TfL chief Sir Peter Hendy: Southeastern trains into capital are 'sh*t'

[NSEFAN]

The barriers now talk to contactless bank cards in the same way as they talk to oyster cards, and there has been enough publicity about the risk of it picking up the wrong card if you have both that I have managed to hear about it without going to London

It is the same system, just going direct without the oyster card acting as an intermediary, and has the same disadvantages.

Well if you don't have oyster then there should be no problem for you. Contactless bank card payment is surely you being in control of how much you pay, as money is only taken when you actually make a journey?

 

[JaJaWa]

Another article on BBC News today:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-32555647

Leaked letter says Peter Hendy was 'offensive' over Southeastern comments

...I have been given a letter to all staff at Southeastern from David Brown, chief executive of Go-Ahead Group.
In a strongly worded rebuke, he said: "The comments made were both unjustified and offensive.

"We immediately took the matter up with Peter Hendy and received a personal apology, but of course this wasn't good enough - we wanted an apology for you, the employees at Southeastern.
"I'm repeatedly impressed by your professionalism and the good service you provide. Once again at yesterday's London Marathon you showed how it should be done. There are lessons here for the Commissioner."

 

[Antman]

Indeed. Out of the stations which LOROL/TfL took over between New Cross Gate and West Croydon/Crystal Palace, only two are not gated, the least used Penge West and Anerley.

I've commuted on that line for most of my life and travelling is a lot more safer than it used to be under NSE/Connex/South Central/Southern. The same can't be said for Southeastern, especially on the Greenwich line which has it's fare share of ungated stations and fare evaders.

I think all lines are safer with the onset of CCTV.

I don't doubt that free travel has become the norm for many on all three lines to Dartford although SET are finally staffing ticket gates a lot more than they used to.

 

[Mutant Lemming]

If the provincial bus & train operators got the level of subsidy Hendy gets to operate services then maybe they wouldn't be so SH|T

 

[infobleep]

And just how would this mornings shambles at Clapham junction be any better if they were all ran by TfL?

What about when the tube shuts down and chaos ensues - most of the time with the same information issues as NR services?

The grass isn't any greener. And does that mean for some services they will all be all stations? Thus slowing down the trip into town? That doesn't sound very good for the commuter. What about all stations out of the Bridge? No more fast ones to Norwood junction or East Croydon because the stations are now all TfLs? Doesn't sound too fair on the passenger that does it?

I doubt the existing infrastructure could cope with all trains being all stoppers on all metro routes. After all, all metro services from Woking in the morning high Peak rub fast from Surbiton. No TfL take over could change that until Crossrail 2 came into being and that's some years away.

Interestingly it would mean that Byfleet and New Haw would lose their few services with first class that run during peak rush hour Monday to Fridays, as Oyster isn't available on First class.

They would still have to thread through the semi-fast off peak Alton and Basingstoke services that use the slow line between Woking and Surbiton.
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Ahh sorry I thought they still done the fasts & semis(ooh err) but yep that's exatly what I think they will do . And mentioned something about keeping the fares low by doing so

I rarely found the semis fast. They seemed end up running slow at some point or arriving to long after the slow to make it worth catching them. I was usually travelling from Finchley Road to Harrow.

I once saw a fast train due two minutes after the stopping so I waited for it. I think we arrived at the same time or after the stopping service.

 

[bramling]

Another article on BBC News today:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-32555647

I'm pleased to see Hendy has apologised, though it seems only under pressure.

If a Train Operator used the s*** word down the PA then it wouldn't be tolerated and disciplinary action would surely follow. Same should apply to Hendy. It's unprofessional, and says a lot about his character.

 

[Mutant Lemming]

I'm pleased to see Hendy has apologised, though it seems only under pressure.

If a Train Operator used the s*** word down the PA then it wouldn't be tolerated and disciplinary action would surely follow. Same should apply to Hendy. It's unprofessional, and says a lot about his character.

I think the Evening Standard expose said an awful lot more about his character than the occasional utterance of the odd expletive.

