HOGRIDER 123 : MAY-JUNE 2009

INDEX

NO MORE SOUTHAMPTONS…

… BUT, ALAS, LORD ADONIS HASN’T SEEN ANYTHING YET:

(1) HE STARTS INITIATIVE TO ENCOURAGE CYCLING WHILST SWT HAS ALLEGEDLY STARTED PROSECUTING CYCLISTS WITH VALID TICKETS WHO LET THEMSELVES THROUGH UNATTENDED GATES AT SOUTHAMPTON

(2) PASSENGER PROTEST AGAINST ‘INHUMANITY’ AT WATERLOO AS SWT MAKES LIFE DIFFICULT FOR OFF-PEAK TICKET HOLDERS

(3) SWT PROFITEERING BY MAKING LIFE DIFFICULT FOR PASSENGERS

(4) THINGS NO BETTER ON STAGECOACH’S EAST MIDLANDS TRAINS –PASSENGER CHARGED £76 FOR TRAVELLING ON WRONG TRAIN WHEN RIGHT TRAIN CANCELLED…

(5) AND BRITISH TRANSPORT POLICE AT ST PANCRAS TAKE SWIFT ACTION AGAINST STAGECOACH AGGRESSION

(6) “SWT LOW SPOT” MISCELLANY

(7) LACK OF SIGNAGE AT WATERLOO BARRIERS POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS

(8) ASHURST – AS PASSENGER-UNFRIENDLY AS A STATION CAN GET?

DESPITE SUCH SERIOUS SHORTCOMINGS ON THE STAGECOACH FRANCHISES, MINISTERS CONTINUE TO SPIN THE ANTI-BR MYTH WHICH A FORMER CONSERVATIVE TRANSPORT MINISTER EXPLODED FIVE YEARS AGO…

… LEAVING QUESTIONS ABOUT FRANCHISING WHICH DESERVE ANSWERS

WHAT PEOPLE REALLY THINK OF STAGECOACH AND ITS GREED

STAGECOACH LOBBYIST DISMISSED AS “DISINGENUOUS”

GOOD OUTCOME ON NEW SOUTHERN FRANCHISE

CONSULTATION ON THE SUSSEX ROUTE UTILISATION STRATEGY

SPECTACULAR NON-COMPLIANCE WITH TICKET OFFICE STAFFING AT TOTTON:
* MINISTER SAYS “WE EXPECT FURTHER IMPROVEMENT”
* SWT MANAGING DIRECTOR RESPONDS WITH PERSONAL ATTACK
* SWT DATA APPEARS TO BE 26.5% OVER-OPTIMISTIC, REFLECTING THE 27% DISCREPANCY IN PUBLISHED DATA FOLLOWING THE COMPANY’S ON-LINE POPULARITY POLL

WHEN NOT DEALING WITH THINGS LIKE STAGECOACH AGGRESSION, THE BRITISH TRANSPORT POLICE’S PRIORITIES CAN SEEM EXTRAORDINARY

ADVICE TO SELL STAGECOACH SHARES AND BUY GO-AHEAD SHARES

SEVERE CONSEQUENCES OF THE WINDSOR DERAILMENT

TOTTON-HYTHE PASSENGER SERVICE ASPIRATION AND NEW PROPOSAL FOR FAREHAM TRAMS

STAGECOACH FOUNDER ACCUSED OF WEAKENING SCOTLAND’S RIGHT TO ROAM LEGISLATION

SWT’S ‘RIGHT TIME’ RAILWAY: DUFF STOCK / CREW SHORTAGES / CANCELLATIONS / TRAINS TERMINATING SHORT OF DESTINATION / STOPS AXED FOR OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE

MEDIA DIGEST

PRIVATE EYE RESEARCH AND COMMENT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

NO MORE SOUTHAMPTONS…

* The above heading is “Today’s Railways” introduction to Lord Adonis’ widely reported dissatisfaction with Southampton Central, which he rated as very poor. Lord Adonis has now appointed town planner Sir Peter Hall and former rail manager Chris Green as “Stations’ Champions”. They are tasked with suggesting ways of improving station facilities and advising on minimum levels of service relative to numbers of passengers. In addition they are to consider what changes in future franchise conditions, better station management, Network Rail initiatives and long-term investment will help to improve station facilities. Lord Adonis has already stated that minimum standards for keeping toilets open and offering passengers food and drink will be written into new franchise agreements. [Guardian 06/05/09]

… BUT, ALAS, LORD ADONIS HASN’T SEEN ANYTHING YET:

(1) HE STARTS INITIATIVE TO ENCOURAGE CYCLING WHILST SWT HAS ALLEGEDLY STARTED PROSECUTING CYCLISTS WITH VALID TICKETS WHO LET THEMSELVES THROUGH UNATTENDED GATES AT SOUTHAMPTON

Lord Adonis has launched a £5m fund to provide rail terminals with better facilities for cyclists. The idea is to emulate the Netherlands, where about a third of trips to and from stations are by bike, compared with 2% in the UK. The new Stations Champions have been asked to select 10 trial stations. [Guardian 24/6/09]

Talking of trials, we have been informed via our website link that a case is going through court where SWT is prosecuting a cyclist with a valid season ticket for opening an unattended manual station gate at Southampton Central. SWT is relying on the obscure railway bye-law 9 (3):

“No person shall open a barrier or any other gate on the railway except where there is a notice indicating that it may be used by him or with permission from an authorised person.”

Obviously we cannot comment on the particular case prior to its conclusion. Turning to the general principle, whatever the intended purpose of this bye-law, it seems unlikely that it was designed to increase train operators’ profits by avoiding the need for them to provide adequate staffing of station barriers. Note paragraph 59 of the House of Commons Transport Committee’s fifth report of the 2007-08 session:

“Passengers with tickets that do not, for whatever reason, work the barriers correctly, have bulky items of luggage or are in wheelchairs cannot pass the regular gates. They require prompt assistance. "Meeters and greeters" are effectively barred from platforms and general passenger movement is restricted or delayed. Gates can take up valuable space and isolate station trading facilities, while detracting from the appearance and customer environment of many historic or listed stations. When no staff are available to supervise them they must be left open which rather defeats their purpose” [our underlining].

This suggests that when a passenger needs to open a manual gate because no staff are on hand, the culpability lies with the train operator. We have heard of many SWT passengers experiencing delays, particularly at Waterloo when they have a type of ticket that will not activate the automatic barriers. Some have to walk behind the buffer stops to find a set of barriers with a member of staff on hand. A passenger with a paper privilege ticket was admonished for not having a ‘gate pass’ but has since been told that such passes are not available.

In SWT's answer to Question 175 in their February 2009 Webchat event (after the date to which the alleged offence relates), they tacitly recognised that barrier staffing was unsatisfactory:

"Question:175 Given that every question that relates to increases in any capacity - whether it be platforms at Waterloo, the number of services or rolling stock - is met with 'we are in discussion with the DfT' or 'still negotiating with the DfT' .....do you pray every night to the DfT for being able to hide behind a 'discussion' that'll never end. It's very, very frustrating. Do you REALLY understand what it is like being a commuter on SWT? No seats, standing all the time, no toilets, barriers that are not manned properly and a train company that trots out the one size fits all ....'in discussion with the DfT?' PAUL MORGAN, 17 February 2009 15:18

[Answer]I commute over 100 miles each day to London Waterloo and totally understand the problems faced by commuters arriving and departing Waterloo during the peak periods. I have personally used this experience to highlight to the DfT on why overcrowding issues coming in and out of Waterloo, should be given priority as part of the additional carriages proposal announced by the DfT. We are awaiting a response from the DfT. It is an unfortunate fact that in order for South West Trains to provide the investment needed to make a real difference, approval has to be given by the DfT as the business case exceeds the current length of franchise. In the meantime, we are addressing the issues on toilets and barrier gates as part of our investment on rolling stock and station improvements."

As for the prosecution of someone holding a valid ticket, this appears grossly disproportionate – which is exactly what the court said in the case of a prosecution brought by Merseyrail against a trainee teacher who rested her flip flops on a train seat for a few seconds. In the SWT case, are court facilities, paid for by taxpayers, in effect to be used as an additional subsidy to operators to compensate for minimal staffing?

There would also appear to be issues of discrimination. Suppose you alight at an unstaffed station where there is no way out except through a gate which is not marked “passenger exit”? If the bye-law is applied consistently, then you would need to ring SWT to get permission to leave the station (which would be difficult if you did not have a mobile phone).

(2) PASSENGER PROTEST AGAINST ‘INHUMANITY’ AT WATERLOO AS SWT MAKES LIFE DIFFICULT FOR OFF-PEAK TICKET HOLDERS

[From: www.whirledpeas.eu/2009/05/11the-revolt-on-platform-seven/]

“Perhaps the most depressing place to be in London is Waterloo Station. --- My train was the 9:35. As such, I had bought an off-peak ticket, which meant that I was paying about a third less than the usual fare, though at £30, it was still outrageous. I saw my train had arrived at platform seven, and I approached the gate. I stuck my ticket into the appropriate slot: the machine spat the ticket back at me and said, “Seek Assistance”. I flagged down a guard: she was a middle aged woman in a florescent vest and had a sour disposition. She looked as if she hadn’t had a good morning in twenty years. Her hair was cut short, her glasses were dirty, and she peered at me as if to say, “What do you want?”

“Excuse me,” I said, “my ticket won’t let me in.”

She cast a glance at it. “It’s an off-peak ticket, sir,” she said, “you’re not allowed in until 9:30. That’s the rules.”

I looked at the clock. It was 9:20.I tried reason. I pointed at the 9:35 train. “But that’s my train there, the 9:35.”

She looked at me, her toad-like face registering nothing but contempt. “You’re not allowed in until 9:30, that’s the rules.”

By now, a small crowd was starting to build behind the barrier, all of whom had off-peak tickets and were similarly unable to get in. To my left was an old gentleman wearing a khaki trench-coat, grey suit and regimental tie. To my right were two young blonde university-age girls who were trying not to giggle too loudly at the absurdity of the situation: after all, it wasn’t like any of us were going to get across the barrier and then go to a slightly earlier train to a different destination just for the purposes of cheating South West Trains.

A young man with short black hair and black wire frame glasses approached. He asked, “What’s going on?”

“Do you have an off-peak ticket?” I queried. “Yeah.”

“You can’t get in, they won’t let us in until 9:30.”

“So basically we have to run onto the train at 9:30 and hope to find a seat in five minutes?”

“Yes.”

One of the girls spoke up, “Well surely if we’re not all on the train, they can’t let it depart.”

I pointed at the guard, who was now pacing up and down, telling all the off-peak ticket holders in flat tones they weren’t getting in. It was 9:24. I wondered if she was enjoying herself.

“I wouldn’t bet on it,” I said.

“It’s really rather a shambles,” the old gentleman added.

“I don’t believe it,” the young man continued, “no wonder this country is in such a mess.”

The queue continued to build up behind me. The guard looked more nervous, pacing up and down behind the barrier as if she was defending a fort. The university girls ran down to the next barrier and managed to convince the guard there, obviously a more reasonable sort, to let them in.

The queue pressed forward. I looked hard at the guard, and wondered what made her such a misery. Yes, monitoring a ticket barrier was not much of a job; was her sole pleasure to be found in getting in people’s way? Was it the only way that she could be noticed?

It hit 9:27. The train’s engine spun up and spun down, which was probably due to the driver doing a systems check. The queue now had become a mob. It was the first time I had been in the midst of a seething mass with one clear, strong message: let us in, LET US IN!

At 9:28, the guard finally decided to radio in for permission to open the barrier, and reluctantly, she let us all through. The movement and sound reminded me of birds fluttering away out of a cage. Freedom: to get out of the station, and to get out of London.

I boarded, found a place to sit and settled back. I looked out the window: the train departed, and I saw Waterloo and the London skyline stretching out behind me, eventually disappearing into the distance. But what the young man said stuck with me, “No wonder this country is in such a mess.” But I think it’s not the stupidity of rules that make the country a mess, it’s the inhumanity in their application and the belief that they substitute for ethics.

If I had shown up too early, and wanted to board a train at say, 8am, using the wrong ticket, then definitely, the rules should be there to prevent me from taking advantage. However, note the time, note the train: common sense would have suggested that this was not a group of fare dodgers who somehow wanted to cheat South West Trains. We were just a group of ordinary people who had paid the right fare, and wanted to get on the right train. The guard should have seen this and had the confidence to say, “OK, go through”, but she didn’t. Whether this was out of spite or fear is unclear: but this type of nit-picking, tight-fisted rule making and enforcement has become a motif in Britain these days.”

(3) SWT PROFITEERING BY MAKING LIFE DIFFICULT FOR PASSENGERS

“Readers have reported more examples of train firms using ticket vending machines to try to overcharge passengers. One found SWT machines that don’t issue off-peak tickets until 10.00, when such tickets become valid. He risked missing his 10.02 train (doors closed at 10.01) if he waited until 10.00 to buy. The alternatives were splashing out on a peak ticket or queuing behind some 25 other passengers to buy an off-peak ticket from one of the clerks who survived SWT’s cull of 660 ticket-office and other staff this year.” [Private Eye 1236]

(4) THINGS NO BETTER ON STAGECOACH’S EAST MIDLANDS TRAINS –PASSENGER CHARGED £76 FOR TRAVELLING ON WRONG TRAIN WHEN RIGHT TRAIN CANCELLED…

“Last summer I booked an advance return to Derby. At St Pancras I was told that my train had been cancelled. I got on the next one, an hour later, only to be told by a real ‘jobsworth’ conductor that my ticket wasn’t valid and that I must pay a further, full, £76 single fare. This rude and aggressive person would not budge, even though I explained what had happened. I still had to pay up, even though the train on which the ticket would have been valid had been cancelled by the train operator! This ruined my day. Eventually I was refunded - though it took six weeks. Then East Midlands Trains had the audacity to tell me that my original train had had to start from Luton and that I should have taken a train from St Pancras 30 minutes earlier to catch that! The result is that I now hire a car which is cheaper and more convenient. Gervais Sawyer” [RAIL No 619]

(5) AND BRITISH TRANSPORT POLICE AT ST PANCRAS TAKE SWIFT ACTION AGAINST STAGECOACH AGGRESSION

“I proudly brought my brother-in-law, who lives abroad, to see the fabulous restoration and renovation at St Pancras International. Being a civil engineer he was very keen to photograph the incredible Barlow roof, original features, and contrast these with the modern extension, all from the public access areas. Imagine my amazement when he was accosted by a ‘Revenue Protection Officer’ (did we used to call them ‘ticket inspectors/collectors?’) from East Midlands Trains who loudly admonished him for taking photographs, demanded that the photographs be deleted and told him that photography was only permitted “outside the station.” He claimed that photographs had been taken of “my colleagues”. Since my brother-in-law does not speak English, I intervened on his behalf and told the EMT man he had no right to make such demands and refused to delete any photographs. I believe at this point he threatened to have me arrested, this situation immediately being defused when I turned to two British Transport uniformed police standing nearby. They happily advised me that he indeed had no right to make such demands. At this point the RPO withdrew and there was no need for further discussion. Colin” [RAIL No 620]

(6) “SWT LOW SPOT” MISCELLANY

03/05/09 Ashurst passenger had booked to Brighton, intending to catch the 07.43 to Southampton and then the 08.31 to Brighton. At 07.40 the 07.43 was shown as delayed and at 08.10 as cancelled. He then drove to Southampton but missed the Brighton service. There is no other direct service to Brighton until 11.04 on Sundays, so he asked for a refund. He was given an application form, but was told he wouldn’t have been allowed to apply if the 08.43 from Ashurst had arrived, as there would have been no proof he had not made part of the journey!

07/05/09 Upside Gents at Southampton Central locked without explanation. Downside Gents very scruffy and one of the two hand dryers taped out of use.

08/05/09 Upside Gents at Southampton Central still closed, now with a note saying this was due to a fault.

