A bad week for South Eastern

Not a good week for SouthEastern, at least for me, with disruption almost every day.

Monday was fine, but on Tuesday we got as far as Paddock Wood only to be told that we were being diverted to Victoria.   Inconvenient as I had a 9am meeting and instead of arriving at London Bridge at 8.15, we got to Victoria at 8.40 and then it was a slow and crowded trip on the tube back to London Bridge.   What surprised me was that the 'live running information' continued to say we were expected at Cannon Street 'on time', even after we gt to Victoria

Wednesday was more problematic as I had an 8.30 meeting so I was annoyed when I checked just before leaving home to find that the 6.42 had been cancelled.   I hurriedly got the car out and drove to Ashford.   Getting there's not too bad, but coming home through Ashford at peak hour is very slow.   So another claim on 'delay repay'.

Thursday was even more tight as I was flying from Heathrow to Dublin and really needed the trains to run to time.   After two disrupted days I thought the chances were good but was shocked to check and find the 0642 was cancelled again!  This caused me some concern and I decided to go down to the station in any case and get the Canterbury train to see if I could pick up the High Speed there.   Chris, another regular was also at the station.   He hadn't bothered to check times and was dismayed when I told him the train was cancelled and double checked his phone - which said the same thing.   The platform indicator said 'on time', but we place little reliance on that as we know it is accurate as much by chance as anything else.

But the signal was green and while we were standing there waiting for the Canterbury train, we saw lights coming down the track from Canterbury.   And there came the 6.42, which turned up, amazingly enough, 'on time'.

Which was all well and good for me, but how many other people checked their Internet to find a message that it was cancelled.   And, as far as the internet was concerned, it remained 'cancelled' until at least 7.40, which was when I last checked.

If Thursday was a virtual disruption, Friday was not and was the climax to the week.

I had thought I was doing quite well.   My plane from Dublin had landed at Heathrow at 5.45, with a gate right where it left the runway.   So, given I had no passport check, it was just a brisk stroll to catch the 6.03 Heathrow Express.   Some fairly quick interchange work at Paddington meant that when I arrived at King's Cross I had 5 minutes to get from the Circle Line to platform 12 at St Pancras.   This is tight but not impossible and I just caught the 6.40 to Ashford.

When I saw the crowds on the platform at Ashford I knew something was wrong, but I thought luck might be with me as there came an announcement that the train would call at all stations to Ramsgate.   That should mean that I got to Chilham about an hour and three-quarters after my plane touched down - which is not bad.

But it was not to be.   We sat at Ashford for 15 minutes and then they said the train was cancelled.   Apparently there had been a lineside fire in the old car body works at Chilham and it was now believed that this involved gas cylinders, so the line was closed for the foreseeable.   Indeed, Tom subsequently told me he had heard a large explosion at about 7 and this clearly accounted for it.

I shared a taxi with three other guys going to Canterbury and we found the A28 was closed too, with all the traffic diverted up our lane.   This lasted until Saturday morning and there were no trains either - though this didn't prevent the website from saying that the trains were expected 'on time'.   To be fair they also showed bus times an I'm glad I didn't wait for one.