Instead of providing no evening service between Dorking and Horsham, what’s to stop Southern providing taxis on request? Presumably there’s not enough demand to justify a rail replacement service? Or is something in place already?
Clearly nothing stopping them providing taxis whatsoever. Station supervisor I talked to at Horsham said he would provide a taxi for anyone with a valid ticket who wanted to travel at the time the cancelled evening trains originally ran. Dorking supervisor said he wouldn't do. Snag there is last train from Horsham to Ockley on a normal weekdays is 2114 whereas from Dorking its the 0026. But currently last train from Dorking on a weekday is only the 1831.
But anyway adding to the above point I traveled on the 1831 south from Dorking last night after a day trip to Robertsbridge leaving on the 0824 from Ockley and returning on the 1614 from Robertsbridge all via Dorking Deepdene, Redhill and Tonbridge connections as stupidly going via London Bridge with only one connection is several pounds more expensive. So just to report there were 29 people traveling south out of Dorking on the 1831, to Horsham, which was a 10 carriage train. Two people got off at Holmwood and I was one of two getting off at Ockley. But this 29 passengers is considerably more than a usual 10 or 12 passengers on the last normal weekday train from Victoria to Horsham at 2325 getting to Dorking at 0026 south of Dorking and I strongly suspect that in the early evening there were also not any drunk or inexperienced travelers who had perhaps got on the slower train to Horsham by accident and hence all of the 29 were either those getting off at the intermediate stations (say 5 passengers) or passengers traveling back from stations such as Epsom, Leatherhead, and Guildford (where there are significant amounts of employment as well as lots of shops and other services) for all of whom this is a significantly faster option than having to change at Dorking Deepdene and again at Redhill to reach Horsham.
Southern Railway website has now been updated in terms of timetables to show trains running in to London Bridge from Horsham via Dorking rather than Victoria until Monday February 21st. No trains or rail replacement bus south of Dorking after the 1725 from London Bridge arriving at Dorking at 1832 and Ockley at 1842 for all of that time. Ridiculous Saturday timetable only originally used on weekdays for Christmas week for signal works now being carried on for another 7 weeks but yet despite this Network Card validity not revised to have same validity as at the weekend until such time as Southern feel capable of running a normal weekday timetable with evening train services south of Dorking. Cost me over £28 to get to Robertsbridge yesterday instead of the correct normal fare for a weekend service from Ockley to Robertsbridge via Redhill with a Network Card of £13. And also had my ticket checked on the Southern service from Redhill to Tonbridge out and back and on the way out by ticket inspection staff as though they new lots of angry passenger would be trying to travel on Off Peak tickets or without tickets.
Also tried to do my own ticket split yesterday and bizarrely from Ockley to Wadhurst was offered an Off Peak ticket as well as an Anytime by Ockley ticket machine at 0820 but neither it or the Southern ticket machine at Dorking would sell me any ticket from Wadhurst to Robertsbridge other than an Anytime even though their own timetable would show I could not get to Wadhurst before the Off Peak train time. Had to go to the ticket window at Dorking to be allowed to buy an Off Peak Return from Wadhurst to Robertsbridge. So its clearly substantially more hassle to do your own ticket split to avoid the few extra tens of pennies charged by Trainsplit to book on their site with all necessary tickets automatically printed by the Ockley ticket machine (after entering the booking code and presenting the booking credit card) with no refusal to issue the Off Peak ticket from Wadhurst to Robertsbridge.........
