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Andrew Gilligan: Rail Fares To Fall Tomorrow – Shock News

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SO there I was, all set to write an angry piece about Boris Johnson’s “massive fare rises.” (The fare changes happen tomorrow, by the way). But then I thought: you know, I’d better check the new fares, hadn’t I?

And guess what? If I use my new Oyster card, the ticket I most often buy (an off-peak single from Greenwich to London) hasn’t gone up at all. It has in fact fallen – by nearly 30 per cent, from £2.40 to £1.70. (If I travel in the peak, it will be £2.10 – still a reduction of 12.5 per cent.)

Maze Hill, Westcombe Park and Blackheath single fares fall even further, by up to 35%.

The ticket I occasionally buy (an off-peak return from Greenwich to London) hasn’t gone up either. It too has fallen, by 3 per cent, from £3.50 to £3.40. Peak returns have fallen by 2 per cent, from £4.30 to £4.20.

Maze Hill, Westcombe Park and Blackheath return fares fall by 2.5 per cent.

The ticket I always used to buy before I got a bike (a one-day Travelcard) hasn’t gone up. It is still £5.60. The tickets I would buy if I commuted to work by train – period Travelcards – haven’t gone up. They are the same price, too. All this applies almost universally across the zones, by the way.

In other words, virtually every National Rail journey in Greater London will in fact be cheaper, in real terms, this year than it was last year.

It really does serve me right for believing this recent attempt by a declared political partisan to spin the change as “London’s great train robbery” in which “voiceless commuters get screwed again.”

Of course, if you look hard enough, like he does, you can find someone who’s going to pay more. But you do have to look pretty hard (in this case, someone who decides to carry on buying off-peak returns on a paper ticket will indeed pay more).

Or you have to be deliberately misleading. Look, for instance, at that sly reference to evening peak single fares being higher than off-peak for the first time; no mention of the fact that even the evening peak fares will still be lower than they are now.

Look, to take another example, at the claim that “South London families” will “lose out in [the] Oyster upgrade.” Well, it’s true that a concession on the Tubes allowing under-10s to travel for free with an adult is not going to be extended to the National Rail network south of the river. But since we never had such a concession in the first place, it is not something that we have “lost in the Oyster upgrade,” is it?

You have, I suppose, to admire the hours which must have been spent combing through the detail in order to find examples this obscure. But the desired political effect is likely to be rather short-term. Because from tomorrow, real train passengers will start paying real fares. And when almost all of them find that, contrary to the propaganda, their prices have not gone up, it’s going to hurt the credibility of the wolf-cryers.

The benefits of Oyster are not just limited to lower fares, either. Never again will I have to allow five minutes to buy a ticket. Never again will I have time-consuming confrontations with penalty-fare Nazis at the other end.

There certainly are losers from tomorrow’s fare changes – on the buses, where the single fare rises by 20 per cent. A headline about Greenwich’s “great bus robbery” would have been honest – and might also have provided a genuine attack line about Boris’s cynicism in holding down the fares of rail commuters while hammering bus passengers, who tend to be rather poorer and less Tory-voting.

But for rail users in general and Greenwich rail users in particular, this is a boon. Just remember your little piece of blue plastic.

Rail fares (Oyster) to London from…

Offpeak Peak Travelcard
Single Return Single Return 1 Day 7 Day
Greenwich was 2.40 3.50 2.40 4.30 5.60 25.80
Greenwich now 1.70 3.40 2.10 4.20 5.60 25.80
Maze Hill was 3.10 4.10 3.10 5.30 6.30 30.20
Maze Hill now 2.00 4.00 2.60 5.20 6.30 30.20
Westcombe Park was 3.10 4.10 3.10 5.30 6.30 30.20
Westcombe Park now 2.00 4.00 2.60 5.20 6.30 30.20
Blackheath was 3.10 4.10 3.10 5.30 6.30 30.20
Blackheath now 2.00 4.00 2.60 5.20 6.30 30.20

New train timetables come into effect

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The biggest shake up of overground rail services for years came into effect today with the introduction of the new train timetables.

Southeastern say that the new timetables “mean an entirely new service pattern throughout the parts of Kent, East Sussex and South East London served by the company”.

For information about how find out how the new train services will effect passengers at Greenwich stations, see our useful guide to the new timetables.

Greenwich.co.uk Guide To… The New Train Timetables

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It’s the biggest change to hit Greenwich commuters since the DLR and Tube came to town a decade ago. From 13 December, Southeastern rips up its train timetables and starts again, promising a better service for south-east London’s train passengers.

The changes are a side-effect of some of Kent’s services being switched to the new high-speed line to Stratford and St Pancras, freeing up more room on the congested lines through London Bridge.

They also have the future in mind, preparing passengers for more changes when the Thameslink service is expanded from 2015, when the connection between the Greenwich line and the tracks to Charing Cross is expected to be severed as part of a major rebuild at London Bridge.

Southeastern says the changes have come after a consultation programme some years ago – although most passengers won’t recall being asked what they thought. Some will gain, some will lose out, and teething problems are likely after the timetable’s first major rewrite in decades.

The change also comes in time for the switch to Oyster fares on 2 January.

How does this affect you? greenwich.co.uk has pored over the new timetables to see what you can expect.

Morning rush hour from Westcombe Park (and Maze Hill two minutes later)

The service remains sparse before 0630, with just three early Charing Cross trains before then, leaving Westcombe Park half-hourly from 0527. But then there’s a new train to Cannon Street at 0642, and another at 0658. Then there’s a gap until a Charing Cross train at 0717, meaning some adjustments for early commuters.

Between 0725-0905 there will be still be 10 trains to central London from Maze Hill and Westcombe Park – but they will be more evenly timed, at roughly 10 minute intervals. There’ll be five trains to Charing Cross and five to Cannon Street (instead of six and four).