09/05/09 Only two ticket office windows open on the upside at Southampton Central at 11.40 (despite the downside office no longer opening on Saturdays), and 26 people in the queue. There were replacement bus services to Eastleigh because of a fatality. A passenger travelling to Winchester eventually managed to board a bus and arrived at Eastleigh just as the Winchester train was sent off, with no other for one hour. He asked to speak to the manager, but was told to make his complaint to the booking clerk, who was very rude to him.

11/05/09 Despite closure of the travel centre, no new timetable leaflets on display in the foyers or waiting room at Southampton Central. The new SWT leaflets, current from 17 May, were already on display at Waterloo on 21/04/09.

14/05/09 17 people queuing for tickets on the upside at Southampton Central at 10.30. Bad luck for the two passengers on an evening Waterloo-Weymouth service that Stagecoach was running their train; they should have been on the service 30 minutes earlier, so their £9 tickets were refused and they were charged £170. It has been noted on successive occasions that, when such an issue arises on First Great Western, the conductor simply advises the passenger of the importance of getting the right train.

18/05/09 Downside ticket office at Southampton Central was closed at 14.15 – It should be open from 06.20 to 18.00.

19/05/09 Only one window open at the upside ticket office at Southampton central at 13.05, and passenger at head of queue is exchanging a single ticket, obtained in error from a machine, for a return. Woman who had been attending the ticket barriers started to issue tickets from a portable machine; passenger who clearly asked her for 2 super off-peak returns to London (£20.35 each) for the following day discovered, after getting home, that she had issued 2 singles (£20.25 each) instead.

Stagecoach’s destructive greed appeared boundless as it announced a consultation on the closure of Waterloo’s travel centre to save the cost of leasing the premises from Network Rail. Closure is strongly opposed by official watchdog Passenger Focus, and transport writer and journalist Christian Wolmar notes: “I am pretty sure that if I stopped 100 people on the concourse of Waterloo station, 99 of them would say that they did not want the travel centre closed and the other one would be a Japanese tourist with no English.” [RAIL No 619]

20/05/09 Downside ticket office at Southampton Central was closed at 10.30. The 20.05 Waterloo-Weymouth was a typical Stagecoach Cattle Truck service – 5 coaches with one standard class coach locked out of use and many seats reserved, so scores standing or sitting on the floors to Basingstoke and Winchester. Two people joining the train at Clapham Junction were heard saying that SWT had managed to mar an otherwise great day at the Chelsea Flower Show.

25/05/09 Great Bank Holiday Monday for people going home from Weymouth – 16.03 to London axed because of an early morning (!) fatality at New Milton; 17.03 axed because of crew shortage; 17.20 axed because of duff stock. Won’t the 2012 Olympic sailing events need a special First Great Western Inter-City service between London and Weymouth to avoid international ridicule?

27/05/09 A duff train in the Woking area had spectacular consequences – for example, no service from Alton between 10.14 and 11.44.

28/05/09 The floors in both the upside and downside Gents at Southampton Central appeared not to have been properly washed for a long time, with very evident accumulation of grime. A hand dryer on the downside was taped out of use, just as it had been on 7 May.

02/06/09 Passenger boarding the 09.20 Weymouth-Waterloo at Winchester got the guard to exchange his single ticket to London for a return [There seems to be a pattern of passengers finding themselves with singles when they want returns, which potentially can double their outlay – see entry for 19/05/09] Downside ticket office at Southampton Central was closed at 16.20; it should have been open until 18.00. All comments of 28/05/09 above about the downside Gents still relevant.

05/06/09 A phenomenal number of cancellations, delays, curtailments and axed stops on SWT due to one duff train – see ‘Right Time’ railway log below.

11/06/09 A deficit of at least 28 carriages on morning peak services into Waterloo, including 4 carriages missing from the 08.02 Woking Waterloo, Britain’s joint most severely overcrowded train. A deficit of at least 20 carriages on the evening peak return services – a feat which was to be equaled the following day.

25/06/09 Only one upside and one downside ticket window open at Southampton Central at 10.30. On the upside an official with portable ticket machine was helping serve the 20 people in the queue, but he couldn’t tackle things like reservations which in the past would have been dealt with in the travel centre (still empty since SWT stripped it last autumn to increase profits). The broken hand dryer in the downside Gents had been repaired, but the start button on the other dryer was now dangling on its spring. The sealant at the rear of the wash basins was grimy, and the white plastic coating was beginning to recede on one of the WC seats. The floors were grubby and the whole area had an unhygienic feel. The 10.30 to London was mysteriously delayed at platform 1 for 20 minutes. On this occasion, SWT actually announced that the 10.55 was the stopping train to Waterloo and that London passengers should await the 11.00, but only after the 10.55 had twice been wrongly announced as the 11.00. Passengers who boarded the 10.55 because of the wrong announcement had to get off again.

(7) LACK OF SIGNAGE AT WATERLOO BARRIERS POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS

“After alighting from a train on Platform 11 at London Waterloo recently, I had cause to go through the new automatic ticket gates pulling my suitcase (which had wheels). Now the case was narrow enough to go through the gates, but as I was pulling it through the gates closed on it, gripping it with a pincer movement. After a short delay the gates opened again and the case fell flat on the floor, so I went to pick it up, and as I was doing so the gates closed again and gripped it again!

A South West Trains employee then came and said that I should have used the wide gate, but there isn’t one opposite platform 11 – there is one nearby but you can’t see it when alighting at platform 11. I pointed out that my case was narrow enough to go through the ordinary gate – he pointed out that these have a 15 second delay before closing but the wide ones have a 30 second delay. So now we know!

Since the above, a colleague has reported another incident at Waterloo where a person got his rucksack stuck. A member of staff eventually managed to release it, but the passenger was then in front of the barrier, connected to the rucksack which was behind it! Eventually staff managed to release him, but one wonders about the safety of these barriers, especially with regard to children. It seems to me that there should be some form of infra-red device which would stop the barriers closing while ever there was something in the way. For the present there really should be some form of notice at Waterloo directing passengers with luggage, children, etc., to the wide barriers or to a manned barrier.” [Today’s Railways UK, July 2009]

(8) ASHURST – AS PASSENGER-UNFRIENDLY AS A STATION CAN GET?

Hampshire County Council has provided smart ‘New Forest Gateway’ signs at unstaffed Ashurst station. Great! But pity that:

- The station has warning notices about penalty fares, but tickets are only available from a machine which is situated so badly that the screen is illegible in bright sunshine;

- Car parking permits can be obtained only from the ‘other destinations’ link on the ticket machine;

- The two cycle lockers have no indication of how anyone might obtain a key;

- The train service is exceptionally slow and inconvenient because Stagecoach refuses to run the service level specification for the franchise, with the result that trains from London severely delay passengers at Southampton Central and Brockenhurst;

- London trains are often formed of suburban rolling stock despite the fact that London is well over 80 miles away;

- The summer Sunday bus link with Lyndhurst will not operate this year.

DESPITE SUCH SERIOUS SHORTCOMINGS ON THE STAGECOACH FRANCHISES, MINISTERS CONTINUE TO SPIN THE ANTI-BR MYTH WHICH A FORMER CONSERVATIVE TRANSPORT MINISTER EXPLODED FIVE YEARS AGO…

* Lord Adonis’ promotion to Secretary of State for Transport is surely great news. In just 8 months he has impressed with his positive attitude to the railways, and his determination to find out the kind of travel experience which rail passengers face in reality.

His promotion is, however, against the background of the revelation of excesses in the parliamentary expenses system. All the major political parties are now pledged to honesty, accountability and transparency and to “re-connect with the public”, whatever that may mean in practice. If it doesn’t mean, for example, that greater attention is paid to public opinion when policy is formulated, then it will be pretty hollow rhetoric.

A policy area where root-and-branch review is long overdue is rail franchising. Tony Blair once said on the “Breakfast with Frost” programme that rail privatisation had been a disaster.

Lord Adonis, however, has so far been as unwilling as his predecessor Tom Harris to admit that the current system can still be disastrous for huge numbers of passengers, and has been similarly negative about British Rail in justifying his position. This may be due to ministers’ lines being spun by officials working under the Rail Director General, who was recruited from the private rail industry which has made such huge profits from privatisation. Whatever the reason, DfT officials now seem to have got their minister briefing against a BR management which shared his own values.

So Lord Adonis told Guardian readers that British Rail was a national joke in terms of quality and reliability [which sounds like Tom Harris’ “basket case BR” re-spun by officials] and that railways, like any other industry, must modernise. “Being honest about the past is essential to realising the future”. He is apparently unaware of the following article in “Rail News”, June 2004, which inevitably suggests that the lines-to-take which he has been given are anything but honest:

“THATCHER MINISTER SALUTES EX-BR BOSSES

A former Tory transport minister has paid tribute to the managers who ran British Rail during the 1980s, saying “they should look back with pride”.

David Mitchell, who served in Margaret Thatcher’s government, said they had provided attractive punctual services with 27 per cent less subsidy than they had been getting.

At the same time, 24 major projects were successfully achieved and BR became the only profitable main-line railway in Europe.

Mr Mitchell said that British Rail, a run-down system in the early 1980s with low morale, was transformed after the appointment of the late Sir Robert Reid.

For 1984-87, the government tasked BR with running attractive, punctual services with 25 per cent less subsidy.

“BR’s acceptance of these objectives was mocked as ‘impossible’ and could only be done by slashing quality.

But those who mocked had underestimated Bob Reid and the ability of his team of professional rail management to meet the challenge,” he told a meeting of the Retired Railway Officers’ Society.

“Actually the saving on subsidy rose above 25 per cent to some 27 per cent,” said Mr Mitchell, transport minister from 1983 to 1988.

Part of his job was to approve BR investment proposals. “Twenty-four major projects were successfully achieved, including well over 1,000 miles of electrification, over 2,000 new passenger vehicles, over 190 new locomotives, and new signalling”.

“BR was running more trains at 100mph or above than any railway anywhere in the world, excepting France.

Running a railway system involves the basic choice between low fares and low investment, or commercial fare levels and high investment. British Rail chose the latter,” said Mr Mitchell.”

* David Mitchell must be in a better position to judge BR, with whom he dealt personally, than are his successors 20 years later. It is notable that he considered that BR fare levels were already commercial. They now continue to soar above BR levels for substantial numbers of rail passengers, having only dipped in cases, for example, where private train operators such as Stagecoach had fare rises capped for poor performance, or where there are small allocations of window-dressing fares such as Megatrain. And Bob Reid put BR to rights in a small space of time, suggesting that it was essentially sound.

Critically, Bob Reid was famous for answering questions with another question: “What’s best for passengers?” In other words, he cared as much as about people’s experience of rail travel as Lord Adonis does. Conservative minister Dr Brian Mawhinney justified privatisation in similar terms, saying he wanted the responsiveness to passengers’ needs which the Sainsburys of this world provide.

So how has franchising achieved the best for passengers? It is probably fair to say that the picture is highly variable between individual franchises. But, in the case of South West Trains, there is a mass of evidence to support Tony Blair’s view of privatisation as a disaster. As the voices conveyed in this issue of our newsletter illustrate, SWT is still profoundly anti-passenger after more than a decade of franchising to Stagecoach.

In the first instance, Stagecoach narrowly beat its closest rival’s bid for the SWT franchise. The company then set about maximising its profits by disposing of scores of drivers and managers, and was unable to continue the advertised service:

“After a few days of cutting services in a random way, which meant some much-used Portsmouth-Salisbury trains had been cancelled, prompting a host of complaints, [Stagecoach director Brian] Cox went to the franchising director, John O’Brien, to get his blessing for a programme of planned cancellations. They agreed a plan by which SWT cut 39 trains per day, 2.6% of its 1,500 daily total, in addition to the 1% or so unplanned cancellations that result from route mishaps such as sick drivers or breakdowns. John Watts, the Transport Minister, could hardly contain his anger, calling Stagecoach’s management ‘inept’. [“Stagecoach” by Christian Wolmar]

So did Stagecoach then stop to ask what’s best for passengers? Hardly:

“[Stagecoach Chairman Brian] Souter poured petrol on the fire by suggesting that some of his customers had nothing better to do than to write letters of complaint in office time and wondered whether their bosses knew they were doing this. --- Cox did not help by saying that ‘critics were fully paid-up members of the hindsight club’.” [“Stagecoach” by Christian Wolmar]

[These comments are very much in the spirit of current Managing Director, Stewart Palmer’s, attack against the organiser of the South Hampshire Rail Users’ Group [See elsewhere in this Issue] and fully in line with Mr Souter’s view that “Ethics are not irrelevant but some are incompatible with what we have to do because capitalism is based on greed”.]

* It is crystal-clear that Stagecoach won the first SWT franchise by overbidding and then made passengers pay a huge price. What’s truly extraordinary, is that the present Government has allowed a repeat performance on a much grander scale.

The Times of 11 June revealed (following release of documents under the Freedom of Information Act) that Stagecoach paid £1.191 billion, almost £600m more than the next nearest bidder was offering, for the current SWT franchise. The three losing bids were fairly similar - £636 million, £513million and £501million - suggesting that the losers all took a very different view about the value of the franchise.

… LEAVING QUESTIONS ABOUT FRANCHISING WHICH DESERVE ANSWERS

Naturally, passengers have paid a further huge price for the success of Stagecoach’s latest excessive bid for SWT and, in addition, hundreds of members of staff (rather than just scores, first time round) are paying with their jobs. The following questions seem worth considering:

(1) Is it right that Southampton, a major internal and international transport hub, has lost its bus station and railway travel centre through Stagecoach asset-stripping?

(2) Why is the following a good outcome for passengers and other taxpayers? Prior to privatisation, taxpayers invested in inter-city rolling stock for the long-distance Waterloo-Southampton-Bournemouth-Weymouth route. Stagecoach transferred passengers to more spartan stock, increasingly comprising suburban units, in a rolling stock reshuffle designed to increase profits after it massively overbid to continue operation of its ‘cash cow’ franchise. As part of the reshuffle, medium-distance Portsmouth-Waterloo commuters are now routinely crammed into suburban rolling stock. Go-Ahead, conversely, made a more realistic bid to retain the Southern franchise, and is rewarding its short-hop Victoria-Brighton passengers by introducing ‘inter-city comfort’ after refurbishing the displaced trains.

(3) When the South Hampshire Rail Users’ Group revealed that Stagecoach was grossly non-compliant with ticket office opening hours in the fourth largest intermediate town between Southampton and Weymouth, SWT’s managing director responded with a personal attack on the Group’s organiser. If a government office were exposed for delivering such a third-rate service, would the government allow the manager to make such an attack? (And, if not, what is so good about the private delivery of public services?)

(4) Is it right that SWT’s penalty fares scheme should have been made more punitive (including, deliberately, the punishment of those who inadvertently obtain the wrong ticket) when personal service at travel centres and ticket offices has been severely reduced and SWT has admitted in a web-chat event that it would take a book to explain its ticket machines fully?

(5) Is it right that passengers who want to visit their capital city should pay 20% more for their morning off-peak tickets because SWT overbid for the franchise and wants to cash in where there is no alternative operator?

(6) Should the ‘low spot’ of Lord Adonis’ travels be not just Southampton Central, but Stagecoach franchises?

WHAT PEOPLE REALLY THINK OF STAGECOACH AND ITS GREED

* “In response to Dave Degen, who claims our trains are very good (metro, Wed) – I assume he is not a regular train user or hasn’t travelled on his ‘exemplary rail network’ in the past 20 years. Unfortunately, the trains only appear to be performing well because of the ever extending journey times each year and the fact that, when a train is running late, scheduled stops are missed in order to make up time. No wonder people complain or, indeed, don’t take the train. Simon Martin, Hampshire” [Metro 14/5/09]

* “SHAME ON YOU SOUTH WEST TRAINS It was my belief that it was better to keep cars off the roads and use public transport, oh what a stupid person I am. On Friday (Good Friday I hasten to add) I was going to Wolves for the footie and decided I would take the train, so drove to Southampton Airport Parkway for the direct train. On parking my car I was amazed to see that although the whole country was celebrating the bank holiday weekend, South West Trains has decided to treat it as any other day, ie no let up on the already hefty parking fees. I had to pay £10 to park, rather than the £5 I was expecting for a Sunday (ie reduced bank holiday rates).

