HOGRIDER 124: JULY-SEPTEMBER 2009

THE LATEST NEWS, DATA, RESEARCH AND ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE FROM MEMBERS OF THE SOUTH HAMPSHIRE RAIL USERS’ GROUP

INDEX

SWT’S EXTRAORDINARY PERSECUTION OF HONEST, DECENT PASSENGERS: LETTER TO MPs IN THE SWT AREA

CONTEMPTIBLE TREATMENT OF PASSENGERS CAUSES RIOT AND CASUALTY AT TWICKENHAM - CASE FOR CIVIL ACTION?

COUNTERING ABUSE UNDER THE PENALTY FARES SCHEME - ADVICE FROM ANDREW GILLIGAN

GIRLS’ NIGHTMARE JOURNEY FROM ROMSEY: MOTHER’S COMPLAINT TO FIRST GREAT WESTERN

IN LORD ADONIS’ TRACKS: ROAMING THE RAILS FROM SOUTHAMPTON TO INVERNESS

ADVERTISED BORDON BUS LINK FARES NOT AVAILABLE / 24-MINUTE TICKET QUEUE AT WATERLOO

FUTURE OF RAIL FRANCHISING MOVING UP THE POLITICAL AGENDA?

STAGECOACH’S DOWNGRADED, OVER-PRICED, SWT PROVIDES A BRITISH TEST-BED FOR GREYHOUND COACHES

FARES: A PRIVATISATION NIGHTMARE AND YOUR CHANCE TO HELP A CAMPAIGN

SWT’S AUGUST WEBCHAT – A VERY NEGATIVE EVENT

WESSEX ELECTRIC TRAINS

SMALL THOUGHTS FOR LORD ADONIS’ ‘STATIONS CHAMPIONS’

SWT SERVICE LEVEL COMMITMENT: LETTER TO DfT

NEWS IN BRIEF

BUS / AIR NEWS

THE WIKIPEDIA VIEW: SLOW WEST TRAINS

PHOTOGRAPHY ON SWT– THE EVENING STANDARD’S COMMENT

ANOTHER PASSENGER COMMENTS ON HOW ALIEN SWT STATIONS FEEL

WHO’S SUFFERING ON SWT TODAY? LATE RUNNING; DUFF STOCK;CANCELLATIONS;CREW SHORTAGES; TRAINS TERMINATING SHORT OF DESTINATION; STOPS AXED FOR OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE

ABOUT THE SOUTH HAMPSHIRE RAIL USERS’ GROUP

SWT’S EXTRAORDINARY PERSECUTION OF HONEST, DECENT PASSENGERS – SHRUG ORGANISER’S LETTER MPs IN THE SWT AREA

[SHRUG’s organiser wrote as below to all MPs in the SWT area on 17/09/2009. Thanks to all the concerned passengers who had contacted us.]

“FOR INFORMATION / BACKGROUND TO POSSIBLE CONSTITUENCY CASES

SWT is prosecuting honest passengers on trivial charges after parent company Stagecoach’s poor commercial judgements lost over £600 million

Stagecoach has reportedly lost over £600 million in recent times: by bidding £555m more for the current SWT franchise than the next nearest bidder; by losing £50m on fixed-price oil contracts before prices fell, and through substantially below-forecast revenue on SWT following a 20% increase on some off-peak fares to London and a hike in first class season ticket rates from 50% to 80% above standard class.

It is increasingly clear that the response of the Stagecoach founders, who in recent times have enjoyed a quarter of a billion pounds in bonuses over two years, is to claw back their losses at the expense of passengers:

* Huge increases in station car park charges.
* Travel centres stripped out of SWT whilst non-Stagecoach stations like Leeds, Liverpool Central and Inverness are getting new or improved travel centres.
* The up-market Wessex Electric trains, funded by taxpayers for the long-distance Waterloo-Weymouth route, relinquished. Some Waterloo-Weymouth services are now regularly formed of suburban carriages. Govia operates the Wessex Electrics on the much shorter Victoria-Gatwick/Brighton runs.
* Requirements in the DfT’s Service Level Commitment for enhanced services to meet Eastleigh’s market needs have not been implemented.
* ‘Wet cleaning’ of carriages reduced from monthly to annually. The latest National Passenger Survey shows an 8% drop in peak passengers’ satisfaction with both inside and outside carriage cleanliness compared with the corresponding 2008 survey. Obvious health issues.
* Reduction in station staffing. The National Passenger Survey shows an 11% drop in peak passengers’ satisfaction with station facilities and services. Obvious issues for security and disabled people.
* Satisfaction with train toilet facilities among off-peak passengers is down by 7% to 38%, whilst for peak passengers it is down 3% to 32%.

This substantial range of disadvantages is arguably crowned by the ruthless bullying of SWT passengers in the name of revenue protection. So extraordinary are some of the cases which have come to light – and which are probably the tip of the iceberg – that it seems as if Stagecoach is becoming paranoid on revenue issues. A number of concerned passengers, from across the SWT area, have sought advice from the South Hampshire Rail Users’ Group and we have been able to set out the wider picture for them. Some details, as presented to us, are outlined below:

SEASON TICKET HOLDER PROSECUTED FOR OPENING UNATTENDED MANUAL GATE AT SOUTHAMPTON CENTRAL TO GET HIS BIKE THROUGH

One morning in October 2008, a season ticket holder arrived at Southampton Central with his bike and found the wide gate unattended, contrary to legal requirements. He therefore let himself in, to avoid missing his train to work. Staff then appeared and he politely showed his season ticket. He was given a £55 penalty for opening the gate, under a remote bye-law which has probably been carried forward from the days when mail was carried on passenger trains and some stations had gates exclusively for postal staff. He refused to pay as he considered he had done nothing wrong. He was then prosecuted and threatened with a £1,000 fine, 3 months in prison or both. A criminal record would have prevented him from continuing his charitable work with vulnerable serving and former service men and women.

In April, the Court directed SWT to release CCTV images to the passenger, along with details of the gate and its signage. SWT sent him just a polaroid image of the gates and confirmed in writing that they had looked at the CCTV images and destroyed them.

In July, the passenger had to come back from holiday in Spain to attend court. SWT pulled out all the stops, producing three members of staff to give evidence against him.

The passenger considers that their evidence was partly false, and the destruction of the CCTV tapes inevitably looks suspicious. Interestingly, some years ago, an employment tribunal found that driver Greg Tucker had been wrongfully demoted; it dismissed much of SWT’s evidence as “incredible”, “risible” and “implausible, even absurd”, with one key witness appearing to give evidence “without regard for truth and solely with an eye to where the advantage lay”.

In any event, the court found the passenger not guilty, said the case should never have been brought, and admonished SWT for wasting court time.

AXMINSTER WOMAN PROSECUTED BECAUSE OF WRONG DATE ON TICKET OBTAINED FROM MACHINE WITH SCREEN DIFFICULT TO READ IN GLARE FROM THE SUN

In January 2009, a woman hampered by crutches made a 5-mile journey to Axminster station to buy a ticket to travel to Basingstoke the next day. She got the ticket in advance because she had read of reduced ticket office opening hours and would only have a short time to get from work to catch her train. She found the ticket office closed during opening hours, so had to use the ticket machine. The screen was difficult to read because of glare from the sun – a well-recognised problem on SWT. She therefore inadvertently obtained a ticket dated the day of purchase rather than the day of travel.

The train guard clipped her ticket without query. At Basingstoke, the barrier rejected it. A member of staff took her details but said it was a common situation which would probably be overlooked. SWT’s prosecutions department then wrote saying they had intended to take her to court, which could lead to a £1,000 fine, 3 months in prison, or both. However, as it was a first offence, and taking her mitigation into account, they would agree to a Caution with Applied Costs: £45 operational costs for dealing with the incident; £10 for writing the letter; and £29.40 for the fare avoided: a total of £84.40 to pay within 14 days.

The woman pointed out that she and her husband were known to the previous Managing and Commercial Directors of SWT, who could give character references. Her husband had arranged a ceremony for one of the Wessex Electric trains to be named “Bournemouth Orchestras”, and the couple had hosted a celebratory Promenade Concert at the Albert Hall on behalf of SWT. She felt the penalty fare was completely unjustified and would opt for the case to go to court. SWT staff from Axminster would be prepared to give evidence in court on her behalf and one had said that SWT would rather proceed than admit a mistake.

This drew the response:
“Please allow me to inform you that any member of Stagecoach South Western Trains Limited staff from Axminster station who is prepared to attend court on your behalf must do so in their own time. If they intend to appear during their allocated working hours an arrangement for compensation to reimburse the costs of staff and their replacements must be made between Stagecoach South Western Trains Limited and you; before the court date.”

“……With regard to your comment allegedly made by a member of staff at Axminster station, that ‘South West Trains would rather proceed than admit a mistake’, I find such an accusation to be a most scurrilous, malicious and disloyal statement, which I take personally, and I am in contact with the Area Manager for the West of England to ensure it is investigated as soon as possible”.

The writer ended by saying that “I have no doubt that a prosecution would have a devastating effect on you and I am therefore prepared to allow the offer of a Conditional Caution to stand until 12.00hrs, 31 July 2009”. Overall, this response recalls Christian Wolmar’s book ‘Stagecoach’ in which he detects, “an arrogance and deep conviction that the company is right and everyone else is wrong.”

Just before the date of the hearing, the manager of Axminster station successfully pressed SWT to drop the case. The withdrawal was conveniently made on the basis that it had not been known the passenger was on crutches, rather than because the whole case against her was totally outrageous.

MAN PROSECUTED FOR LOSING TICKET FOR WHICH HE HAD PROOF OF PURCHASE

In January 2008, a passenger was approached at St Denys station by two revenue protection officers. He was returning from Brighton to Southampton, but had lost his ticket. He explained that he could get proof from his bank that he had purchased the ticket, but the officers became hostile.

A few days later he received a notice that he would be taken to court. He wrote straight away, explaining his position, but never received an acknowledgement. On 30 March, he received a summons dated 12 February. The man’s mother contacted us, and he took advice to consult a legal helpline.

The mother subsequently wrote to us:

“He went to court last week to plead not guilty and SWT withdrew the charge "on a technicality". Actually their lawyer hadn't even read the file and got such a shock to get a not guilty plea he didn't know where to put himself. They are such bullies you have to stand up to them. They are the railways’ equivalent of car clampers, on a par with all the other people who rip off the public just because they can get away with it. My son had a good case and prepared it himself with the help of a legal helpline. I think it was worth risking the extra money and stress a not guilty plea might cost, just to keep his good name.

The clerk of the court was very good and obviously knows the score. He extracted an assurance from their lawyer that there would be no other charges. So we are very relieved.”

ELDERLY WOMAN WITH HEART PROBLEMS THREATENED WITH HUGE SURCHARGE FOR BOARDING WRONG TRAIN

While a couple, aged late sixties / early seventies, were visiting their daughter in Virginia, the woman suffered a tight chest and tingling arms, suggesting heart trouble. They had no money, so decided to come straight back. They arrived early morning, and took the bus to Woking station. Soon after they boarded their train, the guard said they were slightly early for the validity of their ticket, and told them to pay £80 or alight and wait for the next train. They sat at the next station for two hours, severely jet-lagged, with the woman in some pain. At the end of the journey, she went straight into hospital for an angioplasty.

GENERAL BULLYING

A Surrey rail user wrote to us in July 2009, saying he had found our group’s website and “it has restored my confidence in decent people doing the right thing” He continued: “I have the misfortune to use SWT services on a daily basis and I am appalled at what has been happening over the last few years. In the past week I have seen an old lady robbed on the train by the guard selling her an expensive ticket (she said the ticket office was closed).

I myself have been checking ticket offices closed during advertised opening times across the network and revenue staff are rarely, if ever, informed of their closure or indeed of ticket machines not working. Talking of which, at Guildford, for nearly a year ticket machines were overcharging customers travelling off peak as 'Super Off Peak' fares were not available for between 10-30 minutes after they should have been. This scam would have gained SWT thousands in revenue.

I have also observed that women travelling alone and tourists as those targeted by SWT with a view to overcharge and harass.”

The point about compliance with ticket office opening hours reflects my own experience. A daily check during the period February-April 2009 found the ticket office at Totton station closed during opening hours on two days out of three. During April my checks found 40% compliance, whilst DfT’s figure for 1 April to 2 May was 86.5%. This obviously raises questions of accuracy, particularly as an on-line poll conducted by SWT showed that only one third of respondents thought Stagecoach should have kept the franchise, at the very time that SWT published a figure of 61% (confirmed by Passenger Focus).

The same passenger has told us:
“This evening a middle aged woman who appeared to be with an elderly passenger had a revenue inspector standing over them and a police officer. Some kind of altercation was taking place and the woman was crying. SWT stations/trains are becoming more unpleasant by the day. Meanwhile, after 10pm the gates are wide open for hooligans to fight on the track, boost they don't have tickets and urinate in the subway (real events that I witnessed at Guildford station one Saturday evening recently). I am increasingly appalled at this company's attitude.”

Meanwhile, RAIL magazine has taken up the cause of a rail enthusiast who was assaulted by SWT staff on Wimbledon station for attempting to take photographs of passing trains.

Conclusion

Stagecoach chairman, Brian Souter once stated “Ethics are not irrelevant but some are incompatible with what we have to do, because capitalism is based on greed”. However, at times the effects of his company’s greed can appear un-Christian and even brutal to ordinary passengers.

Increasing numbers of people are likely to be made to pay towards Stagecoach’s financial losses. It is already reported that, on their East Midlands franchise, passengers who use a travel card on the 8.16am Market Harborough to St Pancras service have seen fares rise from £37.50 to £92 (143.5%). Travel card holders using the same train from Kettering have seen fares rise from £36.50 to £82 (124.7%). From Wellingborough the cost goes up from £35.50 to £78 (119.7%).

East Midlands recently made a passenger pay £76 for travelling on the wrong train, after cancelling the train on which his ticket was valid. It took him six weeks to get his money back.

Car parking charges at some Virgin Trains’ (49% Stagecoach-owned) stations have increased by 50%.

It now seems likely DfT will allow Stagecoach to take over two of the busiest commuter franchises (C2C and East Anglia) from National Express.

The National Express website states:
“Our values are grounded in our decades of experience in travel. Customers travelling with National Express should find us:
* Safe – Nothing’s more important.
* Positive – There is always a solution. The right attitude gets us there quicker.
* Responsible – We manage our business well and get things right.
* Caring – We’re all people. Treat everyone as we would want to be treated.
* Connected – Working together to achieve much more.”

These sound like reasonable and balanced values, but all the evidence suggests they won’t survive a Stagecoach takeover (assuming that they are in fact applied by National Express currently). Brian Mawhinney justified privatisation in terms of giving passengers the responsiveness to their needs which they would expect from firms such as Sainsburys, and John Prescott used to say that the interests of passengers were paramount.

So far, Government doesn’t seem to have heeded the High Court’s powerful message, delivered over a decade ago, when it effectively branded Stagecoach as a disreputable company by refusing to halt the TV documentary “Cowboy Country” about its shocking business practices.

It must be hoped that a new Government will either enforce a meaningful sense of ethics throughout the rail industry, or dismiss the companies which offend against normal standards of decency.”

CONTEMPTIBLE TREATMENT OF PASSENGERS CAUSES RIOT AND CASUALTY AT TWICKENHAM -CASE FOR CIVIL ACTION?

The London Lite of 7/10/2009 contained this shocking report: “Fare crackdown ends in rail riot Students from Richmond College and transport police clashed yesterday after a ticket-checking operation led to a crush at a railway station. Three people were arrested and one student taken to hospital when British Transport Police closed Twickenham station, trapping people between the barriers and the ticket office doors.” This inevitably implies that small change (compared with the Stagecoach founders’ huge bonuses and massive losses through financial misjudgements) now comes before passenger safety on SWT. Quite why there was a police presence when BTP claim to be overstretched and barriers are in use is anyone's guess. Intimidation? This has shades of Hillsborough - there may be a case for passengers to take civil action.[Thanks to a Hedge End commuter for bringing the article to our attention]

COUNTERING ABUSE UNDER THE PENALTY FARES SCHEME ADVICE FROM ANDREW GILLIGAN

On 13/8/09 the Evening Standard published Andrew Gilligan’s advice for passengers on avoiding penalty fares, and this is copied below. It appears particularly relevant to SWT passengers, as above.

“10 WAYS TO AVOID PENALTY FARES ON TRAINS

The horror stories are many. The pensioner physically dragged, crying, off a crowded train by two "revenue protection" goons because she had forgotten her senior citizens railcard. The passengers stung for £20 because there was a queue at the ticket office and they had to hop on without paying or miss the train. The people bullied into paying unfair penalties by empty threats of prosecution and a criminal record. Today, however, the Standard tells you how you may never have to pay another railway penalty fare again.

Penalty fares - 20 years old this month - began life under British Rail as a reasonable deterrent to fare-dodging. But for some of the privatised rail companies, these £20 fines for not having a ticket have become nice little earners in their own right. One operator made £32 million from them last year alone. Another, Stagecoach's South West Trains, sparked outrage when it started judging its guards' job performance by the number of penalty fare warnings they issued.

