Southern Trains: Major Issues - how to protest?

hippey

But even on routes with new trains it still goes wrong! London Midland have brand new Class 350's and they are regularly late, from track failure to overhead wire problems & broken down trains it gets beyond a joke. Last night on of the carriages had no air conditioning & no windows to open it was like a sauna for the passengers in there! I travel all over the South East and believe me Southern is NOT the worst!!

Brooker_Dave

Deleted_User wrote: »

What's the best course of action to take?

Buy a moped, go to work on that.

Altarf

I would suggest that if you are bothered by a 2 minute delay, then commuting by train is not for you, and I would find another house/job/means of transport.

If you are going to persist with the commute by train, then don't waste your time trying to change the train company, as it will have no effect. Instead -
1- On the over 30 minute delays put in a delay repay compensation claim;
2 - Use the tools the provide to know about the delay before you get to the station - https://www.journeycheck.com/southern/registration and http://www.southernrailway.com/your-journey/live-running-information/ At least then you can stay at home/work/pub a bit longer, rather than hang around on a platform;
3 - Take a book/laptop/whatever, on the train, so at least it is not utterly wasted time.

PasturesNew

Limit wrote: »

Ouch! I thought they scrapped all the old stock, What route you on?

Penzance to Paddington.

cybergibbons

Facebook groups are pointless. I'm still not sure what the point of a petition is either.

When it comes down to it, if you look at the past two weeks, on average each journey was delayed by 9 minutes or so. Just assume your journey will be 9 minutes longer on average. I think it's just a risk you take when moving outside of London and commuting.

I'm also not sure that they'd listen to the argument that it is x hours wasted per week. Why is it anymore wasted than the time on the train, or walking to the station?

The line I am on is good/excellent - in over 120 journeys, 1 has been delayed more than 10 minutes. But I used to live on the Piccadilly line, which is very bad in comparison. I just learned to not let it get to me, and take something like a book, something to watch on my media player.

sookipeaspud

Facefart groups are useless.

The Gatwick Express to and from Victoria is quite good. Like I said, creating a facefart page and moaning will have no effect.

Toodlepip

moonrakerz

PasturesNew wrote: »

Where I live it's 40+ year old rolling stock. You have to open the window and reach out to open the door. Trains are often cancelled and replaced by a bus the last 80 miles. There's no such thing as a buffet bar. Trains travel at about 30mph, at the fastest bits, a lot of it's single line so you have the waiting problem when trains are travelling in different directions. You can't get to London before 10am even if the train's on time (unless you drive the first 100 miles first).

I would be the first to admit that our rail system is far from perfect, but it does little for the cause for improvements when statements such as the above are bandied around as an accurate representation of a particular rail service.
The post is claimed to apply to "Penzance to Paddington". I am afraid most of the "facts" in this post are just not correct - just rather vague generalisations with little to support them.

The most common rolling stock on this route are the "125s", which are NOT "40+" years old. FGW has recently refurbished all their 125s (which included new engines) they are as good as anything on our network - and a lot better than some much newer rolling stock (the "vomiter" for instance !) (If you have trouble with the doors - ask a member of staff, they are usually very helpful )
I travelled to the West (and back) on one of these trains on Wednesday: it was comfortable, it had a buffet, it was very quiet and it rode well, the a/c worked (almost too well !) - it fact it was PERFECT ! Even my wife commented on how nice the train was !

"Trains travel at 30 mph" - the slowest section is in Cornwall and Devon. The minimum speed (apart from stations and junctions) is 60mph. Much of this total route is 110/125mph running.
A "125" actually held the world speed record for a scheduled passenger train for many years - even surpassing the much vaunted Japanese "bullet trains". (But, of course, this doesn't suit the argument)

"a lot of it's single line" - the only sections of single line are:
The Royal Albert Bridge.
St Pinnock Viaduct
About 1 mile on the approach to Penzance.

Hardly "a lot" !

By all means criticise what is wrong - but at least put forward an argument that withstands even a modicum of scrutiny..............

Deep_In_Debt

Not sure what you can do OP. I do know that route is frequently subject to delays/cancellations (I'm not that far from you). Can you get to Redhill and get the train from there? Redhill is not far and on the main line and the trains are more reliable. There are quite a few side roads to park in.

Deep_In_Debt

isplumm wrote: »

With the way things are, I suspect that nothing is going to change for a long time .... there is little money to improve things & I suspect that any new trains will be cancelled.

Another issue might be that there is one main line into London from Brighton, so there can be a bottle neck.



I think there are more lines from London to Brighton as it's a busy route. The Gatwick Express now goes to Brighton.

Th OP lives in an area where there is generally one main line, so bottlenecks do tend occur in that area.

Just don't think the rail network is up to taking the amount of "traffic" that occurs.

cybergibbons

moonrakerz wrote: »

By all means criticise what is wrong - but at least put forward an argument that withstands even a modicum of scrutiny..............

I too thought he meant that they were still running slam-doors. There's really not much point in trying to misrepresent the case, it does just weaken the argument.