Dorking To Horsham - No Weekday Evening Or New Years Day Service

[30907]

Just FYI the 2325 ex VIC is now cancelled for the rest of the week.

 

[LowLevel]

Just FYI the 2325 ex VIC is now cancelled for the rest of the week.

A loud bang and cloud of smoke has just arisen from the vicinity of Ockley Station

 

[Capvermell]

You say failed to do the right thing, but if no one knew, no one can rearrange

How can no one at Southern know about my issue with the removed Dorking to Horsham evening services under the Southern Omicron timetable when I have been posting about them in both this thread and the now locked GTR timetable changes threads for six weeks and also been in regular discussions about the issue by phone and email with Southern's Customer Liaison Manager (apparently a GT Railway employee who has previously attended Southern's Meet The Manager sessions at London Victoria and London Bridge).

In the last few days have also been further raising directly with the Southern Customer Liaison Manager the sudden mysterious appearance and disappearance of the 2325 rail service from London Victoria to Horsham via Dorking on Monday and Thursday this week as well as raising why this became a Rail Replacement Bus Service on Tuesday and Wednesday and now also on Thursday this week following their cancellation of the Thursday train service south of Dorking.

 

[Capvermell]

A loud bang and cloud of smoke has just arisen from the vicinity of Ockley Station

Just FYI the 2325 ex VIC is now cancelled for the rest of the week.

The timetabled 2325 Southern Rail Service from London Victoria to Horsham by way of Ockley, Holmwood and Warnham (Set Down Only) on Thursday this week has now cancelled/deleted and been converted in to another 2345 rail replacement bus service from Balham instead.

But seemingly as the early evening closure of the line through Hackbridge, Mitcham Junction and Mitcham Eastfields must be ending tonight there is no 2345 rail bus from Balham to Horsham via Dorking and Ockley on Friday evening this week.

Southern/GoVia have really let themselves in for it in terms of my upcoming unresolved complaint to the Rail Ombudsman with their combined illogic of removing rail services south of Dorking after the 1725 from London Bridge service on a weekday by using a Saturday timetable with no evening service (having run Saturday evening shuttle services from Dorking to Horsham during the 2020 main lockdown period timetable) while then perversely still scheduling their rail replacement bus services from Jan 25th to Jan 27th from Epsom and Feb 14th to 17th from Balham to run all the way down to Horsham including Holmwood, Ockley and Warnham.

It seems very clear that the railway engineering works department and the train planning department are not very good with communicating with one another at GoVia. Well that's obviously so given that in late October a train from London Bridge that was supposed to be extended from Sutton down to Horsham via Dorking according to the Southern engineering works web page then failed to run because the Southern timetabling people simply overlooked scheduling that train..............

 

[Capvermell]

Just checked the www.southernrailway.com website again and actually there is a 2325 train service tomorrow (17/2) from London Victoria to Horsham but routing via Selhurst avoiding the presumably closed Hackbridge, Mitcham Eastfields and Mitcham Junction section of line and picking up the usual route at Sutton.

But there is no Rail Replacement Bus tomorrow and only the diverted 2325 train service scheduled so presumably the residents of Hackbridge, Mitcham Easfields and Mitcham Junction are deemed capable of getting home by bus on a Thursday but not on a Tuesday or Wednesday.

Anyway now planning to catch the Rail Replacement Bus to Ockley tonight although planning to get to Balham Station in plenty of time in case it doesn't run and I have to get myself on the 2338 SouthWestern service to Boxhill & Westhumble at Clapham Junction and catch an Uber home from Boxhill instead. Probably no good going to Dorking and asking the station supervisor for a taxi based on past experience, although I suppose should be able to claim for the cost of the Uber as a Cancellation.

 

[Capvermell]

Official Southern Engineering Works Notice about rail replacement bus as below from their website and says it runs Monday to Thursday this week inclusive. No mention at all of a parallel diverted train service on Monday and Thursday evening too or a train service instead of the RRB and no mention of it being Set Down Only. So it would only possibly be entitled to be Set Down Only south of Dorking on the basis that the normal 2325 last train from London Bridge is presumably Set Down Only in the published timetable (if there is one with this timetable being an ad-hoc emergency one only brought in on Jan 3rd) for the last four stops.

