My love affair with the railways goes back to the early 1970s when I bought a weekly rover ticket with school friend Chris Jones.
What fun we had as we travelled to Weston-super-Mare where the tide seemed to go out for miles and I won a bucket of liquorice allsorts on the pier. We also went to Edgar Street and watched Hereford United just before they got promoted to the Football League.
Since then, I’ve been hooked on the railways – it has always been my preferred way of travel. Yet my love affair is drawing to an end. Our railways are descending into chaos.
The infrastructure is creaking at the seams, the unions (Aslef) continue to wreak havoc with strikes, and fares are becoming prohibitively expensive. Travel over the Christmas period is going to be a nightmare with engineering works taking priority.
We all have personal tales to tell about delays and cancellations. For example, over the past couple of weeks, I have sat on a stranded (and packed) train for more than four hours just outside London’s Paddington Station while a bevy of officials have cogitated over what to do – evacuate the 900 passengers on board or return the train from where it came.
Chaos: Stranded passengers take to the tracks earlier this month
Chaos, utter chaos as they took us back to Paddington and then funnelled everyone to a taxi rank that couldn’t cope with the demand. I didn’t get home.
I’ve also had CrossCountry trains cancelled on me when going up and coming back from seeing my mum in Birmingham – not surprising given the operator’s dire record for reliability.
Avanti’s 10.49am train out of Euston seven days ago (another trip to see Mum) was also delayed while my first train out of Wokingham in the morning has been late more times than on time.
On Tuesday morning, in response to the first South Western Railway (SWR) train bound for Reading being 23 minutes delayed, the operator told me there was ‘a problem in the depot’ – code for the driver failing to turn up on time.
Yes, I’ve managed to claim compensation for all these delays, although it only covers a slice of my total outlay – and pales into insignificance against the £100 fine and criminal prosecution I would face if (God forbid) I travelled without a valid ticket. Yet, let’s cut to the chase, our rail service is no longer fit for purpose. Privatisation has not worked.
We will soon learn by how much (regulated) fares will go up next year. The expectation is for an eight per cent rise – if so, it is wholly unjustified. But some prices are already increasing as train commuters in the South East have just discovered, much to their horror.
The price hikes, introduced earlier this month, mark the first step in a Government drive to simplify ticket prices nationwide. Fine, but sadly as many hard-pressed commuters in the South East are finding out, simplification does not necessarily mean better value for money.
An extension of the morning period when peak prices apply – and the introduction of a new evening peak travel price – is resulting in higher fares for many (not all) commuters who travel via c2c, Chiltern, Southeastern, London Northwestern Railway and SWR.
At a number of stations, the new (higher) prices have angered passengers and left staff bewildered. In some cases, ticket machines have not been updated to embrace the new prices. Pandemonium rules.
For example, some commuters from Sevenoaks in Kent have seen their fares to London (and other destinations) rise by 30 per cent or more.
Tony Clayton, chair of the Sevenoaks Rail Travellers Association, has described the price hikes as ‘one of the worst attacks on rail travellers I can remember – all done without any notice or consultation’.
Laura Trott, Conservative MP for Sevenoaks and Chief Secretary to the Treasury, has even criticised the price rises. Writing in local paper the Sevenoaks Chronicle, she says the increases act ‘as a deterrent to using the rail network – and punishes those who travel for work or to see friends and family’.
She is now seeking an ‘urgent solution’ from the Department for Transport and those rail companies involved.
I trust Ms Trott finds one because, if not, the backlash from commuters will only intensify as ‘simplified’ pricing is introduced across the rail network.
Rising prices and a shambolic service are a combination made in hell.
• Have you seen your train fare rise as a result of this new pricing regime? Email: [email protected].
Less waffle please – and more punctual trains
While on the subject of trains, surely it is time for the train operators and Network Rail to reduce the number of irritating customer announcements they make.
Last Monday, as I wound my way home via Reading station, I was repeatedly told to take care using the escalators (why would I NOT take care) – and to be aware that the doors would shut 40 seconds before the train departed the station (fine if there was a train ready to depart).
I was also told to look out for anything suspicious – ‘see it, say it, sorted’ – and text 61016 if something caught my eye (a train arriving on time?).
And most irritatingly of all, on board a GWR train, the guard repeatedly telling his colleague over the PA system whether they could make the next ‘IC’ call.
Couldn’t they just text each other instead and save passengers from an ear bashing?
Less waffle please – and more punctual trains.
Marvellous… A bank opening
How splendid it is to see a banking hub (a shared bank branch) finally open its door in Haslemere, Surrey.
On Friday, Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt, whose South-West Surrey constituency embraces Haslemere, officially opened the hub in the old Lloyds branch.
Having reported three months earlier on the acute need for a face-to-face banking service in the town, I was there to see the Chancellor cut the ribbon. The hub, complete with an external cash machine, will have staff from one of five banks (Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest and Santander) available on specific days of the week to deal with customer issues.
Welcome: The hub in Haslemere, complete with an external cash machine, will have staff from one of five banks
There will also be a counter service, run by the Post Office, which will allow customers of all the major banks and building societies to make cash deposits and withdrawals.
With the City regulator – the Financial Conduct Authority – having just announced new rules to stop towns losing access to personal banking, let’s hope more hubs are on the way.
John Howells, boss of cash machine network Link, tells me that we could see 1,000 of these hubs on our high streets by 2028. To date, 30 are up and running. Maybe, he was born to be optimistic, but I hope he is right.
Hubs are far from perfect, as some readers have been keen to point out. But they are better than banking wastelands.
