main route through the station to install ticket barriers which would mean local people having to walk a long way round. The local community is in uproar. The press is on the case and local ‘stakeholders’ such as South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive and Sheffield Council are adamantly opposed to the scheme. They argue that Stagecoach is merely a temporary incumbent of the station – its tenant as it were – whereas they paid for the improvements to the station. In other words, a private company is trying to deny a local community access to facilities for which it has paid.” [Christian Wolmar, RAIL, Issue 599]

* It is perfectly legal to take photographs on railway property for legitimate purposes providing you behave responsibly (for example do not exposure yourself to danger or use flashes in drivers’ faces). This has been confirmed by British Transport Police. This is not stopping nazi-like behaviour by rail staff in some areas. A manager from the Association of Train Operating Companies [!!!] was accosted by a woman train manager whilst taking a photograph through the window of an East Midlands train, and told this was illegal. Fortunately he resisted the intimidation and that was the end of it. This echoes past interference on Stagecoach-managed Basingstoke station. [RAIL, Issue 599]

DIARY OF A TOTTON-WATERLOO COMMUTER –17

02/06/08 0645 from Totton left while the in-carriage indicators were still showing 0644. In the rear half of the 1835 from Waterloo the automated announcement that "this part of the train is for ..." did not mention Totton or Ashurst and the entirely false announcement at Southampton Central said that "this train is for Weymouth, the next station is Brockenhurst" causing consternation to at least one passenger in the carriage.

03/06/08 At Southampton Central, no platform 4 ticket office windows were open at 0720. No graphics were shown on the automated ticket machine, making it hard to use - and how do occasional passengers know when to buy a premium car park ticket rather than a standard car park ticket even if they manage to find the car park tickets extremely well hidden under the "more popular destinations" option? 0736 Brighton and 0810 Horsham trains were shown as cancelled and display screens advised that all Southern services were cancelled due to a failed train at Barnham - Radio Solent had however reported that (for the second day running) new points at Barnham had ripped the power shoes off a train. Radio Solent also reported a tree on the line at Micheldever, but there was no hint of this to passengers on the 0730 from Southampton Central, other than perhaps a slight stress on the word "scheduled" when the guard announced "our scheduled arrival time at London Waterloo is 0846". We stopped before Micheldever, moved and stopped again before the guard announced a "slight delay" due to "signalling problems in the area". 5 minutes late at Waterloo. One of the London free newspapers reported that doors at Waterloo will now be closed 45 seconds before departure so that the train can leave the station at the time in the "passenger" timetable, perhaps better now renamed as the "stock movement" timetable.

04/06/08 At Totton this morning, a temporary ticket office staff member was apparently having problems getting the right fare to come up for a passenger - and the queue was 4 deep at the ticket machine. On the 1835 from Waterloo power to the air conditioning was turned off at Southampton Central. After about 10 minutes, the guard apologised for the delay and reported "a bit of a problem with this unit - got to turn it off and back on again - the internal doors won't work so please bear with us". After rebooting the train and waiting another 5 minutes the guard reported "we have quite a serious problem with this service - won't be going anywhere for at least 5 minutes." Then he announced that they would "shut the doors again - have one more try and see if we can get this train moving", followed by "have fixed the problem by the driver climbing under the train for you!". 19 minutes late at Totton. Arriving at Totton, a long-term commuter told me that for the first time in 20 years travelling he had missed his stop a few days previously, because he had travelled on the 1905 from Waterloo and forgot that (for some entirely unfathomable reason) it does not stop at Totton - he ended up having to come back from Brockenhurst and added almost an hour to his journey home.

05/06/08 Totton ticket office opening hours have all gone to pot again as a notice advised that the ticket office would not be open at all on Thursday or Friday this week. The queue for the automatic ticket machine was 5 deep this morning. The 0645 from Totton left before its scheduled departure time. At Southampton Central it was announced that there was only one buffet trolley on the train - the buffet stewardess subsequently announcing that due to how crowded the train was, she was unable to come through the front half.

06/06/08 Totton ticket office closed. The front half of the 1805 from Waterloo was formed of class 450 suburban stock which was going to travel all the way to Weymouth - many passengers were walking back down the platform at Waterloo to join the class 444 unit forming the rear half of the train - unfortunately this unit (444 042) had inadequate air conditioning in the 5th carriage (counting back from the 1st class carriage). The guard apologised for the stock change due to "severe electrical power problems yesterday" on the line between Poole and Weymouth (he later said that a substation had exploded). The guard also apologised for having no air conditioning at all in the "quiet" coach, which apparently needs to go to the depot to be repaired.

09/06/08 Totton ticket office was still closed and a large amount of litter was on the platform. The 0645 from Totton departed before its scheduled departure time. 5 minutes late at Waterloo. Returning to Totton this evening, the station was still uncleaned - it certainly seems pointless having rat traps on the platform if they don't even bother to keep the station clean.

10/06/08 Totton ticket office open again, with the permanent staff member, and not surprisingly the station has now been properly cleaned, having not been attended to since last Friday at least and possibly since last Wednesday. The 0645 from Totton departed while its in-carriage displays were still showing 0644 - this is getting to be a regular habit, despite the train having to stand for 10 minutes at its next stop waiting for the rear half of the train to be joined up. Later in the journey, the guard apologised for the "overcrowding and lack of seats this morning". The 1835 from Waterloo had excellent air conditioning this evening, so it is possible to achieve on this type of stock! Arrived at Totton at 2000 to see passengers on the other platform still awaiting the "delayed" 1945 service to Waterloo.

11/06/08 Following the partial demolition of the station buildings, I hear that Redbridge station may be getting a ticket machine on the platform - I wonder whether this technology refresh will extend to finally providing train information displays for passengers using the station as Redbridge is likely to be the only station on the South West Trains network that doesn't have any. Almost forgot that Waterloo passengers on the 0817 from Totton have to change at Southampton Central as Totton service stands for a ludicrous 20 minutes at Southampton - a fellow passenger bemoaned the slow journey time from Totton to Eastleigh "it's like they are on different planets". The 1935 from Waterloo only appeared on the departure boards 5 minutes before departure.

12/06/08 Totton ticket office was closed at 0605. The 0612 departure to Romsey and the delayed 0549 departure to Waterloo were both shown on the passenger information display as leaving at 0612. In fact, the Romsey service arrived first and left before its scheduled departure time. The 0549 service left Totton 26 minutes late and was announced as omitting its scheduled stops at Eastleigh and Winchester. The guard reported that the delay was due to a "broken down engineering train at Christchurch". Passengers were treated to sideways lurches both at Worting Junction before Basingstoke and on the curve through Farnborough. 14 minutes late at Waterloo.

13/06/08 Totton ticket office open - the permanent staff member having been pulled into Southampton yesterday with no cover provided for Totton. A local commercial vehicle was in a station car park space. Noted that a ticket to Chandlers Ford is more expensive (at Ł4.50) than a ticket to Romsey (Ł3.60) although the train from Totton to Romsey stops at Chandlers Ford on the way. I hear that car park charges are to be introduced at Ashurst which, as the car park for the station and that for the New Forest Hotel are used as one big car park, is sure to cause problems - especially if they repeat the fiasco which occurred at Totton by introducing car park charges before even bothering to mark out the car park boundary.

16/06/08 Totton ticket office closed again! Arriving at Totton on the 1835 from Waterloo, saw that the ticket machine was flashing an alarm.

17/06/08 Totton ticket office closed again! The ticket machine was still flashing an alarm and was refusing card transactions, making a Ł60 ticket to London, for example, impossible to purchase unless you are in the habit of carrying around Ł60 in your wallet in case South West Trains can't be bothered to keep their ticket machines working or their ticket offices open. The 0645 from Totton left while the in-carriage displays were still showing 0644. The guard admitted that the Totton ticket machine had been reported faulty yesterday, but evidently nothing had been done about it. The automated announcement "you must buy a ticket before you get on one of our trains" was then ironically played to its long-suffering audience of passengers. At Southampton Central, the 0715 departure to Manchester Piccadilly was shown as "delayed" and an announcement was made that due to "signalling problems" CrossCountry services were "severely delayed".

18/06/08 Totton ticket office closed again! The guard on the 0645 from Totton closed its doors a minute early, but reopened them to let 2 more passengers on board, before it still managed to leave before its scheduled departure time. At Southampton Central, the guard apologised that there was "only one Rail Gourmet staff" on the train in the front five coaches only. The Southern Daily Echo reports that South West Trains will be closing the Totton ticket office at 1000 instead of 1230 each weekday, along with many other opening hour reductions at other stations. For Totton, given the experience over the past year (and this week), even having a ticket office that managed to open every weekday would be a step up! For the other stations, the major damage will be done by removing station staff completely at weekends - this will lead to stations not being cleaned from sometime during the day on Friday until Monday morning, which will degrade the environment used by passengers and, like at Totton, significantly increase the likelihood of vermin.

19/06/08 The 0707 from Totton to Weymouth was running 5 minutes late. The 0715 departure to Waterloo left before its scheduled departure time.

20/06/08 Totton ticket office was closed on Monday to Wednesday this week due to the permanent staff member being "off" and no cover being provided. The 0715 from Totton left both Totton and Southampton Parkway before its scheduled departure times. This evening, the clocks in the subway under the platforms at Waterloo were not working. Joining the 1835 from Waterloo, passengers were advised that the train was "approaching its final stop, London Waterloo". The usual incorrect announcement in the rear half of the train at Southampton Central that "this train is for Weymouth, the next station is Bournemouth" was made.

23/06/08 The 0612 from Totton to Romsey left before its scheduled departure time. Broken glass was scattered on the platform at Millbrook. The 0630 from Southampton Central arrived at Waterloo 4 minutes early!

24/06/08 The 0549 from Totton left 40 seconds before its scheduled departure time and also left Winchester before its scheduled departure time. The guard of the 1805 from Waterloo asked passengers to "bear with us" as there was a "problem with the doors" at Southampton Parkway.

25/06/08 Totton ticket office was closed at 0600 and the ticket machine was flashing its red alarm signal. At Southampton Central, the 0630 departure to Weymouth is made up of a 4-carriage suburban unit being used for long-distance travel. Passenger information displays on all platforms at Southampton Central showed "we regret that owing to a fault, no information can be displayed at present". The 2035 from Waterloo managed to squeeze in an additional stop to pick up tennis fans from Wimbledon, but it can't be scheduled to stop at Totton every day.

26/06/08 Totton ticket office was closed at 0600 and the ticket machine was again flashing its red alarm signal. A passenger was clearly having difficulty using the machine, asking the person behind them in the queue for assistance. On this fine morning, the sunlight reflected prettily from the broken glass on the down platform.

27/06/08 Totton ticket office was closed at 0545 and the 0549 from Totton left before its scheduled departure time.

30/06/08 Totton ticket machine was flashing its red alarm again and was not accepting card transactions.

01/07/08 The 0645 from Totton left before its scheduled departure time. On the 1835 from Waterloo, the announcement in the rear half of the train shortly after leaving Waterloo that "this part of the train is for ..." omitted Totton and Ashurst. During the journey the guard announced "signalling problems preventing us moving to the fast down line". 8 minutes late at Southampton Parkway, but a quick split at Southampton Central reduced that to a 4 minute delay by Totton.

02/07/08 Parking bays in the Southampton Central car parks are very poorly marked. Five staff were having a chat in the passenger assistance office on platform 4. On the 0700 from Southampton Central, the full stopping pattern of the service was announced, starting from Poole and including the stations the train had already stopped at.

03/07/08 On the 1835 from Waterloo a stream of water descended from next to a light fitting near the buffet and fell onto the buffet stewardess. The guard commented that he had been on this unit (444 044) some time before and had reported the problem then - it is good to see Wessex Electric levels of maintenance are being sustained after their retirement from service.

04/07/08 The 0645 from Totton departed while 0644 was still showing on the in-carriage displays. Stopped suddenly just after Eastleigh "due to signalling problems". 9 minutes late at Winchester. 4 minutes late at Waterloo

07/07/08 Did not travel.

08/07/08 Some parking bay markings at Southampton Central are now entirely invisible, although the threat to clamp passengers who don't comply with them still stands. On the 0730 from Southampton Central to Waterloo the guard announced "for those of you standing or sitting on the floor I'm sorry that's where you have to stay". After Clapham Junction, the guard announced that the "driver reports congestion ahead - slight delay into London Waterloo". Actually 10 minutes late.

09/07/08 The 0645 from Totton left before its scheduled departure time. Travelling on the last Waterloo & City line service of the evening at 2145, found the subway under the platforms at Waterloo had helpfully been shuttered off at 2130 - is this going to be permanent when ticket barriers are introduced?

10/07/08 The ticket barriers and ticket gates at "accredited secure" Southampton Central were wide open at 0510. The 0515 departure for Manchester Piccadilly was waiting on platform 3 when both platforms 1 and 4 were empty and could have been used to provide easier access for less mobile passengers. On the 0515 a set of 6 seat reservation indicators were blank (including my reserved seat). Arrived at Manchester Piccadilly 6 minutes early. 1724 from Manchester Piccadilly arrived on time at Southampton Central, where a member of the station staff was valiantly checking all tickets as passengers left the station just a few minutes before the barriers would be flung open at 2200. However, I did see that some action had been taken to prevent anyone wandering into the station after 2200 - there was a small notice advising that there is not a public right-of-way through the station.