So in principle I could get one of the South Western or Southern services to Dorking and wait for it there for an hour and a half or so but I must stay I probably wouldn't entirely trust it to turn up if there was nobody travelling on it when it got to Sutton. If it was going on a long term basis and I established with one of the bus drivers that they had to make all the stops up to Dorking then I would feel safe to go to Dorking instead, although somewhat suspect the Station Supervisor might try and kick me out of the waiting room at Dorking after the last train, although he really shouldn't be entitled to given that a Rail Replacement Bus is a train service and hence surely come under his duties and responsibilities.

Clearly Train Planning or timetabling have messed up in having left the 2325 service from Victoria in the timetable on Monday and Thursday instead of replacing it with this RRB on Monday and Thursday as well as on Tuesday and Wednesday as they obviously should have done. But what can we expect from a team who forgot to extend a service from London Bridge to Sutton in late October down to Horsham via Dorking as was promised in the engineering works notice for the event........

Here is the Southern notice about the train as follows:-

Planned engineering work for Today​

Amended 23:25 London Victoria to Horsham service from Monday 14 to Thursday 17 February​

Date:
14 February - 17 February 2022 11:59 PM
Routes affected:
Between London Victoria and Horsham
Engineering work is taking place between Streatham and Sutton, resulting in the closure of some lines.
The 23:25 London Victoria to Horsham service will not stop at stations between Balham and Sutton.
There will be a rail replacement bus in place from Balham to Horsham, calling at all stations.
Check before you travel:
You can plan your journey using the National Rail Enquiries Journey Planner
Replacement Bus Travel Advice:
For helpful advice if you need to travel on a rail replacement service, including accessibility and bicycle information, please use this page.
You can find the location of your bus replacement by checking station signs or by searching for your station on our station information pages.

 

[Capvermell]

On the RRB after finally locating Stop J at Balham Station. Only passenger on the bus. Arrived Mitcham Eastfields at 0001 and supposed to wait there till 0015 or at least 30 seconds before that but driver departed at 0012.

He says we have to call at every station until Epsom but are then Set Down Only from there so can run fast to Ockley Station or hopefully Clarkes Green Roundabout outside my home.

Would have been much more comfortable to board at Epsom but I don't know where its indicated to passengers which stops are and are not Set Down only on the RRB route. When there was only an RRB from Epsom to Horsham three weeks ago I think it was only Set Down only south of Dorking, which is the same as the train service.

Time intervals between station stops in the RRB timetable are ludicrously long with each interval between stops being three times or more the actual bus driving time involved.............

 

[Capvermell]

On the RRB after finally locating Stop J at Balham Station. Only passenger on the bus. Arrived Mitcham Eastfields at 0001 and supposed to wait there till 0015 or at least 30 seconds before that but driver departed at 0012.

He says we have to call at every station until Epsom but are then Set Down Only from there so can run fast to Ockley Station or hopefully Clarkes Green Roundabout outside my home.

Would have been much more comfortable to board at Epsom but I don't know where its indicated to passengers which stops are and are not Set Down only on the RRB route. When there was only an RRB from Epsom to Horsham three weeks ago I think it was only Set Down only south of Dorking, which is the same as the train service.

Time intervals between station stops in the RRB timetable are ludicrously long with each interval between stops being three times or more the actual bus driving time involved.............

So it turned out that on the schedule he had the driver had to stop at Mitcham Eastfields, Mitcham Junction, Hackbridge and Carshalton and wait till the allotted time to depart (which this guy for some reason enjoyed doing with the bus doors open while he was waiting at the stop) but he only had to call at Carshalton, Ewell East or Sutton if somebody already on the bus said they wanted to travel to those stations (i.e. Set Down Only). I find it very odd that Sutton was listed as Set Down Only given that it is a major interchange where people coming down on services from London Bridge can connect with this bus. But after Epsom (where he did have to wait at the stop till the allotted time) he didn't have to stop anywhere else unless a passenger already on the bus requested him to stop there. The time table he showed me had 1.17am as the departure time from Epsom and that is when we left but the timetable on the Southern website for the RRB has it down as 1.12am.

