Esker-pades
Established Member
But it takes me very slightly longer to walk to the Tube, so the whole thing was pointless.
(Sarcasm alert.)
-
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
(Sarcasm alert.)
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R
RailUK Forums
Esker-pades
Established Member
Which I choose to offset by visiting the Greggs under platform 4.Done deliberately, to encourage healthier commuters.
bramling
Veteran Member
Done deliberately, to encourage healthier commuters.
Physically perhaps, but not mentally. For some reason, despite there being a fair amount of space, it seems impossible to be able to stroll through that walkway without people getting in the way. Perhaps this is due to the decision to put retail outlets along the sides.
Fortunately it’s not something I do regularly, but when I do and am in a hurry I’ve found it marginally easier to go via Tooley Street.
I've been commuting on southern from Oxted to Victoria for about 3.5 years now. It has improved significantly, resolving the industrial action obviously made the biggest difference but they seem to have fine tuned the time table. We rarely get stuck at the South Croydon junction waiting for a path to the main line any more although we still get plenty of time stationary admiring Selhurst depot waiting to cross that junction! While there is a lot of low level lateness (5 minutes here and there) it is very rare i claim delay repay these days. Problems that do occur are usually due to things outside GTR's control, whereas there used to be lots of stock shortages and staff shortages and "planning errors"! The 377s are also pretty good and better maintained than they used to be, it is a pretty comfortable commute as long as I can avoid the dreaded 3+2 seats and they are rarely short formed.
Having said all that, the Uckfield service through Oxted seems a lot more fragile than the Victoria service and I think may have gotten worse. They don't seem to have enough stock or recovery time and they are a lot more prone to be cancelled or short formed. This causes a lot of problems in the evening as it is one train per hour apart from the main peak. There used to be half hourly shuttles at least until a certain time in the evening but these were scrapped to lengthen other services. I often see poor Uckfield passengers settling in at Oxted for a long wait or boarding buses.
Thameslink has been a mixed bag. Our stopping services to London Bridge were handed over to Thameslink in the big timetable disaster. It was a complete shambles then, now it has improved a lot but they do seem to be cancelled or significantly delayed much more often than Southern. However, when they are working OK the connections they offer are really useful and seem to be appreciated judging by the big proportion of people who stay on the train past LBG towards STP.
Having said all that, the Uckfield service through Oxted seems a lot more fragile than the Victoria service and I think may have gotten worse. They don't seem to have enough stock or recovery time and they are a lot more prone to be cancelled or short formed. This causes a lot of problems in the evening as it is one train per hour apart from the main peak. There used to be half hourly shuttles at least until a certain time in the evening but these were scrapped to lengthen other services. I often see poor Uckfield passengers settling in at Oxted for a long wait or boarding buses.
Thameslink has been a mixed bag. Our stopping services to London Bridge were handed over to Thameslink in the big timetable disaster. It was a complete shambles then, now it has improved a lot but they do seem to be cancelled or significantly delayed much more often than Southern. However, when they are working OK the connections they offer are really useful and seem to be appreciated judging by the big proportion of people who stay on the train past LBG towards STP.
Metal_gee_man
Member
- Joined
- 28 Oct 2017
- Messages
- 669
I wouldn't say it's brilliant, it depends on the location and direction of travel!
I regularly needed to travel East Croydon to Victoria at 18:00 at night, you'd look at the boards, check RTT and even Traksy to guesstimate the next service because of the number of southbound services heading out of London the UP lines to London take a fair amount of the excess services (oh the joys of bi-directional running) and you regularly found services from Horsham or East Grinstead running 10-15 mins late, subsequently finding out the next quickest actual might have been on P2 rather than P3, and then because of the excessive points movements around Clapham Junction you found yourself at a standstill in the middle of Wandsworth Common finding your 10 mins delay turning into 20 mins on a standing only packed train this became a regular occurrence (the norm) for one set of passengers to benefit it felt others had to suffer and because of slightly more generous turnaround times at Victoria they could get away with it.
I regularly needed to travel East Croydon to Victoria at 18:00 at night, you'd look at the boards, check RTT and even Traksy to guesstimate the next service because of the number of southbound services heading out of London the UP lines to London take a fair amount of the excess services (oh the joys of bi-directional running) and you regularly found services from Horsham or East Grinstead running 10-15 mins late, subsequently finding out the next quickest actual might have been on P2 rather than P3, and then because of the excessive points movements around Clapham Junction you found yourself at a standstill in the middle of Wandsworth Common finding your 10 mins delay turning into 20 mins on a standing only packed train this became a regular occurrence (the norm) for one set of passengers to benefit it felt others had to suffer and because of slightly more generous turnaround times at Victoria they could get away with it.
Sounds like you never used old London Bridge then, if people being in the way is a surprise. It's a busy station - not sure what you expect?
A huge number of people do this to access the Cottons Centre / Hays Galleria / City Hall area. Very popular.
bramling
Veteran Member
To be able to enter or leave the station without having to walk through what is essentially a shopping arcade? It's almost as objectionable as St. Pancras.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
I don't entirely see what's objectionable about St Pancras. It took a while to grow on me but I really rather like it. It's nothing like winding paths through airport duty-free, and shops at stations are quite useful.
If other stations are the same, all the better.
A bit like Welwyn Garden City?
bramling
Veteran Member
It’s amazing they were ever allowed to build that shopping centre in what is a relatively sensitive area. The old Welwyn GC station was in the style of the rest of the town centre.
The Howard Centre is at least fairly dead much of the time. A pain if travelling with a bicycle as I believe technically they’re prohibited from the shopping centre.
I don't get why the Howard Centre shops close at 1730, and most people arrive back from London at 1800-1900. I am sure staff would like some time off, but they are sitting in empty stores for most of the day and then shutting up just before a large number of people (who given what they pay to travel on the train may have more disposable income) come through.
It's no wonder that many shops end up closing up once their lease expires.
(apologies for being totally off topic)
- Status