11/07/08 Noted that, in the reverse of normal pricing, ticket prices from Totton to Birmingham are now cheaper if you travel via London - as long as you meet saver ticket restrictions by travelling out from Euston after 0915; saver tickets not being available at all on the ‘Not London’ option. There is no longer an "any permitted route" option, you have to choose London or Not London and then travel that route. The ticket machine at Totton helpfully gave a description of the Not London option as "User description for Not London". 0715 from Totton left Winchester before its scheduled departure time. Stopped additionally at Basingstoke as "a passenger had a medical emergency and we stopped to let her alight". On the 1835 from Waterloo, two separate passengers asked me if they were in the correct half of the train when the train split at Southampton Central. 4 minutes late at Totton.

14/07/08 The ticket machine at Totton was flashing its red alarm light. The 0645 from Totton left the station while 0644 was still showing on the in-carriage displays. At Winchester, passengers observed that the platform indicators were reporting "that all services in and out of London Waterloo are subject the delays and cancellations." There was no mention of this on the train until the guard announced that we would not be affected by two platforms being closed at Waterloo. However, shortly afterwards we came to a halt due to "signal problems". 15 minutes late at Waterloo.

15/07/08 A notice of consultation for the proposed reduction in ticket office hours has been put up at Totton - but the address is in small print and doesn't mention that the responses can be sent Freepost. Returning to Totton on the 1735 from Waterloo, saw that the ticket machine alarm was flashing again.

16/07/08 The ticket machine alarm was still flashing this morning. The 0645 from Totton left before its scheduled departure time. The guard reported that we were arriving 5 minutes late at Waterloo due to "emergency speed restrictions". The Waterloo & City line was closed due to a fire alert at Bank. Returning to Totton on the 1805 from Waterloo, saw the ticket machine alarm was still flashing. Four wooden boxes have appeared on the platforms at Totton.

17/07/08 Apparently, the wooden boxes are to protect cabling installed for Oyster-like ticketless travel. A new notice of consultation has now been put up at Totton with a larger address and mentioning Freepost. Two glaring inaccuracies are seen straightaway on the poster - "it is clear it is not commercially viable" to maintain the current ticket office hours when they haven't actually kept to the current hours at Totton for over a year and calling the ticket machines "easy-to-use". The ticket machine alarm was still flashing this morning, but someone had managed to fix the problem by this evening.

18/07/08 Nothing to report.

21/07/08 Did not travel.

22/07/08 Totton ticket office was closed at 0650 - between then and 0710, 18 people used the ticket machine, with the queue 4 deep at times. One passenger tried the ticket office door, muttering "useless" when he found it locked. The 0707 from Totton to Weymouth was running 5 minutes late. The 0715 from Totton left while the in-carriage displays were still showing 0714.

23/07/08 The car park markings outside the platform 4 entrance at Southampton Central have been repainted - they had previously been so faint in one section that they have repainted in different positions, leaving 6 very narrow parking spaces and one very wide one! The 0730 from Southampton Central ran slow before Woking due to "congestion at Woking station". The guard reported that we were on time at Waterloo, but the train was actually 4 minutes late.

24/07/08 Totton ticket office was closed at 0600. The ticket machine alarm was flashing and it was not accepting card payments. At Millbrook station, the passenger display screen has been removed, so there is now no train information available to passengers, just like Redbridge. The 1805 from Waterloo did not leave Southampton Central at its scheduled departure time - after 5 minutes delay, the guard reported "points failure just ahead of us" and advised that we would be "here for 4-5 minutes" further. After 10 minutes delay, the guard reported "also a signalling failure at Millbrook". After 20 minutes delay, the guard apologised again but could give no further information. After 25 minutes delay, the 1835 from Waterloo pulled in alongside us, and finally after 30 minutes delay we left Southampton Central. 36 minutes late at Totton.

25/07/08 The platform for the 2005 from Waterloo was not shown on the departure board until 2000. Some passengers waiting on the platform for the doors to open had not been told that the train would be run in short formation using the far 5 carriages only. The train left on time (that is, with just 5 minutes to get on the train after the platform had been announced), crowded and probably leaving some passengers behind. The guard reported "technical problems with the rear 5 coaches".

28/07/08 Totton ticket office closed at 0700 with lots of litter on the platforms. The ticket machine alarm was flashing and it was not accepting cards. The 0715 from Totton left before its scheduled departure time. This evening, both platform 10 screens in the subway under the platforms at Waterloo were out of order. As the 1905 from Waterloo approached Southampton Central there was no mention of Totton in the "change here for" announcement even though this train omits the normal xx05 Totton stop.

29/07/08 The ticket machine alarm was flashing and it was not accepting cards. The 1805 from Waterloo left 9 minutes late due to a late incoming service itself due to "signalling problems in the Dorchester South area".

30/07/08 On the 0715 from Totton, the guard reported she would be unable to sell tickets on the train due to a fault on her ticket machine and advised passengers to go to the ticket office at Waterloo to pay. She said she had requested assistance at Brockenhurst but it had not been provided and especially apologised to passengers from Brockenhurst as the ticket machine there was faulty also. This evening, both platform 10 screens and one platform 11 screen were not working in the subway under the platforms at Waterloo.

31/07/08-01/08/08 Did not travel.

DIARY OF A TOTTON HOLIDAYMAKER

15/06/08 Sunday engineering work with Cross Country route severed between Oxford and Banbury. So ticket booked on the 14.00 Kings Cross to Aberdeen. With such a trash SWT service from Totton (every day of the week now) decide to get the 11.25 from Southampton Central to Waterloo. Then remember Stagecoach reliability, and go for the 10.25 – this is a good move, as the 11.25 is already advertised as ‘delayed’. A wheelchair user is saying she has an hour to wait after just missing the Salisbury train. Didn’t tell her SWT had cancelled it anyway.

The 14.00 National Express East Coast service is almost as good as Christopher Garnett’s GNER. Punctual throughout and excellent, friendly buffet car service, but whereas SWT drives its passengers to distraction with on-board announcements about penalty fares, National Express is tending towards the same on smoking, even to the extent of broadcasting that stations at which the train is arriving are non-smoking areas. In reality, infringements of smoking restrictions on public transport appear almost non-existent, except in bus shelters. Single warning (at Edinburgh) about paying full fare if boarding without a ticket.

16/06/08 Meet friend and we drive to Ullapool for the Stornoway ferry, stopping at the preserved Ballater station to admire the excellent display of Victoriana. We forgo coffee at Ballater as they refuse to sell it without a scone even though told that my friend has to have a gluten-free diet. Very Victorian!

23/06/08 Return to the mainland on the morning ferry. We don’t have the car this time. Hand over the baggage at Stornoway ferry port for collection at Inverness bus station. At Ullapool, the boat is met by several old Stagecoach buses. One leaves with the door of the rear luggage compartment fully open and the driver of another sounds a warning blast on his horn to no effect. Our bus has an emergency stop on the edge of Ullapool due to a defective warning light. We then proceed to Inverness 10-15 minutes late. At the bus station my brand-new, padlocked case is sitting on the pavement. It has had such rough handling that the zip has been wrenched open and the contents of the case are exposed to public view. It may have fallen from the bus with the open luggage compartment. Onward Scotrail journey to Perth and then from Perth to Glasgow Queen Street is fine. Take advantage of the cheap First Scotrail fare for people aged 55 or over.

24/06/08 Rail trip from Glasgow to the smart new station at Camelon, followed by a short walk along the canal to visit the marvellous Falkirk Wheel which replaces 11 locks by lifting barges between high and low level canals. Finish outing with a trip to the even smarter new station at Alloa, where trains have just returned after several decades. Train is very busy and we reflect that even the older Scotrail stations make many on SWT look distinctly third-world – does no-one in the Pokesdown area care enough to campaign for their station to get at least a lick of paint to cover the rust?.

25/06/08 Trip to Edinburgh via Shotts, then round the complete Fife circle and down the branch line to the delightful seaside resort of North Berwick on the south bank of the Forth estuary. If you wanted the convenience of living next to a railway station in a pleasant environment, North Berwick should rank high on your list of potential locations. Returning from Glasgow to Edinburgh at the end of the evening peak, we encounter our first delay on Scotrail, leaving over 5 minutes late but almost making up the time despite the much sharper schedules than apply on SWT. There are no 5-minute station dwell times at Falkirk High as there are at Winchester!

26/06/08 Local trip from Glasgow to Whitecraigs, on the Neilston line, for leisurely look around Trust gardens. Notice yet again how friendly Scotrail conductors are – waiting patiently for passengers wanting to catch trains, even a group of distinctly tardy schoolgirls.

27/06/08 Determined to avoid Virgin Trains after my awful travel experience in April. Excellent journey from Glasgow to Newcastle on the 09.00 Cross Country train. I then have a break before catching the 14.40 Newcastle-Bournemouth, also run by Cross Country. The first stage of the journey costs less than Ł10, and the second stage (first class ticket) slightly more than the profiteering off-peak standard class day return from Southampton to Waterloo. After leaving Newcastle, I’m soon awash with free coffee and there are free snacks too. This train has 9 well-laden carriages which all go through to Bournemouth. Imagine getting that when Virgin and Stagecoach ran the service!

Excellent journey until the approach to Derby, where we lose over 10 minutes due to a late-running ‘local service’ which could only have been the Stagecoach East Midlands train from Matlock. Unable to make up time and slightly delay the 19.35 Waterloo-Weymouth at Southampton. So Stagecoach East Midlands is responsible for some of the delays on Stagecoach South West Trains… Final reflection is that rail travel can be great when you get the right operators – Tom Harris and Department for Transport, please note!

SWT RIGHT TIME RAILWAY: DUFF STOCK, CREW SHORTAGES, CANCELLATIONS, TRAINS TERMINATING SHORT OF DESTINATION, AND STOPS AXED FOR OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE

NOTE

These details are snapshots, based on passengers' own experiences and website information. SWT is noted for operating the slowest service since the steam era; omitting stops; terminating services short of destination; and closing doors before departure time, even when passengers are running to join a train. It all seemingly started as a panic measure, when Stagecoach was threatened with loss of the franchise for its appalling performance (punctuality) over a long period. Recorded delays should be seen in this context.

Our Group does not have the resources to provide a full picture of the performance shortcomings which passengers suffer. We are able to provide fuller coverage on some days than on others. In the 2007 National Rail Awards, SWT won only the award for train maintenance. So the number of train failures recorded below speaks volumes.

Trains can become increasingly late during the course of their journeys, or make up time where stops are omitted and passengers thrown off, so the "minutes late" figures may not represent the position at the end of a journey. On many days the loss of peak seats will significantly outweigh the additional seats which Stagecoach boasts of having introduced, adding to the stress and discomfort caused by the ripping out of seats from suburban trains.

OVERVIEW

In the last issue we reported that, of the various service groups which serve Southampton, Southern’s Sussex Coast service topped the punctuality league for April at 96.5%. Cross Country achieved 92.6%, Great Western’s South Wales-South Coast service achieved 91.4% and SWT’s mainline services 91.1%. SWT then failed even to meet its target in May, scoring only 88.7%

Sunday 01/06/08 16.32 Portsmouth-Waterloo 30 minutes late. 17.21 Waterloo-Chessington DIVERTED to Hampton Court. 18.10 Chessington-Waterloo DIVERTED to start from Hampton Court. 18.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth 20 minutes late. 19.21 Waterloo-Chessington AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 20.10 Chessington-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 20.39 Reading-Waterloo/21.00 Waterloo-Guildford/21.09 Waterloo-Reading/21.48 Portsmouth-Waterloo/21.50 Guildford-Waterloo all made extra to stops to compensate for SERVICES AXED DUE TO CREW SHORTAGE. 20.44 Waterloo-Windsor re-timed to 20.50 and DIVERTED via Brentford, DUE TO NO CREW for the 20.50 Waterloo-Woking. 20.50 Waterloo-Woking AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 22.05 Hampton Court-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 22.52 Woking-Waterloo started from Guildford to compensate for service AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 22.57 Guildford-Waterloo AXED.

Monday 02/06/08 Afternoon trains from Basingstoke to Salisbury severely disrupted DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; bus replacement services and some trains diverted via Southampton. 15.52 Bristol / 16.22 Yeovil-Waterloo 21 minutes late.

Tuesday 03/06/08 Morning peak trains up to 10 minutes late due to signalling problems in the Micheldever area. 05.45 Poole-Waterloo stood at Micheldever for several minutes, giving passengers a good view of people waiting on the platform in pouring rain; perhaps this confirmed the common commuter view that SWT wouldn’t recognise a passenger if they saw one. Flooding at Hedge End and Nursling. 14.09 /15.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth-diverted. Salisbury-Southampton-Romsey services AXED for most of the day. 16.01 Honiton-Exeter AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 16.16 Waterloo-Chessington REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.27 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.03 Weybridge-Waterloo 13 minutes late. Poole portion of the 17.05 from Waterloo delayed at Southampton after being wrongly advertised as calling at Millbrook and Redbridge. 17.54 Waterloo-Dorking REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.01 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.16 Waterloo-Chessington 7 minutes late. 19.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 12 minutes late. 22.21 Basingstoke-Portsmouth 10 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Wednesday 04/06/08 06.12 Totton-Romsey AXED between Totton and Southampton. Passengers on the 07.39 Waterloo-Guildford 9 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Effingham Junction AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 08.31 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 09.20 Waterloo-Plymouth THROWN OFF at Exeter DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 09.42 Reading-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Ascot DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 14.47 Plymouth-Waterloo AXED between Plymouth and Exeter DUE TO NO CREW.