Many passengers complain of a "take-no-prisoners" attitude, even where travellers have good reasons for not buying a ticket and every intention of paying. They say they are being penalised for train companies' failure to provide adequate station ticket offices, with staff and opening hours cut even as passenger numbers have risen.

But what most people do not know - and what the train companies are understandably reluctant for us to find out - is that more than a few demands for penalty fares are arguably illegal. The railways' new, hard-line approach is essentially a gigantic bluff, relying on our ignorance of our rights and our unwillingness to make a fuss when collared.

Because you do, in fact, have quite extensive rights not to be charged penalty fares, many of them set out in law. Rights designed, in the words of the Government, to "make sure that the interests of honest passengers are protected".

The chances are that if you have a reasonable excuse not to pay a penalty fare, you do not have to pay it - whatever a train company's staff may claim. If you are prepared to quote your rights and call their bluff, you will usually prevail.

Provided always that you do pay the normal single fare, the chances are that any threats made against you, particularly of criminal prosecution, are hollow.

Richard Colbey, a barrister at Lamb Chambers, told the Standard: "The policy is legally dubious. Penalty fares are not enforceable unless a court orders it - and a court would be unlikely to do so with someone prepared to make a fuss. There has been no reported case of a train company suing in this way - the last thing the rail industry would want is a pronouncement by a judge on its levying of penalty fares."

Another leading rail industry lawyer told the Standard that he had himself been threatened with prosecution for not paying a penalty fare. "I wrote them a very polite letter explaining why I had not got a ticket," he said. "I told them to have a go if they felt like it and heard nothing more."

I, too, have several times successfully refused to pay penalty fares demanded of me in circumstances which were unreasonable. So here is the Standard's summary of your rights - and our advice on avoiding unfair penalty fares.

OUR 10 RULES FOR BEATING THE TICKET INSPECTOR

This advice is for National Rail services only. TfL has different rules with fewer safeguards. No legal liability is accepted.

1 Make a reasonable effort to buy a ticket before you get on.

It will weaken your case if you start from a station where there is a functioning ticket office or machine but make no attempt to use them. This does not, however, mean that you have to wait in a long queue and miss your train. See Rule Eight for the Government's guidance on what constitutes a reasonable waiting time.

2 If asked for a penalty fare, check that you actually have to pay one.

There are several non-penalty fare locations in London and the South East - most importantly, Stansted Airport. If your journey started at one of these locations, you cannot be charged a penalty fare. This probably applies even if you changed trains on to a penalty-fare service en route (see other box for full details). There are other lines on which one operator has penalty fares and another does not (see box). If, for instance, you are asked for a penalty fare at the excess fares office at Euston and you have arrived on a train run by Virgin, not London Midland, you do not have to pay the penalty.

If you forget your season ticket, you do not have to pay a penalty fare. You may be issued with a "nil fare" penalty notice and asked to send in a photocopy of your season, or asked to buy a normal single ticket (which you can then get refunded at a ticket office on production of your season). You can only do this twice a year.

If you have a ticket between two places with multiple rail routes (eg London-Southend) but it is not valid for the route you are using, you cannot be charged a penalty fare - only the difference in price between the routes.

If you have a ticket for the right journey but it is not valid on the particular train you are using, this is a grey area. The Department for Transport's "Penalty Fares Policy" (clause 4.29) says you should not be charged a penalty fare, just the difference in price. But the National Rail conditions of carriage say holders of "some types of discounted tickets" can be charged a penalty. It is definitely worth arguing the point.

3 Check that the person asking for a penalty fare is an "authorised collector".

Under the Penalty Fares Rules 2002, sections 5 (2) and (3), only an "authorised collector ...individually authorised by or on behalf of the operator of that train" is allowed to collect penalty fares. Not all train guards and excess ticket office staff are authorised collectors. You have the right to ask them to produce the special identification document which proves that they are. (This also helps to return a measure of the "embarrassment factor", which some collectors use to get travellers to pay up.)

Check also whether the person asking you for a penalty has been authorised by the operator whose train you travelled on. At stations served by more than one train company, even where they both have penalty fares schemes, it may be that the people on the ticket barrier are authorised by one operator but not by the operator you used.

4 Even if they pass these tests, politely refuse to pay the penalty and simply pay the full single fare.

On the train or at the station, you have the absolute right to make only "a minimum payment that is equal to the full single fare which [you] would have had to pay for [your] journey if penalty fares had not applied." This is section 8 (2) of the Penalty Fares Rules 2002 - quote it if anyone tries to tell you different. (The full single fare means the fare without any railcard discounts, cheap offers etc.) Ignore any threats that may be made at this point if you refuse to pay the full sum - these are phoney and have no legal basis.

5 Never pay the penalty in the belief that you can recover it on appeal.

You are allowed to appeal against a penalty fare to one of two supposedly "independent" bodies. Most operators use the Independent Penalty Fares Appeals Service (IPFAS), others the Independent Appeals Service (IAS). But IPFAS is in fact owned by Southeastern Trains, is based at Southeastern's head office and all its staff are Southeastern employees. IAS was also until recently based in railway offices and its company secretary is a director of the company which runs the railways' ticketing system. In short, the appeal process is not independent of the rail operators, is not operated in your interests and is most unlikely to recover your money.

6 Give your correct name, address and journey details.

Once you have paid the single fare, the collector will then ask for your name and address so that they can send a demand for the rest to be paid within 21 days. They can check names and addresses while you wait with the electoral roll database. The only criminal offence in the whole penalty fares legislation is refusing to give a name and address, or giving a false one. So give the right details.

7 Once you have paid the minimum, they will hand you a form.

Check this carefully. It must show the authorised collector's name and identity, your correct details, the details of the journey you have taken and how much you have paid. Collectors are often careless. If any of these details are omitted or are wrong, and you can prove it, it is game over.

8 When the letter demanding the rest arrives, write back politely, again refusing to pay, and explaining why you were unable to buy a ticket before travelling.

This is where the most useful part of the Penalty Fares Rules comes in - Rule 7 (4), which states that a penalty fare must not be charged "if ... there were no facilities available for selling the appropriate ticket or other authority for the journey the person wanted to make".

The Rules themselves do not define what "no facilities available" means. But in separate guidance on penalty fares ("Penalty Fares Policy") issued by the Department for Transport, it is made quite clear, in clauses 4.2 and 4.11, that passengers must be given "sufficient opportunity" to buy a ticket and that regular queues over three minutes (off-peak) and five minutes (peak) breach the definition of what is "sufficient".

It is not clear whether this definition has any legal force - but if you quote it in your letter back to the train company, you are unlikely to be bothered again.

The Penalty Fares Policy also tells companies to "use discretion" towards the elderly, pregnant women, people who have enough money to buy a ticket "but not in the form needed to use the [ticket] machine" and "all passengers when the train service is severely disrupted". Once again, if you can truthfully quote any of these, you are unlikely to be bothered.

9 Remember: penalty fares are a civil, not a criminal-matter.

Train companies often scare people into paying up by threatening prosecution and a criminal record. However, the legislation establishing penalty fares, the Railways Act 1993, section 130, states that apart from failing to give your right name and address, "nothing in this section creates, or authorises the creation of any [criminal] offence". The Penalty Fares Regulations 1994 state that "the recovery of a penalty fare is a civil debt". So even if after reading your letter the company still decides it wants the money, it has to sue you - probably not worthwhile for such a small sum. Railway companies sometimes threaten people with the main criminal law against fare-dodgers, the Regulation of Railways Act1889. But this says there has to be "intent to avoid payment". You could argue that you haven't intended to avoid payment because you have, in fact, paid the full single fare.

10 But don't abuse the system.

The safeguards provided in the law and the regulations are intended for people who want to pay the proper fare but occasionally fall foul of inadequate facilities. If you constantly board trains without buying a ticket, or if you lie to train company staff, this could be construed as intent to avoid payment and the chances of criminal prosecution will rise.”

GIRLS’ NIGHTMARE JOURNEY FROM ROMSEY MOTHER’S COMPLAINT TO FIRST GREAT WESTERN

[Thanks to our former Totton-Waterloo diarist for forwarding this] The following letter has been referred to us by a shocked mother’s colleague. The mother has requested that we do not put her name on our website.

“Dear Sirs, 

I would like to inform you and indeed make an official complaint about an incident that happened on one of your trains on Tuesday 4th August. My 16 year old daughter and two friends arranged to go to St Austell to stay with a relative for a few days, their first long rail trip on their own.  One of the girls, assisted by her mother, booked the return tickets for all 3 girls over the telephone, 2 if not 3 weeks in advance.  She explained that she had a Young Persons Railcard and was given a discount for all 3 tickets. The girls left Romsey Station on the 08.35 and their tickets were checked on the train.

They changed at Westbury and their tickets were checked again, and the guard asked to see the Young Persons Railcard. When he realized they only had one railcard between them, the girls were told (in no uncertain terms) that their tickets were not valid and that they would need to disembark from the train at Taunton and pay an extra £38 each.  Furthermore the Guard told them that as they could not be trusted to pay the extra of their own accord that they would be met at the Station and “escorted” to the ticket office. At this point he left with their tickets, refusing to return them; the girls were left feeling very worried and upset. 

The Guard was rude and patronizing, so much so that another passenger felt it necessary to break her journey at Taunton to ensure that the girls were alright – she even offered to pay the extra for them. The exchange took place loudly and in front of all the other passengers and the girls were made to feel belittled and very worried. I feel that had it been myself, my husband or indeed any other older person, the whole situation would have been handled very differently and with a lot more respect. On arrival at Taunton, the girls were met and escorted to the ticket office by another rail official who showed no sympathy; they paid the extra fare of £18 each, which luckily they had. 

Could I ask at this point what would have happened to three 16 year olds had they not had the extra fare to continue? Would they, as suggested by the guard, have been escorted from the station and left miles from home? Do you have a policy to cover this? By this time they had missed their connecting train and had a 2 hour wait for the next train, they asked (politely) if there was an alternative and were told they could go via Exeter but this would cost an extra £10. When they asked if this could be waived in view of their predicament, another equally rude member of staff said, “Yes, we know your situation, just sort it out”.  They did finally get to St Austell at 16.30, 8 hours later. Can I just point out that these girls are polite, well brought up children; they are not criminals nor are they rude, loud troublemakers, and while I am sure your staff encounter their fair share of these, they should know not to tar everyone with the same brush. 

Had the girls travelled with the intention of “getting away without paying” as the Guard suggested, they would hardly have booked their tickets in advance would they? The tickets were sold to them (via cross country trains.co.uk) by someone qualified to do so and were bought in good faith.  I have had a Family Railcard for years and know that others can travel with me at the same discount. I assumed that the Young Persons Railcard would be the same.  I must admit though, that the extra payment fades into insignificance when you consider how these 3 young people were treated. I have always encouraged my children to use the trains and I am appalled that in this age, when you are trying to encourage people to use public transport, that the travellers of tomorrow are treated with such utter disrespect. I would like your comments on the above please and also to know by return, how you intend to deal with this matter. A copy of this letter will also be sent to the Managing Director of First Great Western and also to the Director General of DfT Rail Group.”     

IN LORD ADONIS’ TRACKS
ROAMING THE RAILS FROM SOUTHAMPTON TO INVERNESS

Time: July 2009

Routes covered:

* Southampton Central-Manchester Piccadilly
* Manchester Piccadilly-Warrington Central-Liverpool Lime Street
* Liverpool Lime Street-Warrington Bank Quay
* Liverpool Central-Ormskirk
* Liverpool Central-Kirkby
* Liverpool Central-Hunts Cross
* Liverpool Central-West Kirby
* Liverpool Central-Ellesmere Port
* Ellesmere Port- Helsby
* Warrington Bank Quay-Llandudno Junction
* Llandudno Junction-Blaenau Ffestiniog
* Bidston-Wrexham Central
* Liverpool Lime Street-Leeds
* Leeds-Carlisle
* Carlisle-Glasgow Central
* Glasgow Queen Street-Inverness
* Inverness-York
* York-Southampton Central

Operators:

* South West Trains (station facilities at Southampton Central)
* Cross Country
* First TransPennine
* Arriva Trains Wales
* Northern Trains
* Stagecoach East Midlands
* Merseyrail
* Virgin West Coast
* First Scotrail
* National Express East Coast

Station facilities

Entry to Southampton Central station was past the once-busy travel centre which Stagecoach had destroyed almost a year earlier, along with all the others on SWT including – prospectively - Waterloo. By way of comparison, the impressively rebuilt Leeds station had a fantastic travel centre; posters at Liverpool Central (served only by local trains) proclaimed that a new travel centre was on the way; and there was a good temporary travel centre at Inverness during total refurbishment of the existing facility.

It was the same story with bus stations. Stagecoach destroyed Southampton’s bus station over a decade ago and the city’s country bus services became disjointed (5 main departure points scattered around the city centre), and have withered. Warrington had a busy and spacious modern bus station with glass screens and rows of seats by every departure bay. Birkenhead’s bus station was excellent.Inverness bus station provided a remarkable range of facilities, though was perhaps unusual in that buses on many of the routes it served were long-distance. Even remote Stornoway had a bus station. The Evening Times reported that Stagecoach was (hypocritically, given its destructive actions at Southampton) joining First Group and Arriva in protesting against the proposed two year closure of Glasgow’s Buchanan Bus Station in relation to a commercial development.

Inverness had a well-used left luggage facility. Leeds had an exceptionally good tourist outlet. Llandudno Junction had a homely buffet. Ticket offices were generally open well into the evening – even at small, out-of-town St Helens Junction at 20.30. This seemed to have paid off in terms of the lack of vandalism. Toilets facilities were usually good and sometimes in unexpected positions, as at the underground Hamilton Square station in Birkenhead. However, at Warrington Bank Quay and Llandudno Junction the facilities closed in mid-evening, allegedly owing to vandalism.

Leeds, Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Piccadilly stations were immensely improved. Merseyrail stations were exceptionally clean and bright, and many had huge, stylish, waiting shelters. Every square metre of earth at Orrell Park had been cultivated under a local regeneration scheme, with fantastic flower beds and even a wild garden. Stations on the Settle and Carlisle line were delightfully maintained. Scotrail stations were generally bright and well maintained.

Trains

All trains were busy, except between Ellesmere Port and Helsby, where ridership was in single figures. The limited service, apparently designed for workers at Stanlow refinery, appears largely redundant; couldn’t the route have an alternative role in providing Ellesmere Port residents with peak connections for Manchester? It was good to see that the Blaenau Ffestiniog trains were getting a lot of custom from people wanting to ride the Ffestiniog Railway: joined-up tourism at its best.

Comfort was generally no more than fair. Arriva Trains Wales’ trains on the Manchester-Llandudno route were superb. Even the little Blaenau train was pleasantly refurbished, with Pond murals at the carriage ends, recalling the mainline Wessex Electric trains as built. National Express’ refurbished InterCity 125 trains could have passed for new, despite the trains being around thirty years old. No threatening announcements whatever. What a welcome change from the pompously voiced threats of penalty fares which have even driven stressed passengers to alight from SWT trains! In addition, other operators showed none of SWT’s spitefulness in cases of ticket irregularities:

* Arriva Cross Country: two young men claimed to have tickets but refused to show them to the conductor. He quietly ensured they left the train at the next station. A woman had an Advance ticket valid only on a later train. The conductor said she could pay an addition to stay on the train or alight at the next station and await the train on which her ticket was valid.

* First Scotrail: a man had an Advance ticket valid only on a later train. The conductor pointed out his error and took no further action.

* East Midlands Trains: a woman had a collection of tickets in her handbag but couldn’t find the right one. Conductor said, “Don’t worry, love. I’ll trust you”.

It was interesting to note how often ticket gates were left unlocked, particularly on Merseyrail, where they were not compatible with the popular system-wide bus, train and ferry tickets. Congratulations, especially, to conductors on the Bidston-Wrexham line for managing to issue large numbers of tickets between stops while remaining impeccably cheerful.

Staff were friendly and helpful everywhere. Examples: The travel centre at Liverpool Lime Street had closed by late evening, but the clerk at the “same day only” ticket office window was very happy to issue tickets for the following day. Cross Country train staff noticeably operated as a customer-focused team, with the refuse sack coming through trains about 20 minutes after the refreshment trolley. The prize for good service, however, must go to the young First TransPennine conductor who attended a woman who was bleeding badly after stitches had come out of a bad cut on her arm. As she declined a call for medical assistance, he got the first aid kit and quickly bandaged the wound whilst talking her through the process with a good bedside manner.

The booby prize for service must go to SWT staff at Southampton Central. They started agitating the predominantly elderly passengers trying to board the Manchester train by blowing whistles at them. One Passenger Assistance officer did help a frail elderly woman on to the train – and settled her in my reserved seat before dashing back to the door. I quietly pointed out to her that she was in the wrong seat. She refused to move because the “nice man” had put her there, and he must be right as her seat number (23) was staring us in the face (on the back of the seat in front). By then someone else had taken seat 23, so I had to seat-skip until the woman alighted at Birmingham.

The SWT official who had been in too much of a rush to get her to the right seat gained nothing from his haste; his colleagues waved to him through the window after they sent the train off with him still on board. In terms of good service, Southampton Central would probably be the low spot of anyone’s travels. How long before all ticket staff sit on stools in the foyer while most of the ticket windows are closed, especially as the same process is increasingly apparent at other stations?

