What do you do?
I have worked in retail display all my life, but after more than 40 years, I decided to take early retirement last June. A large part of my job involved travelling across the country by train, visiting different shops. After spending so much of my life living out of a suitcase, I’m now enjoying the time I have at home.
What train journeys do you make?
My local station is Southampton Central and I use the train a couple of times a week for shopping trips or to visit friends across the country.
What is your favourite train journey?
It has to be a train I used to take to Austria, which went from Paris to Milan via the Alps - the mountain scenery was spectacular. In Britain, my favourite train journeys include the journey from Berwick-on-Tweed to Edinburgh along the east coast of Scotland, and the section between Newton Abbot and Plymouth that runs along the coast.
Why did you join the Passengers’ Panel?
I was asked to sit on the prototype of the Passengers’ Panel about 25 years ago at Southampton. When I recently spotted an advert in e-motion magazine seeking new Panel members, I decided to apply because I now have the time to give something back to a service that I have used for so many years.
Are you pleased by the work of the Panel?
I am a recent addition to the Panel and have only attended two meetings so far, so it is all relatively new to me. Ask me in a year’s time, and I’m sure that I will have a better insight into its workings.
I have to be honest and say I was rather sceptical to start off with and thought the Panel was just a PR exercise. But now that I’ve got more involved, I realise what an important job it does. We discuss issues of concern to passengers across the network and the directors of South West Trains listen - and some good does comes out of it. For example, thanks to the Panel raising the issue, South West Trains is now going to review its complicated ticket refund policy. Panel members also visit stations from time to time, looking around at their conditions and facilities through the eyes of a typical passenger and reporting back on such things as the effectiveness of the signage and the cleanliness of the platforms. I think this is an excellent idea.
What do you least like about South West Trains?
I think much more needs to be done to enforce the ban on mobile phones in Quiet Carriages. Before Christmas I was on a London-bound train and I counted 17 people using their mobile phones. If I go to a Quiet Carriage, I want to be able to read or doze without hearing phones going off all the time.
Another complaint I have, which is not just with South West Trains but with all train operating companies, relates to fare dodgers. I spend a great deal of money on train fares and, when I was working, my company paid thousands of pounds a year, so I get very upset when I see people getting away without paying for their tickets. I am sure much more could be done to try to stop fare dodgers, then perhaps rail fare increases could be kept to below the rate of inflation.
Finally, the new timetable change introduced across the South West Trains network last December has generated lots of correspondence to the Panel. The majority is from passengers who feel they’ve lost out by the new timings.
I realise that with new timetables there are always going to be winners and losers. However, I do believe that South West Trains could have done more to warn its passengers about how major some of the time changes were going to be. Nevertheless, to its credit, South West Trains has been quick to address some of the teething problems that have arisen. For example, it has added more carriages to the trains on the early morning departures from Portsmouth, Alton and Basingstoke to solve the problems of overcrowding.
What do you like best about South West Trains?
It has a team of very dedicated people who are trying hard to improve a service that has, for years, been run down and neglected. I think South West Trains has come a long way in a short period of time, and with all the new trains in passenger service I hope the company will go from strength to strength.
South West Trains also shares information with the Panel about upcoming projects, such as the introduction of new ticket machines this year, and allows us to learn about how a train operating company works. For example, it recently arranged for some of the Panel members to visit the hi-tech depot in Northam, where South West Trains’ new fleet of Desiro trains is maintained, which was very interesting.