 

[ScotGG]

I think all lines are safer with the onset of CCTV.

I don't doubt that free travel has become the norm for many on all three lines to Dartford although SET are finally staffing ticket gates a lot more than they used to.

However many stations have separate unbarried gates so manning the barriers is a bit of a waste of time. You'd need to rebuild stations to include the second entrances behind a barrier line (not that difficult in some cases) and/or have the other entrances separately manned or remotely monitored with CCTV.

 

[Mojo]

Well when the whole of the East London Line was suspended because of a major signal outage on the whole New Cross-Highbury section Hendy was silent. When LU had cement following into the Vic Line signal centre, TOCs never called them *s**t* and I'm sure if someone reminded Hendy of the time when there was a huge safety breach with the "runaway train" on the Northern Line he wouldn't have bothered saying anything about Southeastern.

And just how would this mornings shambles at Clapham junction be any better if they were all ran by TfL?

What about when the tube shuts down and chaos ensues - most of the time with the same information issues as NR services?

I think there is a difference between the "Mainline" and LU services when it comes to dealing with incidents, but to do with the rules and set-up of the industry, rather than being solely down to Tocs. I can understand that in rural areas, the time taken to resolve incidents might be longer as you wait for operational managers, technical staff/engineers and other support staff to turn up; but the speed of dealing with a number of recent incidents has been fairly sluggish, in my view. Now it would be easy for me to blame the privatised nature of the industry, but I'm pretty sure most of this started under BR, with the Retail/Ops split.

 

[Busaholic]

Well when the whole of the East London Line was suspended because of a major signal outage on the whole New Cross-Highbury section Hendy was silent. When LU had cement following into the Vic Line signal centre, TOCs never called them *s**t* and I'm sure if someone reminded Hendy of the time when there was a huge safety breach with the "runaway train" on the Northern Line he wouldn't have bothered saying anything about Southeastern.

I'm not an apologist for Peter Hendy, but neither the cement nor the runaway train were the result of actions by TfL staff: indeed, it was only quick thinking of a signaller that stopped the Northern Line incident becoming a horrible accident. Incidentally, Hendy was bus boss at the time, so his name could hardly have been in the frame!

 

[Chris125]

Another article on BBC News today:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-32555647

A trifle ironic don't you think, when a SouthEastern representative at a recent Bexley Transport Users Committee meeting was reported in the following manner?

"Mr. Southeastern also said things about his travelling ticket inspector team that he would not thank me for repeating. Something about police service rejects was one of them"

Chris

 

[tsr]

A trifle ironic don't you think, when a SouthEastern representative at a recent Bexley Transport Users Committee meeting was reported in the following manner?

"Mr. Southeastern also said things about his travelling ticket inspector team that he would not thank me for repeating. Something about police service rejects was one of them"

Chris

To be fair, that whole article appears to be written by somebody who shouts "excuses, excuses" over the top of any reason, however plausible (or not), for the behaviour of individuals and organisations involved in any form of transport in their whole area, and whatever they choose surrounding it. I'm afraid that report is both one of the seemingly most biased and conceited, as well as one of the ones that I take most sceptically, of all those "independent" reviews of transport facilities that I've read recently.

Their comment about the words from this "Mr Southeastern" person is remarkably vague, and whilst more than faintly uncomplimentary, provides no specific substance regarding any particular complaint. It is also hard to believe that somebody with any meaningful knowledge or involvement in revenue protection would say something so broadly foolish without any qualifiers or further information.

 

[Envy123]

OK, time to put forward my views on what was discussed in this topic.

-Maybe one reason why people keep getting confused about Oyster to places like Dartford and Sevenoaks, is that in my local station, there is a London Connections map which implies that Potters Bar and Cuffley are in Zone 6 and Dartford and Sevenoaks are in a special zone. It was only when I heard the announcement "Oyster cards are not valid north of Hadley Wood and Crews Hill...", then I realised that the map was lying.