Thursday 05/06/08 NO SERVICES BETWEEN POOLE AND WAREHAM, FROM MID-EVENING, DUE TO DUFF SIGNALLING. 05.45 Poole-Waterloo 7 minutes late. 07.39 Waterloo-Guildford 8 minutes late. 07.52 Epsom-Waterloo 14 minutes late. 08.07 Romsey-Salisbury AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.10 Chessington-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.17 Woking-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.22 Epsom-Waterloo AXED. 08.53 Windsor-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 20.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 70 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Havant AXED DUE TO OPERATINAL CONVENIENCE. 20.54 Portsmouth-Waterloo ‘DELAYED’. 20.57 Salisbury-Bristol AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 21.36 Portsmouth-Southampton AXED. 21.54 Portsmouth-Eastleigh 20 minutes late. 21.55 Southampton-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 22.25 Bristol-Salisbury AXED DUE TO NO CREW.

Friday 06/06/08 NO SERVICES BETWEEN POOLE AND WAREHAM, EXCEPT FROM MID-AFTERNOON UNTIL MID-EVENING, DUE TO DUFF SIGNALLING. IN ADDITION, POOLE TRAINS AXED BETWEEN BOURNEMOUTH AND POOLE. 07.24 Reading-Waterloo AXED between Reading and Bracknell. 07.52 Basingstoke-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.31 Waterloo-Teddington AXED. 16.35 Waterloo-Weymouth REDUCED TO 9 COACHES INCLUDING A 4-COACH SUBURBAN UNIT. 17.50 Waterloo-Reading 20 minutes late. 18.00 Waterloo-Epsom AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 18.20 Yeovil-Waterloo AXED between Yeovil and Salisbury DUE TO NO CREW. 19.23 Waterloo-Surbiton AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 20.24 Waterloo-Epsom AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 21.05 Epsom-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW.

Saturday 07/06/08 NO SERVICES BETWEEN POOLE AND WAREHAM DUE TO ENGINEERING WORK. 09.03 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 17 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; all intermediate stops before Richmond AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. Passengers on the 14.06 Poole-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Bournemouth DUE TO NO CREW. 14.10 Exeter-Waterloo 19 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 14.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 16.39 Haslemere-Waterloo AXED between Haslemere and Guildford DUE TO NO CREW. 16.39 Waterloo-Poole 7 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 17.05 Waterloo-Poole AXED DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 17.50 Poole-Waterloo THROWN OFF Southampton DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 17.54 Portsmouth-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Basingstoke DUE TO NO CREW. 18.20 Waterloo-Exeter 10 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 19.39 Waterloo-Southampton AXED between Waterloo and Basingstoke DUE TO NO CREW. 19.40 Poole-Waterloo AXED between Poole and Bournemouth DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 19.50 Poole-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Basingstoke DUE TO NO CREW. 20.39 Waterloo-Southampton AXED between Waterloo and Basingstoke DUE TO NO CREW. 20.54 Poole-Waterloo 21 minutes late. 20.57 Salisbury-Bristol 23 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 21.42 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED DUE TO NO CREW.

Sunday 08/06/08 NO SERVICES BETWEEN POOLE AND WAREHAM DUE TO ENGINEERING WORK. 06.45 Salisbury-Waterloo 50 minutes late; Clapham Junction stop AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 06.48 Portsmouth-Waterloo DIVERTED; Woking stop AXED. 06.55 Southampton-Waterloo 27 minutes late; Woking and Clapham Junction stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 06.57 Guildford-Waterloo DIVERTED; all stops between Guildford and Surbiton AXED. 07.16 Basingstoke / 07.30 Farnham-Waterloo 46 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 08.06 Bournemouth-Eastleigh 26 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.40 Waterloo-Guildford 25 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Surbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 08.44 Waterloo-Guildford 44 minutes late; all intermediate stops to Wimbledon inclusive AXED and passengers THROWN OFF at Woking DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.57 Guildford-Waterloo AXED between Guildford and Woking. 10.01 Windsor-Waterloo AXED between Windsor and Staines DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 11.25 Yeovil-Waterloo REDUCED TO 3 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 12.16 Basingstoke-Waterloo 27 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 12.18 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 12 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 12.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth 31 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; all intermediate stops between Guildford and Fratton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 14.15 Waterloo-Yeovil 41 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 15.15 Waterloo-Exeter 8 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth 14 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Delayed 17.17 Portsmouth-Waterloo AXED between Portsmouth and Eastleigh. 17.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth 7 minutes late DUE TONO CREW. 17.32 Portsmouth-Waterloo AXED between Portsmouth Harbour and Portsmouth & Southsea. 17.48 Portsmouth-Waterloo 20 minutes late. 18.17 Portsmouth-Waterloo 25 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Fratton and Fareham AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 18.26 Eastleigh-Portsmouth AXED. 18.32 Portsmouth-Waterloo AXED between Portsmouth Harbour and Portsmouth & Southsea. 19.17 Portsmouth-Waterloo AXED between Portsmouth Harbour and Portsmouth & Southsea. 21.50 Poole-Waterloo AXED between Poole and Bournemouth DUE TO NO CREW.

Monday 09/06/08 YET ANOTHER DERAILMENT ON SWT – THIS TIME IN SALISBURY DEPOT. 05.10 Exeter-Waterloo REDUCED TO 6 COACHES DUE TO DERAILMENT. 05.35 Salisbury-Southampton-Salisbury AXED. 05.50 Yeovil-Waterloo 10 minutes late. 06.20 Honiton-Waterloo AXED. 13.39 Waterloo-Poole 19 minutes late. 13.50 Yeovil-Waterloo REDUCED TO 3 COACHES, and 8 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 14.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 31 minutes late. 15.05 Romsey-Salisbury 9 minutes late. 15.36 Waterloo-Hampton Court 12 minutes late. 15.45 Salisbury-Waterloo 8 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 15.50 Poole-Waterloo 7 minutes late DUE TONO CREW. 15.56 Havant-Waterloo 15 minutes late. 16.12 Waterloo-Basingstoke REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.20 Waterloo-Exeter REDUCED TO 6 COACHES DUE TO DERAILMENT. Bournemouth portion of the 16.35 from Waterloo 23 minutes late. 16.50 Waterloo-Yeovil REDUCED TO 3 CARS DUE TO DERAILMENT. 17.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 13 minutes late. 17.20 Waterloo-Exeter 49 minutes late. Passengers on the 17.49 Plymouth-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Salisbury. 18.03 Weymouth-Waterloo 22 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 18.10 Exeter-Waterloo 55 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Salisbury. 18.20 Waterloo-Exeter 17 minutes late. 18.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 10 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 18.22 Waterloo-Weybridge 14 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.35 Dorking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.20 Waterloo-Reading 9 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.36 Waterloo-Hampton Court AXED between Waterloo and Raynes Park DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 20.25 Salisbury-Waterloo 10 minutes late.

Tuesday 10/06/08 14.53 Alton-Waterloo 17 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 16.00 Guildford-Ascot AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.12 Waterloo-Basingstoke REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.35 Waterloo-Weymouth REDUCED TO 9 COACHES, INCLUDING A 4-COACH SUBURBAN UNIT, DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.39 Waterloo-Portsmouth 13 minutes late. 17.28 Waterloo-Windsor REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.35 Waterloo-Reading delayed DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 17.50 Waterloo-Reading delayed DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. Passengers on the 17.52 Reading-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Ascot DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 17.52 Waterloo-Weybridge delayed DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 17.58 Waterloo-Windsor DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 18.03 Weymouth-Waterloo 22 minutes late. 18.05 Waterloo-Aldershot delayed DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 18.12 Reading-Waterloo AXED between Reading and Staines. 18.20 Waterloo-Reading 41 minutes late. 18.23 Ascot-Guildford AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 18.30 Guildford-Ascot AXED between Guildford and Aldershot DUE TO NO CREW. 18.35 Waterloo-Reading 27 minutes late. 18.50 Poole-Waterloo 32 minutes late; intermediate stops after Basingstoke AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.07 Weybridge-Waterloo 24 minutes late. 19.12 Reading-Waterloo AXED. 19.42 Reading-Waterloo AXED between Reading and Bracknell. 20.00 Guildford-Ascot AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 20.12 Reading-Waterloo 31 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Staines AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 21.22 Waterloo-Weybridge AXED DUE TO NO CREW. Emergency engineering work with replacement buses between Southampton and Eastleigh; some of these trains were already AXED west of Brockenhurst. Passengers on the 22.10 Weymouth-Eastleigh THROWN OFF at Southampton. Passengers on the 22.39 Waterloo-Southampton THROWN OFF at Eastleigh. 23.03 Weybridge-Staines AXED DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 23.05 Waterloo-Brockenhurst THROWN OFF at Eastleigh. Passengers on the 23.39 Waterloo-Southampton THROWN OFF at Eastleigh.

Wednesday 11/06/08 Passengers on the 00.05 Waterloo-Brockenhurst THROWN OFF at Eastleigh. Morning signalling problems at Motspur Park. 11.09 Waterloo-Guildford DIVERTED via Surbiton. Passengers on the 11.16 Waterloo-Chessington THROWN OFF at Raynes Park. 12.05 Waterloo-Dorking AXED. 12.10 Chessington-Waterloo AXED between Chessington and Raynes Park. 16.12 Reading-Waterloo AXED between Reading and Bracknell. 16.20 Waterloo-Reading AXED between Waterloo and Staines. 16.24 Portsmouth-Waterloo 15 minutes late; Worplesdon and Clapham Junction stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.31 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.42 Reading-Waterloo 20 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Ascot, except Staines and Clapham Junction, AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 17.50 Waterloo-Woking REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.52 Reading-Waterloo 18 minutes late. 18.00 Waterloo-Epsom REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.02 Waterloo-Woking REDUCED TO8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.39 REDUCED TO A 4-COACH SUBURBAN TRAIN DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 15 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.12 Waterloo-Basingstoke 15 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Thursday 12/06/08 05.00 Poole-Waterloo 27 minutes late DUE TO DUFF MAINTENANCE TRAIN. 05.45 Poole-Waterloo 15 minutes late. 06.04 Bournemouth-Waterloo 19 minutes late; Totton and Ashurst stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE; HUGE ONE HOUR GAP IN SERVICE FOR LONDON COMMUTERS, DESPITE TOTTON BEING THE FOURTH LARGEST TOWN BETWEEN SOUTHAMPTON AND WEYMOUTH. Afternoon delays and cancellations when a lorry hit a bridge at Swaythling. 20.33 Woking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Friday 13/06/08 The conductor of the 16.35 from Waterloo apologised for two of the three toilets in the Weymouth portion of the train being out of order on this busy afternoon.

Saturday 14/06/08 05.10 Exeter-Waterloo AXED between Exeter and Salisbury DUE TO NO CREW. 11.44 Alton-Waterloo 10 minutes late. 14.10 Exeter-Waterloo REDUCED TO 3 COACHES. 14.20 Waterloo-Penzance REDUCED TO 2 COACHES. Passengers on the 17.07 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Chiswick DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Sunday 15/06/08 09.35 Romsey-Salisbury AXED. 09.48 Weymouth-Waterloo ‘delayed’.

