Always Off First

It's only natural that regular commuters don't want to waste time.   They know just the right carriage to get in to and just the right door to exit by to avoid a lengthy walk down the platform.   In the morning peal it's always a compromise between getting in at the front, to minimise your walk and going further back to maximise your chance of a seat.

For me, it's easy.   The 0642 Cannon Street train is 80% empty where I get on so I can get the best of both - in the first carriage and still have a seat.   It's only really by Staplehurst that the train starts to fill up and by Sevenoaks, it's full and standing in every carriage - particularly the first.

By the time we get to London Bridge it's always a bit of a scramble to get out with Cannon Street passengers who got on after Tonbridge blocking the vestibule.

But there are a couple of women who a regular travellers who are especially annoying.   They are always the first to get up from their seats and go towards the doors as we near London Bridge - but they don't want to get off there, but to get off first at Cannon Street.   On good days this is bad enough because they just block the vestibule and make it harder for London Bridge passengers to get past.   On bad days, when the whole aisle is packed, these two can and do cause gridlock.

Why do they do it?   God alone knows.   They get little benefit for themselves, at best perhaps 5 or 10 seconds, but cause so much inconvenience to many others.   What's worse is that they know they cause that inconvenience.

A day tri to Koln

This is probably the most extreme – Koln by train for the day.   It’s a close call, I could have flown, but the flights all go from Heathrow and by the time I had got there, it wouldn’t have saved me any time.   And coming home, too, I’d have to leave about the same time.   It would have been different living in London because I could have got a later flight home, but it’s just too much to come back to Canterbury.   It’s also a bit longer than it might have been because the return train from Bruxelles to Ashford has been moved forward from 1756 to 1656, and I just can’t make that.  So I have to drive to Ebbsfleet instead.   I had looked at taking the morning train from Ashford and coming back from Ebbsfleet on the train, but the timetables are not good and would involve a 45 minute wait at Ebbsfleet and a further 45 minute wait at Ashford.

So, it was up at 5 to get to Ebbsfleet by 6.30.   Google maps says 47 minutes, so I left just after 5.35.   A dreadful day with heavy showers along the motorway, which was surprisingly busy at 5.45, when I joined it.   A lot of lorries doing leapfrog and holding everyone else up.   What was interesting was that they travelled at 60mph, when I thought they were supposed to be speed limited to 50mph.   Some of that is probably my speedometer, but it’s not going to be that far out.

I got there in good time, at about 6.15 and was through security by 6.25 – 45 minutes to wait.   There’s nothing at Ebbsfleet.   The station is tiny with few facilities and even less around.   It always was a station without much purpose.   People go there only because it’s the only place the trains stop, and even then not that many.   I notice that even Eurostar have realised the problem with Ebbsfleet as it now provides services to Europe only in the morning and gets arrivals back only in the afternoon.  More passengers joined our train at Ashford than at Ebbsfleet while the commuter service starting from Ebbsfleet was all but empty.  

Eurostar was on time and very full – at least in the front carriage, which is where I was.   Just like a commuter train, they started to stand by the door about 15 minutes before we arrived just to be first out.

An easy change at Bruxelles (I had a 17 minute window, which was plenty) and then on to the ICE to Koln.   I always thought the ICE was a classy train and so it is.   I treated myself to 1^st class (it cost me all of €10 extra) and sat in the ‘panoramic’ seats right behind the driver.   Very pleasant with a glass screen which goes milky when it gets direct sunlight on it.   Waitress service and beer in a proper glass, not a plastic cup, too.

Stylish the trains might be, but effective?   As we left Aachen, on time, there came an announcement that the train would now terminate at Düren.   Düren?   It’s a small junction between Aachen and Köln.   Don’t worry, they said, there will be a connecting train from the same platform.   We waited for 10 minutes and then the connecting train came in.   For a reason never explained, this was the train from Frankfurt to Bruxelles and passengers from each train would just swap over.   Yes, all very well, but why?   And although the coach numbers were the same, just to make matters more interesting, the trains were reversed so not only was the platform full of people trying to cross from one side to the other – and people trying to cross back the other way, there were also people going from the back to the front and the front to the back.   Eventually we got away about 25 minutes late.