I have been told by the customer services department of SWT that they can charge whatever they want regardless of the day. Does the local MP know about this? Bearing in mind the government keep ramming down our throats that we need to get cars of the roads to protect the environment I would expect the MP to be taking action, of course I will be writing to him next. Shame on you SWT. JOANNA, Gosport. [Southern Daily Echo website; posted 8:50am Wednesday 15th April 2009]

* “My wife and I recently caught the 10.30 Southampton-Waterloo, a through train from Weymouth. We had advance purchase tickets with reservations in coach G. At around 10.20 a 5-car Class 444 EMU arrived in Platform 1 with “Not in service” on the destination blind. Then the platform departure indicator showed the next train as the 10.30 to Waterloo with the legend “This train has 5 coaches”. Next came an announcement that the next train at Platform 1 would not stop at the platform – perhaps it could jump over the unit already there! In came another 5-car 444 with the Weymouth portion which, as expected, coupled to the “not in service” set already there. So why did the departure indicator insist on it being a 5-coach train when it clearly had ten coaches?

The confusion did not end there, because none of the vehicles had coach letters on the side and there was therefore no way of knowing which was coach G. One might expect that it would be the seventh coach, but if the Weymouth set was the wrong way round it would have been the ninth. So we just found two seats in the empty set. Surely it is not too much trouble for SWT to put coach letters on its stock?

Whilst on coach letters, I see that East Midlands Trains 158s are letter “A” and “C” despite them having no centre car these days. A recent observation of a 4-car train showed it to have two “A”s and two “C”s! It appears that not caring about coach letters must be standard Stagecoach policy!” [Today’s Railways UK, July 2009]

[Perhaps the comment about Stagecoach policy could be shortened to “It appears that not caring must be standard Stagecoach policy!” Had the writer remained on platform 1, he would have noted that no advice whatever is given that the suburban unit forming the 10.55 to Waterloo (a train from Poole) reaches London long after the 11.00 from the same platform. Had he returned from Waterloo in the evening peak, he could have marvelled at the wrong announcements routinely made on trains which split at Southampton.]

* “The south west main line has been profitable since BR days and has subsidised other lines. Through greed and lack of nous Stagecoach are squeezing the pips until they squeak. No wonder they are trying to wring every last penny out of us cramming us into packed carriages and charging a fortune. Ian, Southampton”. [Times On-Line website]

* “Stagecoach founders Brian Souter and Ann Gloag are suffering in the recession. Despite 660 precautionary job losses at Stagecoach’s South West Trains, the siblings are down to their last £473m, the Sunday Times reckons.

The City is worried about potential SWT losses if revenue doesn’t grow as Stagecoach expected when the franchise began. The government agreed at the time to cover half the losses (or 80% of them if revenue is more than 6% below forecast), but not until 2011. Stagecoach has gone to arbitration after the government refused an earlier start to the payments. It also wants car-park charges excluded from the revenue figures used to calculate the payments, which the government has refused.

The sound of officials saying “no” is alien to Souter’s ears. Nobody stopped him using methods that were “predatory, deplorable and against the public interest” (in the Monopolies and Mergers Commission’s words) when building his bus empire. The SNP dropped its policy of regulating buses – to rein in the likes of Stagecoach – after Souter gave the SNP £500,000; even Scotland’s Labour opposition acknowledges the difficulties of regulation, as it’s “inconceivable that Brian Souter would agree to it”.

Virgin Trains, half owned by Stagecoach, has had massive bailouts while failing to deliver its 140mph upgrade but retaining its protection against competition. The first big bailout was hurriedly granted by the Strategic Rail Authority in 2002. Stagecoach was then in financial trouble, its share price having dropped by more than 90%, and Virgin had promised to pay the government franchise premiums from 2002-03. Questioned by MPs, SRA boss Richard Bowker said the bailout was a “stabilisation package” for Virgin Trains. When an MP noted that Stagecoach had “an AGM very rapidly after this [bailout] discussion took place”, Bowker admitted: “The timing of Stagecoach’s results announcement was important.”

The first SWT rail franchise, awarded to Stagecoach by John Major’s government, was one of the most generously subsidised. The next franchise gave taxpayers a chance to cut their largesse; instead, in 2003 Bowker’s SRA agreed to raise SWT’s annual subsidy by 370%. It wasn’t until the third SWT franchise, from 2007, that Stagecoach faced running trains without shedloads of subsidy.

PS: As chief of National Express Group, Bowker is now desperate for a government stabilisation package as revenue falls short at National Express East Coast (NEEC), connecting Yorkshire and Edinburgh to London. How has Souter responded in Bowker’s hour of need? By launching a budget bus service that competes against NEEC, using road coaches from York, Doncaster, Bradford and other places which connect with Stagecoach trains from the Midlands to London.” [Private Eye 1236]

[Brian Souter seems to like the DfT as much as Stewart Palmer likes Rail User Groups. He claims that the government owes Stagecoach £1m for work on the government’s rail strategy. “Referring to the £1m payout, Souter said: “If they were a private company we would sue them.” He also accused DfT officials of changing their minds over the smartcard dispute and other problems. “On some of these issues they have done 180-degree turns twice,” he said. “You do have an issue about whether you can trust these people.” … He denied he had launched the broadside because, with Labour far behind in the polls, there was likely to be a new government in power by the time the next scheduled rail franchise contest takes place. “I don’t give a toss where Labour are in the polls. I don’t care who is in government**.” [Guardian 25/6/09]

** Is Stagecoach no longer the SNP’s biggest donor then? And could it be that Mr Souter’s irritation is partly due to the fact that, had he bid about £500m less for SWT and about £100m more for Southern, he might have won both franchises and been some £400m better-off? SWT passengers are suffering from the huge economies Stagecoach has imposed on SWT after seriously overbidding to retain its cash-cow franchise. Great that Stagecoach is suffering a bit too. Mr Souter threatens, “We will continue to be in the railway business whatever happens” but we suspect there will be few tears shed by SWT passengers if Stagecoach goes.]

STAGECOACH LOBBYIST DISMISSED AS “DISINGENUOUS”

We commented in our last issue on the extreme prejudice demonstrated in RAIL No 616 by Stagecoach lobbyist Barry Doe. [Oddly, SWT Managing Director Stewart Palmer never seems to complain about such prejudice!] The following response to his comments appeared in RAIL No 618:

“The current standard time for a “fast” train from Southampton Central to London Waterloo is 80 or 81 minutes – pretty much the same as it was 50 years ago. In 1990, after the introduction of the Class 442 “Wessex Electrics”, the standard journey time was 66 minutes. The increase since then is because of an additional stop, timetable padding and the increased dwell time of the ‘Desiro’ trains. It is a little disingenuous to use a single fast run between Waterloo and Winchester to argue that there has been an improvement in the service, and to attribute this to the ‘Desiro’ trains. William Powrie, Southampton.”

NOTE In RAIL No 619 Mr Doe praises SWT for continuing to publish its formerly free timetable (304 pages for £4.00.) which “remains as excellent as ever”. We wonder what Mr Doe would say if the Great Britain Rail Timetable increased in price pro-rata to its 2,822 printed pages, from £15 to about £140.

GOOD OUTCOME ON NEW SOUTHERN FRANCHISE

* Go-Ahead is to keep the Southern franchise. With the Northern/Nedrail bid reportedly ruled out by DfT, and National Express and Stagecoach in financial trouble after over-bidding for their East Coast and South West Trains franchises respectively, this was the widely expected result.

* It would have looked very odd if Stagecoach had won the franchise, given that Lord Adonis picked out Stagecoach-managed Southampton Central as the low-spot of his recent round-Britain journey, and specifically praised Go-Ahead’s Brighton. The journey was pre-announced and our Group has long drawn attention to poor service of all kinds at Southampton Central, so Stagecoach has only itself to blame for attracting ministerial criticism.

* In addition, the new Southern franchise requires longer opening hours at station booking offices. It would have been ludicrous if Stagecoach had won, given its spectacular non-compliance with opening hours on SWT as confirmed by our Group.

* Oddly, the Guardian of 8 June reported that Stagecoach was picking up steam, and was believed to have given Go-Ahead a close run. Its bid had had a favourable reception with the DfT, and this had surprised the industry given the contention over government support for SWT. This sounded like a Stagecoach leak to shore up its share prices and, whatever the source, was par for the course - remember how the Guardian leaked Stagecoach’s success in bidding for the second SWT franchise, weeks before the official announcement?

* The market apparently responded to the leak, with Go-Ahead’s shares dropping 8p [Evening Standard, West End Final edition]. At start of play on 9 June, the news of Go-Ahead’s win appeared on DfT’s website. The company’s shares shot up 27p [Evening Standard, News Extra edition].

* The Guardian of 10 June reported surprise at the size of the Go-Ahead bid, which was £100m more than one of its rivals was thought to have offered. Stagecoach has been keen to win Southern ever since privatisation started, and the (Glasgow) Herald of 21 August 2008 had reported that winning the franchise would increase its rail revenues by over 50%.

* It would be good to know that the result did take account of passengers’ interests, rather than being a simple case of “highest bidder wins”. However, we can in any case rejoice that Sussex will not become part of the “Cowboy Country”; its rail users will not become “fully paid-up members of the Hindsight Club”; those Portsmouth-Waterloo commuters who switched to Southern in protest at SWT’s service being downgraded to suburban stock have not been betrayed; and Go-Ahead is to seek to increase its revenue through cheap fares rather than by imposing a greed tax on morning off-peak fares to London as Stagecoach did on SWT.

* The new hourly Sunday service between Southampton and Brighton is reportedly still in prospect from this coming December, along with some kind of direct service between Brighton and Southampton Airport (one idea in circulation is that Brighton-Southampton trains should run via Eastleigh, returning via their normal route, so that the same train sets down and picks up Brighton passengers at the airport). And Brighton-Victoria passengers will get ‘inter city’ comfort in Wessex Electric stock which was too good for passengers travelling three times as far between Waterloo and Weymouth because Stagecoach runs their trains.

CONSULTATION ON THE SUSSEX ROUTE UTILISATION STRATEGY

Response on behalf of the South Hampshire Rail Users’ Group

Looking towards Hampshire in the RUS

We are grateful for the opportunity to comment. Although this is the Sussex RUS, it broadly covers the same geographical area as the Southern franchise, and Hampshire rail users have a particular interest in Southern’s routes between London/Brighton and Portsmouth/Southampton.

Southern’s December 2007 timetable is remarkably well integrated and inclusive, providing high service frequencies at a substantial majority of stations. It is good to read in paragraph 3.5.7 that passenger numbers have increased significantly since its introduction.

Paragraph 7.5.1 notes that indicators of demand support the pattern of coastal services within which fast through journey times are partially compromised in order to cater for short journeys between a wide range of towns.

Paragraph 7.10.4 provides a marker about the implications for SWT services of improved Southern links with Southampton Airport, and the proposed Eastleigh Chord line.

Paragraph 8.10.2 considers the case for faster Coastway services into Southampton or Portsmouth and paragraph 9.5.1.2 suggests that removal of stops generally seems to offer low value. For longer journeys, the large number of stops is mitigated to some extent by the good connections which Southern has established, as between Ashford and Southampton trains at Brighton.

Looking into the RUS area from Hampshire

Despite so much that is positive, from the perspective of rail users in the Southampton area, the position looks just a little odd. The following issues may fall to be considered in the prospective South Eastern RUS, but it would be good if they could at least be marked up in the Sussex RUS given the relevance of the Southern franchise to services in south-east Hampshire.

The Portsmouth-Southampton corridor is the most populous provincial area south of a line from London to Bristol. Fifty years ago there was a half-hourly stopping/semi-fast diesel train service between Southampton and Portsmouth, augmented by inter-regional trains and additional peak-period local services. There were also, very occasional, direct inter-regional trains between Southampton and Chichester/ Brighton.

The semi-fast Southampton-Portsmouth service was ‘suspended’ during a prolonged period of single-line working in Southampton Tunnel in the mid-1980s and never restored. The inter-regional services have developed incrementally, and are now largely represented by First Great Western’s hourly Cardiff-Southampton-Portsmouth trains.

Currently, Southern is the major operator over much of the Southampton-Portsmouth route. It operates well-spaced trains each hour between Southampton and Victoria/Brighton via Chichester. However, these trains bypass central Portsmouth and serve Cosham, which is some 5 miles distant.

Although the Southampton-Portsmouth route is part of the SWT franchise, SWT operates only an hourly stopping service between the two cities, timed to connect with Waterloo trains at Fareham. In the morning peak, the service at some local stations is augmented by Southern trains. This means, for example, that Netley has 5 services to Southampton between 07.02 and 08.34. Return services in the evening peak are limited to SWT’s basic hourly service.

Off-peak, SWT’s stopping service from Southampton arrives into Portsmouth & Southsea station at 42 minutes past the hour, and FGW’s fast service arrives at 45 past. The return services are at 27 and 38 minutes past the hour. This is exceptionally poor spacing, and it is perhaps not surprising that the M27 between Southampton and Portsmouth is often severely congested. The hourly rail service from Southampton is good as far as Fareham (4 trains in total provided by the 3 operators), and it may have been the intention that passengers continuing to central Portsmouth should eventually switch to the South Hampshire Rapid Transport trams at Fareham when no direct train was available. However, the SHRT scheme is now abandoned.

Irrespective of SHRT, the need for an improved service between Southampton and Portsmouth was recognised in the SRA’s Strategic Plan. One of the proposals for the then Wessex Trains franchise was “Half hourly service, every day” between Bristol and Portsmouth by 2005-06.

The overall position is that services between the major cities of Southampton and Portsmouth have seriously deteriorated over the years, whilst an excellent new raft of services has been established between Southampton and Chichester.

With climate change high on the political agenda, there now seem to be pressing issues about the future pattern of services between Southampton and Portsmouth, whether or not the Eastleigh Chord is ever built (there must be a fine balance in the value for money of a new chord compared with running additional Southampton-Portsmouth services with reversal at the major and fast-growing town of Eastleigh).

It scarcely helps that 3 operators provide services between Cosham, Fareham and Southampton, and there would seem to be a strong case for Southern to operate all the services to and from Southampton via Fareham (except the FGW inter-regional trains) as part of its West Coastway route. Integration could maximise the use of rolling stock (currently SWT’s Southampton trains have huge layover times at Portsmouth) and bring the opportunity of attractive services between Southampton and Portsmouth such as much smaller towns along the Sussex coast enjoy. Although the lines into the two cities are busy, there are clearly still slots available.   

SPECTACULAR NON-COMPLIANCE WITH TICKET OFFICE STAFFING AT TOTTON
* MINISTER SAYS “WE EXPECT FURTHER IMPROVEMENT”
* SWT MANAGING DIRECTOR RESPONDS WITH PERSONAL ATTACK
* SWT DATA APPEARS TO BE 26.5% OVER-OPTIMISTIC, REFLECTING THE 27% DISCREPANCY IN PUBLISHED DATA FOLLOWING THE COMPANY’S ON-LINE POPULARITY POLL

New Forest East MP, Dr Julian Lewis, kindly referred the following letter from SHRUG’s organiser to Lord Adonis (the then rail minister) and to Stewart Palmer (Managing Director of South West Trains).

“TOTTON RAIL STATION – SPECTACULAR NON-COMPLIANCE WITH TICKET OFFICE OPENING HOURS

I wonder whether you would feel able to raise the neglect and continual downgrading of Totton station with Lord Adonis, the Minister responsible for railways.

Lord Adonis agreed several months ago that SWT could cut the ticket office opening hours at Totton. The office was already closed on Saturdays and Sundays, and the required hours on Mondays to Fridays were reduced from 05.50-12.45 to 05.40-10.00. This new hours were to be effective from 1 April.

The Evening Standard of 13 January reported that Lord Adonis expected SWT to comply “fully and consistently” with reduced opening hours. However, a 3-month survey by our Group has shown that the company was not remotely complying with the reduced hours even before they were introduced. The results of the survey are in the Annex.

