Much of the meeting was devoted to an examination of plans for Station Improvement and transport integration. Under the last franchise bid, SWT undertook a major programme of station improvements, many of which are now at, or very near, completion.
Station Improvements
This work was welcomed by the Panel, a few missed opportunities identified and various small suggestions were made. From now on there may still be monies available for more updates provided there is a positive business case for South West Trains to do so. Unfortunately, ‘passenger’s satisfaction’ as such does not really feature in establishing a business case, but partnership money from Local Authorities would increase the chances of works taking place. With the impending squeeze on public finance the likelihood of that happening must be very remote but the Panel will want to take this further with SWT.
Airtrack
This is the proposed new link between London, Reading and Guildford and Heathrow Airport. It now transpires that because there are no spare ‘slots’ available for such traffic, the only way to get trains into the airport means losing some of the trains that currently run through to both Reading and Woking. With overcrowding at the level of today, cancelling several trains an hour, to meet the needs of Heathrow passengers seems to be a precarious option.
SWT have rightly objected to the original proposals due to the risk to existing services and the probable effects on train performance in general. The Company is, apparently working with Network rail and Airtrack to see if these problems can be overcome but will be speaking at a public enquiry next year to explain their objections.
SWT, to their credit, have clearly stated that they will vigoursly oppose any scheme that allows trains to be cancelled to accommodate Airtrack.
As things stand it seems that the final decision as to the best use of available capacity will lie not with SWT but with the Government. It is all a bit worrying. The Panel wants to look further into this.
Transport Integration
There are many station on the SWT network where there seems to be no real integration between buses and trains. This is not merely that often it is difficult for people who are not familiar with a station to know where and when the buses depart, but the timetables between the two carriers are not co-ordinated. That’s bad enough when it is an ‘’ordinary’ bus operator. When the bus services are run by Stagecoach, the parent company of SWT surely there must be something terribly wrong.
Before leaping to conclusions, the Panel wants to get more information on the whole situation and then see what can reasonably be done to make sure that buses serving our stations leave a few minutes after the arrival of a train and not a few minutes before.
If you have any comments or examples of your own the Panel would be grateful to hear from you. Why not send us your thoughts on our ‘Talk to Us’ page?
The Feltham Bridge Incident
The Panel congratulated SWT on the way this episode had been handled. An enormous effort had been out into rescheduling services and providing alternative bus services. There were, of course, a large number of problems and difficulties left for passengers, but when one considers the huge difficulties of rescheduling trains, the need for them to be in certain places at the end of each day so that they can make the journeys necessary the following day and the logistics of providing replacement buses for hundreds of people coming off a train, at time every few minutes, the company did a great job.
Even more miraculous was the fact that within so short a time the entire track had been rerouted in order to restore a through service. When one has become accustomed to waiting years for even a decision to be made, to have such an exercise completed within days was amazing and a credit to both SWT and Network Rail. It’s nice to be able to say ‘thanks’.
Staff
Staff on SWT are, in general, much praised and valued by passengers. Recently, however, there has been a growing feeling that things are seemingly to slip backwards. This is a disappointment after so much hard work by SWT to build standards up. Guards on Trains, for example, apart from the ticket check are hardly seen on the trains at all.
The Panel would be interested to learn from passengers of their own experiences. Why not send us your thoughts on our ‘Talk to Us’ page?