Great Western Coffee Shop

Yesterday before breakfast, I was in Bradford-on-Avon doing a BBC interview on Ticket Office Closures -  At  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0gksk37 …  Starts 1 hour in, listen to 15 minutes, available for 28 days.

Yesterday morning, I drove to Gatwick Airport to assist one of our guests from Ukraine who came here at the height of the refugee crisis move on to join back up with other members of her family who are now in the USA. Leaving Gatwick at lunchtime, and having seen the far carriageway as a "London orbital car park" on the way down, I drove cross country - the old A25 that brought back memories and parked at Woking Station and went into London.

Yesterday afternoon, I was in Greenwich, and as it got dark, travelled home via my meeting (6 p.m to 9 p.m.) near Victoria.  The story of that.

A river so full it was lapping over the promenade, and a queue for the UberBoat / Thames Clipper that was very long and crowd barrier constrained put me off a river trip.  Ticket machines were available there, but no-one using them and a queue at the staffed counter, so this business of people - especially occasional ones - preferring to talk to someone as they buy is not just rail!

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So Cutty Sark to Lewisham on the Docklands Light Railway. Cutty Sark station is underground and squeezed in, but central to Greenwich "75 steps down" warns the sign - and that's 50% more than we had in our 4 story Georgian home.  There IS a lift.  Platform too short for a 4 car train - front and rear doors do not open, ans what a crowded station.  Trains coming along every couple of minutes.

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I had used the DLR to Island Gardens on the north bank, many years ago, when it terminated there at the riverside. This was my first time south of the river - interesting as raised and fell, twisted and turned on the way to Lewisham, busy all the way, double track with a scissor crossover as we came to the line end.  Lots on, lots off and the train was on its way ago - far quicker than it would have been had a driver been required to change ends. Barely more than a station stop time with a train carrying on without reversal.

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And so up to the main station at Lewisham - not a station I had used more than once or twice even being brought up in north west Kent.  My TravelCard failed to work the barrier; quick wave at the staff standing around the gate-line and I was waved through.

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Now - way back "when" there were trains in to Charing Cross and peak to Cannon Street. Peak only services were offered via Nunhead to Victoria after a gap of a number of years, but those are now all day services.  And it was one of those I took - 8 carriages, good load (but I WAS in the front carriage) via Peckham Rye and Denmark Hill. Surprised that we switched to the South London line and passed the site of East Brixton, overflying the current Brixton station without stopping, the crossing back over to the old SECR lines and taking the viaduct above the Battersea Dogs Home.

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And so into Victoria - platform 7; not sure where platform 8 (the old night ferry platform) has gone but still very much three stations in one (1-7 South Eastern, 8-14 Brighton Lines, 15-19 extra side bays). Crowds waiting on the platform when we arrived - and good time made by me from Greenwich, so time for a coffee and muffin.  Good that station loos are free these days; first time I have seen a dynamic sign telling me how many stalls are vacant before I went down stairs.

I know the London public transport system - so planning this and my later journey home was straightforward.  Noting that in London, no need to check a timetable - just turn up and travel.  Yet very interesting to be chatting with young consultancy staff later in the evening and find that they (and they lived in Lewisham) were surprised and seemed a bit impressed that as an outsider I had found that direct service. And, yet, I would think that almost everyone using that service was a regular, unlike the people out around the Cutty Sark.

To be continued

I'd guess the people queueing for U-Boat tickets were regarding it as a sightseeing trip rather than public transport so using a TVM possibly didn't seem relevant to them.  At the other extreme you can actually use payg by tapping on a yellow reader the same way as you do on LU/NR services (different fares and no day caps or 60+ concessions though), but I presume that wasn't made obvious.  Uber hardly shout about it on their website; it's buried in a "Commute by river" section which perhaps indicates they want to keep it as a niche option.  Rather like the Cable Car they probably want the opportunity to do some "upselling", maybe selling a souvenir with your ticket, or admission to another tourist attraction?

I spent 3 very frosty days in London in January of this year and was delighted to find a river roamer ticket for a day was half price with a ENCTS card (bus pass) and that it was less than £10. . It was brilliantly sunny and I remember doing 3 return trips between  Battersea Power Station and Greenwich,extending to Barking and Putney at peak time. The last trip was especially magical as all the lights of the skyscrapers came on gradually.