The survey is significant because low ticket sales were the rationale for the new opening hours. It is not surprising that sales are low when the ticket office opens so little.

Background

Ticket office services at stations such as Totton are more important than ever, given the closure of Southampton Central’s travel centre. Even at Central, ticket offices are often closed when they should be open. Today the downside office was closed at 14.15; it should have been open until 18.00. On Saturday 9 May, only 2 windows on the upside were staffed at 11.40 and 26 people were in the queue.

Totton is now the fourth largest intermediate town between Southampton and Weymouth (after Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch) in population terms. Since 2003, the standard off-peak and Saturday service has reduced from 5 trains an hour to 2. Direct trains from London now take 30 minutes longer, as do trains to New Milton and Christchurch (more than double the previous journey time).

The reduced service also affects connectional times at Southampton Central. For example, about 50 minutes to wait for a train towards Netley or Chandlers Ford (in previous times, both have had direct Totton services) and 50-minute wait for Totton passengers off the Cross Country services from Manchester.

The physical state of Totton station is appalling. On platform 1, shards of rotten wood often accumulate around the rat trap, and with such limited staffing, the cycle storage facilities have been prominently marked as a Hampshire cycle crime spot.

Lord Adonis recently undertook a 2,200-mile tour of Britain’s railways, travelling on 40 trains. He described Southampton Central as the “low spot” of his epic journey. Pity he didn’t reach Totton, as we could probably have claimed that honour.”

ANNEX

MONDAYS TO FRIDAYS	TIME CHECKED	OPEN/CLOSED
02/02/09	06.15	CLOSED
03/02/09	07.15	CLOSED
04/02/09	06.10	OPEN
05/02/09	06.10	CLOSED
06/02/09	05.50	CLOSED
09/02/09	06.10	CLOSED
10/02/09	06.10	CLOSED
11/02/09	06.10	CLOSED
12/02/09	06.10	OPEN
13/02/09	06.10	CLOSED
16/02/09	06.10	OPEN
17/02/09	06.10	CLOSED
18/02/09	06.10	CLOSED
19/02/09	06.10	OPEN
20/02/09	06.10	CLOSED
23/02/09	06.10	CLOSED
24/02/09	06.10	CLOSED
25/02/09	07.15	CLOSED
26/02/09	06.10	CLOSED
27/02/09	06.10	CLOSED
02/03/09	06.10	OPEN
03/03/09	06.10	CLOSED
04/03/09	06.45	OPEN
05/03/09	08.50	OPEN
06/03/09	08.35	CLOSED
09/03/09	08.35	CLOSED
10/03/09	08.35	OPEN
11/03/09	08.35	CLOSED
12/03/09	06.20	CLOSED
13/03/09	06.20	CLOSED
16/03/09	06.10	CLOSED
17/03/09	06.05	OPENING
18/03/09	07.00	OPEN
19/03/09	06.05	OPENING
20/03/09	06.05	OPEN
23/03/09	08.00	OPEN
24/03/09	09.00	OPEN
25/03/09	08.30	CLOSED
26/03/09	08.30	CLOSED
27/03/09	08.30	CLOSED
30/03/09	08.30	CLOSED
31/03/09	08.00	CLOSED
01/04/09	08.15	CLOSED
02/04/09	06.10	CLOSED
03/04/09	06.10	CLOSED
06/04/09	06.10	CLOSED
07/04/09	06.10	CLOSED
08/04/09	07.00	OPEN
09/04/09	07.15	CLOSED
Good Friday
Easter Monday
14/04/09	07.15	OPEN
15/04/09	07.15	CLOSED
16/04/09	07.00	OPEN
17/04/09	06.10	OPEN
20/04/09	07.00	OPEN
21/04/09	06.10	CLOSED
22/04/09	07.15	OPEN
23/04/09	06.10	CLOSED
24/04/09	06.10	CLOSED
27/04/09	06.10	OPEN
28/04/09	06.10	CLOSED
29/04/09	06.10	OPEN
30/04/09	06.10	CLOSED

REPLY FROM NEW RAIL MINISTER, CHRIS MOLE MP

Lord Adonis was promoted before a reply was sent and the new rail minister, Chris Mole, sent a friendly but rather technical letter, dealing with ticket office opening hours only. This concluded:

“Ministers expect that the final agreed hours are staffed robustly and they are monitored to ensure that SWT is making reasonable endeavours to meet this obligation. This process will not be immediate as SWT may need to retrain or redeploy existing staff, however their progress will be monitored.

“Evidence indicates that compliance with the revised ticket office opening hours is improving. Information provided by SWT for the period 01 April 2009-02 May 2009 showed that the company achieved 96.5 per cent compliance with these hours. For the same period at Totton there was 86.5 per cent compliance, so we expect further improvement.”

REPLY FROM STEWART PALMER, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF SOUTH WEST TRAINS

“Thank you for your letter of 20th May. I am not sure what dealings you have had with Dennis Fryer, but he is a serial complainer who has had a long-term grudge against South West Trains. He seems to delight in criticizing our efforts and ignores the very significant improvements that have been made to our services over the years.

That said, to deal with the specifics of the issues raised by Mr Fryer I would comment as follows.

1. Opening hours of Totton station. As I have explained to a number of individuals, and their elected representatives, we had a policy of not recruiting for many months in the run up to the reduced opening hours we proposed. It would have been quite wrong to recruit people, to train them, only to make them redundant. The process of consultation with the trade unions, and the allocation of displaced individuals to vacancies has taken some time and we are progressively moving towards compliance with the published hours. Despite Mr Fryer’s assertion about the importance of Totton, we have allocated people into vacancies prioritizing by the revenue at risk. Totton is frankly not a top priority. That said I expect to be fully compliant at all our staffed stations within the next 2 months.

2. The pattern of the train service. As you know the Department for Transport stipulated the timetable to be operated in the new franchise and it is the case that Totton now has a less attractive service than it used to. We did indeed take on a number of suggestions from local residents to mitigate the impact of this, but fundamentally this is an issue for the Department. We will operate whatever specification they want, providing they are prepared to pay for any services, which are not commercially viable.

3. The condition of the station. I do not accept that the station is “appalling”. We do have problems with petty vandalism and we spend a great deal of money every year on security, repairs and maintenance. We replaced the waiting shelter on the down platform in March 2007, and I inspected the station personally on 22nd May and it was clean and tidy. I will arrange for the station to be visited by our maintenance team and see if any more can be done cosmetically, but we have to recognise that within the funds available we will maintain our stations in a safe condition, with priority going to those stations that generate the most revenue. You might be interested to know that South West Trains won a “station environment award” last year as the Train Operator with the best overall station condition on the network. Our overall customer satisfaction in the bi annual National Passenger Survey (NPS) conducted by “Passenger Focus” in the Autumn of 2008 was the highest we have ever achieved.

I do hope that this deals with the issues raised and I can only say that Mr Fryer’s jaundiced view of our service is not reflected in the general feedback that we get from our passengers.”

CONCLUSIONS

* Presumably the monitoring to which Mr Mole refers is based on data provided by SWT, the company which published 61% as the number of respondents to their poll who thought Stagecoach should have retained the SWT franchise, when the poll showed 34% just before it closed. That’s an error of 27% in SWT’s favour. Our survey established 60% compliance with ticket office opening hours at Totton during April, when the official figure is 86.5% for 1 April-1 May. That’s a 26.5% error in SWT’s favour. Just a coincidence?

* The role of a Rail User Group is to represent passengers’ interests. Perhaps Mr Palmer would like us to follow his Passengers Panel in adding “SWT, to their credit” when we focus on a problem which passengers have with his company.

* Non-compliance with ticket office opening hours is probably much more general than Mr Palmer suggests. The downside ticket office at Southampton Central should be open until 6pm on Mondays to Fridays. It was closed at 2.15pm on 18 May; 10.30am on 20 May; and 4.20pm on 2 June. We understand that similar problems have been encountered at other stations such as Hook and Eastleigh.

* Mr Palmer has clearly forgotten how Totton got such a poor train service. DfT’s consultation on the revised timetable failed to mention that the existing stops at Totton and Ashurst would be omitted from the London semi-fast trains so, obviously, no objections were raised. However, our Group obtained the full proposals through a Freedom of Information request. The train which now serves Totton was supposed to run fast from Clapham Junction to Basingstoke. This would have avoided costly layover time and missed connections at Southampton Central. DfT’s specification is reproduced on our website if he can be bothered to look.

[The problems arose because stops were added at Farnborough and Fleet, which respectively already had 3 and 2 London services per hour. DfT confirmed by e’mail that the changed specification was agreed between SWT and Network Rail and was NOT specified by DfT. It means that the Totton train has to stand at Southampton Central for 15 minutes to be overtaken, and the potential sharp connection at Brockenhurst for New Milton and Christchurch is extended to a delay of 25 minutes. It is theoretically possible to make a faster London to Totton journey by changing at Southampton, but SWT refuses to hold the connection even when passengers are running to catch it.

To put this into context, SWT’s parent company Stagecoach has never shown much interest in Southern Hampshire. It first got out of debt by buying Hampshire Bus and selling off the less profitable Southern Hampshire routes, together with Southampton’s bus station, for a huge profit. It now operates the majority of public transport in Northern Hampshire and, being noted for its anti-competitive ethos, is no doubt bent on saturating the market there, hence the extra Fleet and Farnborough stops. ]

* It’s probably fair to say that any improvements on SWT have been more than offset by service deterioration. Examples of customer-unfriendly changes are the closure of the busy station travel centres (to include Waterloo from September); the removal of inter-city rolling stock from the Waterloo-Weymouth line in a stock reshuffle designed to enhance profits; the extension of journey times after Stephen Byers threatened to terminate the franchise because of poor performance; and the imposition of penalty fares on passengers who have inadvertently obtained the wrong ticket (a SWT leaflet confirms that this is deliberate policy) .

* Turning to the National Passenger Survey Statistics, PassengerFocus has confirmed that SWT’s latest satisfaction rating was based on a single question about whether the journeys passengers had just made were broadly satisfactory. Ratings for individual aspects of service have deteriorated eye-wateringly, especially at peak times, when compared with a year previously. Eight have improved, 3 are unchanged, and 20 have got worse. This serious deterioration complements Lord Adonis’ personal findings. Those which are down by 5% or more are:

OVERALL STATION ENVIRONMENT DOWN FROM 69% TO 57%
AVAILABILITY OF TRAIN STAFF DOWN FROM 42% TO 32%
VALUE FOR MONEY DOWN FROM 31% TO 22%
TOILET FACILITIES DOWN FROM 38% TO 29%
STATION FACILITIES AND SERVICES DOWN FROM 53% TO 45%
CLEANLINESS OF THE TRAIN DOWN FROM 80% TO 71%
EASE OF ALIGHTING AND BOARDING DOWN FROM 75% TO 67%
PERSONAL SECURITY AT STATION DOWN FROM 68% TO 61%
AVAILABILITY OF STAFF AT STATION DOWN FROM 60% TO 53%
STATION CLEANLINESS DOWN FROM 67% TO 60%
CAR PARKING FACILITIES DOWN FROM 50% TO 45%
UPKEEP OF STATION DOWN FROM 59% TO 54%

The Southern Daily Echo of 30 January 2006 published a survey of SWT stations which made grim reading. It focused on things such as squalid toilets, and this is generally as true today as it was then – a few visits to the Gents at Southampton Central will confirm.

WHEN NOT DEALING WITH THINGS LIKE STAGECOACH AGGRESSION, THE BRITISH TRANSPORT POLICE’S PRIORITIES CAN SEEM EXTRAORDINARY

Remember those talks by senior BTP officers to the former Rail Passengers Committees? The speakers always claimed that the force was such a thin blue line that its operations were increasingly targeted on problem hotspots.

Compare the current position:

[RAILNEWS, May 2009] “British Transport Police is facing the dual challenge of rail crime on the increase as recession bites and a clampdown on budgets. That was the hard-hitting message from deputy chief constable Andy Trotter, who has been named as the man who will take over from Ian Johnston as chief constable in the summer.

… He said that although crime had been falling on the railway for around five years, there had recently been an increase in certain types of crime, such as theft from passengers and cable theft because of the increasing price of copper.

... The deputy chief constable, who started his police career with the ‘Met’ in 1970, added: “I am enormously proud of what people in BTP have done in the last few years. We are very well regarded by colleagues in other forces. The challenge for us now is how to improve and maintain that performance…”

[Evening Standard 12/5/09] “Only one out of every 237 people stopped and searched under anti-terrorism powers on London’s transport network last year was arrested, figures reveal today.

Statistics show 32,338 searches were carried out on Tube, rail or bus passengers in 2007-08 using Section 44 of the Terrorism Act, which allows checks to be conducted without suspicion. Only 136 resulted in arrest and it is understood of those the vast majority – if not all – had no connection with terrorism.

British Transport Police, which carried out the searches, defended its use of the power and claimed the searches were intended to deter potential terrorists [How would randomly abusing a few thousand of the millions who travel on public transport each year deter suicide bombers?].

Despite this, the Government’s independent reviewer of terror legislation, Lord Carlile of Berriew, this week said the powers were being misused. The Met, which has conducted 154,293 Section 44 searches since October 2007, has responded by announcing that it intends to curb its use of the power.

Today’s figures also prompted fresh calls from London politicians for Section 44 to be severely curtailed. Jenny Jones, a Green Assembly member who also sits on the Metropolitan Police Authority, said searches should be linked to intelligence and “genuine suspicion” and were only serving to alienate commuters.”

ADVICE TO SELL STAGECOACH SHARES AND BUY GO-AHEAD SHARES

* Brewin Dolphin is advising investors to buy Go Ahead shares in the light of the company’s successful bid for the Southern franchise. [Evening Standard 23/6/09].

* “Stock markets famously hate uncertainty, but FTSE 250 chief executives seem none too keen on it, either. That was the distinct impression left by Brian Souter, the plain-speaking boss of Stagecoach, who spent much of Wednesday’s full-year results presentation by the bus and train operator fulminating against the Department for Transport (DfT).

The company is locked in five separate disputes with the DfT over the contractual terms of its UK rail operations, the biggest of which — a disagreement over the date at which Stagecoach’s South West Trains (SWT) commuter franchise qualifies for state protection from revenue shortfalls — could alone cost it £100 million.

The problem is that, although Stagecoach is seen to have a strong case under the original terms of the SWT deal, the Government’s recourse to the High Court, rather than rail industry arbitration panels, means that the matter is likely to take at least a year to resolve. In the interim, Mr Souter was yesterday left to brand the DfT as “dysfunctional”.

Stagecoach’s non-rail businesses continue to run to plan. In UK buses, profits rose 14 per cent to £126 million, helped by a rise in underlying revenues — up 8.9 per cent — that, one year after the launch of concessionary fare schemes, show no sign of slowdown. Further, Stagecoach’s operating margins, at 15.1 per cent, remain the best in its sector. The group’s North American operations are also holding up, despite the pressure on tourist revenues from tougher times and, until recently, a stronger US dollar. Start-up losses from its Megabus operation also failed to prevent a 20 per cent rise in profits to £25.2 million. The overall encouragement is that, across its businesses, Stagecoach has acted swiftly to cut costs, that its fuel requirements for the next two years are largely hedged, and that, with net debt of £340 million, its balance sheet remains strong.

Aside from a secure and rising dividend, Stagecoach’s appeal has been an operating performance consistently better than its peers. But its exposure to falling UK rail revenues, a potentially protracted legal spat and this month’s revelation by The Times that Stagecoach paid £1.2 billion to secure the SWT contract — twice the offer of the nearest bidder — must undermine that allure.

At 127¾p, up 10p and at nine times earnings, avoid.” [Times On-Line 25/6/09]

SEVERE CONSEQUENCES OF THE WINDSOR DERAILMENT

There was another derailment on South West Trains on Friday 22 May. The rear carriage of an early morning Waterloo train, formed of 2 suburban Desiro units, was derailed as it left Windsor and Eton Riverside station. The Windsor and Maidenhead Observer reported that there were 12 passengers on the train but, fortunately, none was injured. There was then no service from the station for two whole days.