Performance

Trains were generally on time, except that services between Manchester and Liverpool via Warrington Central tended to be up to 10 minutes late in the peaks.

The train from Southampton to Manchester was delayed about 10 minutes south of Birmingham. After departure from Birmingham International, the aisles became crushed with standing passengers. It quickly became apparent that they wanted to connect into the only direct service of the day from Birmingham New Street to Aberdeen. On the approach to New Street, the conductor announced that the Aberdeen train had already departed and gave details of alternative services for main stations to Edinburgh.

This incident illustrates how difficult the Department for Transport has made life for passengers by dictating that all Cross Country trains from Hampshire and Dorset should go no further than Manchester. Arriva didn’t want it, passengers didn’t want it and some MPs didn’t want it, and I had raised the point at a meeting which Arriva convened in Birmingham. Perhaps former minister Tom Harris was too occupied with his famous blog to care.

The conductor of the slightly delayed York-Reading train helpfully announced that passengers travelling towards St Pancras should alight at Derby rather than Sheffield as they would then not have to cross a footbridge and risk missing their connection. Imagine getting that sort of help on SWT, rather than having train doors shut in your face as you race for your connection.

There was little evidence of the gratuitously massive station dwell times which so annoy SWT commuters at stations like Basingstoke and Winchester. Where there were significant delays, as at Birmingham, they were intended to enable interchange. However, the culture of building recovery time into public timetables at the end of journeys appears widespread. One odd result is that trains from Bidston are shown as having a turnaround time of MINUS two minutes at Wrexham Central (arrive 32 minutes past, return at 30 minutes past)!

Overall impression

Generally very positive, but impossible to avoid the conclusion that other franchise operations have left South West Trains far behind in terms of service quality and looking after passengers. How can it be good practice to subsidise a private company to run a public service where its founders own over a quarter of the shares and have a personal incentive to milk the operation unreasonably? When Stagecoach chairman Brian Souter said: “Ethics are not irrelevant but some are incompatible with what we have to do because capitalism is based on greed”, didn’t he really mean: “Ethics are incompatible with what we choose to do because our brand of capitalism is based on greed”?

ADVERTISED BORDON BUS LINK FARES NOT AVAILABLE / 24-MINUTE TICKET QUEUE AT WATERLOO

By a Surrey commuter

SWT display on their website that 'bus link' tickets can be purchased for onward journeys to Bordon from Farnham. On 15th September, staff at Guildford, on the train and at Farnham could not sell me this ticket; they said or implied it didn't exist. As such, the cost to myself was £6 on the bus, although the advertised price is £4 plus any railcard discounts (in my case a Gold Card discount would/should apply).

>From SWT's website:

'This service departs from the station forecourt at Farnham. The journey to Bordon takes around 20 minutes. Combined bus and train tickets can be purchased from your station to Bordon and include a reduced bus price detailed below.

Price from Farnham to Bordon:
Single £2.50 Standard Day Return £4.00 Cheap Day Return £4.00.....normal Railcard discounts apply for adults, however no further discounts are applicable for children.'

Looks like Stagecoach are taking full advantage of their monopoly of public transport in these areas.

I've written to SWT regarding this matter and asked for my money back.

Also, on 11th September at 16:15, queues at Waterloo exceeded 20 minutes (24 minutes in my case). Four windows were open and 10 were closed. I had to queue as a Revenue Protection Inspector mis-sold me a ticket at Woking (he was performing sales duties for the closed ticket office at the town centre entrance). I'm in contact with Paul Bentley at Passenger Focus; I will be providing him with a dossier of evidence against this dreadful company for presentation to the DfT in October (including ticket offices closed during opening hours). I won’t hold my breath for anything positive, but at least it’s a step in the right direction.

FUTURE OF RAIL FRANCHISING MOVING UP THE POLITICAL AGENDA?

The failure of two successive East Coast Main Line franchises (Sea Containers and National Express) has opened up a debate about the future of rail franchising.

All three major political parties have recently been moving towards the idea of longer franchises, though Lord Adonis now considers that the dismemberment of BR was wrong. The evidence on longer franchises is contradictory. The Chiltern franchise was let for 20 years and has been one of the rail industry’s undoubted success stories. It was a very different story on SWT, where Stagecoach was chosen for a 20-year franchise in 2001. The company’s financial instability following incautious business expansion in the US, along with its abominable performance on SWT itself, meant that the longer franchise was never granted. In addition, a lifeline to Stagecoach from the then SRA Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Bowker cost taxpayers an extra £29m for very little return.

Unsurprisingly, therefore, the House of Commons Transport Committee is urging Lord Adonis to keep the East Coast line under state control. The Committee considers that, “The service could then be used as a comparator for other types of franchises, both in terms of financial viability and passenger service quality”. Latest reports suggest that the service will be state-controlled for around two years. State-controlled BR under Sir Robert Reid was a huge success story, generously applauded by the then Conservative transport minister David Mitchell [See Hogrider 123]. In addition, the move suggested by the Transport Committee would attract massive public support. Recent polls have suggested that 70% of those surveyed and 95% of Londoners would like to see the railways renationalised [Source: RAIL magazine and the Guardian of 03/07/09]

Less encouraging news is that Stagecoach is bidding to the DfT to take over National Express’ two other franchises, East Anglia and C2C (formerly London, Tilbury and Southend). Superficially, this would seem to suit both parties – DfT because it would be left with one franchise on its hands rather than three, and Stagecoach because it would have a big new empire in which to strip assets and introduce abusive fare increases. However, would the Labour Party, which faces a difficult general election in 2010, really want to add to its problems by canvassing against a backdrop of soaring fares, travel centres being ripped out, and passengers being persecuted on mere technicalities, all to underpin Stagecoach bonuses? Even some of the more contentious bankers’ bonuses look like small change compared with what the Stagecoach founders have taken. And railways expert Barry Doe, who previously lobbied us on behalf of Stagecoach, now considers First Great Western the best franchise.

STAGECOACH’S DOWNGRADED, OVER-PRICED, SWT PROVIDES A BRITISH TEST-BED FOR GREYHOUND COACHES

September saw First Group’s introduction of Greyhound coaches in Britain. Services initially run between London (Victoria) and Southampton/Portsmouth, with single fares as low as £1 and generally under £10. We checked the website and the earliest/latest services appear to offer the cheapest fares. There is a booking fee of 50p, and booking by phone costs 49p a minute, so best to book online. The timetable is the same every day of the week. This means that, on Sunday, you can get to Victoria soon after the first train from Southampton has left Winchester. See www.greyhounduk.com

It is far from clear whether this will prove a good development. While a coach may be more environmentally friendly than several dozen cars, much of the patronage is likely to be extracted from electric train services. Stagecoach may have cause to regret downgrading the rolling stock on the Portsmouth and Southampton routes, and regularly operating suburban stock all the way from Waterloo to Weymouth. It may also regret the longer journey times it has introduced, the 20% ‘greed tax’ on off-peak morning services to London, the destruction of facilities like travel centres, and the persecution of honest passengers. If ever there was a case of a train operating company laying itself open to competition, this must be it.

The new Greyhound services have spurred competition by National Express and Stagecoach Megabus. So Stagecoach is now competing against its SWT franchise.

FARES: A PRIVATISATION NIGHTMARE AND YOUR CHANCE TO HELP A CAMPAIGN

[Thanks to Cat Hobbs, Julie Boston and David Wallis]

Season Ticket prices will fall by 0.4% from next January, in tandem with other regulated fares. However, there is wide speculation that, as usual, the train operators will raise non-regulated fares to compensate. Research by the investment bank UBS (reported in the Evening Standard of 19/8/09) has found that Britain already has the most expensive fares in the world, at more than twice the European average and 3.4 times the global average.

A 125-mile train trip such as London to Liverpool costs £54.39 second class, compared with £40.41 in Germany, the second most expensive country. For a similar journey from Paris the average is £30.11, and from Rome £18.94.

Cat Hobbs of the Campaign for Better Transport says: “It’s completely outrageous. We’ve done research that shows that if rail fares were reduced to the European average, train use would increase by 17 per cent. There are lots of people who want to travel on the trains, who realise it’s a greener option who just can’t afford it.”

Cat Hobbs has been on a tour of Britain, along with Julie Boston of the Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways [www.fosbr.org.uk] as part of a campaign for lower fares, and SHRUG’s organiser had the privilege of meeting them in Southampton on 29 September. Readers may like to support the campaign [bettertransport.org.uk/train-fares or Campaign for Better Transport, 16 Waterside, 44-48 Wharf Road, London N1 7UX]

Even where there are cheaper fares, they can be difficult to tease out. Fares expert Barry Doe draws attention in RAIL magazine to the new super off-peak fares introduced by First Great Western. These are a genuinely cheaper product, unlike SWT’s super off-peaks which are off-peaks re-branded. Singles are half the return fare. Tickets are valid out of Reading from 10.30, but not from 15.00 to 18.59. Basingstoke to Penzance is £78 super off-peak return and £39 single. However, from Winchester, the fare is £87 return and £86 single. So if you make a single journey from Winchester you can save almost £40 by re-booking at Basingstoke. So much for the myth that fares are getting simpler.

Meanwhile, a report by Which? magazine has found that getting correct information about fares from railway staff is as difficult as ever. Station ticket office staff and National Rail Enquiries provided the researchers with the cheapest available fare for their journey only 93 times out of 200. 65% of station ticket clerks failed to provide the cheapest fare and 40 out of 60 answers about season ticket savings were wrong. In 27 times out of 50 the most expensive fare was quoted; had the researchers followed all the advice given, they would have overpaid £858.

In addition, there are huge anomalies in car parking charges. At Halifax, Barnsley and Altrincham it’s free. Birmingham New Street’s short-stay car park is the dearest, at the equivalent of £215 for 12 hours, and at Glasgow Central the corresponding equivalent is £175. Parking at Sheffield is £12 for 24 hours; at Meadowhall, just 8-10 minutes away by train, it’s free.

The report outlines the predicament of Jenna Davis, who commutes from Southampton Airport Parkway to Waterloo by train. The station car park costs over £120 a month to use and fills up quickly. If she gets an early train she usually has to sit on the floor for an hour. If she travels later she can get a seat but then has to use the airport car park at £20 a day.

Train operators decide station car park charges. If you are not satisfied, you can complain to them. If you are not satisfied with the response, you can ask the Office of Rail Regulation to look at your complaint in the light of competition law.

SWT’S AUGUST WEBCHAT – A VERY NEGATIVE EVENT

119 questions put to SWT management:

60 ‘name withheld’ questions [These include questions from people connected with SWT. One questioner says “many of our evening trains are now reduced from eight to four carriages”. Another wishes Stewart Palmer a happy retirement, and he replies to the anonymous person, “I shall miss our interesting chats at "Meet the Manager" sessions at London Waterloo.”]

46 questions from 30 named questioners (15 from just 2 of them). 13 questions not published. Issues raised in published questions include:

* Soaring car park charges / high fares.
* Too many announcements.
* Rolling stock downgrade – loss of Wessex Electrics, and suburban trains on inter-city services.
* Bike stolen when CCTV duff.
* Ticket machine advertises collection of pre-booked tickets but facility not yet introduced.
* Problems with duff ticket barriers.
* Peak crush through inadequate barrier lines at Basingstoke, Bournemouth, Winchester and Walton-on-Thames.
* Ticket barriers left open in late evening.
* Lack of longer-distance peak services at Clapham Junction.
* Closure of travel centre at Waterloo; often only 3-4 ticket windows open.
* Ticket machine duff and ticket office rarely open; no ticket issuing facility at Bournemouth after 21.00; ticket machine missing at Wool; guards sometimes lack ticket-issuing equipment.
* Blocked toilets and duff air-conditioning on Waterloo-Exeter trains.
* Can never get advice about which train leaves first when services disrupted – staff refer to ‘Control’ as if it is a god.
* Increasing delays / too many temporary speed restrictions. * Lack of information about engineering work on the Underground.
* Trains on the Waterloo-Reading line are overcrowded, have filthy toilets, and are shabby and dirty.
* Poor ventilation on suburban trains.
* Poor late evening service to Hampton Court.
* Increasingly slow services on the Alton line.
* Clocks at Barnes Bridge showing wrong time.
* Poor bike parking at Waterloo.
* Many services less frequent than on Southern.
* Failure to implement seat reservations.
* Trains without toilets on medium-distance routes.
* No first class lounge at Waterloo.
* Ticket machines can be difficult for some people.
* Weekly parking tickets restricted to season ticket holders.
* Anytime return dearer than two Anytime singles.
* Too many replacement buses.
* Difficulty in getting bargain first class fares with annual season ticket.
* Annual seasons quickly stop activating ticket barriers.
* Overcrowding between Clapham and Surbiton.
* Oyster cards not recognised by Waterloo ticket barriers.
* Desiro trains have no litter bins in first class.

WESSEX ELECTRIC TRAINS

We understand that, at a meeting on 4 August 2009, retiring SWT Managing Director Stewart Palmer finally conceded what everyone who uses his class 450 suburban trains knows: that the seating is hard and uncomfortable. So it’s a pity that similar seats have been put in all SWT’s ex-BR suburban electric trains. It’s a pity also that he regularly runs the class 450s between Waterloo and Weymouth, and that many Portsmouth-Waterloo commuters endure them every day. Such miserable travel conditions on long-distance runs result partly from the withdrawal of the Wessex Electric units. We understand that SWT managers finally admitted at a meeting on 22 March 2007 that withdrawal of these popular trains was to reduce rolling stock hire costs. The only silver lining to the way that Stagecoach treats its passengers is that the company’s founders have shared hundreds of millions of pounds in bonuses.

Note this exchange in SWT’s August 2009 webchat event:

“Question 26

A simple question: why are the Wessex units fit for the Brighton line but not the Weymouth line? If Southern can refurbish and continue to use them for the foreseeable future, why did SWT dump them and replace them with unsuitable Class 450 units on longer journeys? Name withheld, 19 August 2009 19:53

We decided to offer new and more reliable trains for our passengers. The Class 442 is an older train with some electrical equipment that is around 40-years old. The refurbishment carried out by Southern is not the same as we would have required for our rolling stock since Southern's trains are partially designed to cater for Gatwick Express business. When we took our decision, we had to take a view on the fleet that we would run until 2017. The Southern franchise is scheduled to terminate before 2017.”

Comment

A wonderful example of how to sidestep a question! First, a heavy overhaul of the Wessex Electrics had started before Stagecoach dumped the fleet in a cost-cutting exercise. Secondly, these trains were far more reliable at the time they were dumped than were the class 458 units which SWT returned to service in their place. Thirdly, the 40-year old motors were exceptionally robust and had been restored to new condition in 1987-88. Fourthly, the kind of service for which trains are refurbished is a separate issue from the age or state of the electrical equipment. Fifthly, the Southern franchise expires only 18 months before the SWT franchise.

SMALL THOUGHTS FOR LORD ADONIS’ ‘STATIONS CHAMPIONS’

The only 2009 ‘National Rail Award’ which SWT managed to win was for Brockenhurst as best medium-sized station#. Brockenhurst, which is the only mainline station in the New Forest District with an adequate train service (probably the best village service in Britain) has changed little from BR days. A good stock of tourist information leaflets is maintained in the foyer.

Brockenhurst is the junction for the Community Rail line to Lymington. On such lines, passengers are encouraged to become involved with their local stations, and treat them as a community asset. Other stations are often as welcoming as a prison, with access denied to non-passengers even where they are seeing off or meeting frail or disabled people. The provision of platform tickets needs to be made compulsory.

Compare Brockenhurst station with Salisbury, the railhead for the international heritage site at Stonehenge. Salisbury was attractively restored some years ago, and had a big, welcoming foyer with busy tourist office and benches conveniently placed for people awaiting Stonehenge buses. The foyer now has no non-ticket issuing amenities whatever. Passengers are greeted by two stark lines of barriers, with SWT’s usual threatening notices. In SWT’s internal station competition, Salisbury was judged overall best station. This secondary competition says much about SWT’s shortage of good news stories, but the result doesn’t say much for its stations.

SWT SERVICE LEVEL COMMITMENT: LETTER TO DfT

[SHRUG’s organiser wrote as below to Marianna White in the DfT on 3/9/2009. This produced a copy of an original reply which was never received and comment that changes are a matter for SWT and DfT has nothing further to add on the matter. Such a reply is completely useless, because SWT consistently say they cannot change DfT’s service specification, even though it is nothing like the service they actually operate.]

“Off-peak and Saturday train services in southern Hampshire from December 2007

I still await a reply to my letter of 4 July in which I asked if you could let me know the solution to the 25-37 minute dwell times at Brockenhurst of the Waterloo-Poole service, which you stated that SWT has proposed.

You also wrote that “DfT would welcome further changes to deliver improvements to the services provided if they satisfied an operational assessment by Network Rail, and could demonstrate value for money”. I have therefore suggested some minor changes below, which would avoid the need for trains to overtake one another, and would realise the DfT’s ambitions for an improved train service for the growing population of Eastleigh and in the Eastleigh-Southampton corridor.