He agreed to drop me outside the entrance to the road where I live on the A24 since he was already scheduled to backtrack round that roundabout coming down the A24 from Beare Green and then take Coles Lane to reach Ockley Station. After he dropped me about 1.47am he would then have been able to run empty straight back to Croydon Bus Depot. The guy told me he had been making this RRB journey since Monday and that today (Thursday) evening was the last trip he was scheduled to make. It seemed like he had probably not had any other passengers and he definitely didn't have any on Tuesday as well as on Wednesday night.

The Southern website is again tonight wrongly listing there also being a phantom non existent Ghost Train from London Victoria at 2325 reaching Ockley at 0037 and Horsham at 0047. This train will not run and will once again be cancelled by the train operations at some point during this evening. Quite how Southern's train planning people came to schedule the Ghost Train to Horsham via Ockley on Monday and Thursday evening in addition to the actual RRB service from Monday to Thursday is anyone's guess but presumably it is simply the original train movement pre Omicron timetable that Southern train schedulers have for some reason got confused about and not taken out of the timetable on Feb 14th and Feb 17th. The RRBs are clearly running as a replacement for the original 2325 service from London Victoria that was then unable to stop at Mitcham Junction, Mitcham Eastfields or Hackbridge due to the engineering work closing the line on these evenings but that train doesn't exist any more due to the Omicron timetable variations.

A friend wants to meet me in London tonight but I am considering if I want to take this bus again as it was very hard work sitting on such a noisy little local single decker bus for just over 2 hours and it made more sense last night when there was an event on in Balham within 0.2 miles of the station that I wanted to go to anyway. It might be easier to meet him next week when our normal train service from Victoria to Ockley will seemingly be running again for the first time in almost 2 months..............

 

[Surreytraveller]

Its set down only at Sutton because it covers the last train via Mitcham Junction for people who want stations further south than Sutton.
People at Sutton have the diverted train to use

 

[Capvermell]

Its set down only at Sutton because it covers the last train via Mitcham Junction for people who want stations further south than Sutton.
People at Sutton have the diverted train to use

The 2325 diverted train from London Victoria isn't actually running (at least south of Dorking) either today or back on Monday (it gets cancelled an hour or two before the scheduled running time or perhaps at the actual running time) contrary to what was advertised on their train lookup website for Monday and Thursday this week.

I believe only the bus is actually running (I know it is because I caught it last night and the guy assured me he was driving it every night between Monday and Thursday this week at least as far as Epsom, as the last stop before its Pick Up Only). The phantom diverted train is some kind of screwup by GoVia timetabling or train planning that comes out of them diverting other trains running from Clapham Junction to Sutton at that time of day via Selhurst but not this train as its already been transferred to running out of London Bridge and terminating at Dorking.

 

[Surreytraveller]

The 2325 diverted train from London Victoria isn't actually running (at least south of Dorking) either today or back on Monday (it gets cancelled an hour or two before the scheduled running time or perhaps at the actual running time) contrary to what was advertised on their train lookup website for Monday and Thursday this week.

I believe only the bus is actually running (I know it is because I caught it last night and the guy assured me he was driving it every night between Monday and Thursday this week at least as far as Epsom, as the last stop before its Pick Up Only). The phantom diverted train is some kind of screwup by GoVia timetabling or train planning that comes out of them diverting other trains running from Clapham Junction to Sutton at that time of day via Selhurst but not this train as its already been transferred to running out of London Bridge and terminating at Dorking.

Its running (or at least should be) from London Bridge, as per the rolled-over Christmas timetable. But due to the engineering block, is diverted via West Croydon rather than running via Mitcham Junction.

 

[Surreytraveller]

Which is why the bus is running

 

[Surreytraveller]

Besides, the 23.25 isn't running from either Victoria or London Bridge this evening

 

[Surreytraveller]

Just FYI the 2325 ex VIC is now cancelled for the rest of the week.

Was never intended to run. Was erroneously uploaded