[‘Buses’ magazine reports that, six days earlier, an old Stagecoach bus was burnt out near Glasgow’s Buchanan bus station]

TOTTON-HYTHE PASSENGER SERVICE ASPIRATION AND NEW PROPOSAL FOR FAREHAM TRAMS

* A report by Chris Austen for the Association of Train Operating Companies puts forward a strong case for expanding the rail network by opening new lines and stations. Schemes could not go ahead until 2014, but might be realised in the following five years. Some 14 lines and 40 stations have been identified where the benefits outweighed the costs. Totton-Hythe is the most cost-effective at only £3m, and might be achieved by running the Romsey-Eastleigh-Southampton service to Hythe rather than to Salisbury as at present. A surprise proposal is a £70m single-track reinstatement from Brockenhurst to Ringwood with electrification.

There is considerable support for the Hythe line. The Ringwood scheme has received a positive public response but many believe that 12 miles of track across the New Forest National Park to Ringwood simply won’t happen. South West Trains is reportedly positive to the proposal, but has failed to mention that it wouldn’t contribute financially but would be prepared to take any subsidy or profit. As it isn’t even prepared to comply with the current Service Level Requirement at Totton [direct London trains calling only at Southampton Central, Southampton Airport, Eastleigh, Shawford, Winchester, Basingstoke, Clapham Junction and Waterloo] it has presumably jumped on the band wagon just to get some positive publicity after Lord Adonis found Southampton Central the low spot of his national travels.

* The Southern Daily Echo of 30/6/09 reported that Hampshire transport bosses are now proposing tram-trains to replace trains between Southampton and Fareham via Netley. The idea seems rather surprising. Although long-distance train services could in theory be diverted via Botley, this would mean scheduling 10 trains an hour through the single track tunnel at Fontley, even in off-peak periods. Otherwise service cuts would be necessary, unless substantial resources were available for a bypass line or tunnel widening.

There is already a good service of 4 trains an hour from Southampton to Fareham though, with the exception of Swanwick, intermediate stations are not well served. The major deficiency in current services is that there are only 2 trains an hour from Southampton to Portsmouth, and they usually get there 3 minutes apart in each hour.

Tram-trains would seem to make more sense if they could continue beyond Fareham to the Gosport ferry which provides an easy crossing to Portsmouth Harbour station, the Isle of Wight ferries, The Hard bus station and Gunwharf Quays. This would make the proposed Fareham-Gosport guided busway redundant, and mirror part of the former Fareham-Gosport-Portsmouth tramway scheme. Although that scheme was abandoned for financial reasons, the major costs related to the tunnel between Gosport and Portsmouth.

STAGECOACH FOUNDER ACCUSED OF WEAKENING SCOTLAND’S RIGHT TO ROAM LEGISLATION

[Sunday Times 07/06/09]

Ramblers Scotland allege that Stagecoach founder Ann Gloag’s court victory after erecting a seven-foot high security fence on her Kinfauns estate near Perth has made local authorities reluctant to challenge other wealthy landowners who breach the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, which was intended to increase public access to the countryside.

Gloag won the legal battle in 2007 against Perth and Kinross council and the Ramblers Association, who were forced to pay her legal bill which ran into tens of thousands of pounds. Ramblers Scotland say that, since then, the legislation has been challenged by a number of landowners who have erected security fences and removed stiles and footbridges on their farms and estates.

SWT’S ‘RIGHT TIME’ RAILWAY: DUFF STOCK / CREW SHORTAGES / CANCELLATIONS / TRAINS TERMINATING SHORT OF DESTINATION / STOPS AXED FOR OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE

Note: These details are snapshots, based on passengers' own experiences and website information. Delays should be seen in the context that Stagecoach is generally operating the slowest services since steam. 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.

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.

Friday 01/05/09 Passengers on the 23.20 Waterloo-Reading THROWN OFF at Ascot.

Saturday 02/05/09 20.53 Windsor-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Sunday 03/05/09 06.50 Poole-Waterloo 52 minutes late due to engineering work; passengers THROWN OFF at Southampton. 07.17 Portsmouth-Waterloo 8 minutes late. 07.32 Yeovil-Waterloo 11 minutes late. Passengers on the 07.48 Basingstoke-Poole THROWN OFF at Eastleigh. 13.14 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 18 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 13.15 Waterloo-Paignton 7 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 20.50 Waterloo-Woking 20 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Monday 04/05/09 06.33 Staines-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.07 Weybridge-Waterloo 8 minutes late. 19.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 10 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; passengers THROWN OFF at Wandsworth.

Tuesday 05/05/09 NO RECOGNISABLE EVENING PEAK SERVICE ON THE SWT MAIN LINES THROUGH WIMBLEDON DUE TO SIGNALLING PROBLEMS; TRAINS UP TO ABOUT 50 MINUTES LATE. 19.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 25 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 20.03 Waterloo-Guildford AXED. Passengers on the 20.48 Salisbury-Romsey THROWN OFF at Eastleigh. 20.57 Salisbury-Bristol 28 minutes late. 21.08 Guildford-Waterloo 24 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Surbiton and Waterloo AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 21.30 Southampton-Waterloo AXED. 21.41 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED. 22.07 Romsey-Romsey AXED between Romsey and Eastleigh. 21.55 Southampton-Waterloo 25 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Basingstoke and Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE.

Wednesday 06/05/09 05.00 Poole-Waterloo 6 minutes late. 06.50 Southampton Airport-Waterloo REDUCED TO 9 COACHES INCLUDING A 4-COACH SUBURBAN UNIT. 08.07 Twickenham-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. ANIMALS ON THE LINE. 06.12 Waterloo-Weymouth 30 minutes late. 06.30 Waterloo-Weymouth 53 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Dorchester. 09.03 Weymouth-Waterloo 45 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Bournemouth. 09.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 28 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Southampton Airport AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.03 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester. 10.11 Shepperton-Waterloo 10 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Kingston and Waterloo AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 26 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Southampton Airport AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.33 Weybridge-Waterloo 19 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Hounslow, except Clapham Junction, AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.53 Windsor-Waterloo 28 minutes late. 10.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo 6 minutes late. Passengers on the 11.23 Windsor-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Staines. 12.07 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 10 minutes late; stops at North Sheen and Mortlake AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 12.28 Waterloo-Windsor AXED between Waterloo and Staines.

Thursday 07/05/09 Passengers on the 06.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Putney DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.09 Waterloo-Guildford 20 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; all intermediate stops before Raynes Park AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 17.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 17 minutes late due to level crossing problem; all intermediate stops between Hounslow and Barnes AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 17.50 Waterloo-Reading 15 minutes late. 18.01 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 8 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Kingston AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 18.20/18.50/19.20/19.50/20.20 Waterloo-Reading diverted; Richmond and Twickenham stops AXED. 18.31 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 14 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Kingston AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 18.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 19 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Hounslow and Barnes AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 18.52 Waterloo-Weybridge REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.58 Waterloo-Windsor diverted; Richmond, Twickenham and Whitton stops AXED. 19.01 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 10 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Kingston AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 20 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; all intermediate stops between Hounslow and Barnes AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.33 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 11 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Kingston AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE.

Friday 08/05/09 05.49 Wimbledon-Guildford 24 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Effingham Junction and Guildford AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 06.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.47 Woking-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 17 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Hounslow and Barnes AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 18.52 Waterloo-Weybridge REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 20 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Hounslow and Barnes AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE.

Saturday 09/05/09 Passengers on the 01.05 Waterloo-Southampton THROWN ON TO A BUS at Basingstoke due to engineering work. Fatality at Swaythling with 50-minute delays. 06.28 Poole-Waterloo DIVERTED. 06.53 Wareham-Waterloo 36 minutes late and DIVERTED. Passengers on the 06.55 Weymouth-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Southampton. 07.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 50 minutes late. Passengers on the 07.50 Poole-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Southampton. 08.03 Weymouth-Waterloo 16 minutes late and DIVERTED. 08.05 Waterloo-Weymouth AXED between Waterloo and Southampton. 08.20 Weymouth-Waterloo DIVERTED. 08.39 Waterloo-Poole AXED between Waterloo and Southampton. Passengers on the 08.48 Salisbury-Romsey THROWN OFF at Southampton. Passengers on the 08.50 Poole-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Southampton. 09.03 Weymouth-Waterloo DIVERTED. 09.44 Southampton-Portsmouth AXED. Passengers on the 09.48 Salisbury-Romsey THROWN OFF at Southampton. 10.03 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Bournemouth. 10.05 Waterloo-Weymouth AXED between Waterloo and Southampton. Passengers on the 10.20 Weymouth-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Southampton. 10.39 Waterloo-Poole AXED between Waterloo and Bournemouth, 10.50 Poole-Waterloo 25 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Basingstoke AXED DUE TO OPERATIOAL CONVENIENCE. 12.05 Waterloo-Weymouth AXED between Waterloo and Bournemouth. 12.20 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Bournemouth. 13.05 Waterloo-Weymouth AXED between Waterloo and Bournemouth. 13.39 Waterloo-Poole AXED. 14.20 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester. Signalling problems at Hinton Admiral. 15.39 Waterloo-Poole 20 minutes late. 16.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 38 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Dorchester. 16.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 27 minutes late. 17.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 30 minutes late. 17.33 Weybridge-Waterloo 14 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Hounslow and Barnes AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.20 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester.

Sunday 10/05/09 22.01 Windsor-Waterloo 37 minutes late due to signalling; all intermediate stops after Staines AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE.

Monday 11/05/09 Millbrook stop of the 10.48 Salisbury-Romsey AXED due to signalling problems. Passengers on the 14.48 Salisbury-Romsey THROWN OFF at Eastleigh DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. Passengers on the 15.48 Salisbury-Romsey THROWN OFF at Eastleigh DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 16.07 Romsey-Salisbury AXED between Romsey and Eastleigh DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 17.07 Romsey-Salisbury AXED between Romsey and Eastleigh DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 17.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.15 Waterloo-Fratton REDUCED TO 9 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 16 minutes late. 19.48 Salisbury-Romsey 61 minutes late due to obstruction; passengers THROWN OFF at Romsey. 20.48 Salisbury-Romsey 20 minutes late. 21,07 Romsey-Salisbury AXED between Romsey and Romsey.

Tuesday 12/05/09 15.58 Guildford-Waterloo 13 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.08 Guildford-Waterloo 13 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.11 Shepperton-Waterloo 13 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.20 Waterloo-Exeter 17 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.20 Waterloo-Woking 18 minutes late. 18.37 Weybridge-Waterloo 5 minutes late. 19.54 Basingstoke-Waterloo 30 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE.

Wednesday 13/05/09 MORNING SECURITY ALERT AT VAUXHALL ADDED TO THE NORMAL MISERY. 08.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 22 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Brockenhurst and Bournemouth AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 08.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 22 minutes late. 09.03 Waterloo-Guildford 29 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Effingham Junction AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.03 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 29 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Kingston AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 26 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Brockenhurst and Bournemouth AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.07 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 27 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Richmond AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.08 Guildford-Waterloo 26 minutes late. 09.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 21 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Hounslow AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.15 Waterloo-Haslemere 21 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Guildford AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.24 Hampton Court-Waterloo 28 minutes late. 09.27 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 31 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Richmond AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.33 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 26 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Kingston AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.33 Weybridge-Waterloo 13 minutes late. 09.35 Dorking-Waterloo 12 minutes late. 09.37 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 31 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Hounslow AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.39 Waterloo-Guildford 40 minutes late; all intermediate stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.42 Waterloo-Shepperton 22 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Fulwell. 09.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED between Waterloo and Guildford. 09.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 31 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Hounslow AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.53 Waterloo-Alton AXED. 09.54 Hampton Court-Waterloo 16 minutes late. 10.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED. 10.03 Woking-Waterloo 15 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Surbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.03 Waterloo-Guildford 28 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Surbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.03 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 18 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Kingston AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. Passengers on the 10.03 Weymouth-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Southampton DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 10.05 Dorking-Waterloo AXED between Dorking and Leatherhead. 10.09 Waterloo-Guildford 28 minutes late; stops at Motspur Park, Worcester Park, Stoneleigh, Ewell West and Ashstead AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.20 Waterloo-Exeter AXED between Waterloo and Basingstoke. 10.28 Guildford-Waterloo 15 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Effingham Junction AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.35 Dorking-Waterloo AXED. Passengers on the 10.41 Shepperton-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Teddington. 10.44 Alton-Waterloo AXED between Alton and Farnham. 10.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 20 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Richmond AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 20 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Norbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.11 Shepperton-Waterloo 20 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Teddington AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.33 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 20 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Richmond AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.44 Alton-Waterloo AXED. 11.54 Basingstoke-Waterloo 20 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 13.39 Waterloo-Poole AXED between Waterloo and Southampton. 14.15 Waterloo-Haslemere AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Passengers on the 14.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Eastleigh DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.37 Haslemere-Waterloo AXED between Haslemere and Guildford DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.39 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 15 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 20.15 Alton-Waterloo 8 minutes late; West Byfleet stop AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE.

Thursday 14/05/09 06.23 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.13 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 22.25 Bristol-Salisbury AXED between Bristol and Westbury.

Friday 15/05/09 14.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 16 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; all intermediate stops between Brockenhurst and Bournemouth AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 14.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 23 minutes late. 14.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth 15 minutes late. 15.03 Weymouth-Waterloo 20 minutes late. 15.50 Poole-Waterloo 16 minutes late. 16.12 Reading-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 16.27 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 32 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 16.33 Waterloo-Guildford 29 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. Earlsfield stop of 16.42 Waterloo-Shepperton AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 16.42 Reading-Waterloo 17 minutes late DUETO DUFF TRAIN. 16.54 Waterloo-Dorking 13 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 16.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo had all intermediate stops after Richmond, except Clapham Junction and Vauxhall, AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 17.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth 10 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 17.03 Woking-Waterloo 13 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 17.05 Dorking-Waterloo 12 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 17.24 Hampton Court-Waterloo 22 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 17.35 Dorking-Waterloo 15 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops after Epsom AXED. London Road, Clandon and Horsley stops of the 17.58 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 18.05 Waterloo-Aldershot AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. Wimbledon, Earlsfield Clapham Junction and Vauxhall stops of the 18.08 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. All intermediate stops, before Epsom, of the 18.09 Waterloo-Guildford AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 20.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth 19 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. Passengers on the 21.53 Waterloo-Alton THROWN OFF at Clapham Junction DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 23.44 Alton-Farnham AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN.

Saturday 16/05/09 05.05 Waterloo-Reading 31 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 14.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo AXED between Portsmouth and Fratton DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 19 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Hounslow AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 20.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 18 minutes late. 20.50 Waterloo-Reading 14 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Sunday 17/05/09 Passengers on the 01.05 Waterloo-Southampton THROWN OFF at Basingstoke. Virginia Water stops of the 07.54/08.24/08.54 Waterloo-Weybridge AXED.

Monday 18/05/09 07.29 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 09.53 Windsor-Waterloo AXED between Windsor and Staines. 17.24 Basingstoke-Southampton AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.35 Waterloo-Weymouth REDUCED TO 9 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.02 Waterloo-Woking REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.15 Waterloo-Fratton REDUCED TO 9 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.17 Southampton-Winchester AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.12 Paignton-Basingstoke 14 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Tuesday 19/05/09 04.55 Southampton-Waterloo 8 minutes late. 10.39 Waterloo-Guildford 22 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; all intermediate stops before Effingham Junction AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 15.53 Waterloo-Alton 19 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.39 Waterloo-Portsmouth REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.12 Waterloo-Shepperton REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.20 Waterloo-Woking REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.42 Reading-Waterloo 24 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Ascot AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 17.50 Waterloo-Reading 16 minutes late. 23.50 Waterloo-Guildford 48 minutes late.

Wednesday 20/05/09 17.52 Plymouth-Waterloo 5 minutes late. 19.10 Chessington-Waterloo AXED. 20.05 Waterloo-Poole REDUCED TO 4 SERVICEABLE COACHES.

