Full high-speed service launched, at London St Pancras (14/12/2009)

[whole diary]

[IndustryInsider]

I'm sure if they are not all needed in Kent then a few could be transferred to the East Coast or West Coast and enable a useful cascade to begin. eg, How many units would be needed to replace the Birmingham to Scotland Voyagers? Would need a bit of a reconfiguration internally though.

And fitment of tilting equipment if they were to keep to the current schedules on the WCML^▸ (West Coast Main Line)...

[paul7575]

They have only reduced 3 return services from 12 to 6 car, according to posts elsewhere.

So 3 spare units isn't really going to allow a useful service anywhere else. Especially as the Kent RUS^▸ (Route Utilisation Strategy) already suggests longer 395 services and other destinations on the 'via Ashford' routes.  It may be the timetable planners have just got the balance of north Kent to south east Kent capacity wrong...

Paul

[Electric train]

And it is early days

[moonrakerz]

...........the service hasn't been reduced, as no trains have been cancelled. Putting on a single 6 car unit instead of two is a capacity change, but it isn't actually a service reduction...............

Paul

That is a true Politician's answer !

[Timmer]

Interesting article on the Telegraph website by Andrew Gilligan that passengers in Kent are still very unhappy with the recently introduced HS^▸ (High Speed (short for HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) High Speed Services)) service. Lets hope the new coalition government takes note before charging on ahead with new HS projects:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/7776341/For-most-of-us-high-speed-rail-is-anything-but.html

The Javelin service from Kent to London, which started last year, was described by its operator, Southeastern Trains, as "one of the most significant milestones in the history of Britain's railways". The then transport secretary, Lord Adonis, said it would "transform the journeys of large numbers of rail passengers".

That, at least, is true. At a cost ^ to them, and to the public purse ^ of billions of pounds, large numbers of rail passengers in Kent have seen their service transformed into the worst they have ever known. One local MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) says that the service on his route is the slowest it has been since 1927. People's fury has been manifest in demonstrations, petitions, Commons debates, and an unprecedented "rail summit" by the county council ^ whose Cabinet member for transport, Nick Chard, says Kent's rail service needs to be "put back on track".

Fares on the new service are between 10 and 80 per cent higher than on the old one. From some of the stations they serve, the "high-speed" Javelins are actually slower than the previous trains. And even where they are faster, they bring Kent commuters to places they do not want to go.

The vast majority of people there work in the City or West End. The old trains went to Victoria, Cannon Street or Charing Cross ^ on the doorstep. The high-speed line goes to St Pancras, requiring tedious transfers by Tube or bus.

Unsurprisingly, therefore, just 15 per cent of commuters from north Kent and the Thanet coast have switched to the new service, according to the watchdog Passenger Focus. Even in the rush hour, some of the high-speed trains on this route run more than half-empty. The brave new world has been such a flop that Southeastern has been forced to cut the number of coaches on each train by half.

So, in a desperate attempt to drive people on to its white elephant, Southeastern has sabotaged the trains that passengers actually use. The fastest off-peak service on the "old" line from Ashford to London used to take exactly an hour. At one stage, it was non-stop. It now takes an hour and 20 minutes, and stops seven times.

Some other Kentish stations have seen their peak services on the "old" lines cut by as much as 60 per cent. And every passenger on the existing service has had their fares raised above inflation to pay for the high-speed train, even if they live nowhere near it.

[ChrisB]

Yup - pretty accurate - to allow people to adjust, the previous timetable on the original lines should have been retained & workers would have realised a new area of London was available to work in. The service would have then evolved as workers shifted mode of transport across to HiSpeed.

[Btline]

I still don't see why people are surprised! Why would people pay A LOT more for something that in many cases is slower, and at best slightly quicker!?

[Electric train]

I often catch a HS1^▸ (High Speed line 1 - St Pancras to Channel Tunnel) train from St P into bits of Kent at around 08:30 the inbound trains are quite well used, not full and standing but busy enough.  It is a mistake to say the service is failing, it might not be quite at the expectations of SE trains.

[moonrakerz]

My daughter lives in Rochester and has a choice of three routes into London. HS1^▸ (High Speed line 1 - St Pancras to Channel Tunnel) to St P, or conventional to Victoria or Charing X/Waterloo East.
She goes up to London fairly frequently, luckily her employer pays the fare ! Most people who commute into town just cannot afford the premium if they are paying out of their own pocket.

She rates the St P service as good
Victoria as fair
Charing X as awful

She, and many others, are asking why they have to pay a premium for a good service, surely they should get a discount for using the other routes ?
Although the HS1 is faster into "London" she has found that most of her visits are reached more quickly by using the slower service into town, with less tube/bus after the train. 

[paul7575]

Pretty scary typo in Gilligan's article though. I reckon that 80%  has to be 30%.  At least he's correct in saying fares have increased by a range from 10% upwards; even most railway mags were getting this completely wrong most of last year.

The other thing that bugs me is how the media generally quote the premium as ^8 a day, but that is only true for commuters who buck the trend and buy an Anytime return every working day. As most of us realise, season ticket holders can generally expect to pay an effective daily rate of about half the price (or less) of an Anytime return

Paul