These changes would fit well with the reintroduction of a commercial service from Totton, which is the fourth largest intermediate town between Southampton and Weymouth but has suffered disproportionately from the inconsistency and contraction of its train services over the years. Totton is also the railhead for Hythe which, in a recent report for the Association of Train Operating Companies, was considered to have the best case in the country for the reintroduction of passenger train services.

Can some improvements to services be given serious consideration, possibly along the lines below, please?

Rationale

I have revisited the DfT’s Service Level Commitment (SLC) which I obtained through a Freedom of Information request. It shows that the stopping pattern of the fast Waterloo-Weymouth service is as prescribed in the SLC. However, the actual stopping patterns of the semi-fast service and the Waterloo-Poole service vary significantly from the SLC. This is odd, because the prescribed stopping patterns in the SLC (See Annex 1) appear to be mandatory.

The prior literature produced by your Department and Network Rail indicated that the SLC changes were designed to achieve maximum efficiency and better meet the market’s current needs. The new stopping patterns in the SLC clearly target improvements on two areas:

* Improvements between Poole and Weymouth to provide south Dorset with faster London trains and direct trains to a wider range of destinations.

* Increase in the stopping service between Southampton and Eastleigh to twice-hourly including a direct service between St Denys/Swaythling and London, replacement of the two stopping trains per hour between Eastleigh and London with two semi-fast trains and one stopping train, and introduction of a semi-fast Weymouth service from Eastleigh.

Unfortunately the SLC was fatally flawed, in particular because the prescribed maximum journey time for the London-bound semi-fast train from Weymouth was about 10 minutes less than today’s speeds require. It appears that a compromise was then devised, with the new stopping patterns introduced west of Southampton Central and the old stopping patterns left virtually unchanged between Southampton Central and London.

This meant that the improvements for Eastleigh and the Eastleigh-Southampton corridor were sacrificed. The fast Waterloo-Weymouth service was accelerated by just 6 minutes westbound and 3 minutes eastbound, but with comparable increases in journey times between Waterloo and Poole, which is a much larger town than Weymouth. The main ‘gainers’, therefore were people travelling between stations such as Basingstoke/Christchurch and Dorchester/Weymouth who no longer had to spend 10-20 minutes changing trains at Poole.

The principal difficulties with the compromise service arise from the retention of Farnborough and Fleet stops in the Waterloo-Poole service. Stops on this high-speed section mean that the westbound service is overtaken by faster Weymouth trains at both Southampton Central and Brockenhurst, and the eastbound service is overtaken at Eastleigh.

These difficulties are particularly severe for Totton rail users. Totton’s direct trains from London are 32 minutes slower than before the timetable changes, and journeys to New Milton/Christchurch are 26/28 minutes (in one case, 38/40 minutes) slower. Passengers hoping for a faster journey from London now have to catch the semi-fast Weymouth service and race over the footbridge at Southampton Central, often to see the Totton train’s doors shut in their faces because SWT cares more about performance statistics than people.

Farnborough and Fleet clearly have a massive London commuting market. However, it seems less clear why southern Hampshire should forgo the off-peak and Saturday services which the SLC identified as meeting its market needs, just so that passengers can travel from London to Farnborough and Fleet on the 39-past Waterloo-Poole train when there is an alternative service only 3 minutes later.

Turning to the westbound Waterloo-Poole service, there is a Catch 22 situation. Giving Farnborough and Fleet passengers a direct Poole train makes the service so slow, because of the consequent overtaking, that they are likely to seek faster alternatives. It is difficult to see why anyone would want to travel, for example, from Farnborough/Fleet to Bournemouth on the Waterloo-Poole train, which takes 143/149 minutes and is often formed of suburban stock, when they can complete the journey in 90/97 minutes by taking other trains and connecting with Cross Country services at Basingstoke. Numerous observations at Basingstoke confirm that there is indeed a steady passenger flow from Farnborough/Fleet trains to Cross Country.

Ironically, in the evening commuting peak, when direct trains from Farnborough/Fleet to stations west of Basingstoke could potentially be most useful, there is none between 17.13 and 19.45 from Farnborough and between 17.19 and 20.19 from Fleet.

You may recall that your predecessor confirmed to me by e’mail that the deviations from the SLC had been agreed between Stagecoach and Network Rail. Presumably the Farnborough and Fleet stops suit Stagecoach, which has always favoured northern Hampshire, where it has a greater share of the public transport market than in the south of the county. For example, Stagecoach disposed of Hampshire Bus’ southern services, selling Southampton’s bus station for commercial development at a handsome profit and leaving the city with very poor facilities for bus passengers.

Illustrative suggestions for some minor improvements, in the form of a draft ‘standard-hour’ timetable in ‘minutes past each hour’ are in Annex 2.

Inevitably on this busy route, there are some comprises, particularly in relation to the spacing of services. Annex 3 contains a table of variations, in both the current service and the illustrative service, from the DfT’s Service Level Commitment. You will note that, overall, the levels of variation are very comparable. The highlights of the illustrative service are:

* Waterloo-Weymouth trains do not overtake Waterloo-Poole trains, so more streamlined operation, with fewer passengers switching between trains.

* Omission of Farnborough and Fleet from the Waterloo-Poole service, to comply with the DfT’s SLC, reduces the journey time of the westbound train by about 48 minutes and saves one train/crew.

* Swaythling and St Denys stops incorporated into the Waterloo-Poole service to comply with the DfT’s SLC.

* Eastleigh stop inserted into the semi-fast Waterloo-Weymouth service to comply with the DfT’s SLC, and recognise that Eastleigh currently has a very poor service for such a large and expanding town. Eastleigh rail station is two minutes’ walk from the town’s bus station, so a better rail service would promote integrated transport. It could also relieve pressure on car parking space at Southampton Airport Parkway station.

* Hedge End-Southampton Central and Portsmouth-Southampton Airport Parkway journeys (via change at Eastleigh) shortened.

* Two services an hour from Christchurch and New Milton to Waterloo. Currently there are two services westbound (one direct, one connectional) but, eastbound, one service overtakes the other.

* To maintain a reasonable spacing of services:

(i) the Clapham Junction stop of the Waterloo-Weymouth semi-fast train would probably need to be transferred to the Waterloo-Portsmouth train, giving Fareham a direct Clapham Junction service (NB: currently there are two trains an hour from Clapham Junction to Southampton; in the opposite direction one train is overtaken by the other so there is effectively only one train an hour already).

(ii) the Ashurst stop is omitted from the Waterloo-Poole train, and Totton and Ashurst stops are reintroduced into the Waterloo-Weymouth semi-fast train, reflecting the pre-December 2007 timetable. Totton and Ashurst (a New Forest gateway station with evident passenger growth) would have considerably faster services in both directions.

(iii) the Upwey stop is transferred from the semi-fast London service to the fast service. Upwey station is very comparable with Hamworthy in being surrounded by a large modern housing development, but Hamworthy has a much better service.

Operational easement at Southampton Central, where the Waterloo-Poole train would no longer occupy a platform for 15 minutes.

ANNEX 1

EXTRACTS FROM ‘SERVICE LEVEL COMMITMENT 2 (DECEMBER 2007)’

Weymouth services

“Services shall be provided between London Waterloo and Weymouth, calling at Woking, Winchester, Southampton Airport Parkway, Southampton Central, Brockenhurst, Bournemouth, Branksome, Parkstone (Dorset), Poole, Hamworthy, Wareham and Dorchester South.”

Weymouth semi-fast services

“Services shall be provided between London Waterloo and Weymouth, calling at Clapham Junction, Woking, Basingstoke, Winchester, Eastleigh, Southampton Airport Parkway, Southampton Central, Brockenhurst, New Milton, Christchurch, Pokesdown, Bournemouth, Branksome, Parkstone (Dorset), Poole, Hamworthy, Holton Heath, Wareham, Wool, Moreton (Dorset), Dorchester South, Upwey and Weymouth .”

Poole stopping services

“On Mondays to Fridays and Saturdays, services shall be provided between London Waterloo and Poole, calling at Clapham Junction, Basingstoke, Winchester, Shawford, Eastleigh, Southampton Airport Parkway, Swaythling, St Denys, Southampton Central, Totton, Ashurst (New Forest), Brockenhurst, Sway, New Milton, Hinton Admiral, Christchurch, Pokesdown and Bournemouth.”

ANNEX 2

ILLUSTRATIVE REVISED ‘STANDARD HOUR’ SERVICE IN ‘MINUTES PAST EACH HOUR’

London Waterloo	39	05	35		09		35
Clapham Junction	46				16
Woking					37	M	00
Farnborough					47	47#
Fleet						38#
Basingstoke	24	47			02	10
Micheldever					12
Winchester	40	03			21	25	33
Shawford	45		B
Eastleigh arrive	50	11	10	R	29
Eastleigh depart	51	12	17	22	30
Southampton Airport	55	16	21	26	PH	34	42
Swaythling	58			29
St Denys	01			32
Southampton Central arrive	05	23	28	36		40	49
Southampton Central depart	07	25	33	38		42	51
Totton	12	30
Ashurst		34
Beaulieu Rd	19*
Brockenhurst	27	43				57	05
Sway	31
New Milton	36	50
Hinton Admiral	40
Christchurch	45	57
Pokesdown	49	01
Bournemouth arrive	53	05				15	20
Bournemouth depart	55	09					24
Branksome	00						29
Parkstone	03						32
Poole	07	19					37
Hamworthy		23					42
Holton Heath		28
Wareham		33					49
Wool		40					22
Moreton		51
Dorchester		54					05
Upwey							13
Weymouth		03					17

* Occasional stop.
# Connection to Basingstoke.
B: Path for the proposed ‘looped’ service from Brighton via the Botley line to Brighton via the Netley line.
M: From Manchester.
PH: To Portsmouth Harbour.
R: From Romsey to Salisbury.

Weymouth	00				20
Upwey	04
Dorchester	13				30
Moreton					37
Wool					43
Wareham	28				50
Holton Heath					54
Hamworthy	39				59
Poole	40			50	04
Parkstone	44			54
Branksome	48			57
Bournemouth arrive	54			02	13	M
Bournemouth depart	59			05	18	45
Pokesdown				09	22
Christchurch				13	26
Hinton Admiral				18
New Milton				22	33
Sway				27
Brockenhurst	15			33	41	00
Beaulieu Rd				38*
Ashurst					48
Totton				45	53
Southampton Central arrive	28		R	50	58	12
Southampton Central depart	30		33	52	00	15
St Denys			38	57
Swaythling			41	00
Southampton Airport	38	PH	44	03	08	22
Eastleigh arrive		41	48	07	12
Eastleigh depart		43		08	14
Shawford				13
Winchester	48	54		18	24	30
Micheldever		02
Basingstoke		17		36	41	47
Fleet						10#
Farnborough		31				16#
Woking	19	41
Clapham Junction		00		12
London Waterloo	49	09		20	25

* Occasional stop.
# Connection from Basingstoke.
M: To Manchester.
PH: From Portsmouth Harbour.
R: From Salisbury to Romsey.

ANNEX 3

TABLE OF CHANGES FROM DFT’S SERVICE LEVEL COMMITMENT

NEWS IN BRIEF

[Thanks to David Mead for his contributions]

* New train order for Cardiff-Portsmouth scrapped

The excellent news that electrification of the lines from Paddington to Swansea, Bristol, Oxford and Newbury, and also from Liverpool to Manchester, is to go ahead is tempered by the decision not to proceed with 11 new 4-car diesel trains for the Cardiff-Portsmouth line. It appears that trains from Thames Valley services will be refurbished for the Cardiff-Portsmouth line when electric trains start running. Network Rail’s Great Western Route Utilisation Strategy proposes just 9 extra carriages for peak services through Bristol.

* SWT’s withdrawal from South Devon

>From December, an hourly service will run between Waterloo and Exeter. SWT services between Exeter and Paignton/Plymouth will be replaced by FGW services. Rolling stock constraints mean that some locomotive-hauled trains will appear around Bristol.

* SWT Managing Director, Stewart Palmer, is to retire in October 

Unlike many of his passengers, Mr Palmer has taken a jaundiced view of our Group, perhaps because we prefer fact to Stagecoach’s elaborate PR machine. Andy Pitt, who has been Deputy Managing Director for 10 years, is to replace him.

* Fears that SWT is putting passengers at risk in Salisbury

SWT has closed the northern entrance to Salisbury station, to force passengers to file through the ticket gates on the southern side. This means that station users, including schoolchildren, have to walk under the bridge over Fisherton Street where there is a road bend, sharp corner, and relatively narrow raised pavement. Extraordinarily, this latest hurdle for passengers has been introduced despite Network Rail’s plans to build a car park on the northern side. A planning inspector recommended a new car park but said rail passengers must be able to cross Fisherton Street safely and use the northern station entrance. [Source: Salisbury Journal]

* SWT leaves the Woodfalls Band in Wiltshire struggling for survival, 135 years after it was founded

SWT has long indulged in PR hype about its small-time sponsorship of charitable or community organisations, while the Stagecoach founders enjoyed hundreds of millions of pounds in bonuses. The Woodfalls Band may have appealed to Brian Souter because it was originally a Methodist chapel band. However, sponsorship has now been withdrawn, leaving members desperately seeking to raise funds.

* Stagecoach and First Group losses on oil

The Sunday Herald of 18 April reported that Stagecoach and First Group would lose about £200 million between them this year because they fixed their fuel costs at levels well above current market prices. Stagecoach would lose about £50m and First Group £150m. “To the detriment of rail and bus passengers, who have seen fare hikes around the country in recent months, the two companies locked in large parts of the fuel purchases for this year and next year at a time last year when there were fears that the price of oil could hit $200 a barrel. Having peaked at $147 last summer, crude's subsequent fall to its current rate of $53.50 has made these lock-ins look extremely expensive”.

* Financial crisis on SWT

The Evening Standard of 28 August reported that the depths of the crisis at South West Trains had been laid bare as Stagecoach admitted underlying revenue growths had plummeted. “The latest figures sparked fears of just how loss-making the Waterloo-based train company could become after analysts earlier this summer forecast a dive into the red of £150 million at SWT. Stagecoach today said in May, June and July, like-for-like revenue growth at SWT and its other wholly owned train franchise, East Midlands Trains out of St Pancras, came in at 0.9%. That is a slump compared with the 6.2% growth reported the previous 12 months. Although Stagecoach declines to break out figures, much of that decline is believed to be at SWT as East Midlands has hitherto been performing well. This piles the pressure on Stagecoach South West Trains founder and chief Brian, Souter who is currently engaged in a furious row with the Department for Transport over just when the taxpayer might begin to bail out struggling SWT. The DfT has said SWT cannot expect any financial help until 2011. Souter has called the DfT “either dysfunctional or deceitful”. What is hurting SWT is the disappearance of first-class passengers while leisure travellers are declining.” [Raising first class fares from 50% to 80% above standard rates and introducing a 20% “greed tax” on off-peak morning services to London appears to have backfired]

* Unattended ticket barriers at Waterloo

It is now routine for passengers to find SWT ticket barriers unattended. For example, at 10.30 on 26/08/09, a family with a group ticket tried to get through a barrier at Waterloo. Only one person was quick enough and the barrier dangerously closed on the others. The person who got through then had to look for a member of staff to let the others through and was told this happens all the time.

* New SWT money-grabbing threat to passengers

On 26/08/09, an announcement advised passengers on the 20.05 Waterloo-Poole that anyone found with luggage on a seat would be charged a full extra fare. While it’s obviously wrong that passengers should stand on overcrowded Stagecoach trains while there is luggage on seats, Stagecoach profiteering disposed of the comfortable Wessex Electric trains which had useful storage space between seats, in favour of the cramped Desiros. Passengers who are too short to reach the Desiro luggage racks, and don’t like to ask for help, are often seen standing precariously on seats as they lift up large items. Given these circumstances, SWT staff should be helping passengers with their luggage rather than threatening them.

* Peak passengers’ satisfaction with SWT plummeting

The Spring 2009 National Passenger Survey shows that more than a quarter of SWT’s peak passengers are now dissatisfied (3% down over a year), and this reflects responses to a question which asks only about the journey that they have just made. Satisfaction with station facilities has plummeted from 50% to 39%, with toilet facilities on trains from 35% to 32%, and with the interior cleanliness of trains from 84% to 76%. 21% consider they get value for money – a result which would bankrupt almost any other kind of business.

BUS / AIR NEWS

With thanks to David Mead and David Wallis for much of this.

* Conversion of the former Gosport-Fareham rail route to a busway in abeyance

The busway scheme has been approved by a majority of six to five, despite claims by Hampshire’s planning chief that it will not get people out of their cars or ease congestion on the A32. Completion was set for 2011, with Gosport remaining the largest town in Britain without a rail link. However, a legal challenge by a pensioner means that construction work cannot continue pending a High Court decision. The only work currently permitted is the relocation of reptiles before they hibernate.

Millions of pounds were wasted in developing the abandoned Portsmouth-Gosport-Fareham tram scheme, which the Government approved in 2001. The dense population of Portsea Island, together with the huge population of the Portsmouth/Gosport/Fareham/Havant conurbation, made the area particularly suited to a high-frequency tramway.