Thursday 21/05/09 09.53 Waterloo-Alton 11 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Passengers on the 16.50 Waterloo-Gillingham THROWN OFF at Salisbury. Passengers on the 16.30 Guildford-Ascot THROWN OFF at Aldershot. 17.13 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED.

Friday 22/05/09 NO SERVICES TO WINDSOR ALL DAY DUE TO A DERAILMENT. 07.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 08.58 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 09.56 Reading-Waterloo 13 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; all intermediate stops after Staines AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 15.52 Bristol-Salisbury 45 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; Warminster stop AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.36 Waterloo-Hampton Court REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 18.02 Waterloo-Woking REDUCED TO 8 COACHES. 18.09 Waterloo-Guildford REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 19.20 Waterloo-Exeter 10 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 20.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 14 minutes late DUE TO DERAILMENT. 21.00 Exeter-Waterloo 11 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 21.33 Weybridge-Waterloo 10 minutes late.

Saturday 23/05/09 STILL NO SERVICES TO WINDSOR DUE TO PREVIOUS DAY’S DERAILMENT. 06.20 Honiton-Waterloo REDUCED TO 2 COACHES and 26 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 06.40 Salisbury-Bristol AXED between Westbury and Bristol. 07.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 5 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.50 Bristol-Salisbury AXED between Bristol and Westbury. 09.50 Waterloo-Salisbury REDUCED TO 2 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 10.35 Waterloo-Weymouth REDUCED TO 5 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 11.45 Salisbury-Waterloo REDUCED TO 2 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 13.50 Waterloo-Salisbury REDUCED TO 2 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 34 minutes late. 17.50 Poole-Waterloo 29 minutes late; Fleet and Farnborough stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 18.45 Salisbury-Waterloo 39 minutes late. 18.50 Waterloo-Salisbury 29 minutes late. 19.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 24 minutes late. 19.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth 19 minutes late. 19.20 Waterloo-Exeter 14 minutes late. 19.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 12 minutes late.

Sunday 24/05/09 07.54 Reading-Waterloo 15 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 13.50 Basingstoke-Waterloo AXED between Basingstoke and Woking due to trespass incident. 14.52 Woking-Waterloo 17 minutes late. 15.01 Windsor-Waterloo 19 minutes late. 15.34 Windsor-Waterloo 22 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Staines, except Clapham Junction, AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 15.39 Waterloo-Reading 36 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Staines AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 15.44 Waterloo-Windsor 32 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Twickenham AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 15.57 Waterloo-Hampton Court 18 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW.

Monday 25/05/09 Fatality at New Milton. 06.55 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED west of Brockenhurst and 34 minutes late. Passengers on the 07.20 Weymouth-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Bournemouth. Passengers on the 07.39 Waterloo-Poole THROWN OFF at Southampton. 07.50 Poole-Waterloo 83 minutes late. 07.55 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED. 08.03 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Bournemouth and Southampton Airport and 29 minutes late. 08.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 31 minutes late. Passengers on the 08.50 Poole-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Bournemouth. 08.55 Southampton-Waterloo 51 minutes late. 09.03 Weymouth-Waterloo 21 minutes late. 09.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 14 minutes late. 09.50 Poole-Waterloo 21 minutes late. 10.08 Guildford-Waterloo 13 minutes late. 12.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 20 minutes late. Passengers on the 13.35 Waterloo-Weymouth THROWN OFF at Bournemouth DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 13.42 Reading-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Wokingham DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 14.24 Hampton Court-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Passengers on the 14.05 Waterloo-Weymouth THROWN OFF at Brockenhurst DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.20 Waterloo-Reading 25 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; all intermediate stops before Staines AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.03 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Bournemouth. 17.03 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Bournemouth DUE TO NO CREW. 17.20 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Wareham DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Tuesday 26/05/09 07.00 Aldershot-Waterloo 31 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; all intermediate stops after Ascot AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.12 Reading-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 13.12 Waterloo-Shepperton 10 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; all intermediate stops before Norbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 15.46 Waterloo-Chessington REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.50 Waterloo-Woking REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.40 Chessington-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.03 Woking-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Signalling problems at Vauxhall. Passengers on the 17.17 Portsmouth-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Woking. 17.53 Waterloo-Basingstoke 24 minutes late. 17.55 Waterloo-Alton 25 minutes late. 18.02 Waterloo-Woking 28 minutes late. 18.54 Waterloo-Dorking AXED between Waterloo and Raynes Park. 19.23 Waterloo-Surbiton AXED. All intermediate stops, after Surbiton, of the 19.24 Hampton Court-Waterloo AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED between Waterloo and Woking.

Wednesday 27/05/09 06.42 Exeter-Waterloo 15 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 07.55 Poole-Waterloo 14 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 08.12 Waterloo-Basingstoke AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 09.23 Waterloo-Alton AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 08.54 Basingstoke-Waterloo 17 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 09.03 Weymouth-Waterloo 16 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 09.12 Waterloo-Basingstoke 36 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 09.14 Alton-Waterloo 25 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 09.24 Basingstoke-Waterloo 20 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 09.42 Waterloo-Basingstoke 23 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 09.50 Waterloo-Woking 13 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 10.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth 10 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 10.42 Waterloo-Basingstoke 16 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 10.44 Alton-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 10.54 Basingstoke-Waterloo 15 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; Walton-on-Thames and Weybridge stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.15 Alton-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 11.24 Basingstoke-Waterloo 20 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. Signalling problems. 11.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 39 minutes late. Passengers on the 11.50 Poole-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Southampton. 11.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo 38 minutes late. 12.15 Portsmouth-Waterloo 26 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Haslemere. 12.24 Portsmouth-Waterloo 38 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Woking. 12.38 Portsmouth-Southampton 29 minutes late. 12.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 30 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Haslemere AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 13.15 Portsmouth-Waterloo 14 minutes late. 13.44 Southampton-Portsmouth 25 minutes late. 13.58 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 14.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED between Waterloo and Woking. 14.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth 14 minutes late. 16.55 Waterloo-Alton 22 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Aldershot. 18.35 Alton-Waterloo AXED between Alton and Farnham. 19.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo 20 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE.

Thursday 28/05/09 Animals on the line. 05.40 Basingstoke-Weymouth 14 minutes late. 06.16 Brockenhurst-Weymouth 29 minutes late. 06.25 Weymouth-Southampton 45 minutes late. 06.55 Weymouth-Waterloo 30 minutes late. Passengers on the 07.07 Romsey-Salisbury THROWN OFF at Southampton DUE TO NO CREW. 07.20 Poole-Waterloo 43 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Basingstoke AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 07.55 Weymouth-Waterloo 23 minutes late. 08.50 Poole-Waterloo 20 minutes late. 09.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 17 minutes late and AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester. 17.13 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED. 18.36 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED.

Friday 29/05/09 Signalling problems. 10.10 Exeter-Waterloo 35 minutes late. 11.03 Weymouth-Waterloo 32 minutes late. 11.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 15 minutes late. 11.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo 23 minutes late. 12.15 Portsmouth-Waterloo 36 minutes late. 12.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 10 minutes late. 12.24 Portsmouth-Waterloo 15 minutes late; Worplesdon and Woking stops AXED. 12.44 Alton-Waterloo 28 minutes late. 12.45 Salisbury-Waterloo 12 minutes late. 12.54 Basingstoke-Waterloo 26 minutes late. 13.03 Woking-Waterloo 29 minutes late. 13.15 Alton-Waterloo 12 minutes late. 13.33 Woking-Waterloo 33 minutes late; all intermediate stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 13.45 Salisbury-Waterloo REDUCED TO 2 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 14.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth 25 minutes late.

Saturday 30/05/09 Passengers on the 00.30 Eastleigh-Portsmouth THROWN OFF at Fareham. 10.27 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 21 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops after Richmond AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 23 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops after Richmond AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.09 Waterloo-Guildford AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 11.12 Waterloo-Shepperton 21 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops before Norbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.24 Hampton Court-Waterloo 27 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops after Surbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.33 Woking-Waterloo 22 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops after Surbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.40 Chessington-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 11.41 Shepperton-Waterloo 33 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops after Norbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.42 Waterloo-Shepperton 9 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops before Norbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.58 Guildford-Waterloo 25 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Epsom AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 12.03 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 12 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops before Norbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 12.24 Waterloo-Dorking AXED. 12.33 Waterloo-Guildford 15 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Surbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 12.38 Guildford-Waterloo AXED. 13.35 Dorking-Waterloo AXED.

Sunday 31/05/09 15.56 Waterloo-Kingston AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 16.14 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 20 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 16.25 Dorchester-Weymouth AXED DUE TO NO CREW.

Monday 01/06/09 06.42 Basingstoke-Waterloo 14 minutes late. 07.02 Eastleigh-Portsmouth AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.07 Guildford-Waterloo AXED between Guildford and Effingham Junction DUE TO NO CEW. 07.24 Reading-Waterloo 10 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; all intermediate stops between Ascot and Staines AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.09 Waterloo-Guildford 17 minutes late and REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.12 Waterloo-Chessington 19 minutes late and REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.11 Shepperton-Waterloo 15 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; all intermediate stops after Teddington AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 17.52 Plymouth-Waterloo AXED between Plymouth and Exeter DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.12 Waterloo-Shepperton REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.46 Waterloo-Chessington REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Tuesday 02/06/09 12.20 Waterloo-Plymouth 20 minutes late. 15.52 Bristol-Salisbury 21 minutes late. 16.35 Waterloo-Reading 11 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; passengers THROWN OFF at Staines. 16.54 Hampton Court-Waterloo delayed; all intermediate stops after Surbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 17.37 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.12 Reading-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.59 Effingham Junction-Waterloo AXED. 19.07 Alton-Waterloo 10 minutes late; West Byfleet stop AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE.

Wednesday 03/06/09 07.50 Waterloo-Reading REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.52 Waterloo-Weybridge REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 09.56 Reading-Waterloo AXED. 10.12 Reading-Waterloo 31 minutes late; stops at Sunningdale, Virginia Water, Egham, Feltham, Twickenham, Richmond and Clapham Junction AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.42 Reading-Waterloo 6 minutes late. 11.03 Weybridge-Waterloo 10 minutes late; Queenstown Road and Vauxhall stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.50 Waterloo-Reading 12 minutes late. 15.30 Guildford-Ascot 26 minutes late and diverted via Ascot due to signalling problems. 16.00 Guildford-Ascot 19 minutes late. 18.02 Waterloo-Woking AXED. 18.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth 43 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Winchester AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 18.53 Windsor-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 19.54 Basingstoke-Waterloo AXED. 22.41 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED. Passengers on the 23.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth THROWN OFF at Haslemere.

Thursday 04/06/09 08.23 Windsor-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 09.56 Reading-Waterloo AXED between Reading and Bracknell DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.35 Waterloo-Reading REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Friday 05/06/09 Line-side fire in unspecified location. Passengers on the 06.20 Honiton-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Basingstoke. 07.24 Basingstoke-Waterloo AXED. 07.39 Farnham-Waterloo AXED. 07.52 Epsom-Waterloo AXED. 09.12 Waterloo-Basingstoke AXED between Waterloo and Basingstoke. 09.50 Waterloo-Salisbury AXED between Waterloo and Basingstoke. 10.50 Waterloo-Salisbury AXED between Waterloo and Basingstoke. 11.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 36 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops after Twickenham AXED DUE TO OPERATION CONVENIENCE. 12.38 Waterloo-Guildford 38 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 12.06 Waterloo-Hampton Court 40 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 12.12 Waterloo-Shepperton 42 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 12.20 Waterloo-Woking 37 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 12.24 Waterloo-Dorking 35 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 12.27 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 43 minutes late; DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops after Twickenham AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 12.28 Guildford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 12.29 Waterloo-Guildford 48 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; passengers THROWN OFF at Effingham Junction DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 12.41 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED between Shepperton and Teddington DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 12.54 Waterloo-Dorking 41 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Epsom DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 12.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 36 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops after Twickenham AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 12.58 Guildford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 13.20 Waterloo-Woking AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 13.27 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo delayed DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops after Twickenham AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 13.33 Woking-Waterloo delayed DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 13.33 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo delayed DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops after Kingston AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 13.35 Dorking-Waterloo AXED between Dorking and Epsom DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 13.39 Waterloo-Guildford delayed DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops before Epsom AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 14.28 Guildford-Waterloo delayed DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops after Epsom AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 14.38 Guildford-Waterloo delayed DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops after Surbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 14.39 Waterloo-Guildford AXED between Waterloo and Raynes Park DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 14.41 Shepperton-Waterloo delayed DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops after Kingston AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 14.42 Waterloo-Shepperton AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 15.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth delayed DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops between Haslemere and Havant AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 15.03 Waterloo-Guildford AXED between Waterloo and Surbiton DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 15.08 Guildford-Waterloo AXED between Guildford and Effingham Junction DUE TO NO CREW. 15.41 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED between Shepperton and Teddington DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 15.42 Waterloo-Shepperton delayed DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops after Kingston AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE.

Saturday 06/06/09 06.33 Staines-Waterloo 16 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 09.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo 10 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Sunday 07/06/09 08.13 Ascot-Guildford AXED between Ascot and Aldershot. 08.17 Guildford-Ascot AXED between Guildford and Ash.

Monday 08/06/09 Animals on the line again. 07.55 Poole-Waterloo 29 minutes late. 09.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 27 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Brockenhurst and Bournemouth AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth 22 minutes late. 09.20 Waterloo-Plymouth 22 minutes late. 09.54 Basingstoke-Waterloo 11 minutes late; Weybridge and Walton-on-Thames stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.39 Waterloo-Poole 24 minutes late; stops at Farnborough and Fleet AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 16 minutes late. 12.10 Exeter-Waterloo 18 minutes late. 18.01 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Another fatality. 21.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth diverted; all stops from Farncombe to Bedhampton inclusive AXED. 22.18 Portsmouth-Waterloo AXED between Portsmouth and Fratton. Passengers on the 22.28 Portsmouth Havant THROWN OFF at Fratton. 22.59 Havant-Fareham AXED.

Tuesday 09/06/09 07.46 Effingham Junction-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW.

Wednesday 10/06/09 07.11 Havant-Waterloo AXED. 13.54 Hampton Court-Waterloo delayed by signalling; all intermediate stops after Surbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.37 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW.

Thursday 11/06/09 06.12 Alton-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES. 07.11 Shepperton-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 07.41 Shepperton-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 08.02 Woking-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES. 08.22 Epsom-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.37 Guildford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. Yet another signalling failure in the Portsmouth area. 10.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 42 minutes late; Guildford and Woking stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo 43 minutes late. 11.15 Portsmouth-Waterloo 36 minutes late; Guildford and Woking stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.24 Portsmouth-Waterloo 29 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Woking. 11.38 Portsmouth-Southampton 18 minutes late. All intermediate stops of the 11.44 Southampton-Portsmouth, except Fareham, AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 14 minutes late. Woking and Farnborough stops of the 12.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 12.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED between Waterloo and Woking. 12.38 Portsmouth-Southampton AXED between Portsmouth and Fareham. 13.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED between Waterloo and Woking. 16.12 Waterloo-Shepperton REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.46 Waterloo-Chessington REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.06 Waterloo-Hampton Court REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.12 Waterloo-Shepperton REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.32 Waterloo-Basingstoke REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 20 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Friday 12/06/09 05.30 Waterloo-Weymouth 9 minutes late. 08.22 Epsom-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 08.37 Guildford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 09.39 Haslemere-Waterloo AXED and replaced by a non-stop service between Guildford and Waterloo DUE TO DUFF STOCK AND OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.39 Waterloo-Guildford 10 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 14.20 Waterloo-Paignton 21 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.54 Waterloo-Dorking REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.12 Waterloo-Shepperton REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.32 Honiton-Exeter AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.54 Waterloo-Dorking REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.27 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.36 Waterloo-Hampton Court REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 20.41 Shepperton-Waterloo 10 minutes late.

