Southern Railway made a presentation to members and the public following the MarshLink Action Group Annual General Meeting on 27 February. The presentation was about changes in Southern’s services across the Eastern Coastway but, for our purposes, mostly about the MarshLink services to Brighton. Details of the service changes are reported here and this Release deals exclusively with the extensive Question and Answer session which followed the meeting. Inevitably, the questions raised (and answers given) are rather detailed and specific:
What happens to the “spare” Class 171 released
The reduced length of the MarshLink service (due to turn around at Eastbourne rather than Brighton from May) means that one unit is not required to operate the service. But, the question was asked, what will happen to that unit and, in view of the historic poor performance of the units, will it be retained as backup for a failed unit.
Southern confirmed that “the spare” would be retained, held at Selhurst and be part of the rotating maintenance programme. A follow-on point was made that a unit at Selhurst would take a while to bring into service in the event of a unit failure so would it not be better to locate it near to Bexhill – Southern advised Bexhill would not be a convenient location for servicing.
Services to Three Oaks
The services to Three Oaks and Winchelsea have been increased, slightly, and there has been a change to the phasing of train stops at the two stations. As a result, two services used by school children have been lost in the new timetable and Southern were asked to reconsider those services. Southern agreed to look at this and return to MLAG.
Commuter issues
Some commuters present objected to changes to the early and late peak hours services:
They felt they had not had adequate opportunity to express their views during the consultation period;
The timing on the MarshLink would feed them onto a Javelin service that was 6-cars which were usually full when they arrive at Ashford. Southern said they have had discussions with SouthEastern (the operator of the Javelin service) who confirmed the Javelin services of concern would be 12-car from May;
Nonetheless, it was said the current timing is advantageous for current users of the 0638 from Rye arriving Ashford 0700 with the intention of connecting to the 0706 from Ashford arriving St.Pancras at 0742 because, if they miss the connection, there is a 0716 arriving at Ashford to St. Pancras arriving at 0754. Given the current performance of the MarshLink services, they like having another train to fall back on. In the new timetable they would get the 0646 from Rye; arriving Ashford 0708 for a 0716 connection arriving 0754 St Pancras but if they miss that they would have to wait 20 mins for the next connection. Southern say the whole point of the new timetable is reliability so people can be confident of connections. Nonetheless, they agreed to look at the position and respond.
Southern also said a primary objective of the re-scheduling of services was to produce a consistent timetable across the day with generally better connections onto the Javelin throughout the day.
Effect on services to Charing Cross
It has to be remembered that not everyone travelling to London wants to take the Javelin service – it is faster but more expensive and, for many, Charing Cross is a better terminus for their needs. On this basis the question arose, what effect would these changes have on the Charing Cross service.
Generally, the up-train service will be about 8 mins slower and the down service about 8-minutes faster than currently – this is because the MarshLink trains will run a few minutes earlier than now. There will also be an additional service available about one hour later than currently.
Network Card dispensation
At the moment, Southern’s Network Card is useable, by arrangement, on the 9.56 service from Rye to London, so providing a discounted rate. In view of the service now being scheduled to be a few minutes earlier at 9.48 it was asked if the arrangement would continue to be honoured. Southern said they would expect that to be the case but MLAG will be writing to Southern to seek formal confirmation of this.
Statistics on unit failures
Southern made much of the expected future reliability of the Class 171 units following an extensive maintenance programme. Nonetheless, it was suggested that transparent data should be retained for the public to be able to see the ongoing history. The point was noted by Southern.
Connectivity to buses
Although the subject of the meeting was Southern’s train service, it was suggested that onward journeys were a significant consideration for an integrated transport system in a rural area such as ours. Southern said they provided bus companies with copies of their schedules.
From MLAG’s point of view, it has no expert bus knowledge (although it did so up to about eight years ago). If there is anyone who would like to join the Committee to lead on bus services, please contact MLAG.
So, there are some important issues to be clarified.
One other effect of the extensive Q&A session was that the presentation on the Javelin service (advertised as being subject to time availability) had to be cancelled. MLAG will look to see if it is feasible to re-schedule this presentation at some time in the future.
Photo: Rye News library
Perhaps MLAG can post all the times they are aware of. I note they are not on their website either. Especially all commuter times – for example what is the updated version of 0545 from Rye to London via Ashford?
There was a complete timetable as at the date of MLAG’so AGM. However, as reported above, Southern undertook to reconsider some timings and so, until that has been done, MLAG prefers not to put it onto our website.
In respect of the specific question, the current proposed timetable shows the 05.45 ex Rye is unchanged.