Category Archives: Transport

The Truth About Southeastern – A Franchise Consultation Response

September 25, 2012 6:16 pm \

Charles Horton, Managing Director of Southeastern, is no doubt patting himself on the back after winning awards.  Quite how their incompetence and unpleasantness elsewhere has gone unnoticed bemuses me, especially in light of the recent Department for Transport consultation about the SouthEastern Franchise.  No doubt Mr Horton and his PR drones are doing everything they can to try and spin their way to an utterly undeserved renewal of the franchise.

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Posted in: bad management, business, trains, Transport \ Tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,

Southeastern Response: Placatory Garbage?

December 4, 2010 1:18 pm \

My complaint to the London Assembly got a response from Southeastern’s Mike Gibson.  Looks like the usual placatory garbage to me, so here are the relevant bits for your review along with some comments of my own.  The spelling mistakes contained herein are straight from the e-mail.

Comments appreciated.

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Posted in: bad management, lack of Clue, Management, social media, trains, Twitter \ Tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,

Southeastern FAIL – Complain Loudly!

December 1, 2010 4:41 pm \

Yesterday the expected snow hit the London area.  We knew it was coming yet Southeastern trains capitulated like the Information Commissioner’s Office.  Whenever the weather plays up the usual friendly greeting tends to be a shuttered ticket office and no announcements.  I wasn’t surprised to see that yesterday morning.  Getting home was a nightmare mainly because of the complete lack of coherent information from Southeastern.

When the weather plays up I don’t mind the odd delay.  When there’s no information coming from the train operators and a complete lack of customer care that’s when there’s something very wrong going on.

When I eventually got back home I logged on to Twitter and watched the #Southeastern hashtag unfold.  I’d been one of the fortunate ones.  I e-mailed Caroline Pidgeon, the Vice Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee.  Here’s an extract from that e-mail:

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Posted in: bad management, lack of Clue, safety, trains, Transport, Twitter \ Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

SouthEastern Trains – The Private Police State

July 27, 2010 11:15 pm \

SouthEastern and the British Transport Police have some serious questions to answer over their use of Railway Enforcement Officers.

From You’ve Been Cromwelled:

Last night I had the “pleasure” of being detained against my will not by the police but by Rail Enforcement Officers who operate on the South Eastern rail services. What did I do wrong? I took a picture of these Rail Enforcement Officers and when they asked me to see and then remove the pictures from my phone I refused. Apologies for the long-winded post below, however it raises some very serious questions.

Here’s the story…

Making my way back from a BBQ yesterday I had the need to use the services of South Eastern Rail from Gravesend. When I arrived at the station I noticed two men in hi-vis vests and wondered whether they were the infamous Rail Enforcement Officers I’d heard stories about:

http://garyallanach.blogspot.com/2010/01/i-was-trying-to-exit-chatham-station.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-479607/Cub-Scout-leader-court-putting-feet-train-seat-just-seconds.html

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/newshome/Musician39s-gig-list-deemed-suspicious.6159440.jp

Read how Railway Enforcement Officers care nothing for the law of the land, how they think they have powers they do not actually have and how they seek to bully and intimidate innocent people.

SouthEastern and the British Transport Police have been asked some serious questions.  Do they have the balls to give honest, serious answers?

It is time to put an end to uniformed thugs stomping around bullying people, whether the thugs are in the Police or are “wannabe Police” who think they have powers just because they wear a uniform.

Posted in: Abuse Of The Law, bad management, lack of Clue, trains, Transport, Wannabe Police Breaking The Law \ Tagged: , , , , , ,

Stripping Train Operating Companies

July 1, 2009 8:49 am \

I was heartened this morning to read that the “government” has stripped National Express of its franchise for the East Coast main line.

When services are failing to meet the set standards action needs to be taken.  National Express’ financial situation allied to its failing services prompted the “government” to act.  In an interesting statement Lord Adonis said

“The government is not prepared to renegotiate rail franchises, because I’m simply not prepared to bail out companies that are unable to meet their commitments.”It is simply unacceptable to reap the benefits of contracts when times are good, only to walk away from them when times become more challenging.”

In a statement, the government added that it believed it had also had grounds to end National Express’s other two other rail franchises – Easy Anglia (sic) and c2c.

Being a relocated Brummie I don’t have any experience of the East Anglia and c2c franchises.  I do have plenty of experience of the old Central Trains franchise.  Unreliable services, dirty trains and less than helpful staff meant I was glad to see Central Trains disestablished and LondonMidland come along.  Being relocated as I now am I don’t know if LondonMidland has continued the promising start I experienced.

If you undertake a rail franchise you must be prepared to improve services for customers, not cut service provision to try and maintain a failing business.  Charging customers to reserve seats didn’t go down very well. Cost cutting on new staff uniforms didn’t go down well either.  As for cutting ticket office hours, that wasn’t a very bright thing to do.  The delays in December didn’t help public perception.  All this appears to have been done in the name of saving money so that the franchise can be maintained.

Richard Bowker, the Chief Executive of National Express has announced his resignation.

Posted in: government, trains, Transport \ Tagged: , , , , , ,