Good News From South Eastern?
The company is enthusiastically promoting a more reliable service with trains running at the same (sorry, similar) times past the hour throughout the day.
The blurb goes into great detail about this 'improved" new timetable.
But fbb is being his cynical self and smells a ferroequinological rat. It is always wise to be suspicious when transport companies have a list of FAQs - frequently asked questions. Obviously thay are not frequently asked in this case as the change has only just been announced.
By publishing its own set of so-called FAQs, the company is able to create questions that give answers that the company wants to give and NOT necessarily what the enquirer wants to be answered.
Here is a typical rail company chunk of "newspeak" **
NO! Services will not return to the pre Covid level!
fbb is not an expert in the minutiae of the South Eastern timetable, but it looks very much as if peak hour services are being reduced. That allows "trains to run at the same times each hour" for the main part of the day.
fbb reckons that the company is cutting services from 11th December but hasn't got the guts to say so. The reduction in service may well be cunningly hidden by the gloomy cloud of Covid, but services will not be "back to normal" from December 11th!
And Why Not, Pray?
A recently published statistic is of interest. It shows each train company and the percentage increase or decrease in passenger numbers from pre-Covid levels.
No one seems to offer any idea as to why the top four are all doing relatively well, whilst, say, Avante West Coast is doing badly and Scotrail doing very badly!
But note where South Eastern is and muse inquisitively about their December 11th timetable "adjustments".
Newspeak ** indeed.
Newspeak is the revealed language of the Public Transport Industry, a totalitarian superpower that replicates in 2022 the setting of the 1949 dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell. In this new version, the Government creates Newspeak to meet the ideological requirements of the Department for Transport (DaFT). For DaFT, Newspeak is a controlled language of simplified grammar and restricted vocabulary designed to limit the individual's ability to think and articulate critical concepts. For example, it defines timetable reductions as "adjustments", fares increases as "simplification" and service withdrawals a "making the business sustainable". (Wikipedia with minor editing by fbb)
Transport Newspeak is a misleading con!
Remember, Remember The 5th Of November
The whole thing is meaningless rot!
Many of us enjoy a firework display but only the Brits could celebrate Guido Fawkes, a criminal failure!
No 2 son is a member of the Burgess Hill Bonfire Committee which, surprisingly, organises a Bonfire on November 5th. 
No 2 son sent a picture of the official uniform for the parade.
There is general hilarity about this garb which fbb finds intimidating in the extreme.
Fun was had by all and no one was injured. Here is just a selection.
And this one's a dud!
fbb refers to the firework, not his honoured guest igniter!
At this point fbb's computer, which had been grinding awfully slowly, finally stopped! Help!
Fireworks always look boring when photographed with a mobile phone.
At this point fbb's computer, which had been grinding awfully slowly, finally stopped! Help!
Fortunately, No 1 son had arrived and decided to attack the laptop with Mrs fbb's vacuum cleaner. "If there is dust in your filter," he said, "your CPU will throttle back, thus making the computer run very slowly."
Of course, that's obvious?
After vacuuming, the laptop is working hunky and very dory.
Thanks No 1 son. The improvement came too late to allow the weary old man to complete this mini blog.
Just for Fun!
The quiz is from the fbb's monthly "leaflet" a precursor to this weekends meetings.
The key letter for both is "U". There are very few Bible characters beginning with "U" and most of them are too obscure for a general gang. Hence:-
Coming Tomorrow
A train from Perth (and not the one in Scotland).
Next Variety blog : Monday 7th November
S/Eastern’s big plan is to “simplify” movements at Lewisham junction… trains at platforms 1 & 2 will generally go from/to Charing x, whilst those at Platforms 3 & 4 generally to/from Cannon st - this will mean delays on one side shouldn’t affect the other, apart from U-boats (Dartford-Victoria via bexleyheath) which will still cross the junction and hold everything up.
ReplyDeleteThe down side of this plan is that there will be more conflicting moves at St John’s junction and courthill south (towards Hither Green) instead so some of the benefit will be negated, and of course all passengers arriving via charlton and Blackheath will have to change if they want Charing x (outside of the peaks), and those from the Hayes and Sidcup lines will have to change if they want Cannon St… the jury is still out on whether it will really make any difference.. the planning department generally lack the experience to make adjustments that REALLY would help and repeatedly refuse to acknowledge things they timetable which just don’t work in the real world, and won’t change them, so don’t get your hopes up too much!
Life has changed since Covid, particularly with office work done "at home" via internet some days and not via a commute to an office. According to a friend, the area around the DfT offices in Westminster is disserted on Fridays. The train strikes are re-enforcing this.
ReplyDeleteSeason ticket sales are only about a third of what they were. Off Peak tickets are above 80% of pre-covid, but advance tickets for mostly leisure travel are above 100%. So commuter trains are fairly empty, but weekend seaside services have been overloaded. The rail company's recovery matches their proportion of season ticket commuters to leisure travellers.
So commuter services, which are expensive to run, will be cut back and some leisure routes strengthened. Services like Bristol to Birmingham on Cross-Country are still only at 50% of pre-covid.
With the increasing cost of living and the government's Covid borrowings to be paid back, people will not choose to travel as much and the subsidies will be reduced at least in real terms. Thus services will be further reduced. Life doesn't work on perpetual increase, however nice that might be.
The peak service on Southeastern has been reduced a bit... but actually the reductions in the weekday off-peak and Saturday are proportionally a bit greater, which is depressing and makes no sense.
ReplyDeleteMy son lives at Lee and will be pleased that all the offpeak trains will go to Charing Cross rather than half to Cannon Street, with no reduction in frequency as far as I can see.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that really the answer may well depend on your exact journey. There are probably some routes that *will* see pre-pandemic service levels, but not necessarily the most popular ones
ReplyDeleteLeisure traffic has largely returned to normal while commuting is hovering around 50%. Avanti is an exception in the leisure traffic sector due to its inability to provide a service people can rely on. Scotrail is the doldrums due to prolonged strike action (which is now returning) and the OTT messaging by the Scottish government for so long that public transport was dangerous and to be avoided at all costs. SWR is probably suffering more than others in the South East due to the prolonged guards dispute already resulting in some people abandoning rail before Covid.
ReplyDelete