Thameslink recovery seems fairly poor too - they seem to run with delays quite a lot with no attempt to run fast or terminate short - I appreciate the locations to do that north of the river are limited.
-
Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!
Southern Rail operating well now?
- Thread starter 387star
- Start date
- Status
Thameslink recovery seems fairly poor too - they seem to run with delays quite a lot with no attempt to run fast or terminate short - I appreciate the locations to do that north of the river are limited.
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R
RailUK Forums
Staffordian
Member
- Joined
- 11 Jul 2019
- Messages
- 113
Thanks - that makes sense.
paul1609
Established Member
The big problem with this is the connection on the Eastbound service at Hampden Park. Ive never missed the connection but there are a lot of elderly customers with a lot of luggage especially in the summer. On my football trips on saturdays Id say that probably 7 times out of 10 I end up carrying somebodies luggage over the bridge for them in order that they can make the connection. Ive been really surprised by the number of people that are avoiding travelling by London by coming this way. Journeys like Margate and Canterbury to Dorset are really common and I've even had baggage customers travelling to Devon.
Its quite funny that some of the people are obviously reluctant to let an obvious football hooligan have their luggage but we end up chatting and I often get repeat employment at Brighton for the Platform 7 to 1 dash.
If its going to remain like it is, Hampden Park desperately needs some investment in Lifts and On Platform Staff.
during the SWR strikes there was a day where there was no Southern service to Southsea for 4 hours! There was disruption on the SW side (flooding, land slips etc) and both TOCs were turning trains at Fratton, expecting the other TOC to carry passengers to the Harbour.
starlightEXPRESS
Member
My impression is that 455s are increasingly being kept on shorter suburban services (e.g. Caterham, Epsom Downs). I haven't seen a 455 on the run down to Horsham via Dorking for several months now.
London Trains
Member
- Joined
- 9 Oct 2017
- Messages
- 910
I think from May 2018 the diagrams were changed so no class 455 trains run on the Victoria to Horsham/Dorking via Sutton and Victoria to Epsom via Sutton routes (these interwork, operating Victoria - Horsham/Dorking - Victoria - Epsom - Victoria)
Peter Mugridge
Veteran Member
There was a single 455 at Epsom yesterday - presumably a subsitution? I was on the 12.45 Epsom to London Bridge and we passed it just outside Epsom station, which would imply it was the 11.55 Victoria to Dorking.
London Trains
Member
- Joined
- 9 Oct 2017
- Messages
- 910
Presumably yes, as there was engineering works between Balham and East Croydon (slow lines shut) meaning the trains were not running on their standard timetable.
Also the Victoria to Horsham/Dorking services were calling at Balham, Mitcham Eastfields, Mitcham Jct and Hackbridge extra due to the removal of the Victoria to Epsom services due to the above engineering works.
The removal of the Epsom services may have meant the trains were being swapped between different metro routes at Victoria so the trains did not have to sit and take up a platform while waiting for the next Horsham/Dorking service.
bramling
Veteran Member
A lot depends on the driver diagrams. If the service has a crew relief at the terminus then essentially it has to run through, which means unless it is made up into something else at the terminus the return journey will also be late. The problem with non-stopping (not that this seems to massively bother GTR!) is that all the new TL services which run on to the GN are half-hourly, and in some cases provide the sole service to some stations - particularly Hitchin to Peterborough. This limits the recovery options somewhat.
Quite simply the longer the journey the more difficult it is to recover, and of course the more likely it is that something goes wrong in the first place.
One downfall of Southern is their insistence on running 4 cars on Sunday services at the busy off-peak weekend times.
Surreytraveller
On Moderation
- Joined
- 21 Oct 2009
- Messages
- 2,810
A 455 still needs a conductor if it is to run south of Dorking (if serving the intermediate stations). Conductors no longer sign 455s.
London Trains
Member
- Joined
- 9 Oct 2017
- Messages
- 910
This would support my theory that the unit was swapped at Victoria as this diagram had run up from Horsham before forming the 11:55 to Dorking.
Not when I've been on it!
starlightEXPRESS
Member
Are conductors still required for 377s running Leatherhead <-> Guildford?
mono1989
Member
Yes Selhurst conductors still sign 377's for both the Clapham-Milton Keynes route and also Leatherhead-Guilford
Peter Mugridge
Veteran Member
Yes, I agree with that- although in this case it was Saturday when I saw this - my post was made on Sunday, so that's probably even worse given how busy Saturday travel is!
My guess is on time within 5 minutes figures are good. My experience with London Bridge peak arrivals is on time arrivals are like hens teeth, usually you are held somewhere from New Cross Gate into London Bridge for a couple of minutes and then utsi a crawl all the way. Most often services arrive 3-4 mins late, but 5 is rare.
So when Thameslink has issues we read all sorts of negative comments about Govia, but when dozens of people comment about how well Southern has improved, there’s no one to say that maybe Govia knows how to run trains after all ?
Doesn’t seem very fair-play to me !
Doesn’t seem very fair-play to me !
Surreytraveller
On Moderation
- Joined
- 21 Oct 2009
- Messages
- 2,810
Presumably during the week trains are 8/10 cars to save all the splitting and joining between the peaks which used to occur. On Saturdays there is no 'peak', so the trains just run 4/5 car all day
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
Govia also did a pretty decent job with LM, all things considered. Mostly it's not the owning group that's the main issue, it's the TOC management that make the difference, though a cost-cutting mentality at group level can cause the TOC to seem a bit rubbish e.g. Arriva TOCs.
I get the impression that all the ‘no growth franchises’ owning groups avoided spending much on internal stock refurbishments for as long as possible, apart from Stagecoach
Last edited:
Southeastern is also running relatively well, considering the circumstances of prolonged direct awards
As a daily East Croydon to Victoria commuter for the last six years, the service now seems the most reliable it's been during any point during that period. Queues to get into Clapham Junction p12 in the mornings still happen, but with less frequency and severity than pre-May 2018 (I think). When delays occur they are often due to the 1Ixx fast services joining the fast line north of Streatham Common. If 1I09 is a few minutes late, for instance, it might cause the next three northbound mainline services to lose several minutes, as happened yesterday.
paul1609
Established Member
It must have been along time ago, I commuted to Brighton from Ford from about 1979 and I can't ever remember the Worthing loop being signalled for an overtaking move by a passenger train in the down direction.
If I look at Southern arrivals this morning 0800-0900 only two were on time, every other train was either cancelled (1) or delayed (16) - mostly by 3-5min (13)
Ah, but that is being rather selective. The official definition of the peak is arrivals timetabled between 0700-0959. For which the answer is rather different. Then look at last Friday.
You have to admit, on time arrivals are rather less rare than hens’ teeth.
I promise you I wasn't manipulating stats. Between 0800-0900 are my normal arrival times, and I'm a city worker so that's what I looked at.
You know the stats better than me but i was saying from my own daily experience it's rare to be on time and very normal for significant holds in the Bermondsey area.
In the old days you'd get trains making it in in well under 20mins from Forest Hill, nowadays they often take 21 and just squeeze in before the 5min deadline
Oh I know you weren’t manipulating stats, as I looked at them this morning to check myself. I used to have to do it every day! There’s no doubt that layout needs automatic route setting as the signallers have a tough job of it. But it’s also fair to say that on the whole the London Bridge layout works very well. Certainly better than it used to before the rebuild.
- Status