Saturday 13/06/09 07.33 Weybridge-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 10.04 Hampton Court-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 15.50 Waterloo-Salisbury AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo 26 minutes late; Farnborough stop AXED DUE OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.24 Basingstoke-Waterloo 26 minutes late. Passengers on the 19.42 Reading-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Ascot DUE TO NO CREW. 20.53 Waterloo-Alton 15 minutes late.

Sunday 14/06/09 07.10 Salisbury-Exeter 20 minutes late. 07.32 Yeovil-Waterloo 27 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Basingstoke AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 08.17 Portsmouth-Waterloo 25 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Basingstoke AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.54 Eastleigh-Salisbury AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.35 Southampton-Portsmouth 15 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW.

Monday 15/06/09 Passengers on the 06.41 Shepperton-Waterloo THROWN OFF at New Malden DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.07 Guildford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 7 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.17 Woking-Waterloo REDUCED TO 7 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.25 Exeter-Waterloo 16 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; passengers THROWN OFF at Basingstoke. 13.15 Portsmouth-Waterloo 15 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 16.56 Havant-Waterloo 7 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth 15 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.16 Waterloo-Chessington REDUCED TO 7 COACHES. 17.44 Alton-Waterloo 12 minutes late; West Byfleet stop AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 18.30 Guildford-Ascot AXED between Guildford and Aldershot. 18.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth REDUCED TO 5 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo REDUCED TO 7 COACHES. 19.30 Guildford-Ascot 27 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Guildford and Aldershot AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE.

Tuesday 16/06/09 Passengers on the 00.05 Waterloo-Bournemouth THROWN OFF at Brockenhurst due to engineering works. 06.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.44 Alton-Waterloo REDUCED TO 9 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.07 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED between Waterloo and Clapham Junction DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.15 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES and 16 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.13 Waterloo-Shepperton REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.12 Waterloo-Basingstoke 13 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Wednesday 17/06/09 Passengers on the 00.05 Waterloo-Bournemouth THROWN OFF at Brockenhurst due to engineering works. 05.42 Reading-Waterloo AXED between Reading and Bracknell. 05.43 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 06.12 Alton-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 06.42 Exeter-Waterloo REDUCED TO 3 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 06.54 Basingstoke-Waterloo 20 minutes late. 07.11 Shepperton-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.17 Guildford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Thursday 18/06/09 07.24 Basingstoke-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Friday 19/06/09 Passengers on the 08.20 Yeovil-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Basingstoke DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 13.57 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 15 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Norbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 18.32 Waterloo-Basingstoke REDUCED TO 8 COACHES.

Saturday 20/06/09 06.20 Waterloo-Reading 20 minutes late. 06.33 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED. 06.42 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED between Waterloo and Basingstoke. 06.53 Waterloo-Alton AXED. 07.37 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED. 07.53 Windsor-Waterloo AXED. 07.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED. 14.54 Basingstoke-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 17.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 20 minutes late. Passengers on the 18.44 Alton-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Aldershot DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Sunday 21/06/09 No service between Surbiton and Hampton Court until about 08.30 due to overrunning engineering work. Evening services on the Lymington branch disrupted by animals on the line. 18.52 Woking-Waterloo 16 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Monday 22/06/09 06.02 Woking-Alton 14 minutes late and REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOK. 06.25 Weymouth-Waterloo 12 minutes late from Bournemouth; on time at Waterloo DUE TO SLACK SCEDULE. 06.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.14 Alton-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.55 Poole-Waterloo AXED between Poole and Bournemouth DUE TO NO CREW. 12.10 Exeter-Waterloo 16 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 14.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 46 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Dorchester. 14.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 29 minutes late. 14.48 Salisbury-Romsey 26 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.44 Lymington-Brockenhurst AXED. 16.50 Poole-Waterloo AXED between Poole and Bournemouth. 17.03 Weymouth-Waterloo 15 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.20 Waterloo-Exeter REDUCED TO 5 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.20 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester. 19.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth 20 minutes late. 20.18 Portsmouth-Waterloo AXED between Portsmouth and Fratton.

Tuesday 23/06/09 18.02 Waterloo-Woking 9 minutes late; Surbiton stop AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.01 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 15 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Kingston AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. Passengers on the 19.05 Waterloo-Reading THROWN OFF at Richmond DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 20.42 Reading-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Wednesday 24/06/09 08.24 Portsmouth-Waterloo 27 minutes late. 08.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 18 minutes late. 09.39 Haslemere-Waterloo diverted; Woking stop AXED. All intermediate stops beyond Wimbledon of the 10.09 Waterloo-Guildford AXED.

Thursday 25/06/09 06.54 Basingstoke-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.47 Woking-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 09.03 Weymouth-Waterloo delayed 20 minutes at Southampton. 16.20 Waterloo-Reading AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 17.42 Reading-Waterloo 38 minutes late due to a line-side fire; all intermediate stops after Wokingham AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 18.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth REDUCED TO 8 COACHES. 18.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth REDUCED TO 8 COACHES. 17.53 Reading-Waterloo first AXED DUE TO NO CREW, then reinstated and 34 minutes late due to line-side fire. 18.12 Reading-Waterloo 6 minutes late.

Friday 26/06/09 Signalling problems at Weymouth. 06.12 Waterloo-Weymouth 25 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; passengers THROWN OFF at Dorchester. Passengers on the 06.16 Brockenhurst-Weymouth THROWN OFF at Dorchester. 06.25 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED. 06.55 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Bournemouth. 07.20 Poole-Waterloo AXED. 07.25 Weymouth-Brockenhurst AXED. 07.37 Guildford-Waterloo AXED. 07.54 Richmond-Guildford AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.55 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester. Passengers on the 08.05 Waterloo-Weymouth THROWN OFF at Southampton DUE TO NO CREW. 08.20 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester. 09.03 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester. 09.05 Waterloo-Weymouth REDUCED TO 5 COACHES. 10.20 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester. 11.20 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 11.35 Waterloo-Weymouth THROWN OFF at Bournemouth DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 14.39 Waterloo-Brockenhurst THROWN OFF at Basingstoke DUE TO NO CREW. 14.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 19 minutes DUE TO DUFF STOCK; Woking stop AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 15.03 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Bournemouth DUE TO NO CREW. 15.46 Waterloo-Chessington 10 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 17.20 Brockenhurst-Southampton AXED DUE TO NO CREW. Fatality at Feltham. Passengers on the 17.35 Waterloo-Reading THROWN OFF at Twickenham. Passengers on the17.52 Waterloo-Weybridge THROWN OFF at Hounslow. 17.58 Waterloo-Windsor AXED. 18.05 Waterloo-Aldershot diverted; most intermediate stops AXED. 18.20 Waterloo-Reading AXED. Passengers on the 18.22 Waterloo-Weybridge THROWN OFF at Hounslow. 18.37 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED. 18.50 Waterloo-Reading diverted; most intermediate stops AXED. 19.05 Waterloo-Reading AXED. 19.12 Reading-Waterloo AXED. 19.22 Waterloo-Weybridge AXED. 19.23 Windsor-Waterloo AXED. 19.37 Weybridge-Waterloo AXED. 20.09 Waterloo-Dorking AXED. 20.12 Reading-Waterloo AXED. 20.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 20 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Hounslow and Barnes AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 20.27 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED. 20.37 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED. 20.42 Reading-Waterloo AXED. 20.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo 18 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 21.03 Weybridge-Waterloo AXED. 21.35 Dorking-Waterloo AXED.

Saturday 27/06/09 08.14 Alton-Waterloo 25 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.14 Paignton-Waterloo 12 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 11.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 21 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops between Brockenhurst and Bournemouth AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.50 Poole-Waterloo 8 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Sunday 28/06/0 9 08.15 Waterloo-Plymouth 15 minutes late. 08.24 Reading-Waterloo 10 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 13.51 Chessington-Waterloo 16 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Monday 29/06/09 07.24 Reading-Waterloo AXED between Reading and Staines DUE TO NO CREW. 08.10 Chessington-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 08.12 Reading-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 11.45 Salisbury-Waterloo 31 minutes late; Woking stop AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. “HEAT-RELATED PROBLEM” in the Twickenham area. Passengers on the 12.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Twickenham. 12.33/13.03/14.03/14.33/15.33 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo DIVERTED. 12.45/13.15/13.45/14.15/14.45/15.15/15.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED. 12.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED. Passengers on the 13.24 Portsmouth-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Havant DUE TO DUFF STOCK. All intermediate stops, before Norbiton, of the 13.27 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED. 13.42 Reading-Waterloo AXED between Reading and Staines. 13.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 24 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Norbiton AXED. 14.53 Waterloo-Alton AXED. 14.58/15.28/15.58 Waterloo-Windsor DIVERTED. 15.03 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 15.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.30 Exeter-Honiton AXED. Passengers on the 15.36 Waterloo-Hampton Court THROWN OFF at Clapham Junction DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.37 Haslemere-Waterloo AXED between Haslemere and Guildford. All intermediate stops, before Norbiton, of the 15.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED. 16.05/16.20 Waterloo-Reading DIVERTED. Passengers on the 16.15/16.45/17.15/17.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Richmond. 16.24 Hampton Court-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.44 Alton-Waterloo AXED between Alton and Farnham. 16.50 Waterloo-Reading REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 16.54 Waterloo-Dorking REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 17.27 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 17.32 Waterloo-Guildford REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 17.39 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED between Waterloo and Basingstoke. 17.46 Waterloo-Chessington REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 18.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth REDUCED TO 8 COACHES. 18.01 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo DIVERTED. 18.02 Waterloo-Woking REDUCED TO 8 COACHES. 18.05 Waterloo-Aldershot DIVERTED. 18.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 17 minutes late. 18.36 Shepperton-Waterloo 19 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Kingston AXED. 19.35 Alton-Waterloo 19 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. Passengers on the 19.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Fratton DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 20.53 Waterloo-Alton 20 minutes late. 21.18 Portsmouth-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 21.23 Waterloo-Alton 22 minutes late. 22.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Tuesday 30/06/09 06.23 Windsor-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 06.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 07.47 Woking-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES. 08.53 Windsor-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 09.53 Ascot-Guildford AXED. 10.00 Guildford-Ascot AXED. 11.03 Weymouth-Waterloo 60 minutes late. 11.23 Ascot-Guildford AXED. 11.53 Ascot-Guildford AXED. 12.52 Waterloo-Weybridge 25 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; all intermediate stops between Barnes and Feltham AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 13.12 Waterloo-Shepperton 14 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; all intermediate stops before Norbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 13.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 12 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Richmond, except Clapham Junction, AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. Various afternoon trains up to 15 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN at Earlsfield. 14.40 Chessington-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. West Byfleet stops of the 14.44/15.15 Alton-Waterloo AXED. 15.03 Waterloo-Guildford 13 minutes late. 15.15 Waterloo-Portsmouth 27 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Haslemere and Havant AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo delayed DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.24 Waterloo-Dorking 13 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.28 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.42 Reading-Waterloo 12 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Staines AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.58 Guildford-Waterloo 22 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Epsom AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 17.20 Waterloo-Reading REDUCED TO 4 COACHES; passengers THROWN OFF at Wokingham. 17.28/17.58 Waterloo-Windsor REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. Passengers on the 17.35 Waterloo-Reading THROWN OFF at Wokingham.17.52 Waterloo-Weybridge delayed DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.01 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED between Waterloo and Barnes DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.02 Waterloo-Woking REDUCED TO 8 COACHES. 18.07 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 9 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 18.12/18.42 Reading-Waterloo AXED between Reading and Wokingham. Passengers on the 19.50 Waterloo-Woking THROWN OFF at Clapham Junction DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 20.03 Woking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 20.46 Guildford-Waterloo 31 minutes late. 21.03 Woking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

MEDIA DIGEST

AIR

* A group of some of the most influential businessmen in Britain have lined up against the government by opposing plans for a third runway at Heathrow. They include Ian Cheshire, CE of Kingfisher Group; Russell Chambers, adviser at Credit Suisse; Justin King, CE of Sainsburys; Charles Dunstone, CE of Carphone Warehouse; David Levin, CE of United Business Media; Sir Roy Gardner, CE of Compass Group; Dominic Murphy, partner at KKR; and Jon Moulton, founder of Alchemy Partners. The government justified giving the go-ahead earlier this year by claiming the benefits to the economy and the City outweigh the environmental impact. However, the businessmen say comparison with continental airports is misleading because London is served by 5 airports in total. In addition extra capacity does not necessarily lead to more routes; Terminal 5 has served mostly to increase flights on existing routes. Conservative shadow transport spokesman Theresa Villiers says the emergence of a strong business voice against the third runway leaves the government increasingly isolated. [Guardian 4/5/09]

* Conservative transport spokesman Theresa Villiers has confirmed that Boris Johnson’s proposal for an island airport two miles off Sheerness, as an alternative to expansion at Heathrow, is not Conservative policy. [Evening Standard 15/5/09]

* It has been confirmed that Passenger Focus will become the watchdog for air, as well as rail and bus passengers. The existing Air Transport Users Council is to be abolished. The Council has been outspoken against the government, accusing it of treating airline passengers like a cash cow, and pressing it to introduce a scheme to protect passengers against the failure of scheduled airlines. The Council is now accusing the government of acting prematurely, adopting too narrow a perspective, and failing to consider the damaging consequences for air passengers of closing down their dedicated watchdog. [Times 14/5/09]

BUSES

* In the latest saga of Southern Hampshire’s fast-disappearing bus services, passengers are to lose 100 buses a day on the Eastleigh-Fair Oak route. Family business Black Velvet buses introduced a service of 55 buses a day, but Go Ahead’s Bluestar then upped its own services in the area to 50 buses a day. Black Velvet was forced to pull out, and Bluestar then announced that it would do likewise. [Southern Daily Echo 19/5/09]

* The Southern Daily Echo of 16/6/09 states that a new report will pile more doom and gloom on the controversial £20m bus route proposed for the former Fareham-Gosport railway line. Planning chief David Duckett claims the route will not get people out of their cars or ease congestion on the A32. Hampshire County Council is due to make a decision on the route on July 29 and it could be in operation by March 2011. More than 300 nearby residents have written letters objecting to the plans.

* Stagecoach’s takeover of Preston, Eastbourne and Cavendish buses (see our previous issues) has been referred to the Competition Commission. [Buses magazine]

* Buses, including the New Forest Tour bus, can no longer use the stop outside Brockenhurst station entrance (a Hampshire County Council ‘integrated transport’ initiative of several years ago) because of safety concerns. Much of Brockenhurst village no longer has a bus service. Buses are diverted because of the dangerous state of the Sway Road railway bridge. [Unreported?!]

RAIL

(CROSSRAIL)

* May 15 saw the official start of construction work on the massive Crossrail project. There has been media speculation about whether a Conservative government would stop the work within the context of a programme of spending cuts. However, Boris Johnson remains robustly supportive of the scheme and the Evening Standard of 14/5/09 reports that he is considering a ‘development viability test’ to establish how much London firms can afford to contribute towards construction. A ‘Crossrail levy’ has been set at £19.80 per square foot of new space, but compromise is likely after consultation.

(FARES)

* The fastest commuter trains into London — at 140mph — successfully started running between Ashford and St Pancras International 29/06/09. They more than halve journey times, to 37 minutes rather than the current 80 minutes, but commuters have to pay an extra 20%. Operator Southeastern was given permission by the Government to load fares by up to 35% to pay for the new trains, which run between Eurostar services, but is not expected to levy the full amount. The service began as preview operation with three peak services in the morning and three home in the evening. There are also four services to and from Ebbsfleet International in the morning and six back in the evening. Services will increase from December. [Evening Standard 01/6/09 and 29/6/09]

Passenger Focus has expressed concerns over fare increases, and hopes South Eastern will consider offering incentives and discounts to make the service more affordable. However, South Eastern is concerned that the high-speed route will raise less revenue than expected due to the recession. [Guardian 02/6/09]

[This sounds like a fantastic bargain – compare the position of passengers at some SWT stations where Stagecoach increased morning off-peak fares to London by 20% and slowed services by up to nearly 30 minutes.]

