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Home > Contact us > Web Chat > Web chat transcript

Live web chat transcript

 

If you have any feedback about these events, please contact our contact our Customer Service Team.

Question: 89

Do you have any plans to increase capacity on trains departing Woking between 0700 and 0800? As far as I can tell the additional capacity being added next year will not have any impact on the badly overcrowded services from Woking during this peak time.

Changing the 0740 to Waterloo from 10 car to 12 car at this time would make a huge difference as it would likely encourage people who take the 0752 to take the 0740 instead which right now is not feasible as the the 0740 is already overcrowded (as are all peak trains from Woking). I think the message here is that the trains from Woking are overcrowded even on those rare days that everything is running to timetable.

Posted 25/03/2013 10:16:44

Answer:

We do have plans to increase the length of some services from Woking over the next 12 to 18 months, as more rolling stock becomes available.

Question: 88

Please can something be done with the attitude of the guards or the connection time at Weybridge in the morning rush hour? Trains from Waterloo are usually late into Weybridge making the 6 minute connection to the Chertsey/Staines service tight or impossible. The guards do not hold the train for even a few seconds to let all passengers join leaving a 30 minute delay. Given the train then stands at Virginia Water for 9 minutes and the incoming train is now scheduled 2 minutes later means there is ample scope for holding these trains.

Posted by Andy 25/03/2013 09:50:29

Answer:

I'm sorry that your train has been delayed into Weybridge recently.

The Weybridge to Virginia Water service is scheduled to provide connections at both ends of the line, for which we allow a 5 minute connectional margin.

I have looked into the possibility of retiming them to allow longer at Weybridge, but this will have a similar effect to the one you describe at Virginia Water.

My focus is to improve the punctuality of all our services, and I hope you will see an improvement in due course. 

Question: 87

Would plug sockets throughout in some of your long distance routes ever be considered? Similar routes run by other companies have them as standard!

Posted by Wilson Hill 25/03/2013 14:28:39

Answer:

The problem is the capacity of the alternator on older trains. I'm afraid it would be very challenging from an engineering point of view to replace this system.

Question: 86

Why, during the snow timetable, with 50% of Alton-Waterloo trains cancelled, were some down trains in the evening peak still only formed of 8 coaches?

This meant they were crush loaded well before leaving Waterloo and passengers at Clapham stood no chance of boarding.

Surely with many services cancelled, there should've been enough stock to run them all as 12 car!

Posted 25/03/2013 10:15:01

Answer:

All trains on the Alton line should have been formed of 12 cars during the snow plan; I think the short formation was due to further disruption on the day.

Question: 85

In view of the disgraceful service provided during the morning peak on Monday and Tuesday last week (18th & 19th), are you considering your position? Services have deteriorated markedly on your watch, and the buck has to stop somewhere.

Posted 24/03/2013 14:14:31

Answer:

Sadly, performance has been deteriorating for well over two years: it had fallen substantially before I joined.

That said, I am far from happy, not least because many of the things we need to do to recover performance will take time to implement. We have a very old, very tired railway that is used intensively.

I suspect if changing the leader of the organisation would solve the problems, I would be long gone!

It is much more complex than that. We have comprehensive plans, but I share your frustration, tempered only by the knowledge that we are doing everything we possibly can.

Tim Shoveller

Question: 84

Please can you ban the use of the terms 'Operational Incident' and 'Problem Under Investigation' in your live travel information?
They provide absolutely no indication of the severity of the issue and the time it'll take to resolve.

Yesterday (24th Mar) I was trying to decide whether to travel and saw that a number of trains were delayed due to a 'Problem Under Investigation'. However, they remained shown this way for over an hour, and surely by then the investigation should've completed and some more detailed information should be available!

Posted 25/03/2013 10:10:54

Answer:

I entirely agree, and these are phrases we try to avoid using for the reasons you state.

However, on occasions such as yesterday, 'Problem Under Investigation' is entirely the appropriate message to use. That being said, we should have been able to change this to a more specific reason far more quickly than we did once the investigation had concluded.

Question: 83

Your Twitter account provides lots of useful information during the day at weekdays. However, it doesn't seemed to be manned all the time at weekends and in the evenings, when disruption can have a bigger impact (less frequent service and people trying to catch last trains).

What hours can we rely on someone monitoring the account to respond to messages and post information?
Do you have an on-call tweeter who can be brought in, in the event of disruption?

Posted 25/03/2013 10:07:49

Answer:

We have recognised that the frequency of our tweeting over the weekend does not match our weekday performance. We have recruited additional staff to cope with the large increase in followers that we have gained over the last 18 months. You should see a significant improvement over the coming weeks.

Question: 82

Why are the trains between Weybridge and Virginia Water always being replaced by buses when additional trains are run elsewhere, such as next weekend to Reading? Two extra trains per hour on the line through Staines is no more than you run during the weekday peak hours, when there are at least eight trains per hour. So why can’t this level of service run all day next weekend? If that isn’t possible then why not run a shuttle service between Weybridge and Virginia Water or Staines?

Posted 25/03/2013 10:03:52

Answer:

Unfortunately we need to replace the Weybridge services with buses from Virgina Water next weekend.

This is to provide not only the pathways, but the train crews, as well as to work additional services to Reading.

Also, we have less platforms available at Waterloo due to diverted First Great Western HST services operating over the SW route, which restricts our ability to operate anything additional to the normal level of service.

Question: 81

We have had three days in the past month with broken rails (or something similar) at Wimbledon necessitating either closure of 1/4 lines or a 5mph TSR. What are you doing to make sure this problem does not recur? And what compensation will there be for season ticket holders regularly experiencing 30 mins delays because of these incidents and disruptions caused by pitifully small amounts of snow?

Posted by Keith Bailey 25/03/2013 13:46:00

Answer:

We published a newsletter to explain in more details our recent performance. Please click here for more details.

Compensation will be paid to passengers in line with our policy, for which information is available here.

Question: 80

When are the first 458's going in for refurbishment and what's actually being done to them? What line will they end up on?

Posted 25/03/2013 14:15:26

Answer:

The 458 and the 460s are converted into 5 car trains to allow us to run 10 car services. All 460s are in the modification program and the first 10 car train will be in service this summer. The last 458 will come into service as a 5 car train a year later. The focus of the 10 car operation will be on the Winsor and Hounslow route.

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