* Competition Commission inquiry into Eastleigh bus wars

The acrimonious dispute between Velvet and Bluestar buses is to be the subject of a top-level investigation. It started when Velvet introduced a new service and Bluestar ran a parallel service 3 minutes earlier. Velvet was forced to withdraw, and Bluestar then pulled out too. Bluestar’s action exactly mirrors Stagecoach’s behaviour in Darlington which the Competition Commission’s predecessor condemned as “predatory, deplorable and against the public interest”. In early October it was announced that Velvet would be subsidised to run the service.

* Newcomer starts Southampton-Bournemouth bus service

A gulf-war veteran has started a new bus service (X5/X55) between Southampton and Bournemouth via Ringwood. A day ticket costs £7 and the journey takes 76 minutes. There are 4 services each way on Mondays to Saturdays. This is obviously a positive development, but the service for people travelling to Southampton (earliest arrival 08.20; latest departure 17.40) is better than that for passengers travelling to Bournemouth (earliest arrival 10.45; latest departure 15.00).

* Bus service over weak railway bridge restored

One-way-at-a-time working with traffic lights should by now have been introduced over the weak Sway Road railway bridge in Brockenhurst. This enables Wilts & Dorset route 56/56A services to resume their normal route around the village instead of keeping to the main road over the level crossing.

* Christmas Day bus services!

Current timetables advertise bus services (mostly hourly) linking main centres all day on December 25 2009. Pity this only applies on the eastern half of the Isle of Wight.

* Hidden charges on cheap flights

Which? magazine reports that a cheap airline ticket can be far from a bargain. Checking in a single bag can cost up to £20. Airlines charge for payment by credit card – as much as £5 per flight in the case of Ryanair. Ryanair’s debit card fee has increased by 614%, Monarch Airlines’ fee by 275% and Air Berlin’s by 257%. Bmibaby charge for using the check-in desk. A meat sandwich on Ryanair costs £4.32, and a cup of coffee or 500mm of water costs £2.59

THE WIKIPEDIA VIEW: SLOW WEST TRAINS

“Criticism of South West Trains

South West Trains has been criticised for high fares. For instance, in January 2008, its fares increased on average by 4.3%. More generally, SW Trains offers an appalling service in terms of both frequency and journey times compared with either of its previously much maligned predecessors British Rail or the Southern Railway. In both respects a significant step backwards has been taken. To be specific, many services - eg Chessington, Hampton Court, Guildford via Cobham now have a 30 minute frequency in the rush hour, where 15 or 20 minutes was standard for decades. Additionally, journey times are poor compared to the past. For example, on the Cobham line the journey time to Hinchley Wood from Waterloo used to be 19 minutes during the rush hours. It is now over half an hour. For example, the 17:32 from Waterloo to Hinchley today arrives at 18:05 - a truly pathetic 33 minutes. In 1966 - more than 40 years ago and with a much older generation of train stock - the 17:32 (yes the same departure time) from Waterloo arrived at Hinchley Wood at 17:51. One no doubt sees an inverse relationship to senior management bonuses in the interim.”

PHOTOGRAPHY ON SWT– THE EVENING STANDARD’S COMMENT

“Row over manhandled trainspotter

TRAINSPOTTERS beware. Rail magazine has stirred up a hornets' nest after berating South West Trains following a report from a reader that he had been manhandled by SWT staff at Wimbledon station when attempting to take photographs of passing trains. Rail has taken up the cause of the assaulted “rail enthusiast” — the politically correct term for trainspotters in the 21st century — which poses the question of whether trainspotting is legal without the permission of whichever privatised rail company is running the service. Rail readers are tut-tutting that it wasn't like this in British Rail's day when spotters would be routinely invited onto footplates and into signal boxes. Worse news for spotters: word is that SWT's owner Stagecoach is set to take control of the Essex and East Anglia train companies that are currently run by National Express.” [Evening Standard 16/09/2009]

Publicly shamed SWT has now put extensive guidelines for photographers on its website.

ANOTHER PASSENGER COMMENTS ON HOW ALIEN SWT STATIONS FEEL

In the last issue, we reported a passenger’s view that “Perhaps the most depressing place to be in London is Waterloo Station”. This comment arose from the sheer bloody-mindedness of staff in not allowing passengers with valid tickets to pass through the barrier to join their train until almost the last minute, because of the off-peak fares threshold.

Note this letter in RAIL, issue 628:

“NO LONGER WANTED Previously a 20p platform ticket gained you an hour’s entrance time to my local station, Winchester. Now the new barriers are installed there is no entry to the platform unless I am travelling. “Company policy”, I was told. I am sad that after all those years I am unwelcome at my local station. Tim James”

WHO’S SUFFERING ON SWT TODAY?

* LATE RUNNING
* DUFF STOCK
* CANCELLATIONS
* CREW SHORTAGES
* TRAINS TERMINATING SHORT OF DESTINATION
* STOPS AXED FOR OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE

* The details below are snapshots, based on people's experiences and website news. We do not have the resources to provide an ‘all-day, every day’ record.

* The snapshots provide evidence of the substantial scale of the problems. The overall picture is worse than it may appear, for example because of missed connections.

* The capital letters highlight common types of operator failure and reflect the language of stressed passengers.

* Delays should be seen in the context that Stagecoach is generally operating the slowest services since steam.

* Trains can become increasingly late during the course of their journeys, or make up time where stops are omitted and passengers thrown off, or because of slack schedules. This means that 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 capacity which Stagecoach boasts of having introduced, adding to the stress and discomfort caused by the removal of seats from suburban trains.

Wednesday 01/07/09 06.18 Epsom-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 07.13 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES. 07.24 Reading-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 07.54 Hampton Court-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 13.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 13.52 Salisbury-Bristol 12 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 14.42 Reading-Waterloo 11 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Staines AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 15.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 9 minutes late and Poole portion 16 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.28 Waterloo-Windsor 17 minutes late. 16.58 Guildford-Waterloo 10 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.07 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.28 Waterloo-Windsor REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.02 Waterloo-Guildford REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 20.05 Waterloo-Poole 19 minutes late. 20.39 Waterloo-Guildford 9 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Passengers on the 21.22 Waterloo-Weybridge THROWN OFF at Staines DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 21./42 Waterloo-Portsmouth 27 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN.

Thursday 02/07/09 06.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 06.23 Windsor-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 08.37 Guildford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 08.53 Windsor-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. Signalling problems between Staines and Feltham. 16.50 Waterloo-Reading 110 minutes late. 17.20 Waterloo-Reading 75 minutes late. 17.50 Waterloo-Reading 48 minutes late. 17.53 Windsor-Waterloo 20 minutes late. 18.05 Waterloo-Aldershot AXED. 18.12 Reading-Waterloo AXED between Reading and Wokingham. 18.20 Waterloo-Reading 72 minutes late. 18.28 Waterloo-Windsor AXED. 18.35 Waterloo-Reading 55 minutes late. 18.37 Weybridge-Waterloo AXED between Weybridge and Hounslow. 18.42 Reading-Waterloo AXED between Reading and Wokingham. 18.50 Waterloo-Reading 44 minutes late. 18.53 Windsor-Waterloo AXED. 19.05 Waterloo-Reading 35 minutes late. 19.07 Weybridge-Waterloo AXED between Weybridge and Hounslow. 19.28 Waterloo-Windsor AXED. 19.37 Weybridge-Waterloo AXED between Weybridge and Hounslow. 19.53 Windsor-Waterloo AXED. 20.03 Weybridge-Waterloo AXED. 20.23 Windsor-Waterloo AXED. 20.28 Waterloo-Windsor AXED between Whitton and Windsor. 20.33 Weybridge-Waterloo AXED. 20.53 Windsor-Waterloo AXED. 21.03 Weybridge-Waterloo AXED. Passengers on the 21.28 Waterloo Windsor THROWN OFF at Whitton. 21.33 Weybridge-Waterloo AXED. 21.53 Windsor-Waterloo AXED.

Friday 03/07/09 Signalling problems again. SWT’s Journeycheck facility showed that the 05.53, 06.23, 06.53 and 07.23 Windsor-Waterloo would be AXED between Staines and Waterloo, whilst at the same time indicating that there were no trains between Windsor and Staines! 05.58 Waterloo-Windsor AXED. 06.28, 06.58 and 07.28 Waterloo-Windsor AXED between Staines and Windsor. 06.22, 06.52 and 07.22 Waterloo-Weybridge AXED. 06.33 and 07.03 Weybridge-Waterloo AXED. 07.33, 08.03 and 08.33 Weybridge-Waterloo AXED between Weybridge and Hounslow. All intermediate stops, after Wokingham, of the 07.50 Reading-Waterloo AXED.

Saturday 04/07/09 07.24 Portsmouth-Waterloo 22 minutes late. Passengers on the 20.46 Guildford-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Epsom.

Sunday 05/07/09 09.17 Portsmouth-Waterloo 32 minutes late.

Wednesday 22/07/09 05.47 Waterloo-Guildford 13 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 10.53 Waterloo-Alton THROWN OFF at Farnham DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.24 Basingstoke-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK; all intermediate stops after Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.27 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 20 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops after Twickenham AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.33 Waterloo-Guildford 13 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 16.36 Waterloo-Hampton Court 12 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 16.37 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 16.39 Waterloo-Guildford 12 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 16.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 12 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Richmond AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 17.24 Hampton Court-Waterloo 12 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Surbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 17.33 Woking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 17.41 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED between Shepperton and Teddington DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.55 Waterloo-Alton REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 18.32 Waterloo-Guildford REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF TRAIN.

Thursday 23/07/09 07.27 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.33 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Passengers on the 15.50 Poole-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Brockenhurst. Clapham Junction stop of the 16.20 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.28 Guildford-Waterloo diverted and 25 minutes late. 16.35 Dorking-Waterloo delayed by signalling problems. Passengers on the 16.39 Waterloo-Guildford THROWN OFF at Epsom. 16.54 Waterloo-Dorking REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 16.58 Guildford-Waterloo diverted. 17.02 Waterloo-Guildford REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 17.35 Dorking-Waterloo 11 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Epsom AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 17.50 Waterloo-Woking AXED. 18.06 Waterloo-Hampton Court 20 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Surbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 18.54 Hampton Court-Waterloo 15 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Surbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo 26 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Winchester, except Basingstoke, Woking and Clapham Junction, AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 20.28 Windsor-Waterloo 30 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; all intermediate stops before Staines AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. Passengers on the 23.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth THROWN OFF at Havant.

Friday 24/07/09 06.33 Staines-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.07 Twickenham-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.37 Guildford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.20 Waterloo-Exeter so overcrowded that some passengers sat on the filthy vestibule carpeting. 20.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth 21 minutes late. 21.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth 40 minutes late. 21.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth 16 minutes late.

Saturday 25/07/09 18.03 Weymouth-Waterloo 11 minutes late. 19.27 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED between Waterloo and Raynes Park. 20.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 28 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Norbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 21.44 Southampton-Portsmouth 22 minutes late.

Sunday 26/07/09 17.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 11 minutes late. 19.15 Alton-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Monday 27/07/09 Passengers on the 07.10 Waterloo-Paignton THROWN OFF at Salisbury DUE TO NO CREW. 08.10 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 09.20 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester. 09.50 Poole-Waterloo 12 minutes late; intermediate stops between Basingstoke and Clapham Junction AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.03 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester. Passengers on the 11.23 Waterloo-Alton THROWN OFF at Farnham. 13.15 Alton-Waterloo AXED between Alton and Farnham. 15.52 Bristol-Salisbury 100 minutes late due to signalling problems. 17.45 Waterloo-Havant 13 minutes late. 18.32 Waterloo-Basingstoke REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.45 Salisbury-Waterloo AXED. 18.48 Waterloo-Guildford REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.54 Waterloo-Dorking REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 21.15 Alton-Waterloo AXED between Alton and Farnham DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Tuesday 28/07/09 Passengers on the 08.58 Waterloo-Windsor THROWN OFF at Clapham Junction DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 10.23 Windsor-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 10.50 Waterloo-Woking 15 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; all intermediate stops before Surbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.50 Poole-Waterloo 14 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; all intermediate stops after Basingstoke AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 14.47 Plymouth-Waterloo 12 minutes late. 15.38 Guildford-Waterloo 8 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.03 Weymouth-Waterloo 26 minutes late. 16.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth 11 minutes late DUE TO SAFETY CHECKS. 18.15 Waterloo-Fratton REDUCED TO 9 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth 19 minutes late. 18.50 Waterloo-Salisbury 14 minutes late. 18.52 Waterloo-Weybridge 11 minutes late. 19.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 30 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.20 Waterloo-Honiton 17 minutes late. All intermediate stops, after Teddington, of the 19.41 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 20.57 Salisbury-Bristol 15 minutes late.

Wednesday 29/07/09 07.33 Waterloo-Guildford AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 09.03 Weybridge-Waterloo 27 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Feltham, except Clapham Junction, AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.33 Weybridge-Waterloo 18 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Hounslow AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 17.02 Waterloo-Guildford REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.17 Portsmouth-Waterloo 12 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Passengers on the 22.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Clapham Junction.

Thursday 30/07/09 01.05 Waterloo-Southampton rescheduled to run 10 minutes late. 06.33 Staines-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 07.02 Eastleigh-Portsmouth AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.13 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES. 07.47 Woking-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES. 08.05 Portsmouth-Basingstoke AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 14.20 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Bournemouth DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.05 Waterloo-Weymouth REDUCED TO 5 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 20.15 Portsmouth-Waterloo 12 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Friday 31/07/09 06.08 Salisbury-Exeter 30 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; passengers THROWN OFF at Honiton. 07.12 Salisbury-Yeovil 28 minutes late. 07.20 Yeovil-Waterloo AXED between Yeovil and Gillingham DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.25 Exeter-Waterloo AXED between Exeter and Honiton DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.20 Yeovil-Waterloo 28 minutes late; stops after Basingstoke AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 15.50 Poole-Waterloo AXED between Southampton and Waterloo DUE TO NO CREW.

Saturday 01/08/09 05.33 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED. 06.03 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED. 07.27 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW.

Sunday 02/08/09 06.55 Southampton-Waterloo 33 minutes late. Passengers on the 08.50 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Richmond DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. Passengers on the 08.52 Woking-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Richmond DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 09.09 Waterloo-Reading 49 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; passengers THROWN OFF at Ascot DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.14 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 42 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN: all intermediate stops after Norbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.25 Waterloo-Windsor 44 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; passengers THROWN OFF at Staines DUETO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. All stops from Putney to Egham inclusive of the 09.39 Waterloo-Reading AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. All intermediate stops between Clapham Junction and Twickenham of the 09.44 Waterloo-Windsor AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. All stops from Wandsworth Town to Richmond of the 09.50 Waterloo-Woking AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 10.02 Waterloo-Dorking 28 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 10.07 Waterloo-Basingstoke 28 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 10.08 Dorking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 10.10 Waterloo-Guildford 25 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; passengers THROWN OFF at Woking DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.15 Waterloo-Yeovil 22 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 10.18 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 28 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 10.21 Waterloo-Chessington 27 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 10.25 Waterloo-Portsmouth 25 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 10.27 Waterloo-Hampton Court 22 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 10.34 Windsor-Waterloo AXED between Windsor and Staines DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 10.52 Woking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 10.54 Reading-Waterloo AXED between Reading and Ascot DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 11.01 Windsor-Waterloo 22 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops after Staines AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.02 Waterloo-Dorking AXED DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 11.27 Guildford-Waterloo AXED between Guildford and Woking DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 12.08 Dorking-Waterloo axed due to duff train. 12.55 Poole-Waterloo AXED between Poole and Bournemouth.

Monday 03/08/09 Bentley stop of the 07.14 Alton-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.37 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 13.03 Waterloo-Guildford 10 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 17.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 14 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Hounslow and Barnes AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 18.05 Waterloo-Aldershot 22 minutes late.

Tuesday 04/08/09 05.51 Twickenham-Windsor AXED between Twickenham and Whitton. 06.33 Staines-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 08.07 Twickenham-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 12.20 Waterloo-Plymouth 25 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 14.10 Exeter-Waterloo 15 minutes late. 14.54 Basingstoke-Waterloo 15 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 15.30 Exeter-Honiton AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.01 Honiton-Exeter AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.52 Plymouth-Waterloo 15 minutes late. 17.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 20 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Twickenham, except Richmond and Clapham Junction, AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 18.02 Waterloo-Guildford 18 minutes late. 18.09 Waterloo-Guildford 15 minutes late. 18.18 Waterloo-Haslemere 10 minutes late. 18.20 Waterloo-Woking 15 minutes late. 18.22 Waterloo-Weybridge 12 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.24 Waterloo-Dorking 15 minutes late. 18.27 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 15 minutes late. 18.32 Waterloo-Guildford 12 minutes late. 18.36 Waterloo-Hampton Court 14 minutes late. 18.39 Waterloo-Guildford 15 minutes late. 18.46 Waterloo-Chessington 12 minutes late. 18.50 Waterloo-Woking 13 minutes late. 18.54 Hampton-Court-Waterloo advertised as ‘delayed’; all intermediate stops after Surbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONALCONVENIENCE. 18.54 Waterloo-Dorking 13 minutes late. 18.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 13 minutes late.