* Oyster card season tickets will now cost commuters a £3 deposit. National Express East Coast is introducing a £2.50 charge for seat reservations, and Advance ticket holders will be charged £10 for the use of the First Class Lounge.

The cost of the Network Railcard has risen from £20 to £25, and the Monday-Friday minimum fare from £10 to £13.

The cost of the 16-25, Family and Friends, and Senior railcards has risen to £26. In addition, the minimum fare which applies before 10.00 (Mondays to Fridays) on the 16-25 and Forces railcards has increased to £12. [Widely reported]

(INFRASTRUCTURE)

* Construction Group Arup proposes that a new high-speed line between London and the North should run from an enlarged Euston station and initially loop southwards to serve Heathrow. There would be various links, including one into Crossrail, with overhead electrification then being extended from Maidenhead to Oxford and Basingstoke. This would enable Euston-Heathrow-Reading-Oxford trains, together with (dual voltage) Euston-Heathrow-Reading-Basingstoke-Southampton trains. [Modern Railways June 2009]

(METRONET)

* The National Audit Office’s report into the collapse of Metronet, one of two companies given 30-year contracts to modernise the Tube under the public finance initiative, was slipped out on Friday 5 June. Not only is it a scathing indictment of private-company managerial failure, but it also highlights how neither the company, the bankers, London Underground nor the Department for Transport took seriously enough their responsibility to protect the taxpayer.

Metronet ended up with two of the three contracts. These were barely two years old when it forecast that the costs on its agreements would overrun by £566 million. No one seemed to be paying attention, even though a year later it reckoned it would lose over £1 billion on just one of its two contracts.

Eventually its shareholders pulled the plug and put the business into administration. The whole point of private finance initiatives is that the private sector takes the financial risk, and in turn gets the rewards. However, late in the original contract negotiations, Government sweetened the deal by offering the bankers to Metronet a 95% guarantee on the loans they would have to provide to finance the work. So when Metronet went bust the banks came for their money. The Department for Transport, via London Underground, paid them back £1.7 billion. The NAO estimates the net cost at anything between £170 million and £410 million, but it was probably close to the latter figure.

It is virtually unprecedented for Government to give such guarantees to bankers in a private finance project. The bankers were not that bothered because they were 95% insulated against loss by the Government. London Underground had never liked the PFI anyway, and was more preoccupied with getting the work done in the way it wanted, rather than making sure delivery of the upgrades was cost-effective. The arbiter Chris Bolt could have helped, but he could only intervene if asked, and only Metronet and London Underground had the authority to ask him. Neither did until well after the damage was done. Hundreds of millions might not have been wasted if he had he been called in earlier.

No one saw it as their duty to look after taxpayers. As a result, £400 million has been wasted. [Evening Standard 11/6/09]

(NETWORK RAIL)

* Network Rail boss Iain Coucher has been forced to give up his full bonus (up to £600,000) this year only, leaving him with just his £600,000 salary. [Evening Standard 14/5/09]

* Network Rail has come under attack for risking a repeat of the Potters Bar or Hatfield disasters despite reporting pre-tax profits for 2008-09 of £1.52 billion, just marginally down on the prior year. That was as a result of the cost-cutting which has seen plans for renewals and maintenance pared back. Its revenues rose £200 million to £6.1 billion in the year, much of it via taxpayer subsidy. Operating costs rose just £68 million. Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail Maritime and Transport Union commented, “If Network Rail are running more trains and are so flush with cash, why are they taking the risk of another major disaster like Hatfield or Potters Bar by cutting back the vital track renewals programme by 28% and axing key engineering jobs?” The company says it has a deepening pensions black hole. The value of rail pension fund assets fell 25% in the year and Network Rail’s share of the pension fund deficit has nearly doubled from £370 million to £664 million. [Evening Standard 3/6/09]

(RECESSION)

* National Express has negotiated a new deal with its creditors on its £1.2bn debt burden. In order to meet the payment terms on the East Coast franchise, it needs revenue growth of 7% a year, but managed only 0.3% in the first three months of this year. It has sold its London bus business to a subsidiary of the Dutch railways for £32m but has rejected a takeover bid by First Group. [Evening Standard 21/5/09; Guardian 18/6/09 and 30/6/09]

* First Group’s train business has recorded a 21% drop in full-year operating profits from £120m to £94.2m, with Great Western worst hit. [Times 14/5/09]

* Having mooted cutting carriages in response to the recession, the rail industry is now urging the government to allow shorter off-peak trains to help meet Britain’s climate change obligations. [Guardian 28/5/09]

[Presumably the industry doesn’t care about the climate detriment from passengers being encouraged back to their cars through SWT’s 20% greed tax on off-peak morning fares to London?]

(TUBE)

* The Mayor of London is suggesting a spur off the Northern Line to encourage investment in the Battersea Power station site. [Evening Standard 27/6/09]

PRIVATE EYE RESEARCH AND COMMENT

(BONUSES)

* Network Rail chief Iain Coucher’s generosity in forgoing his annual bonus illustrates a culture change in Britain’s rail network. He doesn’t want criticism of his bonus to detract from Network Rail’s achievements, but is keeping another bonus of about £200,000 which in NR’s words is “designed to replicate share options within a plc”. Reserving his right to next year’s bonus, he said, “I still believe passionately in the principle of paying people for success. The bonus system focuses on issues that are important, and it drives our performance.” For generations managers believed passionately in railways; pride in the job drove performance (which equalled or bettered today’s). Then privatisation made money the industry’s sole motivation. Old-school executives were replaced by accountants with targets narrowly defining success not in relation to passengers but by minutes of train delays or pounds earned or saved. This failed to improve on BR’s financial discipline; costs went through the roof, forcing fares and subsidy to rocket. Railtrack collapsed because of its obsession with dividends, share prices and being a blue-chip company, not a “boring old utility”. Its successor, not-for-profit Network Rail, was designed to avoid such pitfalls. Train operators, who are focused on their next annual results, are shedding hundreds of staff, but NR’s funding for the next 5 years was fixed before the recession. That’s an enviable position for any company director, but Coucher reckons NR directors wouldn’t bother doing their jobs properly without the prospect of plc-style bonuses. [Issue 1237]

(COMPETITION)

* Richard Branson claimed the moral high ground when Virgin Trains dropped the idea of running Shrewsbury-London services. This was widely seen as an attempt to crush a small new firm (part-owned by Germany’s state railway) which started services between Wrexham, Shrewsbury and London last spring. Virgin showed no interest in Wrexham for 11 years but launched a competing Wrexham-London service (not via Shrewsbury) in December. He wrote in the Times, “We would not want to be accused of being anti-competitive, so we have decided to withdraw the [proposed Shrewsbury] additional services”.

The illusion of generosity was shattered by Virgin’s press office, which revealed the idea was dropped because detailed analysis showed Shrewsbury services wouldn’t make the kind of money Mr Branson expects from his trains (£24m for him personally in 2007). If Mr Branson really wants to relinquish anti-competitiveness, he’ll waive Virgin’s unique guarantee against competition on the West Coast Main Line, Britain’s busiest railway. It was granted when Virgin and Railtrack promised a 140mph service, not just the government-specified 125mph. The promise was broken but the competition ban remains, stopping the Wrexham firm taking passengers between London and major Midlands stations.

The 1997 North Western Trains franchise promised trains to London from Rochdale and many other places, but Virgin’s subsequent deal excluded NWT from many stations. Some of NWT’s London services never materialised and others were soon ditched. In the absence of rail competition or regulation, Virgin has hiked ‘Anytime’ fares (London-Manchester up 160% since 1997, or 187% for first class) and slapped restrictions on ostensibly ‘regulated’ fares to force many travellers to buy dearer ‘Anytime’ tickets. [Issue 1235]

(FRANCHISING)

* Lord Adonis recently told Guardian readers that British Rail was a national joke in terms of quality and reliability and that railways, like any other industry, must modernise. “Being honest about the past is essential to realising the future”.

He didn’t however acknowledge that today’s railway get several times more cash in subsidy and fares than BR ever did, or that BR’s debt was nothing like the £25 billion which Network Rail has been allowed to run up. BR was run by one board of directors with no performance bonuses whereas each bit of today’s railway has top brass, some of whom pocket more than £1 million a year, whilst the system relies on an army of bureaucrats and consultants to monitor, plan, specify, allocate, advise and arbitrate.

The Government says it wants efficiencies to save £14 billion of public spending, yet dismisses rail nationalisation with the claim that BR’s quality and reliability were a joke. What about passengers crammed for hours into stiff seats in a Virgin Pendolino with stinking toilet? BR’s Inter City trains had generous legroom. What about passengers forced on rail-replacement buses? BR usually kept at least one track open during maintenance work, or diverted trains via another route. As for reliability, the latest statistics show 90.7% of trains arrive on time, but only with the aid of padded-out timetables, and with replacement buses excluded. BR’s punctuality in 1993-94 was recorded as 91.2%, despite disruptive preparations for privatisation. It didn’t resort to closing doors early to improve its punctuality, and it often held back connecting trains if incoming trains were late. The railways have certainly modernised since privatisation, if by modernisation you mean reduced quality and reliability in return for higher fares and subsidy. [Issue 1235]

(METRONET)

* Despite the collapse of Metronet, 4 years into a 30-year deal to maintain and upgrade two thirds of London Underground’s infrastructure, a joint committee comprising Transport for London, London Underground, the Treasury, the Department for Transport and Partnerships UK (the public private partnership (PPP) cheerleader) reckons the answer could be another PPP. The National Audit Office left the door ajar, intentionally avoiding the debate about whether public-sector alternatives would be better value for money. Yet it estimated the loss to taxpayers from the failed PPP as between £170m and £410m, besides the late delivery of scheduled work and cancellation of promised station upgrades. Metronet’s debt was repaid with £1.7bn from taxpayers. The NAO reckoned that if another PPP took over, most of the £126m which London Underground spent on setting up contracts wouldn’t be lost as the new PPP could use the same foundations. It also reckoned that the loss to taxpayers would be offset by estimated investment of £1.5bn to £1.6bn. This doesn’t take account of Metronet’s dumped new contract for re-signalling the sub-surface lines. Extra expenditure will be incurred from stop-gap measures as new trains arrive.

The NAO report highlighted that there had been no system for keeping tabs on Metronet. Ken Livingstone was prevented from knowing even what it was doing, and London Underground had insufficient levers to drive improved performance when necessary. In 2001 the government said it had decided to press ahead with the PPP following an “independent review” by Ernst & Young who found that the PPP contracts “appear to be based on reasonable assumptions and a practical approach has been adopted to dealing with some complex technical, financial and legal issues.” Ernst and Young then became the administrators when Metronet collapsed, and received a further £33m from taxpayers.

The NAO concluded that “The main cause of Metronet’s failure was its poor corporate governance and leadership,” pointing a finger at the five shareholders. These included Atkins, which has won three contracts for Crossrail, including one for the interior design and specification of all Crossrail stations. [Issue 1239]

(NOTTINGHAM TRAMWAY)

* David Cameron is keen to promote the Conservatives as the green party, yet shadow women’s minister Theresa May has told Nottingham voters that extensions to the city’s tramways should be abandoned in favour of bus improvements. Carbon emissions per passenger mile are much lower from trams than from buses, and trams are more likely to attract motorists to public transport, further reducing emissions. As shadow transport secretary, she toured Newcastle’s light-rail Metro in 2004, including a visit to the Metro’s Gateshead interchange. She said afterwards that, “Gateshead demonstrates the kind of quality, design and facilities that public transport needs to have to persuade people from their cars. I was very impressed with the investment.” But this month she said that providing similar public transport in Nottingham would “cost an awful lot of money, nearly £30m… which would have to be paid for across the whole of the county”, showing how tempting it can be to pander to local opponents of the scheme when there’s an election in the air. [Issue 1237]

(TRAINLINE.COM)

* The Advertising Standards Authority has dealt a minor blow to the rail industry’s campaign to wean passengers off ticket offices so more staff can be sacked. It told Trainlime.com not to repeat TV and poster ads portraying people who queue to buy tickets as sheep, because the ads didn’t properly explain the claimed savings available through the website.

By mocking ticket office queues, the ads drew attention to understaffing and other shortcomings in rail ticket sales. Trainline.com says it has sold to “3.3m travellers” in “over 14m transactions” since 1999, not much to show for a decade’s on-line trading. Rail fares are so complicated that many people don’t trust themselves to make the right purchase without talking to staff.

Another turn-off is the rail industry’s general refusal to let people travel with tickets printed at home (common for overseas train travel). Passengers can suffer penalty fares if they travel with only a reference number for valid tickets bought over the internet. So on-line buyers rely on Royal Mail or pay for a courier to deliver their tickets. Or they may be able to collect their tickets at the station… allowing plenty of time to queue with all the other sheep at ticket offices or machines.

Trainline.com’s TV ad also showed sheep piling into a commuter train, but this is very misleading. Every sheep in transit must by law be allowed at least 0.3- 0.5 square metres of floor, but the Health and Safety Executive says there are “no regulations which specify a limit” for people on trains. “Responsibility for the day-to-day safety, welfare and convenience of passengers using the railways lies with individual train operating companies.” Hence operators like South Eastern can shorten 9 daily Sevenoaks and Ashford commuter trains even though passenger numbers, and fares, are rising. [Issue 1238]

(WEST COAST MAIN LINE / VIRGIN TRAINS)

* Lord Adonis officially opened the upgraded WCML on 13 May, delighted that it had been “completely overhauled”. Meanwhile the rail industry advised that on 24 May the WCML would be shut for engineering work between Coventry and Rugby; Milton Keynes and Northampton; Stoke and Macclesfield; Crewe and Liverpool; Crewe and Warrington; and Nuneaton and Tamworth. [Issue 1237]

* Virgin is promoting its “iconic” WCML Pendolinos as connecting services for Settle-Carlisle steam trains this summer. It says the vintage trains are “aimed primarily at the family market” and passengers will be “seated in carriages from the 1950s and 60s with a central table”. Great! Each family gets a window and seats around a table, perfect for talking, picnics, board games and colouring books. Back in the 21st century, families will find just 28 central tables in 5 standard-class Pendolino carriages. Most of the 294 seats face the high backs of the seats in front, and Virgin’s seating plan shows one in three seats has “limited/no view”. A Passenger Focus survey shows the Pendolinos are Britain’s most unpopular intercity trains, coming bottom in 10 out of 15 categories of comfort. [Issue 1237]

* When Richard Branson unveiled his schemes to run trains into the 2030s, he received unquestioning coverage in the media by inviting only hacks who wouldn’t ask awkward questions. Pleading for another 20 years on the WCML after Virgin’s current franchise ends in 2012, he spoke of a £1bn investment and raising trains’ to speed to 140mph. He said, “Competition on the infrastructure side would be healthy and would get more value out”. He also wanted an end to franchises going to the companies promising the biggest payments to government, saying that “It just does not work.”

The public duly read about “bolder thinking” and the “overhaul” of franchises. It did not read that Mr Branson promised in 1997 that he would have west coast trains running at 140mph, but they still run at 125mph after the Virgin-Railtrack scheme flopped.

Competition on the infrastructure side was tried by Railtrack in the 1990s. It led to accidents that caused deaths and injuries as Railtrack and contractors cut corners. After Railtrack collapsed, Network Rail saved hundreds of millions of pounds a year by taking track maintenance in-house.

When Virgin talks of investing, that doesn’t necessarily mean spending its own money. “Virgin is investing over £2.8bn in new trains”, it claims, when Virgin actually leases the trains from banks which bought them for about £1bn.

The biggest culprit for winning franchises by promising unrealistic payments is Richard Branson himself. He offered to pay more than £1.2bn to government at 1997 prices for the West Coast franchise, which has never stopped receiving subsidy (£162m in 2007-08). [Issue 1238]  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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