I asked on one of the small ferries that I use about "60+ concessions", perfectly rational answer was "you take up the same space" (especially if you are limited to 12 passengers).

Indeed reasonable - so no concessions for children either?  ;D

The ENCTS card is planned in our rural parts to start at 09:30 and not all day to leave space on the buses for people headed to work and education ...

I had no specific planned train back out to Woking; I HAD checked to Basingstoke and knew it was 2 trains an hour with Clapham Junction connections. For Woking, local and Portsmouth line trains too.

Into Victoria at 21:14 and a look at "next fastest train" for Clapham Junction; 21:16 platform 15. OK - that's one of the offset bays and it then turns out to be the front train in the platform - dash and just catch it; turns out to be headed to Littlehampton via Gatwick Airport.  Crowded rear coach as we jump in, moved forward to next coach and it was more comfortable, not that it mattered for the few minute ride to Clapham Junction. 

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There is a whole different philosophy of travel on services that are so frequent that you turn up and go, and that applied right through - Woking, Waterloo, Bank, Curry Sark, Lewisham, Victoria, Clapham Juction, Woking, and all for the princely sum of £14.50 ... no timetable, just an idea of how long the journey will take.

I was happy with the fare at £2.07 per leg once I had negotiated the correct ticket with the chap in the ticket office at Woking - an evening travel card with senior railcard. I wonder how well known such a ticket and timing option is; someone else I spoke to that evening had tried to buy one from a TVM at a smaller station nearby and had failed, and had settled for a more expensive off peak rather than evening ticket - and that's a rail campaigner "upsold" by a TVM.

The travel card is a wonderful product an thank goodness - and with a little help from Campaign for Better Transport oiling the wheels, I understand, it has been saved.  Even at an increased price the utter convenience is something to write home (or on this blog) about - no faffing about with tapping in and tapping out as I saw lots of people doing and milling around to get to the columns at places like Cutty Sark.

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Back to my journey - "Mind the gap" announcements but, really, overdone - didn't seem to be much if anything of a gap.  I suspect it's because I was at a centre door in a carriage on the inside of a curve. Come to thinks of it, I think the carriages didn't have end doors on this train, so why have the announcement at all at that platform?

"Footbridge to other platforms" says the sign at Clapham Junction but I ignored that and like many others wen down into the subway - quick walk through and I knew roughy where I has headed. Electronic signs at the bottom of the steps to each platform and I found a Salisbury train showing for platform 9 and due in a coule of minutes.  Short pause to ensure it was going to be calling at Woking - wathing the scrolled calling places.

Busy platform, with a couple of members of staff - one regular displatcher and one with a white jacket, "Security and Safety" I think is the label (correction - Trespass and Welfare) . And so, in rolls the train - just a 3 car 159. And as it rolls in, I could see it full and standing up the aisles.  Doors open and the lobbies are full too. And crowds around each door.  And so a decision - let that one go and await the next train; 2 miutes behind, destination showing as Alton which surely is going to call at Woking. Dispathcer confirms that, though suggests there may also be a stopper leaving even ealier (which were it the case would have been overtaken). And so I let the absudly short Salisbury train go.

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On later thought, that Salisbury train was the one that the online journey palnner had offered me when planning my trip the day before, except it had me leaving Victoria 8 minutes earlier, probably to give better interchange time at Clapham Junction; at that planning stage I was looking at using Basingstoke as my park and ride - fewer trains so I HAD looked it up.

Anyway - 8 carriage Alton train pulls in just a couple of minutes after the 3 car Salisbury has left; about a third of the seats taken, and one has to ask (I know the answer) "why the imbalance" - 5 cars to each destination would be sensible - ah, the cost of not electrifying to Salisbury.  My friend on the platform let it slip that the Salibury train is often just 3 carriages and overcrowded; I do get the feeing that "thems" who run SWR consider any line that's not electric to be only worthy of short (and often much less frequent) services.