Wednesday 05/08/09 Signalling problems. 13.50 Waterloo-Gillingham AXED between Waterloo and Basingstoke. 14.03 Weybridge-Waterloo 31 minutes late. 14.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 22 minutes late. 14.37 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 33 minutes late. 14.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 30 minutes late. 15.07 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 38 minutes late. 15.12 Reading-Waterloo ‘delayed; Twickenham and Richmond stops AXED. 15.33 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo ‘delayed’; all intermediate stops after Kingston AXED. 15.37 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo ‘delayed’; all intermediate stops between Barnes and Richmond, plus North Sheen and Mortlake, AXED. 15.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 15 minutes late. 15.52 Waterloo-Weybridge ‘delayed’; all intermediate stops between Barnes and Feltham AXED. 15.53 Windsor-Waterloo 22 minutes late. 15.58 Waterloo-Windsor ‘delayed’; all intermediate stops before Staines AXED. 16.01 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED. Twickenham and Richmond stops of the 16.12 Reading-Waterloo AXED. 16.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED. 16.20 Waterloo-Reading 27 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Staines AXED and passengers THROWN OFF at Wokingham DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.28 Waterloo-Windsor 12 minutes late. 16.28 Reading-Waterloo 12 minutes late. 16.31 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 22 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Kingston AXED. 16.37 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo ‘delayed’ all intermediate stops between Barnes (outward) and Barnes (inwards) AXED. 16.42 Reading-Waterloo 11 minutes late. 16.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED. 16.50 Waterloo-Reading 13 minutes late. 16.52 Waterloo-Weybridge 9 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Barnes and Feltham AXED. 16.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo ‘delayed’. 16.58 Waterloo-Windsor ‘delayed’. All intermediate stops after Kingston of the 17.01 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED. 17.11 Shepperton-Waterloo 14 minutes late. 17.13 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 28 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Richmond AXED. All intermediate stops, between Barnes and Feltham, of the 17.22 Waterloo-Weybridge AXED. 17.30 Waterloo-Epsom AXED. 17.35 Waterloo-Reading 10 minutes late. 17.42 Reading-Waterloo 13 minutes late. 17.43 Waterloo-Shepperton ‘delayed’. 18.12 Reading-Waterloo 10 minutes late; Twickenham and Richmond stops AXED. 18.12 Waterloo-Shepperton 15 minutes late. 18.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 13 minutes late. All intermediate stops, between Barnes and Feltham, of the 18.22/18.52/19.22/19.52/20.22/20.52/21.22/21.52 Waterloo-Weybridge AXED. Twickenham and Richmond stops of the 18.42 Reading-Waterloo AXED. 18.48 Salisbury-Romsey ‘delayed’ DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.07/19.37/20.07/20.37/21.07/21.37 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED. Twickenham and Richmond stops of the 19.12/19.42/20.12/20.42/21.12/21.42 Reading-Waterloo AXED. Whitton, Twickenham and Richmond stops of the 19.23/19.53/20.23/20.53/21.23 Windsor-Waterloo AXED. All intermediate stops after Richmond of the 19.27 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED. 19.41 Shepperton-Waterloo 11 minutes late. Passengers on the 19.57/20.27/20.57/21.27/21.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Richmond. 20.10 Chessington-Waterloo 26 minutes late.

Thursday 06/08/09 05.42 Reading-Waterloo AXED between Reading and Wokingham. 08.41 Shepperton-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Friday 07/08/09 06.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES. 08.22 Epsom-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 08.37 Guildford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. Passengers on the 09.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Fratton DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.54 Havant-Waterloo AXED. 16.24 Portsmouth-Waterloo 30 minutes late. 16.33 Waterloo-Guildford AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.53 Waterloo-Basingstoke AXED. 17.58 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.12 Waterloo-Basingstoke AXED. 19.25 Waterloo-Alton 17 minutes late. Fatality at Winchester at 17.30 16.03 Weymouth-Waterloo diverted via Guildford and 81 minutes late. Passengers on the 16.20 Weymouth-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Southampton. 16.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 72 minutes late. Passengers on the 16.50 Poole-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Southampton. 16.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo diverted via Guildford and 30 minutes late. 17.05 Waterloo-Weymouth diverted via Guildford and 117 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Bournemouth. 17.35 Waterloo-Weymouth diverted via Guildford and 53 minutes late. 17.39/18.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth diverted via Guildford, so virtually none of the booked intermediate stops served. Passengers on the 17.48 Waterloo-Southampton THROWN OFF at Basingstoke. 18.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 40 minutes late. 19.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 50 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Poole AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE.

Saturday 08/08/09 07.00 Guildford-Ascot AXED between Guildford and Aldershot DUE TO NO CREW. 07.33 Weybridge-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 12.39 Waterloo-Poole 13 minutes late – AFTER the normal 25 minutes stop at Brockenhurst. 17.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Sunday 09/08/09 10.10 Waterloo-Guildford 15 minutes late. 16.09 Waterloo-Reading AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 17.54 Reading-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW.

Monday 10/08/09 10.33 Weybridge-Waterloo 19 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops after Hounslow AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.42 Reading-Waterloo 20 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 10.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 19 minutes late. 11.23 Windsor-Waterloo 11 minutes late. 11.38 Guildford-Waterloo 14 minutes late. 11.50 Waterloo-Reading 17 minutes late. 12.07 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 14 minutes late and AXED between Waterloo and Clapham Junction. 12.20 Waterloo-Reading 23 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Staines AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 12.28 Waterloo-Windsor 13 minutes late. 12.37 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 11 minutes late. 13.53 Windsor-Waterloo 25 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Staines AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 14.03 Weybridge-Waterloo AXED between Weybridge and Staines. 18.24 Waterloo-Dorking REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. Passengers on the 20.15 Portsmouth-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Havant DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Tuesday 11/08/09 09.00 Guildford-Ascot AXED between Guildford and Aldershot DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 09.38 Guildford-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Aldershot DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 09.54 Waterloo-Dorking 6 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 11.16 Chessington-Waterloo 16 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.57 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.12 Reading-Waterloo 13 minutes late. 19.37 Weybridge-Waterloo 13 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Hounslow and Barnes AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE.

Wednesday 12/08/09 07.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo 10 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.05 Portsmouth-Basingstoke AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Passengers on the 09.39 Waterloo-Poole THROWN OFF at Brockenhurst DUE TO NO CREW. 14.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 33 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Southampton Airport AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. Passengers on the 15.37 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Wandsworth Town DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 16 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Hounslow and Barnes AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 17.14 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 18.35 Alton-Waterloo 15 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 18.52 Waterloo-Weybridge REDUCED TO 4 COACHES.

Thursday 13/08/09 09.07 Romsey-Salisbury 12 minutes late. 12.54 Waterloo-Dorking AXED. 14.05 Dorking-Waterloo AXED. 14.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 40 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; all intermediate stops after Southampton Airport AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. Fatalities at Hilsea and Pokesdown. 16.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 93 minutes late. 16.15 Portsmouth-Waterloo 67 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Woking. 16.24 Basingstoke-Portsmouth 10 minutes late. 16.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 86 minutes late. 16.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo AXED between Portsmouth and Havant and REDUCED TO 5 COACHES. 16.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo AXED. 16.56 Havant-Waterloo AXED. 17.03 Portsmouth-Fareham AXED. Poole portion of the 17.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 57 minutes late. 17.15 Portsmouth-Waterloo 58 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Guildford. 17.17 Portsmouth-Waterloo 43 minutes late. 17.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 88 minutes late. 17.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 49 minutes late. 17.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 39 minutes late. 17.50 Poole-Waterloo 159 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Southampton. 17.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo 33 minutes late. 18.04 Weymouth-Waterloo 120 minutes late. 18.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 17 minutes late. 18.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED between Waterloo and Woking. 18.15 Portsmouth-Waterloo 42 minutes late. 18.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 107 minutes late. 18.23 Waterloo-Basingstoke AXED. 18.24 Portsmouth-Waterloo 22 minutes late. 18.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED between Waterloo and Woking and REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 18.32 Waterloo-Basingstoke REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.38 Portsmouth-Southampton AXED. 18.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 30 minutes late. 18.50 Poole-Waterloo 119 minutes late. 19.06 Weymouth-Waterloo 43 minutes late. 19.12 Waterloo-Basingstoke 21 minutes late. 19.15 Waterloo-Havant AXED between Waterloo and Guildford. 19.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 92 minutes late. 19.39 Waterloo-Southampton AXED. 19.44 Southampton-Portsmouth AXED. 19.50 Poole-Waterloo AXED. 20.35 Waterloo-Weymouth AXED between Waterloo and Winchester. 21.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED. 21.05 Waterloo-Poole AXED. 21.55 Southampton-Waterloo AXED.

Friday 14/08/09 Signalling problems Passengers on the 06.20 Honiton-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Basingstoke. 06.38 Portsmouth-Waterloo 31 minutes late. Passengers on the 06.42 Portsmouth-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Wimbledon. Passengers on the 06.43 Southampton-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Clapham Junction. 07.14 Alton-Waterloo AXED. Passengers on the 07.20 Yeovil-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Basingstoke. Passengers on the 07.47 Woking-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Clapham Junction. 07.55 Weymouth-Waterloo 17 minutes late. 08.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED. 08.03 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 15 minutes late. 08.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 19 minutes late. 08.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth 28 minutes late. 08.12 Waterloo-Basingstoke 33 minutes late. 08.14 Alton-Waterloo 12 minutes late. 08.20 Guildford-Waterloo 22 minutes late. 08.23 Waterloo-Alton AXED. 08.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth 23 minutes late. 08.37 Guildford-Waterloo 16 minutes late. 08.33 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 18 minutes late. 08.39 Waterloo-Poole 22 minutes late. 08.41 Shepperton-Waterloo 16 minutes late. 08.42 Waterloo-Basingstoke 22 minutes late. 08.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth 22 minutes late. 08.47 Woking-Waterloo AXED. 08.53 Waterloo-Alton 26 minutes late. 08.54 Hampton Court-Waterloo 16 minutes late. 09.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth 49 minutes late; stops at Guildford, Petersfield and Havant AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 25 minutes late. 09.08 Guildford-Waterloo 17 minutes late. 09.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED between Waterloo and Wimbledon. 09.09 Waterloo-Guildford 17 minutes late. 09.11 Shepperton-Waterloo 17 minutes late. 09.12 Waterloo-Basingstoke 22 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.15 Waterloo-Haslemere 15 minutes late. 09.16 Chessington-Waterloo 17 minutes late. 09.16 Waterloo-Shepperton 21 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Norbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.20 Waterloo-Woking 16 minutes late. 09.23 Waterloo-Alton 26 minutes late. 09.24 Hampton Court-Waterloo 15 minutes late. 09.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth 17 minutes late. 09.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 17 minutes late. 09.39 Waterloo-Poole 22 minutes late. 09.41 Shepperton-Waterloo 12 minutes late. 09.42 Waterloo-Basingstoke 18 minutes late. 09.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth 13 minutes late. 09.46 Waterloo-Chessington AXED. 09.50 Waterloo-Salisbury AXED between Waterloo and Basingstoke. 09.54 Waterloo-Dorking 11 minutes late. 09.54 Hampton Court-Waterloo 11 minutes late. 09.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 17 minutes late. 10.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth 12 minutes late. 10.03 Waterloo-Guildford 14 minutes late. 10.12 Waterloo-Shepperton AXED. 10.14 Alton-Waterloo AXED. 10.15 Portsmouth-Waterloo 18 minutes late. 10.16 Waterloo-Chessington 60 minutes late. 10.20 Waterloo-Exeter AXED between Waterloo and Basingstoke. 10.24 Portsmouth-Waterloo AXED. 10.27 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 21 minutes late. 10.39 Haslemere-Waterloo 18 minutes late. 10.40 Chessington-Waterloo AXED. 10.41 Shepperton-Waterloo 20 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Norbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.46 Waterloo-Chessington 21 minutes late. 10.50 Waterloo-Salisbury AXED. 10.50 Poole-Waterloo AXED between Poole and Bournemouth. 10.54 Waterloo-Dorking 16 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Wimbledon and Epsom AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.03 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 15 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Twickenham AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 29 minutes late; stops at Winchester, Southampton Airport, Brockenhurst, New Milton, Christchurch and Pokesdown AXED, and passengers THROWN OFF at Bournemouth, DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.11 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED. 11.15 Alton-Waterloo AXED between Alton and Farnham. 11.20 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Bournemouth. 11.20 Waterloo-Woking AXED. 11.41 Shepperton-Waterloo 15 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Norbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 12.03 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 12 minutes late; stops at New Malden, Raynes Park and Earlsfield AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 12.20 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester. 12.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED between Waterloo and Woking and 20 minutes late. 12.33 Woking-Waterloo AXED. 12.45 Salisbury-Waterloo 15 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 12.52 Waterloo-Weybridge 22 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Feltham AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 16.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 16.55 Waterloo-Alton REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 17.12 Waterloo-Basingstoke REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 17.25 Waterloo-Alton REDUCED to 4 COACHES. 18.09 Waterloo-Guildford REDUCED TO 4 coaches.18.12 Waterloo-Basingstoke REDUCED TO 8 COACHES. 20.42 Reading-Waterloo AXED between Reading and Wokingham.

Saturday 15/08/09 08.39 Waterloo-Poole 21 minutes late. 08.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo 24 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Basingstoke AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 17 minutes late. 13.45 Waterloo-Kew Bridge 16 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 18 minutes late. 15.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth 10 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.42 Waterloo-Shepperton AXED between Waterloo and Wimbledon. 16.03 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Sunday 16/08/09 Passengers on the 13.50 Penzance-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Exeter DUE TO DUFF TRAIN.

Monday 17/08/09 After Byfleet & New Haw, all intermediate stops of the 05.25 Woking-Waterloo AXED, except Clapham Junction. Road vehicle hit bridge 08.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 16 minutes late. 08.50 Poole-Waterloo 15 minutes late. 09.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 15 minutes late. 09.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 10 minutes late, and Queenstown Road stop AXED. 10.23 Windsor-Waterloo 13 minutes late. 10.39 Haslemere 9 minutes late. 10.42 Waterloo-Basingstoke 39 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Walton-on-Thames, except Woking, AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.50 Waterloo-Salisbury 18 minutes late. 11.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth 17 minutes late. 11.33 Woking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 12.33 Guildford-Waterloo AXED between Waterloo and Wimbledon.