Friday 27/06/08 17.49 Plymouth-Waterloo 20 minutes late. 19.53 Salisbury-Romsey AXED between Eastleigh and Romsey. 21.05 Romsey-Salisbury AXED between Romsey and Eastleigh. 21.17 Portsmouth-Waterloo ‘delayed’ DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 22.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth ‘delayed’ DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Saturday 28/06/08 07.58 Twickenham-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 08.06 Waterloo-Hampton Court THROWN OFF at Wimbledon DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.54 Hampton Court-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 11.37 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 15 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 11.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo diverted via Brentford. 11.50 Waterloo-Reading diverted via Brentford. [Diversions due to obstruction on the line but not clear whether the obstruction was the 11.37 from Waterloo.] 11.54 Portsmouth-Waterloo 15 minutes late and AXED between Portsmouth and Basingstoke DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 12.20 Waterloo-Reading 20 minutes late. 13.11 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 13.22 Waterloo-Weybridge AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 15.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 48 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Wareham. 15.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth 31 minutes late. 17.32 Portsmouth-Southampton AXED. 18.20 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Wareham. 18.42 Southampton-Portsmouth AXED. 18.42 Reading-Waterloo diverted via Brentford. 18.53 Windsor-Waterloo ‘delayed’. 20.03 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 15 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Richmond AXED DUE TO OPERATING CONVENIENCE. 20.20 Waterloo-Reading 12 minutes late. 22.22 Waterloo-Weybridge AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Sunday 29/06/08 06.45 Salisbury-Waterloo 40 minutes late. 06.48 Portsmouth-Waterloo 14 minutes late. 07.23 Winchester-Waterloo 10 minutes late. 07.44 Waterloo-Windsor AXED between Waterloo and Twickenham DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 07.48 Waterloo-Shepperton THROWN OFF at Raynes Park DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.08 Basingstoke-Salisbury AXED between Basingstoke and Salisbury. 08.24 Epsom-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 09.11 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 11.15 Waterloo-Paignton 31 minutes late. 13.15 Waterloo-Paignton 62 minutes late; stops at Andover, Tisbury, Gillingham, Templecombe and Sherborne AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 15.25 Yeovil-Waterloo AXED between Yeovil and Salisbury. 19.54 Waterloo-Poole 22 minutes late. 22.09 Waterloo-Reading 12 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Monday 30/06/08 06.12 Waterloo-Weymouth 10 minutes late. 07.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth 10 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 08.05 Portsmouth-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Passengers on the 08.07 Romsey-Salisbury THROWN OFF at Southampton DUE TO NO CREW. 08.22 Waterloo-Weybridge ‘delayed’; stops from Barnes to Isleworth inclusive AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 15.58 Waterloo-Windsor AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 16.07 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 17.23 Windsor-Waterloo AXED between Windsor and Staines DUE TO NO CREW. 17.28 Waterloo-Windsor REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.30 Guildford-Ascot AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 18.32 Waterloo-Basingstoke AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 19.53 Ascot-Guildford AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 22.10 Weymouth-Eastleigh AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Tuesday 01/07/08 08.10 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 10 minutes late; all intermediate stops from Barnes to Hounslow AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 12.20 Waterloo-Plymouth 33 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Exeter. 15.09 Waterloo-Guildford AXED. 15.24 Basingstoke-Waterloo 13 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Woking and Surbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. All intermediate stops, before Effingham Junction, of the 15.28 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. FROM THE AFTERNOON, ALL TRAINS BETWEEN WATERLOO AND HAMPTON COURT AXED BETWEEN SURBITON AND HAMPTON COURT. 16.01 Honiton-Exeter AXED. 16.38 Guildford-Waterloo AXED between Guildford and Surbiton. 17.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 10 minutes late. 17.45 Waterloo-Havant REDUCED TO 9 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.49 Plymouth-Waterloo AXED between Plymouth and Exeter. 18.05 Waterloo-Aldershot AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.35 Alton-Waterloo 16 minutes late; West Byfleet and Surbiton stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 18.59 Effingham Junction-Waterloo AXED. 19.23 Waterloo-Surbiton AXED. 19.30 Guildford-Ascot 33 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Aldershot AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 22.28 Portsmouth-Havant AXED. 22.59 Havant-Fareham AXED. 23.24 Hampton Court-Wimbledon AXED between Hampton Court and Surbiton.

Wednesday 02/07/08 06.23 Windsor-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 06.30 Aldershot-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.37 Waterloo-Hounslow 10 minutes late. 07.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 25 minutes late. 08.37 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.46 Guildford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.53 Windsor-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 09.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth 35 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Guildford and Fratton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth 11 minutes late. 13.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 34 minutes late. 13.50 Poole-Waterloo 29 minutes late. 14.03 Weymouth-Waterloo 18 minutes late. 14.39 Waterloo-Brockenhurst 20 minutes late. 15.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth 32 minutes late. 15.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 26 minutes late. 15.50 Waterloo-Guildford 12 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.12 Waterloo-Basingstoke 30 minutes late. 16.15 Waterloo-Portsmouth 15 minutes late. 16.24 Basingstoke-Portsmouth 20 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Fratton. 16.35 Waterloo-Weymouth REDUCED TO 9 COACHES, INCLUDING A 4-COACH SUBURBAN UNIT, DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.36 Portsmouth-Southampton 17 minutes late and AXED between Portsmouth and Fratton. 18.42 Southampton-Portsmouth 20 minutes late. 19.08 Guildford-Waterloo 13 minutes late. 19.24 Hampton Court-Waterloo 15 minutes late. 19.35 Epsom-Waterloo 12 minutes late. 20.03 Waterloo-Guildford ‘delayed’. 20.06 Waterloo-Hampton Court ‘delayed’.

Thursday 03/07/08 07.30 Aldershot-Waterloo 9 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; stops at Sunningdale, Virginia Water and Egham AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 08.53 Windsor-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 12 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.52 Waterloo-Weybridge 10 minutes late and diverted via Richmond DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 17.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 12 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Barnes AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 17.20 Waterloo-Reading 18 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.22 Waterloo-Weybridge 24 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 17.28 Waterloo-Windsor REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 18.12 Reading-Waterloo 22 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Staines AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE.

Friday 04/07/08 04.00 Guildford-Waterloo AXED between Guildford and Woking. 06.23 Windsor-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 08.53 Windsor-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 16.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 15 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.07 Weybridge-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 19.37 Weybridge-Waterloo 14 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Barnes AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.50 Waterloo-Reading 10 minutes late and REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 22.21 Basingstoke-Portsmouth AXED between Basingstoke and Eastleigh DUE TO NO CREW. 22.39 Waterloo-Guildford AXED DUE TO NO CREW.

Saturday 05/07/08 06.18 Portsmouth-Waterloo AXED between Portsmouth and Havant DUE TO DUFF STOCK. New Milton station CLOSED for about 30 minutes in the evening DUE TO FALSE SECURITY ALERT. 19.22 Waterloo-Weybridge AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 21.03 Weybridge-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 21.12 Waterloo-Shepperton AXED. 22.11 Shepperton-Waterloo Axed between Shepperton and Teddington.

Sunday 06/07/08 12.05 Ascot-Waterloo AXED between Ascot and Staines DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 13.50 Waterloo-Ascot THROWN OFF at Staines DUE TO NO CREW. 15.05 Ascot-Waterloo AXED between Ascot and Staines DUE TO NO CREW. 13.50 Penzance-Waterloo 16 minutes late. 17.15 Waterloo-Paignton 20 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.23 Paignton-Waterloo 16 minutes late.

Monday 07/07/08 07.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED. 17.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 20.08 Guildford-Waterloo 75 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 20.46 Guildford-Waterloo 39 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 21.08 Guildford-Waterloo 21 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 21.27 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 21.46 Waterloo-Chessington 20 minutes late. 21.46 Guildford-Waterloo 25 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 21.58 Waterloo-Windsor AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 22.12 Waterloo-Shepperton AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 22.20 Waterloo-Woking 20 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Weybridge AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 23.11 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Tuesday 08/07/08 05.19 Portsmouth-Waterloo AXED between Portsmouth Harbour and Portsmouth & Southsea. 05.30 Waterloo-Weymouth 15 minutes late. TRAIN WITH DUFF BRAKES CAUSED DELAYS TO MORNING PEAK SERVICES INTO WATERLOO – for example, 05.45 Poole-Waterloo 13 minutes late; naturally the arrival boards at Waterloo showed everything as running on time. 07.53 Windsor-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.40 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 6 minutes late. 18.17 Southampton-Winchester AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Wednesday 09/07/08 06.23 Windsor-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.02 Eastleigh-Portsmouth AXED. 08.53 Windsor-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.10 Exeter-Waterloo 25 minutes late; intermediate stops from Basingstoke to Waterloo AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 22.10 Waterloo-Salisbury 10 minutes late.

Thursday 10/07/08 06.48 Hounslow-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Passengers on the 07.33 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Kingston. 07.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.47 Woking-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.22 Epsom-Waterloo AXED. Passengers on the 08.36 Waterloo-Hampton Court THROWN OFF at Surbiton. 08.44 Alton-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Passengers on the 08.54/09.24/09.54/ 10.24/10.54 Hampton Court-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Surbiton. 08.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED between Waterloo and Kingston. 13.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 30 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Dorchester. 13.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 24 minutes late. 15.03 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester. 15.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 45 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Weymouth and Poole AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE 16.20 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester; train 30 minutes late so all intermediate stops between Bournemouth and Waterloo AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.20 Waterloo-Exeter 15 minutes late. 17.09 Waterloo-Effingham Junction REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 17.20 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester. 18.05 Waterloo-Aldershot AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.39 Waterloo-Poole AXED between Waterloo and Woking. Passengers on the 18.43 Waterloo-Shepperton THROWN OFF at Richmond DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Friday 11/07/08 05.00 Portsmouth-Basingstoke AXED between Portsmouth and Fratton. 06.20 Honiton-Waterloo AXED between Honiton and Salisbury DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 06.23 Windsor-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 06.50 Southampton Airport-Waterloo REDUCED TO 9 COACHES, INCLUDING A 4-COACH SUBURBAN TRAIN, DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 14.53 Ascot-Guildford AXED between Ascot and Aldershot DUE TO NO CREW. 16.35 Waterloo-Weymouth REDUCED TO 9 COACHES; Weymouth portion formed of a 4-COACH SUBURBAN TRAIN, and Poole portion of a 5-coach train with duff air-conditioning. 17.22 Reading-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.28 Waterloo-Windsor REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 18.02 Waterloo-Guildford 8 minutes late. 18.35 Waterloo-Weymouth REDUCED TO 9 COACHES, INCLUDING A 4-COACH SUBURBAN TRAIN. 20.53 Waterloo-Alton 6 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 21.22 Waterloo-Weybridge 14 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 23.03 Weybridge-Staines AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Saturday 12/07/08 05.53 Windsor-Waterloo diverted via Brentford DUE TO NO CREW. 06.03 Staines-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 06.28 Waterloo-Windsor AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 06.40 Salisbury-Bristol AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 06.52 Waterloo-Windsor AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 07.07 Romsey-Salisbury delayed at Southampton DUE TO NO CREW. 07.39 Waterloo-Poole delayed at Waterloo DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 07.53 Windsor-Waterloo AXED between Windsor and Staines DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 08.17 Windsor-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 08.22 Southampton-Weymouth 13 minutes late; stops at Hamworthy, Holton Heath, Wool, Moreton and Upwey AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 08.50 Bristol-Salisbury AXED DUE TO NO CREW. WINDSOR-STAINES LINE CLOSED FROM MIDDAY DUE TO SIGNALLING PROBLEMS. 12.23 Waterloo-Alton AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 12.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 18 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 13.39 Waterloo-Poole 17 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 14.15 Alton-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 15.42 Waterloo-Basingstoke AXED DUE TO NO CREW.

Sunday 13/07/08 00.23 Windsor-Waterloo AXED between Windsor and Staines. ALTERNATE WATERLOO -WINDSOR TRAINS AXED BETWEEN STAINES AND WINDSOR ALL DAY DUE TO CONTINUING SIGNALLING PROBLEMS. 07.16 Basingstoke-Waterloo 36 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Woking and Waterloo AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 08.46 Honiton-Waterloo 9 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. YET ANOTHER SWT DERAILMENT - THIS TIME OF AN EMPTY TRAIN AT WATERLOO. TWO PLATFORMS OUT OF USE.

Monday 14/07/08 01.05 Waterloo-Southampton AXED between Basingstoke and Southampton. 04.55 Southampton-Waterloo AXED between Southampton and Basingstoke. 05.40 Basingstoke-Weymouth 8 minutes late. 06.20 Honiton-Waterloo 25 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Passengers on the 07.44 Alton THROWN OFF at Farnham DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.47 Woking-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES; passengers THROWN OFF at Clapham Junction. 08.00 Shepperton-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 08.03 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED between Waterloo and Teddington. Passengers on the 08.07 Guildford-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Surbiton. 08.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED between Waterloo and Basingstoke DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 08.17 Woking-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Clapham Junction. Passengers on the 08.33 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Teddington. 08.53 Windsor-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 15.23 Windsor-Waterloo 12 minutes late; Stops at Putney and Vauxhall AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.20 Waterloo-Reading AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.52 Reading-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Tuesday 15/07/08 08.00 Guildford-Ascot AXED between Guildford and Aldershot DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.07 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.05 Waterloo-Reading REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 21 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Hounslow. Passengers on the 18.20 Waterloo-Reading THROWN OFF at Ascot.

Wednesday 16/07/08 Passengers on the 05.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth THROWN OFF at Portsmouth & Southsea. 05.00 Portsmouth-Basingstoke AXED between Portsmouth Harbour and Portsmouth & Southsea. 05.54 Basingstoke-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 06.07 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo AXED between Portsmouth Harbour and Portsmouth & Southsea. 08.10 Chessington-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 12.20 Waterloo-Plymouth 10 minutes late. 16.24 Portsmouth-Waterloo 20 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; all intermediate stops after Havant, except Guildford, AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 18.02 Waterloo-Woking AXED between Waterloo and Surbiton. 18.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 14 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Thursday 17/07/08 08.12 Reading-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES.

Friday 18/07/08 07.17 Guildford-Waterloo 15 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; all intermediate stops after Effingham Junction AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 07.58 Guildford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 08.11 Shepperton-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 12.54 Portsmouth-Waterloo 54 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; passengers THROWN OFF at Woking DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 15.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED between Waterloo and Woking DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 22.58 Waterloo-Windsor AXED between Waterloo ad Clapham Junction DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Saturday 19/07/08 07.58 Twickenham-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO STOCK IN PLACE. 08.50 Waterloo-Reading AXED DUE TONO CREW. 10.42 Reading-Waterloo AXED between Reading and Ascot. 11.39 Waterloo-Dorking AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 11.54 Portsmouth-Waterloo 30 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Basingstoke AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 12.15 Portsmouth-Waterloo 19 minutes late. 12.54 Portsmouth-Waterloo AXED between Portsmouth and Hilsea. Passengers on the 15.53 Waterloo-Alton THROWN OFF at Woking DUE TO NO CREW. 20.54 Portsmouth-Waterloo 28 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Basingstoke and Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE.