Clapham Junction - cross to platform line for Surbiton - West Byfleet and and Woking. Slow approach to Woking and I'm pretty sure that we were behind a stopper. Barrier accepted by ticket but did not spit is back (I wonder why not - still valid within London for a couple of hours had I gone back up).

This was the first time I have parked at Woking and will probably be the last. A painful drive in - it felt really slow, a long drive out thought 'burbs and a car park at Oriental Road which felt like it was half way to the orient. All the spaces nearer to the station marked "Season ticket holders only" and I felt very much second class citizen - a long walk back to the car, pouring rain and blowing wind, between high walls along passageway which whilst I did not feel in danger may give others the creeps.  A couple of WebTIS display screens like we used to have at Melksham telling us that there was an information failure adding to the general feeling of a setup in need of a little bit of TLC to make it more welcoming.

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We had been hearing in the evening - the opening talk - from a couple of young consultants who have been auditing all 2500 stations for access for all - 750 audit points on each station to get a consistent approach across "the UK" though ther regional map did not include Northern Ireland.  But more seriously, no inclusin of consideration - at least in what they said - of people with heavy luggage, chidren in push chairs, or ticketing access / ticket offices.  Good work - but access for all should mean for ALL. And I realy hope that all the hard work is used to get better results and not to set more consulting hurdles before any work is done on the ground.  The whole evening and the office hosting that we walked though brought home to me what a huge consulting industry we have and I wish we had a system in which obvious cases could be progressed under JFDI principles.

Back to Woking - and a drive home from there in my private car, so outside forum topics.  I had met up from a lady from Frome at the event; she was staying with friends at Muswell Hill; a wise decision perhaps based on incoming storm Cieran. I had played with the idea of taking the 21:31 off Paddington (but that would have been a race from Victoria) before I knew I had the Gatwick run to do in the mornning. 

Driving through the storm was "interesting". Standing water across the road in place, spray on the motorway, and I was perhaps lucky not to come across any blockages.  A sedate pace even along the motorway, a stop at Fleet services where every single food outlet was closed; WH Smith open (they have been since 1792, they claim) with a self service coffee machine. An a sandwich and a flapjack; yeah, I was hungry with the nibbles provide by a host earlier had been "fashioably" small.

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Home after midnight. And asleep within a few minutes. Not sure whether I should have been happy that everyone was asleep even before I got home.  I take it as a complement / knowledge that I was on my way and can look after myself out there, and a knowledge that I would have stopped if concerned about the safety of the journey if concerned about safety through weather, road conditions of tiredness.

Edit - typo conceptions.  Looks like I spelled checked the original the posted the pre-check version - sorry!

There's a tale to Cutty Sark DLR station, yes? Initial intention was none, and then passive provision in the form of the funding for a minimal provision station box found, and then the station itself, but with many other DLR platforms now extended to meet demand, tackling Cutty Sark station in the same way is now prohibitively expensive and disruptive.

Mark

Apart from a mid-afternoon one-way to Bristol a few month back, it's been a couple of years since I used Salisbury at all, and I'm trying to recall how its services have developed or otherwise. Was there a funny interlude during Covid when half its trains in the London direction were routed to Reading? Now, it looks to be two an hour to London, taking an hour and a half, implying around 56 miles per hour end to end. Wondering how many of the ones to London and back are three carriages... and whether the Exeter trains are three, six or nine...

Mark

I believe diversion of the Salisbury stoppers to Reading was a Sunday only idea that SWR came up with to allow capacity for a reduced two track timetable in the Waterloo main line side approaches.  It goes back to normal by Sunday evening.

I think it predated Covid changes though, possibly started May 2019 but I’d need to confirm.

Paul

Graham, is there any more detail on your throw away remark
Or did I miss it somewhere else!

Day travel cards (including add ons to rail tickets) were providing a very cheap way of visitors from outline London to use the public transport network in town, subsidised by the London Taxpayer, and the plan from the mayor was to withdraw them from 8th (or 24th) January 2024, with people switching to Oyster or bank card to use the system, with a cap applied.  However, many felt that this would discourage public transport use and a compromise has been reached under which the cards will remain available, though they may not remain so keenly priced.  They are a signifiant convenience to guests in London ...