Tuesday 18/08/09 08.20 Yeovil-Waterloo 18 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 09.20 Waterloo-Plymouth 34 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Passengers on the 09.42 Reading-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Wokingham DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 10.03 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 16 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Norbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.52 Salisbury-Bristol AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 13.10 Bristol-Salisbury AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Wednesday 19/08/09 Electrical problems at Pokesdown 05.00 Poole-Waterloo 39 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Bournemouth AXED except Southampton Central. 5.26 Poole-Brockenhurst 28 minutes late. 5.45 Poole-Waterloo 27 minutes late. 05.59 Brockenhurst-Lymington AXED. 06.11 Poole-Waterloo 18 minutes late. 06.11 Bournemouth-Weymouth 11 minutes late. 06.14 Lymington-Brockenhurst AXED. 06.16 Brockenhurst-Weymouth 29 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Bournemouth AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 07.39 Waterloo-Poole 8 minutes late. 07.55 Weymouth-Waterloo 10 minutes late. 08.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 11 minutes late. 09.07 Romsey-Salisbury AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 10.52 Waterloo-Weybridge 17 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 11.42 Reading-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.50 Waterloo-Reading REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.33 Woking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Thursday 20/08/09 A FEW DUFF TRAINS, PARTICULARLY ONE BLOCKING THE TRACK AT HERSHAM, MEAN A FULL MORNING OF MISERY FOR THOUSANDS OF PASSENGERS 05.00 Poole-Waterloo 45 minutes late; Eastleigh and Winchester stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 05.15 Yeovil-Waterloo 49 minutes late. 05.43 Salisbury-Waterloo 84 minutes late. 05.43 Portsmouth-Waterloo 20 minutes late. 05.45 Poole-Waterloo 24 minutes late. 05.50 Portsmouth-Waterloo DIVERTED; Woking stop AXED. 05.50 Yeovil-Waterloo 37 minutes late. 05.54 Basingstoke-Waterloo 50 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Surbiton. 05.55 Weymouth/06.34 Bournemouth-Waterloo 13 minutes late. 06.04 Bournemouth/06.11 Poole-Waterloo 35 minutes late. 06.12 Alton-Waterloo 47 minutes late. 06.15 Portsmouth-Waterloo 21 minutes late; Woking stop AXED. 06.23 Basingstoke-Waterloo 42 minutes late. 06.23 Portsmouth-Waterloo 26 minutes late. 06.30 Haslemere-Waterloo 39 minutes late; train diverted and Woking stop AXED. 06.41 Woking-Waterloo 33 minutes late. 06.42 Hilsea-Waterloo 19 minutes late; train DIVERTED and Worplesdon and Woking stops AXED. 06.42 Portsmouth-Waterloo 15 minutes late. 06.42 Basingstoke-Waterloo 58 minutes late. 06.44 Alton-Waterloo 50 minutes late. 06.43 Southampton-Waterloo 20 minutes late. 06.50 Southampton Airport-Waterloo 42 minutes late and REDUCED TO 9 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 06.54 Basingstoke-Waterloo 51 minutes late. 06.55 Weymouth-Waterloo 12 minutes late. 07.02 Woking-Waterloo 31 minutes late. 07.04 Bournemouth-Waterloo 29 minutes late. 07.06 Basingstoke-Waterloo 42 minutes late. 07.07 Woking-Waterloo 27 minutes late. 07.10 Haslemere-Waterloo DIVERTED and Worplesdon stop AXED. 07.11 Havant-Waterloo DIVERTED; Woking stop AXED. 07.13 Portsmouth-Waterloo DIVERTED; Worplesdon and Woking stops AXED. 07.14 Alton-Waterloo 34 minutes late. 07.23 Waterloo-Alton AXED between Waterloo and Woking. 07.24 Basingstoke-Waterloo 29 minutes late. 07.24 Portsmouth-Waterloo 25 minutes late. 07.29 Portsmouth-Waterloo 21 minutes late. 07.32 Woking-Waterloo 30 minutes late. 07.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 50 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Southampton and Bournemouth AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 07.37 Waterloo-Hounslow AXED. 07.38 Southampton-Waterloo 28 minutes late. 07.39 Waterloo-Poole 54 minutes late. 07.39 Farnham-Waterloo 12 minutes late. 07.42 Waterloo-Basingstoke 34 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 07.42 Waterloo-Basingstoke 34 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 07.44 Alton-Waterloo 10 minutes late. 07.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth 37 minutes late. 07.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 37 minutes late. 07.46 West Byfleet-Waterloo 33 minutes late. 07.47 Woking-Waterloo 27 minutes late. 07.50 Waterloo-Salisbury 47 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Basingstoke AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 07.46 West Byfleet-Waterloo 23 minutes late and REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.54 Richmond-Guildford AXED between Richmond and Ascot. 08.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth 28 minutes late. 08.02 Woking-Waterloo (Britain’s joint most-overcrowded train) AXED. 08.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 34 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Dorchester. 08.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth 58 minutes late. 08.12 Waterloo-Basingstoke 20 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 08.15 Portsmouth-Waterloo 10 minutes late. 08.15 Waterloo-Haslemere AXED. 08.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 30 minutes late. 08.20 Waterloo-Exeter 24 minutes late. 08.23 Waterloo-Alton 20 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 08.25 Exeter/08.50 Bristol-Waterloo 15 minutes late. 08.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 41 minutes late; Brockenhurst stop AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 08.42 Waterloo-Basingstoke 25 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 08.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth 40 minutes late. 08.47 Woking-Waterloo AXED. 08.53 Waterloo-Alton 30 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Farnham. 08.54 Basingstoke-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 09.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED. 09.03 Weymouth-Waterloo 32 minutes late and REDUCED TO 5 COACHES. 09.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 35 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Dorchester. 09.08 Guildford-Waterloo AXED. 09.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth 43 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Eastleigh AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.12 Waterloo-Basingstoke 20 minutes late. Passengers on the 09.15 Waterloo-Haslemere THROWN OFF at Guildford. 09.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 13 minutes late. 09.23 Waterloo-Alton 30 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.38 Guildford-Waterloo AXED. 09.39 Haslemere-Waterloo AXED between Haslemere and Guildford. 09.45 Salisbury-Waterloo 60 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Basingstoke. 09.50 Poole-Waterloo 23 minutes late. 09.52 Waterloo-Weybridge AXED. 09.54 Basingstoke-Waterloo 14 minutes late; intermediate stops between Woking and Surbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.14 Alton-Waterloo 17 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.20 Waterloo-Reading AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 10.24 Basingstoke-Waterloo 12 minutes late; intermediate stops between Woking and Surbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.38 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 10.39 Haslemere-Waterloo AXED between Haslemere and Guildford. 10.44 Alton-Waterloo AXED between Alton and Farnham. 10.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 19 minutes late. 10.54 Basingstoke-Waterloo 10 minutes late. 11.08 Guildford-Waterloo 20 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Surbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.12 Waterloo-Basingstoke 20 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.15 Portsmouth-Waterloo 19 minutes late. 11.20 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester. 11.24 Portsmouth-Waterloo AXED. 11.38 Guildford-Waterloo 15 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Effingham Junction AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.39 Haslemere-Waterloo AXED between Haslemere and Guildford. 11.42 Waterloo-Basingstoke 10 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.50 Waterloo-Salisbury AXED between Waterloo and Basingstoke. 12.20 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester. 12.20 Waterloo-Plymouth 42 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; passengers THROWN OFF at Exeter. Passengers on the 12.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Wandsworth Town. 12.50 Waterloo-Reading 20 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Staines AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 13.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth AXED between Waterloo and Woking DUE TO NO CREW. 13.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 21 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 16.20 Waterloo-Reading AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.52 Plymouth-Basingstoke AXED between Plymouth and Exeter. 17.53 Reading-Waterloo AXED between Reading and Ascot DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.15 Waterloo-Fratton REDUCED TO 9 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Friday 21/08/09 08.15 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 16.42 Waterloo-Basingstoke REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.35 Waterloo-Weymouth REDUCED TO 5 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 20.42 Reading-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW.

Saturday 22/08/09 06.50 Poole-Waterloo AXED between Poole and Bournemouth DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 09.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 51 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Passengers on the 10.05 Waterloo-Weymouth THROWN OFF at Dorchester DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 10.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 21 minutes late. 11.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 11 minutes late. 11.50 Poole-Waterloo 25 minutes late. 12.20 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Bournemouth DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 12.45 Salisbury-Waterloo 20 minutes late. 13.20 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 13.42 Waterloo-Basingstoke 19 minutes late. 13.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth 19 minutes late. 13.50 Waterloo-Salisbury 16 minutes late. 14.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth 10 minutes late. Earlsfield and Wimbledon stops of the 15.20 Waterloo-Woking AXED. EVENING DELAYS AT SOUTHAMPTON CENTRAL DUE TO OVERCROWDING 18.03 Weymouth-Waterloo 20 minutes late. 18.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 15 minutes late. 18.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 44 minutes late. 18.39 Waterloo-Poole 15 minutes late. 19.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 15 minutes late.

Sunday 23/08/09 07.54 Reading-Waterloo AXED between Reading and Bracknell DUE TO NO STOCK IN PLACE. Passengers on the 08.50 Waterloo-Woking THROWN OFF at Clapham Junction DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.54 Waterloo-Poole 28 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Bournemouth. 11.55 Poole-Waterloo AXED between Poole and Bournemouth.

Monday 24/08/09 07.02 Dorking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.48 Effingham Junction-Waterloo 12 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; passengers THROWN OFF at Wimbledon. 09.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo 31 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; all intermediate stops after Eastleigh AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth REDUCED TO 9 COACHES. 18.24 Waterloo-Dorking REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Tuesday 25/08/09 04.30 Portsmouth-Waterloo 11 minutes late. 04.55 Southampton-Waterloo 16 minutes late; Fleet and Farnborough stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 07.54 Richmond-Guildford AXED between Richmond and Twickenham. 16.35 Waterloo-Reading 6 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW.

Wednesday 26/08/09 Passengers on the 05.15 Yeovil-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Basingstoke DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 12.41 Shepperton-Waterloo 9 minutes ;late; all intermediate stops after Kingston AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. Line-side fire 14.03 Weybridge-Waterloo DIVERTED via Richmond. 14.07 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 14 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Barnes (outward) and Barnes (inward) AXED. 14.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo DIVERTED via Richmond. 14.22 Waterloo-Weybridge DIVERTED via Richmond. 15.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED between Waterloo and Barnes. 16.42 Alton-Waterloo 9 minutes late. 21.46 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Thursday 27/08/09 04.30 Portsmouth-Waterloo 13 minutes late and DIVERTED via Eastleigh due to overrunning engineering work. 18.24 Waterloo-Dorking REDUCED TO 4 COACHES.

Friday 28/08/09 12.33 Weybridge-Waterloo omitted all intermediate stops after Hounslow. 13.03 Weybridge-Waterloo AXED. 13.42 Reading-Waterloo AXED between Reading and Ascot. 16.07 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 17.50 Waterloo-Yeovil 11 minutes late. 18.05 Waterloo-Farnham 12 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; passengers THROWN OFF at Ascot.

Saturday 29/08/09 17.33 Waterloo-Guildford 26 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; all intermediate stops before Surbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 17.45 Salisbury-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 20.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth 14 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Sunday 30/08/09 Passengers on the 01.05 Waterloo-Southampton THROWN OFF at Winchester.

Monday 31/08/09 07.54 Hampton Court-Waterloo 15 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Surbiton, except Clapham Junction, AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 08.03 Woking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Passengers on the 10.23 Waterloo-Alton THROWN OFF at Farnham DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.50 Waterloo-Reading 15 minutes late. 18.20 Waterloo-Reading AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 20.12 Reading-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Tuesday 01/09/09 Earlsfield stop of the 10.11 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED. Passengers on the 10.45 Salisbury-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Basingstoke DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 11.42 Waterloo-Shepperton 15 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Norbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 12.50 Waterloo-Salisbury AXED between Waterloo and Basingstoke DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.15 Alton-Waterloo 30 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 15.44 Alton-Waterloo 21 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. All intermediate stops after Woking of the 15.54 Basingstoke-Waterloo AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.03 Weymouth-Waterloo 20 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; all intermediate stops after Southampton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. Passengers on the 16.35 Waterloo-Reading THROWN OFF at Wokingham. 17.42 Reading-Waterloo AXED between Reading and Ascot. 18.12 Reading-Waterloo AXED between Reading and Ascot. 19.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 17 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Wednesday 02/09/09 05.25 Woking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Lineside fire at Bitterne. 14.44 Southampton-Portsmouth 65 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Fratton. 15.44 Southampton-Portsmouth 25 minutes late. 15.54 Havant-Waterloo 20 minutes late; all intermediate stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.38 Portsmouth-Southampton AXED between Portsmouth and Fratton. 17.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 16 minutes late. 19.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 15 minutes late and REDUCED TO 5 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Passengers on the 19.07 Romsey-Salisbury THROWN OFF at Eastleigh DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Passengers on the 23.15 Alton-Woking THROWN OFF at Farnham DUE TO NO CREW.

Thursday 03/09/09 09.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth 8 minutes late. 14.47 Plymouth-Waterloo 28 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Salisbury. 18.10 Exeter-Waterloo 13 minutes late. 19.06 Weymouth-Waterloo 22 minutes late. Signalling problems. 20.15 Portsmouth-Waterloo 22 minutes late. 20.27 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 27 minutes late. 20.42 Waterloo-Shepperton diverted, with stops AXED. 20.44 Alton-Waterloo 18 minutes late. 20.46 Guildford-Waterloo 22 minutes late. Surbiton and West Byfleet stops of the 20.53 Waterloo-Alton AXED. 20.54 Hampton Court-Waterloo 45 minutes late. Passengers on the 20.54 Basingstoke-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Woking. 20.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 32 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Twickenham AXED. 21.03 Woking-Waterloo 21 minutes late. 21.05 Epsom-Waterloo 34 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Raynes Park AXED. 21.08 Guildford-Waterloo 14 minutes late. 21.10 Chessington-Waterloo 27 minutes late. 21.11 Shepperton-Waterloo diverted with stops AXED. 21.12 Waterloo-Shepperton AXED. 21.24 Hampton Court-Waterloo 25 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Surbiton AXED. 21.27 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 18 minutes late. 21.33 Waterloo-Guildford AXED. 21.33 Woking-Waterloo 10 minutes late. 21.35 Epsom-Waterloo 26 minutes late. 21.36 Waterloo-Hampton Court 32 minutes late. Passengers on the 21.37 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Hounslow. 21.46 Chessington-Waterloo 16 minutes late. 21.46 Guildford-Waterloo 20 minutes late; all intermediate stops, after Epsom, AXED. 22.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth 13 minutes late. 22.11 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED. 22.23 Waterloo-Alton AXED between Waterloo and Woking. 22.30 Southampton-Waterloo AXED. 22.44 Alton-Waterloo AXED between Alton and Farnham. 22.55 Guildford-Waterloo AXED between Guildford and Woking; all intermediate stops after Surbiton AXED. All intermediate stops, after Kingston, of the 23.11 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED.

Friday 04/09/09 06.30 Waterloo-Weymouth 20 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 06.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo 19 minutes late. 07.42 Waterloo-Basingstoke 10 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.55 Poole-Waterloo REDUCED TO 5 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.46 Guildford-Waterloo 12 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Surbiton AXED. 09.37 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth 34 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Fratton. 16.20 Waterloo-Reading AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo AXED between Portsmouth and Fratton. 17.53 Reading-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Saturday 05/09/09 12.10 Exeter-Waterloo 24 minutes late. 14.10 Exeter-Waterloo 16 minutes late. 20.22 Waterloo-Weybridge AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 22.03 Weybridge-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW.

Sunday 06/09/09 07.35 Southampton-Portsmouth 10 minutes late and DIVERTED via Eastleigh. 08.24 Reading-Waterloo AXED between Reading and Wokingham. 08.35 Hampton-Court-Waterloo 61 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 09.02 Cobham-Wimbledon AXED between Cobham and Claygate. 09.05 Hampton-Court-Waterloo 33 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 09.16 Wimbledon-Cobham AXED between Wimbledon and Surbiton and passengers THROWN OFF at Claygate. 10.02 Cobham-Wimbledon AXED between Cobham and Claygate. Passengers on the 10.16 Wimbledon-Cobham THROWN OFF at Claygate. 11.02 Cobham-Wimbledon AXED between Cobham and Claygate. Passengers on the 11.16 Wimbledon-Cobham THROWN OFF at Claygate. 12.02 Cobham-Waterloo AXED between Cobham and Surbiton. 17.34 Windsor-Waterloo DIVERTED via Brentford.

Monday 07/09/09 06.54 Basingstoke-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES. 08.37 Guildford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. Weybridge and Walton-on-Thames stops of the 14.24 Basingstoke-Waterloo AXED. All intermediate stops, after Surbiton, of the 15.03 Woking-Waterloo AXED. 15.12 Waterloo-Basingstoke AXED between Waterloo and Surbiton. 22.03 Woking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Tuesday 08/09/09 07.14 Alton-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES. 07.24 Waterloo-Dorking 20 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; all intermediate stops before Raynes Park AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 08.37 Guildford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 08.43 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 18 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Hounslow and Barnes AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 08.52 Waterloo-Weybridge 13 minutes late. 09.28 Guildford-Waterloo 16 minutes late. 09.38 Guildford-Waterloo 17 minutes late. 09.41 Shepperton-Waterloo 17 minutes late. 10.24 Basingstoke-Waterloo 16 minutes late. 10.42 Waterloo-Shepperton 16 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Kingston AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. All intermediate stops, before Staines, of the 16.03 Weybridge-Waterloo AXED. 16.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth 20 minutes late. Fatality near Swanwick. 16.38 Portsmouth-Southampton 115 minutes late. 17.03 Portsmouth-Fareham AXED between Portsmouth Harbour and Fratton. Passengers on the 17.33 Portsmouth Harbour-Southampton THROWN OFF at Portsmouth and Southsea. 17.44 Southampton-Portsmouth AXED. 18.39 Waterloo-Poole 16 minutes late. 18.44 Southampton-Portsmouth AXED. 19.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 13 minutes late. 19.44 Southampton-Portsmouth 31 minutes late. 19.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo AXED between Portsmouth and Basingstoke.

Wednesday 09/09/09 07.50 Waterloo-Guildford AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.37 Guildford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. Signalling problems on the Alton line. 10.53/11.23/11.53 Waterloo-Alton AXED between Farnham and Alton. 12.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 10 minutes late. 12.44/13.15 Alton-Waterloo AXED between Alton and Farnham. 13.54 Waterloo-Dorking AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.05 Dorking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.33 Waterloo-Guildford REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Thursday 10/09/09 Signalling problems. 19.06 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Bournemouth and 21 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Southampton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.20 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester. 19.35 Waterloo-Weymouth REDUCED TO 5 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Passengers on the 19.50 Poole-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Southampton (presumably so that the train could run in place of the Poole portion of the half-length 19.35 from Waterloo). 20.05 Waterloo-Poole 13 minutes late. 20.10 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester. 21.07 Romsey-Salisbury 12 minutes late. 21.10 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester. 21.48 Salisbury-Romsey AXED. 22.07 Romsey-Romsey 5 minutes late; Millbrook and Redbridge stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 22.35 Waterloo-Poole AXED. 23.07 Romsey-Southampton AXED. 23.10 Weymouth-Bournemouth AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester.

Friday 11/09/09 05.37 Staines-Waterloo 5 minutes late. 06.42 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 5 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK; Liss, Liphook and Godalming stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. Walton-on-Thames stop of the 07.42 Waterloo-Basingstoke AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. O8.17 Woking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 09.19 Portsmouth-Waterloo 14 minutes late; Godalming and Farncombe stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.42 Reading-Waterloo 14 minutes late. 11.03 Weybridge-Waterloo 14 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Hounslow and Barnes AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.20 Waterloo-Reading 11 minutes late. 17.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.05 Waterloo-Reading AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 19.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 5 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 20.42 Reading-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW.