Sunday 20/07/08 Passengers on the 01.15 Waterloo-Southampton THROWN OFF at Winchester. 08.14 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED. 08.18 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED. 09.35 Romsey-Salisbury AXED between Romsey and Southampton. 10.08 Dorking-Waterloo AXED between Dorking and Epsom.

Monday 21/07/08 05.45 Poole-Waterloo REDUCED TO 9 COACHES, INCLUDING A 4-COACH SUBURBAN TRAIN, DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 06.58 Guildford-Waterloo ‘delayed’. 07.16 Waterloo-Chessington ‘delayed’. 07.52 Epsom-Waterloo AXED. 08.39 Waterloo-Poole 25 minutes late and REDUCED TO A 4-COACH SUBURBAN TRAIN DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 09.54 Portsmouth-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 10.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 11 minutes late. 11.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth 16 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 12.35 Paignton-Waterloo AXED between Paignton and Newton Abbot. 16.58 Guildford-Waterloo 24 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Raynes Park and Waterloo AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE.

Tuesday 22/07/08 05.35 Salisbury-Southampton-Salisbury AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 05.45 Poole-Waterloo REDUCED TO 9 COACHES, INCLUDING A 4-COACH SUBURBAN TRAIN, DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.55 Poole-Waterloo 12 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.00 Exeter-Honiton 13 minutes late. 16.05 Waterloo-Reading AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.42 Reading-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.49 Plymouth-Waterloo 42 minutes late. 18.24 Hampton Court-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.23 Waterloo-Surbiton AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Wednesday 23/07/08 06.42 Portsmouth-Waterloo 31 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; all intermediate stops between Havant and Guildford AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 06.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo 26 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 07.11 Havant-Waterloo 26 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; stops at Witley and Milford AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 07.13 Portsmouth-Waterloo 18 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 07.24 Portsmouth-Waterloo 12 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 07.29 Portsmouth-Waterloo 9 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 11.00 Guildford-Ascot 10 minutes late and diverted via Woking DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 11.23 Ascot-Guildford AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 11.30 Guildford-Ascot diverted via Woking DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 16.05 Waterloo-Reading 19 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; all intermediate stops between Clapham Junction and Ascot AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 18.07 Weybridge-Waterloo 10 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Barnes and Waterloo AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE.

Thursday 24/07/08 14.20 Waterloo-Paignton 10 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 14.47 Plymouth-Waterloo 34 minutes late; intermediate stops between Basingstoke and Waterloo AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 15.03 Weymouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 5 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.56 Havant-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 31 minutes late. 18.14 Alton-Waterloo 13 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 18.39 Waterloo-Poole REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.02 Waterloo-Guildford AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 19.05 Romsey-Salisbury ‘delayed’. 19.07 Weybridge-Waterloo diverted via Richmond. 19.20 Weymouth-Waterloo delayed at Southampton DUE TO NO CREW. 19.37 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 20.38 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 21.17 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Friday 25/07/08 07.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 7 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 07.50 Waterloo-Reading 10 minutes late. 14.47 Plymouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 3 COACHES and AXED between Plymouth and Yeovil DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.36 Waterloo-Hampton Court omitted all intermediate stops between Wimbledon and Surbiton DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 17.20 Waterloo-Reading 21 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.28 Waterloo-Windsor 14 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.16 Waterloo-Chessington AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 18.27 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 15 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; all intermediate stops between Waterloo and Norbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.10 Chessington-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 19.30 Guildford-Ascot ‘delayed’ Passengers on the 22.23 Windsor-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Staines DUE TO NO CREW.

Saturday 26/07/08 Fatality at Queenstown road; station closed an reduced service at Vauxhall. 05.30 Waterloo-Weymouth 20 minutes late. 07.09 Waterloo-Guildford AXED. 07.11 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED between Shepperton and Teddington. 07.12 Waterloo-Shepperton AXED. Passengers on the 07.33 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Kingston. 07.45 Ascot-Waterloo AXED between Ascot and Staines. 08.09 Waterloo-Guildford AXED between Waterloo and Clapham Junction. 08.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED between Waterloo and Basingstoke and 40 minutes late. 08.11 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED. 08.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth 22 minutes late. 08.38 Guildford-Waterloo AXED. 08.53 Waterloo-Alton 30 minutes late; West Byfleet stop AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 08.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED between Waterloo and Kingston. 09.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth 27 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Woking and Portsmouth Harbour AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.03 Waterloo-Guildford 32 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Effingham Junction DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED between Waterloo and Woking. 09.39 Waterloo-Guildford AXED between Waterloo and Wimbledon. Passengers on the 09.45 Salisbury-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Basingstoke. 09.50 Waterloo-Salisbury AXED between Waterloo and Basingstoke. 10.28 Guildford-Waterloo AXED between Guildford and Effingham Junction. 10.33 Woking-Waterloo 15 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Surbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.42 Waterloo-Shepperton AXED. 10.45 Salisbury-Waterloo ‘delayed’; all intermediate stops before Basingstoke AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.50 Waterloo-Salisbury AXED between Waterloo and Basingstoke. 11.03 Waterloo-Guildford AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 11.20 Waterloo-Reading AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 11.41 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED. 11.50 Waterloo-Salisbury AXED between Waterloo and Basingstoke. 11.54 Hampton Court-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 12.28 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 13.12 Reading-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 13.39 Waterloo-Poole 15 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 14.15 Ascot-Waterloo AXED between Ascot and Staines. 14.39 Waterloo-Poole ‘delayed’ DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 15.03 Woking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 15.35 Waterloo-Weymouth ‘delayed’ DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 17.05 Dorking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 17.50 Poole-Waterloo AXED between Poole and Southampton. 18.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 19.03 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Bournemouth DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.28 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 19.38 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 20.10 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Bournemouth DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 20.37 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 20.46 Waterloo-Chessington AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 20.58 Waterloo-Windsor AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 21.14 Lymington-Brockenhurst AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 21.29 Brockenhurst-Lymington AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 21.33 Waterloo-Guildford AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 21.40 Chessington-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 21.44 Lymington-Brockenhurst AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 21.50 Waterloo-Guildford AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 22.23 Windsor-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 22.46 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 22.55 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW.

Sunday 27/07/08 15.27 Paignton-Waterloo 12 minutes late. 15.39 Waterloo-Reading 15 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 16.10 Paignton-Exeter AXED. 16.54 Reading-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 17.09 Waterloo-Reading DELAYED DUE TO NO CREW. 19.15 Waterloo-Exeter DELAYED DUE TO NO CREW.

Monday 28/07/08 07.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 5 COACHES. 16.05 Waterloo-Reading AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.42 Reading-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.03 Weymouth-Waterloo 15 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.50 Waterloo-Reading AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 21.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 10 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW.

Tuesday 29/07/08 04.58 Guildford-Waterloo 28 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; all intermediate stops after Epsom AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 06.20 Waterloo-Guildford 16 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Surbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 08.37 Guildford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 14.03 Weymouth-Waterloo 16 minutes late. 14.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 60 minutes late; stops at Pokesdown, Christchurch, New Milton, Winchester, Basingstoke and Clapham Junction AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 15.03 Weymouth-Waterloo 35 minutes late. 15.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 26 minutes late; stops at Pokesdown, Christchurch, New Milton, Winchester, Basingstoke and Clapham Junction AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.23 Windsor-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.42 Reading-Waterloo 45 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Staines AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.50 Waterloo-Reading 18 minutes late. 16.50 Poole-Waterloo AXED between Poole and Bournemouth DUE TO NO CREW. 17.03 Weymouth-Waterloo 10 minutes late. Passengers on the 17.35 Waterloo-Weymouth THROWN OFF at Southampton DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 10 minutes late. 18.20 Waterloo-Reading 30 minutes late. 18.35 Alton-Waterloo 14 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 18.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 19 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Twickenham AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.05 Waterloo-Reading AXED. 20.24 Waterloo-Epsom 22 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 20.42 Reading-Waterloo AXED. 21.10 Weymouth-Waterloo 21 minutes late. 22.11 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED between Shepperton and Teddington DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Wednesday 30/07/08 07.00 Aldershot-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 17.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 17 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.24 Waterloo-Dorking REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 20 minutes late. 18.54 Portsmouth-Waterloo 67 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Eastleigh AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.15 Portsmouth-Waterloo 37 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Havant and Waterloo AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 10minutes late. 19.24 Portsmouth-Waterloo 15 minutes late. 19.36 Portsmouth-Southampton 30 minutes late. 19.50 Poole-Waterloo 10 minutes late. 19.54 Portsmouth-Waterloo 32 minutes late; Micheldever stop AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 20.15 Portsmouth-Waterloo 30 minutes late. 20.17 Portsmouth-Waterloo 14 minutes late. 20.36 Portsmouth-Southampton 20 minutes late. 20.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 10 minutes late. 20.53 Ascot-Guildford 39 minutes late. 20.53 Waterloo-Alton 30 minutes late. 21.23 Ascot-Guilford 25 minutes late. 21.37 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 25 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; all intermediate stops before Barnes AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. All stops of the 21.42 Waterloo-Portsmouth, from Surbiton to Hook inclusive – except Woking - AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 21.42 Southampton-Portsmouth 20 minutes late. 21.50 Waterloo-Reading AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Thursday 31/07/08 04.30 Portsmouth-Waterloo 25 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Haslemere and Clapham Junction AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 04.58 Staines-Waterloo DIVERTED via Brentford. 05.05 Waterloo-Reading 15 minutes late and DIVERTED via Brentford. 05.43 Portsmouth-Waterloo 12 minutes late. 06.23 Portsmouth-Waterloo 25 minutes late; all intermediate stops from Hilsea to Hedge End inclusive, plus Basingstoke and Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 06.38 Portsmouth-Waterloo 16 minutes late. 06.42 Portsmouth-Waterloo 16 minutes late. 07.03 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.02 Dorking-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.37 Guildford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.42 Reading-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 22 minutes late. 18.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 10 minutes late. 19.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 25 minutes late. Queenstown Road station closed to London-bound trains for a period from 19.30, due to signalling problems. Passengers on the 19.35 Waterloo-Weymouth THROWN OFF at Totton DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.50 Poole-Waterloo 34 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Basingstoke AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 20.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth ‘delayed’ DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Friday 01/08/08 05.00 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 5 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 05.50 Yeovil-Waterloo 18 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; Stops at Grateley, Whitchurch and Overton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 06.55 Weymouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 5 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.39 Farnham-Waterloo ‘delayed’; stops at West Byfleet and Byfleet & New Haw AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 18.12 Waterloo-Shepperton REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 18.15 Waterloo-Fratton REDUCED TO 9 COACHES. 19.58 Waterloo-Windsor 12 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 20.53 Ascot-Guildford ‘delayed’. 21.00 Guildford-Ascot ‘delayed’. 21.46 Guildford-Waterloo 27 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Epsom AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 22.00 Guildford-Ascot 40 minutes late.

Saturday 02/08/08 05.16 Portsmouth-Southampton 40 minutes late. 05.18 Portsmouth-Waterloo 35 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF AT WOKING DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 05.28 Poole-Waterloo 12 minutes late. 06.00 Southampton-Waterloo 30 minutes late; all intermediate stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 06.12 Totton-Romsey AXED between Totton and Southampton. 06.25 Southampton-Weymouth 10 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 07.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED between Waterloo and Woking. 07.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 6 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 18.42 Reading-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Sunday 03/08/08 07.27 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO ROLLING STOCK IN PLACE. 08.40 Waterloo-Guildford AXED DUE TO NO ROLLING STOCK IN PLACE. 10.39 Waterloo-Reading AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 14.01 Windsor-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW.

Monday 04/08/08 So much exhaust pouring from underneath the 06.12 Totton-Romsey that passengers were surprised the train operated. 07.29 Portsmouth-Waterloo ‘delayed’. 07.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo ‘delayed’ 08.20 Waterloo-Reading 15 minutes late; Clapham Junction stop AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. Passengers on the 16.00 Guildford-Ascot THROWN OFF at Aldershot DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Seriously duff air-conditioning on the 17.05 Waterloo-Weymouth.

Tuesday 05/08/08 07.52 Waterloo-Weybridge 11 minutes late and REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 09.33 Weybridge-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Afternoon delays of up to 45 minutes in the Portsmouth area due to duff signalling. 16.24 Portsmouth-Waterloo 43 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Woking DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 5 minutes late. 16.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 42 minutes late. 16.54 Portsmouth-Waterloo 29 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Basingstoke AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. All intermediate stops, after Fratton, of the 17.15 Portsmouth-Waterloo AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 18.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth 28 minutes late. 18.02 Waterloo-Woking REDUCED TO 8 COACHES. 18.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth REDUCED TO 8 COACHES AND AXED between Waterloo and Woking. 18.32 Waterloo-Basingstoke REDUCED TO 8 COACHES. 18.39 Waterloo-Poole 35 minutes late. Liss and Liphook stops of the 19.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.54 Portsmouth-Waterloo 23 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Woking and Surbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE.

