Great Western Coffee Shop

First piece of "evidence" of the how Southeastern's new disaster of a timetable is effecting people. >:-(

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8459420.stm

Like the final line.

"The overall timetable is designed to provide greater journey choice."

Come back Orwell all is forgiven.

Er...  'affected by the DfT axe', that should be. 

Indeed, the services that SE are running now are a lot more than they were supposed to. 

Paul

I see he was travelling on one of the First Capital Connect 377s, and that the train calls at Swanley, so I'm guessing that this is to do with the Maidstone East line reduction in services to Canon Street story that's been rumbling around Kent for a while now, especially on the Coffee Shop's little cousin, The Anglesey Group (http://rtrevithick.proboards.com/index.cgi).


Indeed, and also as far as I understood it (though open to correction) the Maidstone to Charing X/Canon Streets were withdrawn because of (a) reducing crossover movements at London Bridge between Charing X and Canon Street = more robust timetable (b) Low patronage to Charing X off peak = reallocation of rolling stock to other mainline duties

Othewise I think there's been a lot of overcrowding on both the Chatham and Tonbridge Main lines in the peaks. so we'll see what happens (or doesn't). Off peak, when I travel in Kent, things seemed fine for me. trains from Headcorn to Charing X are now the services from the coast and are 8 car 375s with a trolley rather than from Ashford using 4 car 465 networkers with a draught. they also have knocked off a couple of stops and speeded it up a few minutes. I've also used Maidstone to St Pancras changing at Strood, very good connection.

Have you considered sending a CV to the Daily Mail?

I'm not quite sure how being able to get from Ashford to London in <37 mins is a "disaster". You can't just sum up the whole timetable with one word - as there are winners and losers.