Saturday 12/09/09 07.30 Guildford-Ascot AXED between Guildford and Aldershot DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.20 Weymouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 5 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 12.05 Waterloo-Weymouth REDUCED TO 5 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 20.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 30 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 21.10 Weymouth-Waterloo 37 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Sunday 13/09/09 11.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 33 minutes late. 13.55 Poole-Waterloo AXED between Poole and Bournemouth. By late evening, no trains were serving stations between Barnes and Staines, DUE TO DUFF TRAIN.

Monday 14/09/09 05.25 Woking-Waterloo 13 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Putney AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 06.50 Waterloo-Reading 27 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Wokingham AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 06.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 25 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Hounslow AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 06.50 Waterloo-Reading 27 minutes late. 06.58 Waterloo-Windsor 10 minutes late and DIVERTED via Hounslow. 07.03 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 18 minutes late. 07.20 Waterloo-Reading DIVERTED via Hounslow. 07.37 Twickenham-Waterloo AXED. 08.00 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED between Shepperton and Strawberry Hill. 08.27 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 17 minutes late; all intermediate stops before Norbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 08.42 Waterloo-Shepperton 17 minutes late DUETO DUFF STOCK. 09.41 Shepperton-Waterloo 10 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Kingston AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. Passengers on the 14.03 Weymouth-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Winchester. 14.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo 19 minutes late; Farnborough stop AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.24 Basingstoke-Waterloo 17 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE.

Tuesday 15/09/09 06.38 Portsmouth-Waterloo 16 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. Signalling problems 07.30 Aldershot-Waterloo 47 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Virginia Water, except Staines, AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. Passengers on the 10.00/11.00/12.00/13.00/14.00/15.00 /16.00/17.00/18.00/19.00 /20.00/21.00 Guildford-Ascot THROWN OFF at Aldershot. 10.23 /11.23/12.23/13.23 /14.23/15.23/16.23/17.23/18.23/19.23/20.23/21.23 Ascot-Guildford AXED between Ascot and Aldershot. 14.20 Waterloo-Paignton 39 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Exeter St David’s and Newton Abbot AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. Passengers on the 18.05 Waterloo-Aldershot THROWN OFF at Ascot. Passengers on the 19.20 Weymouth-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Basingstoke DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Flooding From 20.41, Shepperton-Waterloo trains AXED between Shepperton and Twickenham. From 20.42, passengers on Waterloo-Shepperton trains THROWN OFF at Twickenham.

Wednesday 16/09/09 06.11 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED between Shepperton and Teddington. Passengers on the 06.12 Waterloo-Shepperton THROWN OFF at Teddington. 06.23 Ascot-Guildford AXED between Ascot and Aldershot. 06.28 Aldershot-Waterloo AXED. Passengers on the 06.42 Waterloo-Shepperton THROWN OFF at Teddington. 07.00 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED between Shepperton and Strawberry Hill. 07.11 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED. 07.11 Havant-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.30 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED between Shepperton and Strawberry Hill. 07.41 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED between Shepperton and Teddington. 08.00 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED between Shepperton and Strawberry Hill. 09.33 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo AXED between Waterloo and Twickenham. 19.46 Waterloo-Chessington AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 20.40 Chessington-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Thursday 17/09/09 04.30 Portsmouth-Waterloo 16 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; Woking and Clapham Junction stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 06.42 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 5 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.58 Guildford-Waterloo 7 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.53 Waterloo-Alton 13 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 11.12 Waterloo-Basingstoke 14 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 11.48 Salisbury-Romsey 13 minutes late. 14.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 9 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.20 Waterloo-Reading 13 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.54 Waterloo-Dorking REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.35 Waterloo-Weymouth 8 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Friday 18/09/09 Road vehicle hit bridge. 12.20 Waterloo-Reading 26 minutes late. 12.35 Paignton-Waterloo 29 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Salisbury AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 13.12 Reading-Waterloo 31 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Staines AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 13.30 Guildford-Ascot 19 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 13.42 Reading-Waterloo 12 minutes late. 14.06 Waterloo-Hampton Court 14 minutes late and REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 14.20 Waterloo-Woking REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 14.50 Waterloo-Reading 9 minutes late. 14.54 Hampton Court-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.33 Woking-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Passengers on the 15.52 Waterloo-Weybridge THROWN OFF at Clapham Junction DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.03 Weymouth-Waterloo 58 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; Winchester stop AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 31 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. Fire at Kingston: Kingston stop AXED from the 16.31/16.57/17.01 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo, the 17.11 Shepperton-Waterloo, and the 17.12 Waterloo-Shepperton. 16.33 Waterloo-Guildford REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.50 Poole-Waterloo 37 minutes late DUE TO DUFF TRAIN; all intermediate stops after Basingstoke AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 17.24 Basingstoke-Southampton 5 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Fatality at Upwey. Passengers on the 17.35 Waterloo-Weymouth THROWN OFF at Wareham. 17.37 Weybridge-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 12 minutes late and AXED between Weymouth and Wareham. 19.35 Waterloo-Weymouth REDUCED TO 5 COACHES. 20.10 Weymouth-Waterloo 19 minutes late and AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester. 21.10 Weymouth-Waterloo AXED between Weymouth and Dorchester. 21.55 Southampton-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 22.33 Weybridge-Waterloo 37 minutes late. Passengers on the 23.05 Waterloo-Poole THROWN OFF at Southampton.

Saturday 19/09/09 10.07 Romsey-Salisbury AXED between Romsey and Southampton. Passengers on the 10.15 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Clapham Junction DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 12.05 Waterloo-Weymouth 12 minutes late. 12.10 Crewkerne-Waterloo 10 minutes late. Signalling problems: half-hourly service from Waterloo to Guildford, from 15.03 to 19.03 DIVERTED with all intermediate stops after Surbiton AXED. 20.28 Waterloo-Windsor AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Monday 21/09/09 05.15 Yeovil-Waterloo 24 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 06.55 Basingstoke-Southampton 20 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; all intermediate stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo 28 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Winchester AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 15.03 Woking-Waterloo 13 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; all intermediate stops after Surbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 15.12 Waterloo-Basingstoke 10 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 17.50 Waterloo-Reading 11 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth 28 minutes late. 18.02 Waterloo-Guildford 11 minutes late. 18.18 Waterloo-Haslemere DIVERTED due to line-side fire; Woking and Worplesdon stops AXED. 18.20 Waterloo-Exeter 7 minutes late. 18.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth REDUCED TO 8 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.39 Waterloo-Poole 28 minutes late. 19.09 Waterloo-Portsmouth REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 20.10 Weymouth-Waterloo 30 minutes late.

Tuesday 22/09/09 ‘Obstruction’ at Grateley; trains DIVERTED via Southampton and up to 40 minutes late. 05.10 Exeter-Waterloo DIVERTED. 05.15 Yeovil-Waterloo DIVERTED. 05.15 Salisbury-Waterloo AXED. 05.43 Salisbury-Waterloo DIVERTED and 26 minutes late. 05.50 Yeovil-Waterloo DIVERTED. 06.20 Honiton-Waterloo DIVERTED. 06.42 Exeter-Waterloo DIVERTED. 07.10 Waterloo-Paignton AXED between Waterloo and Paignton. 07.20 Yeovil-Waterloo DIVERTED. 07.22 Basingstoke-Yeovil AXED. 07.50 Waterloo-Salisbury DIVERTED. 08.20 Yeovil-Waterloo DIVERTED. 08.20 Waterloo-Exeter 26 minutes late. 08.50 Waterloo-Salisbury DIVERTED. 09.20 Waterloo-Plymouth DIVERTED. 09.45 Salisbury-Waterloo AXED between Salisbury and Basingstoke. 12.10 Exeter-Waterloo 16 minutes late. 12.20 Yeovil-Waterloo 14 minutes late. 13.58 Waterloo-Windsor REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.24 Portsmouth-Waterloo 20 minutes late. Chandlers Ford stop of the 18.07 Romsey-Salisbury AXED. 22.54 Basingstoke-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW.

Wednesday 23/09/09 05.00 Poole-Waterloo 9 minutes late. 06.11 Bournemouth-Weymouth 7 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. Passengers on the 07.17 Southampton-Portsmouth THROWN OFF at Fratton DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.33 Portsmouth-Southampton AXED between Portsmouth Harbour and Portsmouth & Southsea DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.20 Waterloo-Reading AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 17.12 Reading-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW.

Thursday 24/09/09 05.20 Waterloo-Portsmouth REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 05.30 Waterloo-Weymouth REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 05.43 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES. Passengers on the 06.15 Waterloo-Portsmouth THROWN OFF at Haslemere. 06.42 Reading-Waterloo 16 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Staines AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 06.42 Hilsea-Waterloo 45 minutes late. 06.42 Portsmouth-Waterloo 38 minutes late. 06.45 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 10 minutes late. 06.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES. 07.11 Shepperton-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 07.11 Havant-Waterloo 38 minutes late; Woking stop AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 07.13 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 8 COACHES. 07.24 Reading-Waterloo AXED between Reading and Wokingham. 07.33 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 13 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; all intermediate stops before Richmond and after Norbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 07.35 Haslemere-Waterloo 12 minutes late. 07.41 Shepperton-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES. 08.20 Weymouth-Waterloo 10 minutes late. 08.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo AXED. 09.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth 33 minutes late; Woking, Guildford, Haslemere and Petersfield stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 11.03 Waterloo-Guildford 17 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 11.24 Portsmouth-Waterloo 30 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW; Godalming and Farncombe stops AXED and passengers THROWN OFF at Woking DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 12.03 Woking-Waterloo 12 minutes late. 13.39 Waterloo-Guildford 16 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; all intermediate stops after Effingham Junction AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 14.03 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 11 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Norbiton AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 14.11 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 14.24 Hampton Court-Waterloo 6 minutes late; stops at Berrylands, New Malden, Raynes Park, Earlsfield and Vauxhall AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 14.41 Shepperton-Waterloo AXED between Shepperton and Teddington. 15.03 Woking-Waterloo 7 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; Earlsfield and Vauxhall stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 16.31 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.45 Waterloo-Portsmouth REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.12 Waterloo-Shepperton REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.31 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Friday 25/09/09 04.58 Staines-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 05.58 Waterloo-Windsor REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 06.22 Portsmouth-Waterloo 22 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 06.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo 12 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.10 Southampton-Waterloo 10 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.11 Shepperton-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.17 Guildford-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 07.23 Windsor-Waterloo REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 08.28 Waterloo-Windsor REDUCED TO 4 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 12.20 Yeovil-Waterloo AXED (at 09.05!) between Yeovil and Salisbury DUE TO DUFF TRAIN. 14.15 Alton-Waterloo 24 minutes late; West Byfleet and Surbiton stops AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 14.15 Portsmouth-Waterloo 11 minutes late. 14.24 Basingstoke-Waterloo 22 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Woking AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 15.03 Weymouth-Waterloo 15 minutes late and REDUCED TO 5 COACHES DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.50 Poole-Waterloo 20 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 18.35 Waterloo-Weymouth REDUCED TO 9 COACHES, INCLUDING 4 SUBURBAN COACHES, DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Saturday 26/09/09 11.07 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo 11 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 13.50 Waterloo-Woking AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.03 Woking-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 17.07 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO NO CREW. 20.05 Waterloo-Poole 12 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 22.46 Guildford-Waterloo 4 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Sunday 27/09/09 07.00 Weybridge-Waterloo 10 minutes late. 09.55 Poole-Waterloo AXED between Poole and Bournemouth. 11.32 Windsor-Waterloo 21 minutes late DUE TO UNUSUALLY LARGE PASSENGER FLOW (= DUE TO SHORT TRAIN?); all intermediate stations after Staines, except Richmond and Clapham Junction AXED DSUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 15.32 Portsmouth-Waterloo REDUCED TO 5 COACHES. 20.00 Waterloo-Portsmouth 38 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 21.30 Waterloo-Portsmouth 12 minutes late. 22.17 Portsmouth-Eastleigh AXED between Portsmouth and Fratton DUE TO DUFF STOCK.

Monday 28/09/09 06.55 Basingstoke-Southampton 16 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 07.10 Waterloo-Paignton 15 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. Road vehicle hit bridge. 10.33 Weybridge-Waterloo 23 minutes late; all intermediate stops between Feltham and Barnes AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 09.53 Reading-Waterloo 29 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Staines AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 10.09 Reading-Waterloo 24 minutes late. 10.39 Reading-Waterloo 16 minutes late. 10.51 Windsor-Waterloo 29 minutes late. 11.21 Windsor-Waterloo AXED. 11.51 Windsor-Waterloo 16 minutes late. 11.53 Waterloo-Alton 16 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 12.07 Waterloo-Brentford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 15.48 Salisbury-Romsey 13 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW. 17.55 Portsmouth-Waterloo 18 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 19.24 Basingstoke-Havant 18 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 20.22 Waterloo-Weybridge 15 minutes late DUE TO NO CREW.

Tuesday 29/09/09 09.20 Waterloo-Plymouth 26 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 10.15 Portsmouth-Waterloo AXED between Haslemere and Waterloo. 11.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 32 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Haslemere AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL COPNVENIENCE. 15.50 Waterloo-Gillingham 15 minutes late; passengers THROWN OFF at Salisbury. 16.45 Portsmouth-Waterloo 19 minutes late; all intermediate stops after Guildford AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. Passengers on the 17.13 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo THROWN OFF at Putney DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 20.41 Shepperton-Waterloo 14 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; all intermediate stops after Kingston AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE.

Wednesday 30/09/09 08.34 Guildford-Waterloo AXED DUE TO DUFF STOCK. 16.57 Waterloo-Kingston-Waterloo 22 minutes late DUE TO DUFF STOCK; all intermediate stops after Twickenham AXED DUE TO OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE. 19.46 Waterloo-Chessington ‘DELAYED’.

ABOUT THE SOUTH HAMPSHIRE RAIL USERS’ GROUP

The Group was founded over 15 years ago by a group of London commuters. It is open to everyone, without formal membership, and now operates principally as an e’mail network. Our vision is the ongoing improvement of rail services on the Hampshire network, within a context in which the interests of rail users are paramount and all passengers are treated with openness, courtesy and respect.

We have links to the Hampshire County Council and Campaign for Better Transport websites, are on the official list of rail user groups, and have enjoyed many positive exchanges of correspondence with MPs, local government officials, and others. During the competition for the latest SWT franchise, all the bidders except Stagecoach contacted us; we were represented at a number of stakeholder events, and National Express mounted an event specifically for our Group. A number of train operating companies continue to maintain friendly contacts with us.

We strongly supported a change of operator on SWT, but the Government decided otherwise, after Stagecoach had published a hugely deceptive prospectus called ‘Building on Success’. An on-line poll conducted by SWT, following the re-franchising process, established that barely one third of respondents thought Stagecoach should have kept the franchise. This was concealed from passengers by the publication of a false figure of 61 per cent.

That was before lower-quality rolling stock was imposed on Weymouth and Portsmouth line commuters, travel centres were destroyed, ticket office opening hours became even less compliant, permit to travel machines were ripped out, revenue protection was stepped up with the arrogant proclamation that genuine error would be punished, and SWT’s Passengers Panel was steadily reduced to monologues by Stagecoach director Sir Alan Greengross in the operator’s e-motion magazine (which has since ceased publication).

Memoranda by our Group were published in both of the House of Commons Transport Committee’s reports on passenger rail franchising. Our contribution to the Government’s Big Conversation pointed out that the SRA was handing huge sums of money to Stagecoach yet passengers were often treated abominably. The National Audit Office has since congratulated the Government on getting better value for money from franchises after abolishing the SRA.

We have had many letters and articles published in newspapers and magazines. A letter published in RAIL described why the new SWT timetable between Southampton and Weymouth is not fit-for-purpose and does not reflect the Service Level Commitment. It also highlighted how the since-sacked rail minister Tom Harris was presenting chaos as order. This followed a meeting at which Department of Transport officials had stated that changes to the timetable would probably be up for discussion, but at which they simply tried to argue that the current service is compliant with the SLC, when it clearly isn’t, and that some of the most disadvantageous changes had been subject to proper consultation when they clearly hadn’t been.

An example of why the new timetable is so absurd is the removal of stops by semi-fast trains at Totton, the fourth largest intermediate town between Southampton and Weymouth, which we had successfully campaigned to have reinstated in the latter days of BR. These trains do however manage to stop instead at places like the remote industrial halt of Holton Heath and tiny hamlet of Moreton. DfT was careful to withhold such timetable details in its consultative exercise.

Clearly some passengers continue to face an uphill struggle in a hostile and stressful environment and it scarcely seems surprising that such small percentages (around 20% of peak passengers) consider they get value for money from operators like SWT. We will strive to help represent their interests. It is clear from contacts we receive that our efforts are appreciated across the South West Trains area generally rather than just in Southern Hampshire. Apart from Stagecoach itself, and the occasional anonymous blogger, virtually all these contacts have been positive, and have wholly or broadly supported our standpoint.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to the numerous people who care about decent, human standards and the wellbeing of their fellow passengers, and have been kind enough to contact us. Without your support and input, this newsletter would not be possible.