Wednesday 06/08/08 06.12 Totton-Romsey AXED. 07.13 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.24 Reading-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.46 Effingham Junction-Waterloo 26 minutes late. 07.47 Woking-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.02 Dorking-Waterloo 12 minutes late. 08.50 Waterloo-Woking 20 minutes late; all intermediate stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.03 Waterloo-Guildford 30 minutes late; all intermediate stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.12 Waterloo-Shepperton 18 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Norbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.20 Waterloo-Woking AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 09.36 Waterloo-Hampton Court 10 minutes late. 10.33 Woking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 12.35 Waterloo-Weymouth formed of suburban coaches; this train roughly follows the path of the one-time Bournemouth Belle luxury Pullman service – how low things have sunk under Stagecoach! 15.40 Chessington-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 26 minutes late, all intermediate stops after Haslemere, except Guildford, AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 15.54 Portsmouth-Waterloo 22 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Basingstoke AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.24 Waterloo-Dorking REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.36 Portsmouth-Southampton AXED between Portsmouth and Fareham DUE TO DUFF STOCK.17.37 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.45 Salisbury-Waterloo 32 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.02 Waterloo-Woking REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.25 Waterloo-Alton 15 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.39 Waterloo-Southampton 25 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; all intermediate stops before Basingstoke AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.50 Waterloo-Salisbury 10 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Thursday 07/08/08 05.23 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 06.33 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED between Waterloo and Teddington DUE TO NO CREW. 07.13 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.24 Reading-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.47 Woking-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 18 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Passengers on the 16.50 Poole-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Southampton DUE TO DUFF STOCK; at Southampton the duff train blocked a line, causing the 18.17 to Winchester to be delayed, which in turn delayed the arrival of the Southern service from Brighton: the latter arrived just in time for its passengers to miss the 17.25 to Poole, SWT having locked the doors as they ran to catch it. 18.35 Waterloo-Reading REUCED TO 8 COACHES. 20.05 Waterloo-Poole 15 minutes late. 21.55 Southampton-Waterloo 16 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; intermediate stops between Basingstoke and Waterloo AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 22.03 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo15 minutes late.

Friday 08/08/08 07.42 Waterloo-Basingstoke AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 08.07 Romsey-Salisbury AXED DUE TO NO CREW. AFTERNOON FATALITY AT SURBITON; NO RECOGNISABLE SWT SERVICE FOR THE REST OF THE DAY, WITH MANY TRAINS CANCELLED OR SEVERELY DELAYED, AND SALISBURY LINE SERVICES GENERALLY WITHDRAWN BETWEEN BASINGSTOKE AND WATERLOO. 14.20 Waterloo -Paignton 40 minutes late and AXED between Exeter and Paignton. 14.23 Waterloo-Alton 40 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Surbiton. 16.05 Waterloo-Bournemouth AXED between Waterloo and Bournemouth. 16.35 from Waterloo was the first Southampton line service for one and a half hours; 12 minutes late with many standing. 16.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 5 COACHES and AXED between Portsmouth and Fratton. Passengers on the 16.50 Poole-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Basingstoke (better than being thrown off at Southampton as on the previous day!) 16.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 30 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Teddington AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 17.37 Weybridge-Waterloo AXED between Weybridge and Staines. 17.42 Reading-Waterloo AXED between Reading and Ascot. 17.42 Waterloo-Shepperton AXED between Waterloo and Wimbledon. 17.54 Waterloo-Dorking AXED between Waterloo and Wimbledon. 18.03 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester. 19.03 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Bournemouth. 19.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 50 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Brockenhurst and Bournemouth AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.10 Paignton -Basingstoke AXED between Paignton and Exeter. 19.53 Salisbury-Romsey AXED DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 20.24 Hampton Court-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Wimbledon DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 20.42 Southampton-Portsmouth 30 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Fareham and Fratton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 21.05 Romsey-Salisbury AXED DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 21.15 Alton-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Surbiton DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 22.42 Waterloo-Basingstoke AXED between Waterloo and Surbiton. Passengers on the 22.44 Alton-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Farnham. 22.50 Waterloo-Woking AXED between Waterloo and Clapham Junction. Passengers on the 22.53 Waterloo-Alton THROWN OFF at Farnham. 22.59 Havant-Fareham AXED.

Saturday 09/08/08 00.05 Waterloo-Bournemouth AXED between Southampton and Bournemouth. 04.43 Portsmouth-Waterloo 17 minutes late. 05.42 Reading-Waterloo 19 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; all intermediate stops after STAINES AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 13.20 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Bournemouth DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 14.03 Weymouth-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Bournemouth DUE TO NO CREW. 17.20 Waterloo-Woking AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 17.35 Waterloo-Weymouth AXED between Waterloo and Bournemouth DUE TO NO CREW, and 13 minutes late. Passengers on the 18.03 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Clapham Junction DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.11 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 18.33 Woking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 21.20 Waterloo-Yeovil THROWN OFF at Gillingham DUE TO NO CREW. 21.33 Weybridge-Waterloo AXED. 21.46 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 22.38 Guildford-Waterloo AXED. 23.03 Waterloo-Guildford AXED DUE TO NO CREW.

Sunday 10/08/08 13.57 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 15.08 Salisbury-Romsey AXED between Salisbury and Southampton DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 15.35 Romsey-Salisbury THROWN OFF at Southampton DUE TO NO CREW. 16.52 Woking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 17.02 Waterloo-Dorking AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 17.08 Salisbury-Romsey AXED between Salisbury and Southampton DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 17.35 Romsey-Salisbury THROWN OFF at Southampton DUE TO NO CREW. 18.08 Dorking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 18.39 Waterloo-Reading 19 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.50 Waterloo-Woking AXED DUE TO NO CREW; 18.44 Waterloo-Windsor therefore re-timed to 18.50 and DIVERTED via Brentford. 19.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth 16 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 20.13 Salisbury-Romsey AXED between Salisbury and Southampton DUE TO NO CREW. 20.24 Reading-Waterloo 16 minutes late. Passengers on the 20.35 Romsey-Salisbury THROWN OFF at Southampton DUE TO NO CREW. 20.54 Waterloo-Poole AXED between Waterloo and Basingstoke DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 22.35 Romsey-Salisbury THROWN OFF at Southampton DUE TO NO CREW.

Monday 11/08/08 07.24 Reading-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.28 Guildford-Waterloo 22 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; all intermediate stops after Epsom AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.05 Waterloo-Reading REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 10 minutes late DUE TO PASSENGERS TRANSFERRING FROM DUFF STOCK; replacement train had DUFF AIR-CONDITIONING and very overcrowded. AFTERNOON FATALITY AT WIMBLEDON; NO RECOGNISABLE SWT SERVICE THROUGH THE EVENING PEAK, WITH MANY TRAINS CANCELLED OR SEVERELY DELAYED. 17.12 Waterloo-Basingstoke 37 minutes late. 17.15 Waterloo-Fratton 38 minutes late. 17.20 Waterloo-Exeter 40 minutes late. 17.23 Waterloo-Basingstoke 30 minutes late. 17.25 Waterloo-Alton 37 minutes late. 17.27 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 25 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Twickenham AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 17.32 Waterloo-Guildford 24 minutes late. 17.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 27 minutes late DUE TO STOCK RESHUFFLING AFTER THE 16.35 DECLARED AS DUFF. 17.37 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.41 Waterloo-Basingstoke 20 minutes late. 17.45 Waterloo-Havant 20 minutes late. 17.50 Waterloo-Yeovil 26 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Salisbury. 17.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 20 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Twickenham AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 18.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 34 minutes late DUE TO STOCK RESHUFFLING AFTER THE 16.35 DECLARED AS DUFF. 18.07 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.09 Waterloo-Guildford 21 minutes late. 18.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth 22 minutes late. 18.12 Waterloo-Shepperton 21 minutes late. 18.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 23 minutes late. 18.24 Waterloo-Dorking REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.24 Basingstoke-Waterloo AXED. 18.24 Hampton Court-Waterloo 20 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Surbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 18.27 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo delayed; all intermediate stops after Twickenham AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 18.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 34 minutes late DUE TO STOCK RESHUFFLING AFTER THE 16.35 DECLARED AS DUFF. 18.07 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.54 Basingstoke-Waterloo 19 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 18.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 15 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Twickenham AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.24 Basingstoke-Waterloo 25 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.25 Waterloo-Surbiton AXED. 19.28 Guildford-Waterloo AXED. 19.42 Waterloo-Basingstoke 20 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.42 Shepperton-Waterloo 14 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Teddington AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 10 minutes late and AXED between Portsmouth and Fratton. 20.05 Dorking-Waterloo AXED. 20.08 Guildford-Waterloo 15 minutes late.

Tuesday 12/08/08 04.00 Guildford-19 minutes late. 05.45 Poole-Waterloo 6 minutes late. 18.20 Waterloo-Exeter 13 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Wednesday 13/08/08 06.36 Waterloo-Hampton-Court AXED between Waterloo and Wimbledon DUE TO NO CREW. 06.42 Exeter-Waterloo 42 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.24 Reading-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.37 Guildford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 10.03 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Wareham DUE TO NO CREW. 10.37 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 29 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Putney AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 20 minutes late. Passengers on the 12.24 Basingstoke-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Woking DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 18.20 Weymouth-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Southampton. 19.35 Waterloo-Weymouth AXED between Waterloo and Southampton DUE TO NO CREW. 22.05 Waterloo-Poole AXED between Waterloo and Southampton.

Thursday 14/08/08 18.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth 16 minutes late. 19.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth 15 minutes late. 20.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth 15 minutes late. 21.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth 15 minutes late.

Friday 15/08/08 06.42 Portsmouth-Waterloo 8 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.36 Waterloo-Hampton Court AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 13.50 Yeovil-Waterloo 22 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.32 Waterloo-Guildford AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.50 Waterloo-Woking AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 20.20 Waterloo-Exeter 24 minutes late. 21.03 Woking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW.

Saturday 16/08/08 Woking stop of the 04.00 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DIVERSION. 05.50 Waterloo-Reading 10 minutes late DUE TO SAFETY CHECKS. 19.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 21.28 Farnham-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 22.42 Waterloo-Basingstoke AXED DUE TO NO CREW.

Sunday 17/08/08 14.15 Alton-Waterloo AXED between Alton and Farnham. 16.15 Alton-Waterloo AXED between Alton and Farnham. 19.15 Waterloo-Exeter 16 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW.

Monday 18/08/08 14.05 Dorking-Waterloo 57 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; passengers THROWN OFF at Wimbledon. 14.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 11 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 14.35 Dorking-Waterloo 30 minutes late. 14.47 Plymouth-Waterloo AXED between Plymouth and Exeter DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.05 Dorking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.33 Woking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 16.09 Waterloo-Guildford REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 16.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth REDUCED TO 9 COACHES. 16.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 10minutes late. 16.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 18 minutes late; Clapham Junction stop AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 17.20 Waterloo-Woking REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 17.31 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 18.46 Waterloo-Chessington REDUCED TO 4 COACHES.

Tuesday 19/08/08 21.12 Waterloo-Shepperton AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 22.11 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Wednesday 20/08/08 06.03 Waterloo-Guildford AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 06.53 Windsor-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 07.20 Waterloo-Woking AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Morning suspension of Chessington services DUE TO EMERGENCY ENGINEERING WORK. 14.10 Exeter-Waterloo 10 minutes late. 15.22 Waterloo-Weybridge 19 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; all intermediate stops before Staines AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.01 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo ‘delayed’ DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 16.05 Waterloo-Reading ‘delayed’ DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 16.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 6 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 16.20 Waterloo-Reading 7 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 17.13 Waterloo-Teddington REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.35 Waterloo-Reading ‘delayed’ DUE TO NO CREW. 17.42 Reading-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 18.11 Waterloo-Basingstoke REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.48 Waterloo-Guildford REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 20.23 Waterloo-Alton 12 minutes late. 21.15 Alton-Waterloo AXED between Alton and Farnham DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Thursday 21/08/08 07.24 Reading-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 07.30 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED between Shepperton and Strawberry Hill DUE TO NO CREW. 12.50 Poole-Waterloo48 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Basingstoke AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. Passengers on the 14.20 Waterloo-Paignton THROWN OFF at Exeter DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 14.50 Waterloo-Salisbury THROWN OFF at Basingstoke DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.07 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 10 minutes late; North Sheen and Mortlake stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 15.15 Alton-Waterloo AXED between Alton and Farnham. 16.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth 15 minutes late. 16.20 Waterloo-Exeter 14 minutes DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.13 Waterloo-Teddington REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.10 Exeter-Waterloo 15 minutes late. 18.48 Waterloo-Guildford REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.10 Paignton-Basingstoke AXED between Paignton and Exeter DUE TO NO CREW. 19.20 Waterloo-Honiton REDUCED TO 3 COACHES. 19.24 Basingstoke-Waterloo 20 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; all intermediate stops after Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 20.03 Waterloo-Guildford AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 20.53 Waterloo-Alton 11 minutes late; Surbiton and West Byfleet stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 21.46 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 23.48 Waterloo-Basingstoke 23 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Friday 22/08/08 08.37 Guildford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 14.47 Plymouth-Waterloo 15 minutes late. 15.03 Weybridge-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 15.15 Waterloo-Portsmouth 17 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 10 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.39 Waterloo-Guildford REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.54 Portsmouth-Waterloo ‘delayed’. 17.37 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo ‘delayed’. Fleet and Farnborough stops of the 18.24 Basingstoke-Waterloo AXED. 21.09 Waterloo-Dorking AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 22.35 Dorking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 22.36 Waterloo-Hampton Court 15 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW.