What surprised me was that no explanation was given and the same cheerful announcements we received at the start of the journey, continued cheerily for the remainder, with a brief apology for any inconvenience.   What was also surprising was that no mention of this was made in advance, when clearly this had been planned for some time.   Just like South Eastern and hardly satisfactory.

Luckily, it caused few problems in Köln, but I was hoping (indeed, needing) a smooth journey back when, blow me, the same thing happened again.   That was more worrying as I had only a short time to connect – and a two hour wait if I missed the train.   The chippy cheerfulness advising me that the train was running 25 minutes late was not welcome.

Even if this morning’s change over had been a last minute job, this one would have been known about for several hours but still there was no advance notice given.   Tricky for me, perhaps, but some notice could have meant others could have made alternative plans.

We eventually pitched up at Bruxelles Midi just over half an hour late.   And give Eurostar their due, they rebooked me on the next train without a murmur, even though my ticket was non-transferable.   Still a pain having to wait for two hours though.   And a smooth enough trip back to Ebbsfleet and home by 9.30.

Delay Repay

Delay Repay is a very good scheme in principle as it does provide a degree of compensation for late running, while at the same time providing a good measure for the operators.   And, since it was introduced, South Eastern have handled the scheme well and efficiently.   Perhaps all too efficiently for some, perhaps, as I have received more than half a dozen payouts this year so far.

I was impressed, though, that they sent £40 in M&S vouchers for all he disruption caused by the gas leak instead of the normal travel vouchers.   This is going to produce happy customers.

The next step is to use the payouts to start to look at disaster recovery.   If there are problems on the lines east of Ashford, South Eastern will not stop the High Speed trains at local stations until after there has been a cancellation.   This means that they may well know that there will be no connecting train for local stations but will not stop the High Speed because the cancelled train was not yet due to run.   This means that connecting passengers must wait either for the next High Speed (which will now stop at local stations because the previous connecting train was cancelled) or the next local.   In either case South Eastern will have to pay up on delay repay.   If they had just stopped the initial high speed services at local stations then they would not have had to pay.   The same is true if a local train is delayed by 30 minutes or more.   The High Speeds will not stop (because the local train is only late. not cancelled) but the company will have to pay out on delay repay.

It cannot be too difficult to calculate just how many delay repayments they need to make before it becomes cheaper to pre-empt the problem by stopping high speed trains.

I do note that Eurostar does not use delay repay.   Why am I not surprised?

DOING THE ASHFORD DANCE

This evening’s train was only four carriages rather than eight.   Not only did this mean it left London Bridge absolutely packed – people were standing as far as Staplehurst, an hour down the line – but that it could no longer serve both the Canterbury and Dover lines.   No real problem, these things happen.   And it was a happy circumstance that the train was going to run through to Canterbury while passengers for the coast line would need to change to a connecting train at Ashford.

The indicators said Canterbury West and the conductor confirmed this on two or three occasions while also apologising for both the inconvenience and the overcrowding.

So far so good.   And, just outside Ashford the conductor repeated his announcement that passengers for the Dover line should change at Ashford and that there would be a connecting train at the adjacent platform.   Dover passengers dutifully got ready and all alighted as soon as the train reached Ashford.   Canterbury passengers stayed where they were.

But here’s where the confusion set in, because the connecting train was also showing Canterbury West as its destination.   So the Dover passengers milled around on the platform quite unsure of what to do, while all us Canterbury passengers sat on the train.   Then came the announcement that this train was going to Dover and Canterbury passengers should change for the connection.

Chaos then ensued as all the passengers on the train started to put coats on and gather bags to get off while all the passengers on the platform stated to pile in.   With all the pushing and shoving – we didn’t want to get trapped on a train going to Folkestone while irritated passengers who had been told to get off and then get on again didn’t want to be left behind – it was lucky no-one got hurt.

Eventually it got sorted out and the original train (still showing Canterbury West as its destination) left for the coast and we left for Canterbury.

What’s wrong is that the train control staff had three hours to plan a recovery from what was clearly a train failure.   There were no knock-on implications from the original failure.   But either they left it to the last second to improvise, ignoring their previous decisions and/or failed to tell the on-board staff what was going on.   There’s really no excuse for either.