-I want Tfl to leave the GN inners well alone. I'd rather just have the new trains which are promised plus a slightly increased frequency, with ITSO smartcards for stations north of Hadley Wood and Crews Hill. I don't want a slower service to Moorgate, to be honest.

-I'm one of the seemingly few to have had very few problems with Govia. Except for the time when they closed Moorgate's GN station and they promised that King's X would have WGC and Hertford services - that was a partial lie. No Hertford services and the WGC one was the usual half-hourly sleeper. But I had way more problems with FCC.

-Greater Anglia's trains were much better than the old National Express trains. At least the trains announce stations, unlike last time.

All in all, though, despite some of the problems that I faced with NR, I have to say that NR is a thousand times better than Russia's rail network. But that isn't really saying much. NR still has a long way to go before it would be as good as, say, the rail network in Spain.

 

[yorksrob]

Now that Sir Peter will be running a large chunk of the National Rail network, he will have to be careful not to be hoisted by his own petard.

 

[harz99]

I'm not an apologist for Peter Hendy, but neither the cement nor the runaway train were the result of actions by TfL staff: indeed, it was only quick thinking of a signaller that stopped the Northern Line incident becoming a horrible accident. Incidentally, Hendy was bus boss at the time, so his name could hardly have been in the frame!

Exactly, Sir Peter is a busman through and through. As plain Peter Hendy he was my boss when he was DGM at the old London Buses Abbey District and had a reputation as a straight talking decisive manager. Seems that bit hasn't changed!

Whether or not that makes him suitable to be in overall charge of the rail infrastructure is another matter entirely - time will tell.

 

[Busaholic]

Exactly, Sir Peter is a busman through and through. As plain Peter Hendy he was my boss when he was DGM at the old London Buses Abbey District and had a reputation as a straight talking decisive manager. Seems that bit hasn't changed!

Whether or not that makes him suitable to be in overall charge of the rail infrastructure is another matter entirely - time will tell.

When the Centrewest London bus company sold out to First he went on to the board for a while so will have been involved to an extent with rail operation, FGW for example, at board level. I don't think his traineeship at London Transport ever encompassed the Underground side: my own was unusual in involving both disciplines, although I didn't appreciate it at the time!
He's got to be a better choice than the last NR chairman, though. Now he's got to get Mr Carne working better or see him off too. I would think Peter Hendy sees it in terms of three or four years, five tops, then well-deserved retirement.

 

[transmanche]

If the provincial bus & train operators got the level of subsidy Hendy gets to operate services then maybe they wouldn't be so SH|T

Yet London gets less government support per passenger journey than elsewhere in the country.

• English Metropolitan Areas = 50.7p
• English Non-Metropolitan Areas = 66.3p
• London = 34.7p

Total net government support per passenger journey 2013/2014 (comprising Public Transport Support, Bus Service Operators Grant and Concessionary Travel Reimbursement).

Source: DfT
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[On Southeastern] And then every now and then some people who look like the Gestapo get on and fine everyone they can. It doesn’t improve your day, does it?

Surely nobody can disagree with this one?

Do you remember when officially you had to purchase an (unnecessary) Oyster Extension Permit (OEP) if you wanted to use Oyster PAYG on NR outside of your Travelcard zones? And how SET RPIs used to hang around the barriers at Victoria and London Bridge, etc trying to catch people without an OEP and issue them with a PF, even though the gates would have deducted the correct fare from the Oyster PAYG balance if the RPIs hadn't set them to reject Oyster cards without an OEP.

Just a cynical way of raising revenue by PFing passengers on a stupid and unnecessary technicality - rather than actually tackling real fare dodgers.

Or as MikeWh said when it was announced that OEPs were being scrapped:

... all the people who Southeastern have penalty fared at their London terminals! They (SET) really are an odious bunch of bankers.

 

[455driver]

Now that Sir Peter will be running a large chunk of the National Rail network, he will have to be careful not to be hoisted by his own petard.

That's not the only thing he should be hung by!