Saturday 23/08/08 06.50 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.03 Waterloo-Shepperton 19 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; all intermediate stops before Twickenham AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 08.33 Waterloo-Shepperton AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 09.50 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 13.28 Waterloo-Windsor AXED DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 14.23 Waterloo-Alton THROWN OFF at Woking DUE TO NO CREW. 14.53 Windsor-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 15.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth 15 minutes late. Passengers on the 15.10 Chessington-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Wimbledon DUE TO DUFF STOCK; 15.14 Hampton-Court Waterloo delayed behind the DUFF TRAIN. 16.00 Guildford-Ascot 18 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 16.15 Alton-Waterloo AXED between Alton and Farnham DUE TO NO CREW. 16.50 Waterloo-Woking AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.08 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TONO CREW. 17.22 Waterloo-Weybridge 26 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; all intermediate stops before Staines AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 17.42 Waterloo-Basingstoke AXED between Waterloo and Woking DUE TO NO CREW. 17.50 Waterloo-Reading 13 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 17.54 Basingstoke-Waterloo AXED between Basingstoke and Woking DUE TO NO CREW. 18.03 Woking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 18.15 Alton-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Farnham DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.42 Waterloo-Basingstoke AXED between Waterloo and Woking DUE TO NO CREW.

Sunday 24/08/08 06.42 Shepperton-Waterloo 12 minutes late DUE TO NO STOCK IN PLACE. 08.46 Honiton-Waterloo 12 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 10.50 Guildford-Waterloo 23 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 11.15 Waterloo-Paignton 17 minutes late. 12.17 Portsmouth-Waterloo ‘delayed’ at Eastleigh DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 13.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth 18 minutes late.

Monday 25/08/08 08.58, 09.28 and 09.58 Guildford-Waterloo DIVERTED with all intermediate stops between Bookham and Motspur Park AXED. 15.52 Paignton-Honiton AXED between Paignton and Newton Abbot. Passengers on the 17.09 Waterloo-Guildford THROWN OFF at Epsom. 17.24 Waterloo-Dorking 14 minutes late. 18.38 Guildford-Waterloo AXED.

Tuesday 26/08/08 08.39 Waterloo-Guildford 8 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Raynes Park AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.15 Waterloo-Haslemere 12 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 10.52 Waterloo-Weybridge ‘delayed’ DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth 19 minutes late.

Wednesday 27/08/08 04.00 Guildford-Waterloo DIVERTED and Woking stop AXED. 07.44 Alton-Waterloo 13 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.47 Woking-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 09.30 Guildford-Ascot ‘delayed’ DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 10.23 Ascot-Guildford ‘delayed’ DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 11.38 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 13.12 Waterloo-Basingstoke 16 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 13.46 Waterloo-Chessington 10 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 14.10 Exeter-Waterloo 15 minutes late. As if planned night-time disruption weren’t bad enough: 23.16 Southampton Airport-Southampton Central AXED DUE TO NO CREW; 23.42 Southampton Airport-Basingstoke AXED DUE TO NO CREW.

Thursday 28/08/08 05.45 Salisbury-Waterloo 21 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; Woking stop AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 05.45 Poole-Waterloo 6 minutes late. 06.42 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 5 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 06.43 Southampton-Waterloo AXED. 16.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 12 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 16.24 Portsmouth-Waterloo 27 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; all intermediate stops after Havant AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.50 Poole-Waterloo 24 minutes late and REDUCED TO 5 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 15 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Poole portion of 17.35 from Waterloo 10 minutes late. 17.53 Waterloo-Basingstoke REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.30 Waterloo-Epsom 8 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.54 Portsmouth-Waterloo 14 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.03 Weymouth-Waterloo 9 minutes late. 19.20 Waterloo-Reading 12 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.50 Poole-Waterloo 7 minutes late. 20.05 Waterloo-Poole REDUCED TO 5 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Friday 29/08/08 04.00 Guildford-Waterloo DIVERTED and Woking stop AXED. 06.18 Winchester-Portsmouth 10 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 07.24 Portsmouth-Waterloo AXED between Portsmouth Harbour and Portsmouth & Southsea. 13.24 Portsmouth-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 15.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.24 Basingstoke-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 16.15 Gillingham-Waterloo 9 minutes late. 16.35 Waterloo-Weymouth REDUCED TO 9 COACHES, INCLUDING A 4-COACH SUBURBAN UNIT, DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.50 Waterloo-Reading REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.52 Waterloo-Weybridge 25 minutes late and AXED between Waterloo and Staines DUE TO NO CREW. 16.55 Waterloo-Alton AXED between Waterloo and Woking DUE TO NO CREW. 18.13 Waterloo-Shepperton REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.37 Weybridge-Waterloo 15 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Hounslow and Barnes AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 18.55 Waterloo-Alton REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 27 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; all intermediate stops after Hounslow AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. Passengers on the 19.20 Waterloo-Reading THROWN OFF at Richmond DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 19.28 Waterloo-Windsor 23 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 19.33 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 17 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops after Kingston AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.50 Waterloo-Reading DELAYED AND DIVERTED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 21.12 Reading-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 21.12 Waterloo-Basingstoke AXED DUE TO NO CREW.

Saturday 30/08/08 07.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED between Waterloo and Wandsworth Town DUE TO NO CREW. 09.07 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 10.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED between Waterloo and Clapham Junction DUE TO NO CREW. 11.27 Waterloo-Kingston AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 11.33 Waterloo-Shepperton AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 12.33 Waterloo-Shepperton AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 12.33 Weybridge-Waterloo 10 minutes late. 12.34 Kingston-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 12.50 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 13.50 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 16.29 Brockenhurst-Lymington AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 16.44 Lymington-Basingstoke AXED DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 17.50 Poole-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Basingstoke DUE TO NO CREW. 20.36 Portsmouth-Southampton AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 21.42 Southampton-Portsmouth AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 22.39 Waterloo-Guildford AXED DUE TO NO CREW.

Sunday 31/08/08 08.46 Honiton-Waterloo AXED between Honiton and Salisbury DUE TO NO CREW. 09.20 Exeter-Waterloo 10 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 16.34 Windsor-Waterloo AXED. 17.44 Waterloo-Windsor AXED between Waterloo and Staines. 19.17 Portsmouth-Waterloo 15 minutes late. 20.13 Salisbury-Romsey 30 minutes late.

MEDIA DIGEST

AIR

* HEAD OF THE ENVIRONMENT AGENCY and former Labour Cabinet Minister, Lord Smith of Finsbury, says a third runway at Heathrow would lead to “unavoidable” rises in air pollution, noise and traffic jams. Approving expansion at the airport would be a mistake, and he will carry on telling the Government so.

BUSES

* BUS COMPANIES FIRST GROUP AND SOLENT BLUE LINE HAVE BEEN FINED Ł25,080 and Ł8,500 respectively for late running and cancellations in Hampshire. Traffic congestion is blamed as a contributory factor in the delays.

* NEW FOREST DISTRICT COUNCIL CONCESSIONARY FARE PASSES have been incorrectly reported as available anywhere in the country all day. On Mondays to Fridays they can be used at any time for journeys starting in the NFDC area and otherwise only between 09.30 and 23.00. [So, for example, Totton residents can take the first bus into Southampton but cannot catch the last bus back.]

* PUBLIC IRRITATION that the separate Wilts and Dorset bus routes 121 and 123, between Lymington and Bournemouth, have both become X12. When buses are late there is a risk that passengers will board the wrong one. 1,800 Christchurch residents have signed a petition about the revised routes, including about the new service not stopping outside Bournemouth Hospital. One resident has said that “what has happened to the elderly and infirm residents is heartless, callous and uncaring”.

* SOLENT BLUE LINE’S SOUTHAMPTON-WATERSIDE bus cuts from last February should be reversed, according to Totton councillor David Harrison, reflecting a big local outcry. [Rail services to the Waterside’s railhead at Totton had already been slashed by Stagecoach.]

* SOUTHAMPTON AREA SEES THE THIRD ROUND OF BUS CUTS THIS YEAR, from 31 August. Cuts involve First Group services, including some which serve schools and the longstanding direct bus link between Totton and Southampton University. Southern Daily Echo reports huge public outcry. Romsey MP Sandra Gidley calls the cuts ‘thoughtless, savage’, and Southampton Itchen MP John Denham calls them “deeply worrying”.

* BUS USE IN HAMPSHIRE has grown by 4.6% in the year to 31/03/08, from 28.5m to 29.8m passenger trips.

* A MOTHER STRUGGLING TO BOARD A LONDON BENDY BUS WITH HER TWO-WEEK-OLD DAUGHTER AND A BUGGY forgot to swipe her Oyster Card for a 90p fare. She agreed to swipe her card, which was Ł2 in credit, and to pay the inspector a Ł20 fine. Transport for London insisted she pay Ł102, but she chose to go to court where magistrates reduced the fine to Ł50. TfL said they may try to recover their Ł270 costs from the mother.

* SOUTHAMPTON’S EXCEPTIONALLY SUCCESSFUL UNI-LINK BUS NETWORK will be taken over by Bluestar Buses from 28/09/08.

RAIL

(CROSSRAIL)

* ASSENT WAS OBTAINED FOR THE CROSSRAIL BILL IN JULY. Work on the Ł26bn scheme will start next year, allowing trains to operate from Maidenhead and Heathrow to Abbey Wood and Shenfield via Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road. Crossrail is expected to boost the economy by Ł20bn, and its construction will create 14,000 jobs. Short-listed bidders for the Ł15.9bn the construction work are Balfour Beatty, Capita Group, and Laing O’Rourke. The whole route should be operational by 2017.

* FUNDING STILL GIVING RISE TO SERIOUS DOUBTS. BAA has not signed off its contribution, raising money from City firms may prove difficult, some town halls likely to oppose the supplementary business rate, the credit crunch is making borrowing more difficult, and the Treasury’s support was agreed before Britain felt the full force of global economic woes.

* MORE TRANSPARENCY ABOUT THE CAPITAL COST OVERRUNS OF THE SCHEME has been called for by Dr Mark Gannon of the University of Surrey. He asks who will make up the lost revenue on the Tube (particularly the parallel Central Line) and Overground rail - taxpayers or passengers through higher fares?

* SUPERLINK chairman, John Prideaux, regrets that such a vast outlay will benefit so few passengers. Superlink proposals would see the new route provide through trains to Basingstoke, Reading, Stansted, Cambridge, Ipswich and Milton Keynes. This would cost only Ł3bn extra, which would be more than covered by increased fares revenue.

(FARES)

* SOARING INFLATION could mean huge fare rises for commuters because of the Government’s policy of leaving ticket prices unregulated or subject to increase faster than movements in the Retail Price Index. Some fares could go up by 10%or more in January, with average rises of between 6% and 8%.

(FRANCHISES)

* CONSERVATIVE POLICY would be to award contracts of 15- 20 years, instead of the current norm of about 10. Chiltern is seen as a model 20-year contract with 90% of passengers pleased with the service. [Fine if you get a good operator. People notice the difference between the good and the bad – in SWT’s poll only one third thought Stagecoach should hold the franchise.]

* FURTHER CONSERVATIVE POLICY ANNOUNCEMENT that they would not after all seek to give franchise operators control of tracks in place of Network Rail. Such a change was a long-held ambition of Stagecoach chairman Brian Souter. [This must be good news. It would make more sense to have track and trains reintegrated under a single corporation. Stagecoach’s record of train failures and staff shortages is grim and offers no case for extending their control.]

* SOUTHERN FRANCHISE bidders are Govia, National Express, Nedrail and Stagecoach.

* SWT WILL NO LONGER OPERATE TO TORBAY AND PLYMOUTH when the Waterloo-Exeter service goes hourly in December 2009. This follows removal of SWT services from the Basingstoke-Reading and Havant-Brighton lines, and the Croydon area.

* VIRGIN TRAINS would like the new timetable planned for the West Coast Main Line from Euston to Glasgow to be postponed from December 2008 until Easter 2009 because of fears that Network Rail cannot deliver the new service, according to hints from Stagecoach Chairman Brian Souter. [Interesting to see the 49% shareholder speaking on behalf of the company.]

(INFRASTRUCTURE)

* CAMPAIGN FOR A HIGH-SPEED RAIL NETWORK has gained further momentum after it emerged that 2.5m transfer passengers a year fly into Heathrow airport from other parts of Britain. If the case for short-haul flights diminishes, then so does the case for a third runway. The Government supports the runway, saying Heathrow’s status as a hub is vital for the UK economy. Executives at airport owner BAA have admitted privately that the ‘transfer passengers’ issue is crucial in the PR battle. Tory leader David Cameron is among those who believe they add nothing to the economy. Supporters of high-speed rail claim that connecting Network Rail’s proposed high speed West Coast route into Heathrow would relieve pressure on runway capacity at the airport. Long-distance rail travel has grown by over a fifth in the last 3 years, but the Government says high-speed lines are too expensive and they were treated with considerable scepticism by the government-commissioned report into Britain’s transport needs by former British Airways boss, Sir Rod Eddington. Ruth Kelly has delayed a decision on future development at Heathrow.

* PROVINCIAL COMMUTERS NEED TO BE REMEMBERED, according to Liam Halligan, chief economist at Prosperity Capital Management. He considers that, while it is incredible that Britain has built only one new mainline route since the 19th century, Network Rail’s new strategic review needs to reflect that the real issue of overcrowding is on commuter services, and the numbers using such services into Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester have seen even faster growth than commuting into London.

* RUTH KELLY WANTS THE RAIL NETWORK TO BE ELECTRIFIED to reduce carbon emissions, but has warned environmentalists that this would be possible only through investment in nuclear power. About 40% of lines are already electrified, principally those in the London commuter belt. The terms of her statement hinted that cars and buses could be next.

* TRANSPORT COMMITTEE HAS CRITICISED LACK OF AMBITION IN THE GOVERNMENT’S RAIL STRATEGY. With rising fuel prices forcing motorists out of their cars, and years of sustained growth on the railways, a bold strategy going beyond the next 5 years is needed. It is considered deeply disappointing that the White Paper has dodged the question of high-speed services.

* GOVERNMENT CUTS BACK PLANS FOR GATWICK AIRPORT STATION. West Sussex County Council says a report on future investment shows only Ł9million has been earmarked for improvements at Gatwick station instead of the Ł30million-plus that had been expected. The Council leader is to write to the Transport Secretary and Olympics Minister in the hope they will intervene.

(ROLLING STOCK)

* TILTING TRAINS built a few years ago for Cross Country are unusually narrow so that some of them can tilt to take bends faster on the West Coast Main Line. Last year DfT transferred Cross Country’s West Coast Main Line services to TransPennine Express. Now TransPennine Express is running its non-tilting trains on the route and Cross Country is stripping out the costly tilt equipment from its trains.

* THE TRANSPORT COMMITTEE has warned that the 1,300 new carriages promised nationally by 2014, including 100 on SWT, risk being cancelled out by passenger growth and will not ease capacity problems. A Southern Daily Echo correspondent from Southampton links this with Stagecoach’s soaring fares: “Despite concerns about overcrowding, the MPs call on the Government to “encourage” a further shift away from roads and air towards the railways, to better protect the environment and tackle congestion on the roads. At Ł60 plus for a peak London day return, they are really encouraging people out of their cars.”

(SERVICES)

* STUDY OF TRAIN TIMES on the Southern, South Eastern and C2C franchises shows that some services are up to 6 minutes slower than 21 years ago. [Whilst this is disappointing, it is nothing compared with the padding on SWT, with journeys in some cases 10-15 minutes longer.]

(STATIONS)

* WATERLOO STATION CONCOURSE is to be lowered to street level under Network Rail’s plans, to ease congestion. Access to platforms would then be via escalators. The station is used by 84 million passengers annually and the number is expected to increase by 30% over the next 10 years. The International station would be incorporated into the main station. [Network Rail wants Ł54 million for conversion of the 5 international platforms for domestic use but the International station cost only Ł135 million to build.]

* BLACKFRIARS UNDERGROUND STATION is to close from March 2009 until late 2011 for the Thameslink upgrade. District and Circle line trains will run through the station without stopping.

ROADS

* ROAD DEATHS IN BRITAIN FELL below 3,000 last year for the first time since records began in 1926. Motoring groups link this to improved car safety technology and greater compliance with speed limits. Deaths reached a post-war peak of 7,985 in 1966.

* ROAD DEATHS IN HAMPSHIRE INCREASED with 94 deaths in 2007, compared with 72 in 2006. [Soaring population and diminishing public transport?]

TRANSPORT COMPANIES

* ANGEL TRAINS LEASING COMPANY has been bought from the Royal Bank of Scotland for Ł3.6bn by an Australian consortium led by Babcock and Brown. Angel is the largest of the three train leasing companies (37% of leasing market) and provides stock principally to Virgin Trains and South West Trains.

* ARRIVA has recorded a 40% rise in group pre-tax profits to Ł66.3m for the first half of the year. Revenues were up 59% to Ł1.44bn, as the company benefited from price rises on its buses and trains. On Cross Country Trains it has achieved 90.2% of trains on time and passenger growth of 10.3%.

* EUROSTAR passenger numbers are continuing to grow by about one fifth per year. Some 4.6 million passengers were carried in the first half of the year. People from the Midlands, North and Scotland have been fuelling growth since the London operation transferred from Waterloo to St Pancras.

* GO-AHEAD GROUP now carries 900,000 passengers a day on its Southern, South Eastern and London Midland franchises, more than any other operator. Its buses carry 530 million people a year around cities, including Newcastle, Oxford and London.

* NATIONAL EXPRESS chief executive, Richard Bowker, is urging the rail industry to target domestic airlines to help reduce carbon emissions and create a better journey experience. National Express has teamed up with Travelodge to promote seaside holidays in Britain. An Easyjet spokesman called his comments ‘bizarre and misguided’, pointing to emissions from diesel trains. However, Easyjet’s complaint against a Virgin Trains’ advertising campaign has been rejected by the Advertising Standards Authority.

* NETWORK RAIL should make its board more accountable according to the Co-operative Party group of MPs. Their report says the rail operator is inefficient and underperforms against the European average by more than Ł1.1bn a year, despite receiving Ł240 a year in subsidy from every household in Britain. It needs to deliver real accountability, not just pretence. The company has launched a study into delivering 180mph services on new tracks alongside existing routes from London to Edinburgh, Cardiff, Glasgow, Bradford and Birmingham. However, there are already concerns that improvements for London commuters are at risk because of a Ł3bn reduction in its budget.

* SIEMENS, noted for the incompetent re-signalling of railways in the Portsmouth area and SWT’s ever-failing Desiro trains, plans to cut 16,750 jobs. It is feared this will affect the Northam Traincare Depot. [Even more train failures?]

* STAGECOACH says environmental fears and higher fuel costs are behind the 13.6% increase in revenue from its trains and 7.5% increase from its buses. [There is strong evidence of a modal shift, with the profits of all five principal bus and train operating companies booming, whilst Britain’s biggest car salesmen, the Pendragon Group, is seeing trading at just one tenth of where the shares were 18 months ago. Unlike most of its rivals, Stagecoach has tended to avoid tightly-regulated contracts with local government and has greater flexibility to cut costs and charge what it likes.]

PRIVATE EYE RESEARCH AND COMMENT

GOVERNMENT TOO SLOW ON ELECTRIFICATION

Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly says she believes the business and environmental case for electrification is growing fast. The case has actually existed for decades but while other countries continued to electrify, Britain stopped when the railway was fragmented and privatised instead. Electrification of a route now needs complex agreements between infrastructure owner, transient train operator and train leasing company. Each has followed its own narrow short-term commercial agenda. Skills and equipment have now been lost as demonstrated by the fiasco of last Christmas’ work at Liverpool Street. In reality the government is far too fond of the cash it earns from transport oils and Ruth Kelly admitted that electrification was being considered in the context of longer-term plans for the railways. Meanwhile, hundreds more diesels, with 30-year lifespans, will be procured. Tougher emissions standards will increase diesel engine construction costs, and the banks could insist on recouping more of their outlay in the early years in case the oil market makes the new trains uneconomic to run after 10 or 20 years. Dithering on electrification costs the country dear, with DfT officials still trying to persuade manufacturers and financiers to provide a new diesel train which will be costly because any such design is specific to Britain.

FIRST GROUP

First Group, which made Ł360m profit last year, charged the police Ł125,000 for providing CCTV footage from the company’s buses in Bristol. First Group refused journalist Christian Wolmar a Ł158 refund on a standard class Reading-Cardiff return on the basis that he’d taken the ticket on to the platform during filming. First Group boss Moir Lockhead has been given a knighthood to add to his Ł1m salary.

The Group has revealed UK rail profits of Ł120m, up 10% for 2007-08. Things are looking good if it can do that in an especially troubled year when Great Western twice breached its franchise agreement, raised fares by double the legal maximum, and suffered a second fares strike by passengers. Shareholders get a 10% rise in dividends, directors get their performance-related bonuses, and First will continue to mask the government’s cack-handed control of Great Western. Everyone’s happy, except passengers, but since when did they count?

FUEL COSTS

Fuel accounted for just 9% of UK bus costs in 2007. For every 10% increase in fuel prices, the costs rise less than 1%. However, Stagecoach blamed “escalating fuel costs” for rises of up to 20% in Northamptonshire bus fares last month. And Stagecoach’s annual report shows it has done a deal with oil companies to get 94% of its fuel at fixed prices until 2009. Arriva raised most single fares in York by 10p or 20p on 21 July, saying it was “feeling the impact of increasing fuel costs”. Yet its annual report shows 81% of its fuel fixed at 27p a litre – 1p less than its fixed fuel price in 2007. And another 10% of Arriva’s fuel is “protected by indexation arrangements”. Arriva hasn’t yet linked fuel prices to soaring fares on Cross Country trains, but the price of 75% of the service’s anticipated fuel is fixed until 2016. First Group raised Essex bus fares by 10p last month, and introduced increases of up to 12% in Staffordshire and Cheshire, and 15% in Edinburgh, referring to higher fuel costs. For 2008-09, its entire UK fuel is fixed at $76 a barrel. Annual reports show that Stagecoach’s UK bus profits rose 30% to Ł110m, Arriva’s 16% to Ł88m, and First’s 18% to Ł122m.

OYSTER CARDS

Transport for London lost out when Oystercard glitches gave people free travel twice in one month. Only some platforms used by First Capital Connect at Kings Cross have a facility allowing passengers to “touch out” at the end of the journey. They are therefore fined Ł1.50 each time. One passenger who pays Ł2 for his regular journey found himself paying almost double. The Oyster helpline is an 0845 number; such numbers are generally dearer and Ofcom encourages public bodies to use cheaper 03 numbers.

EMERGENCY RADIO NETWORK

On-train security staff from SWT and South Eastern are to get access to the digital emergency services radio network, in a deal with Airwave, now owned by Macquarie, which they say will help staff contact British Transport Police. The National Audit Office and Public Accounts Committee said back in 2002 that there was no evidence that the new system represented better value than could have been provided by the public sector. The police who funded the development of the system with public money, will get no share of the revenue from other users, like the rail companies. In 2007-08 Airwave had to pay Ł8.1m to the police because the roll-out of the system was delayed and hit by lack of coverage.

PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS

Rail Minister Tom Harris spoke at a rail conference in India recently and flagged up PPIs as an area of investment where the UK has considerable expertise. How true. Having dealt with the disastrous collapse of Railtrack, the UK cemented its position as world leader by setting up the fabulously complicated Metronet deal for London Underground, which soon crashed and left debts of Ł2 billion.

OFFICE OF RAIL REGULATION

Network Rail is threatening to go to the Competition Commission because the rail regulator reckons they are demanding too much cash for 2009-14. The process of determining NR’s funding started in 2005 and kept hundreds of ORR officials and consultants busy. They won’t be unemployed when the process ends, because allocating NR’s cash for 2014-19 must start in good time. ORR berates NR for its inefficiency and failings, but already employs 346 people and wants involvement in decisions on new signalling and control systems, electrification and the need for extra capacity to relieve the network.

MAKING A FORTUNE FROM PRIVATISATION

Kenneth Irvine, who had advised the government on rail privatisation, was a director of Prism, which won two franchises with unrealistic plans to cut subsidies. That opened the door for the directors to sell Prism to National Express Group for Ł166m. The founders of Prism are now chairman and vice-chairman of Grand Central, a company that provides 6 services a day between Sunderland and London. Faulty trains have led to the service being cut back to one a day each way. Other operators are getting fed up with Grand Central’s trains, one of which caught fire. Now Grand Central is being touted for sale. It could fetch a decent price, not because it’s any good but because it holds valuable slots on the main line between Kings Cross and Newcastle, which National Express could do with.

VIRGIN TRAINS AND THE GREEN AGENDA

In 2006, Virgin was so keen to undermine the domestic airways that it offered free first-class train travel to anyone with a used Manchester-London boarding pass. And in 2007, Richard Branson was jubilant when the Advertising Standards Authority rejected easyJet’s claim that Virgin Trains had misled the public in emphasising rail’s lower carbon emissions. He said: “A Virgin train is clearly way ahead of short-haul commercial aircraft on carbon emissions. More and more customers are giving up short-haul airline travel in favour of the train, citing the environment as one of the principal reasons for doing so. The ASA ruling can leave them in no doubt that they are right to do so.” He failed to say that, for a relatively small investment in upgrading tracks, trains from Manchester and other cities could go direct to Heathrow. People who use short-haul flights to get to Heathrow could then cut their carbon emissions by using the train to get to the airport.

Just a year later, he has thrown his weight behind a third runway at Heathrow. “More than a third of Heathrow’s passengers are in transit, connecting from one airport to another via Heathrow”, he wrote in the Times. “Some critics of BAA and Heathrow claim that an increase in such passengers is not in the national interest. They have missed the point. Transit passengers are one of the prime reasons why airlines fly to so many destinations from Heathrow”. He and BAA fear the prospect of Heathrow losing out to Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt, but he omitted to say that those airports have stations on inter-city networks. Lyon, France’s second city, is less than 2 hours from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport by electric train, but they are further apart than Newcastle and Heathrow, where the journey usually takes more than 4 hours, even with a gold-plated Heathrow Express ticket. Electric trains to Frankfurt airport take under an hour from Cologne city centre and 75 minutes or less from Stuttgart city centre.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

As always, thanks to everyone who has been kind enough to contact us. Without your support and input, this newsletter would not be possible.