The 0901 will be the last direct Charing Cross train of the morning – then there’s Cannon Street trains at 0915 and 0927 before the new daytime service kicks in.

Morning rush hour from Greenwich

Until now, Greenwich has had the same service as Maze Hill and Westcombe Park in the morning rush hour. But the new timetable gives Greenwich additional trains, with five new services at 0728, 0750, 0810, 0830 and 0850, all to London Bridge and Cannon Street only.

These are the trains controversially switched from Blackheath to free up more room at Lewisham. Passengers at Charlton will also benefit from these trains.

Once the last direct Charing Cross train has left at 0907, there are Cannon Street trains at 0921 and 0933, then the daytime service begins.

During the day

Greenwich passengers lose Charing Cross trains, but Maze Hill and Westcombe Park passengers gain two extra trains each hour. All three stations now get a train every ten minutes to Cannon Street between 0930 and 1900.

Coming home, trains leave Cannon Street at 27, 37, 47, 57, 07 and 17 past the hour from 0927 to 1627.

Coming home to Greenwich, Maze Hill and Westcombe Park

The evening rush hour timetable is as haphazard as the old one, but with a shift in services towards Cannon Street. There are now just six evening rush hour trains from Charing Cross – at 1645, 1706, 1729, 1750, 1812 and 1835, calling at all stations. Otherwise, you’ll need to change at London Bridge.

If you’re going from Cannon Street to Greenwich – or Charlton – you’re in luck, there’s a train roughly every 10 minutes from 1640 to 1840.

If you’re going to Maze Hill or Westcombe Park, you’re less lucky – it’s every 20 minutes, although these are supplemented by the Charing Cross trains if you change at London Bridge.

After 1845, there’s a train from Cannon Street every 10 minutes to all stations until 2000.

Evening trains

The new timetable sees no boost to late evening trains, with four trains an hour through London Bridge until 2230, then, puzzlingly, the service reduces to two per hour from Charing Cross to coincide with pubs, cinemas and theatres chucking out. Trains run from Cannon Street until 2100.

The last train from Charing Cross is later – at 2356. As now, an additional train calls at New Cross, Lewisham, Blackheath and Charlton at 0015.

Coming into central London, the service is roughly the same.

Saturday trains

Early trains stay every 30 minutes, but from 0800-1900, there are six trains per hour from Westcombe Park, Maze Hill and Greenwich to Cannon Street. There are then four trains until 2030, then back to two trains each hour. Direct trains to Charing Cross run early in the morning and after 1925.

A similar pattern applies from central London, with direct trains from Charing Cross before 0800 and from 1956. Last trains are the same as Mondays to Fridays.

Sunday trains

There’s very little change to Sunday trains, with four trains per hour – two to Charing Cross, two to London Bridge – from Westcombe Park, Maze Hill and Greenwich between 0900 and 1900. Between 0700 and 0900, and after 1900, there are two trains per hour to Charing Cross.

The last train back from Charing Cross is at 2330, followed by the 0015 to New Cross, Lewisham, Blackheath and Charlton.

Want to know more?

The full timetable can be found here – it’s table 7b.

Andrew Gilligan: Lost In The Machine

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FOR A few kinds of simple customer transaction, machines are as good as people: taking out cash from a bank, buying a ticket to park your car. But for anything with any element of complication or choice, they are lousy.
 
Buying a ticket at the machine at the “Greenwich end” of Greenwich station takes four or five times as long as buying one at the ticket office.  Even for the simplest journey, to London, you have to go through two pages on the touchscreen; for most others, you have to press as many as ten buttons. God help you if you are using a railcard. Almost invariably, the machine will reject one or more of the coins you put in; you have to reinsert them, sometimes several times, and sometimes it will never accept them – a problem if you have no more change. Once you have fed in all the coins, there is then a pause before the ticket is grudgingly printed and delivered – a pause usually just long enough to allow you to miss your train.
 
Tourists and others not familiar with the machines take a long time over each step, further lengthening the process. None of the machines is the same – there are three different kinds at Greenwich alone, one involving an even more fiddly little wheel that you have to twiddle. And if there is more than one person in your party, you have to repeat the ticket-buying process all over again (unless you are quick enough to spot the multiple-tickets option on some machines.) 
 
If the ticket office ever happens to be closed during the day, a long and slow-moving queue quickly builds up at the “Greenwich end” machine. And none of the machines, so far as I know, can give directions, tell you what train to catch, or warn you, before you’ve paid over your money, that the service is a bit dodgy today and you might like to try another route.
 
Remember all this when our beloved local train operator, Southeastern, comes forward with proposals to close the ticket offices at our local stations, or reduce their opening hours, and replace them with machines. It hasn’t happened yet: plans a few years ago for ticket office closures were defeated, and have not so far returned. But it is happening now on other train companies, and it will almost certainly soon come to south-east London too.
 
Of course, if Southeastern would like publicly to pledge in the comments section that there will be no reductions in its ticket office hours, I’d be most happy to stand corrected. But I shan’t hold my breath.
 
The fact is that the privatised railways are in deep trouble. Their operating costs are exorbitant (public subsidy to the network is several times greater than it was under BR, and fares have risen far above inflation, for a service certainly no better and arguably worse than BR’s). During the boom years, the rail companies could get away with loading their extravagance and inefficiency on to the rest of us; passengers did seem prepared, if not exactly content, to suffer yearly above-inflation fare rises and rotten services.
 
But now, the recession has put whole financial model of railway privatisation at risk. Passenger numbers are likely to crash very soon, as more people lose their jobs. Fare rises are indexed to inflation in July each year, plus one per cent; inflation this July is likely to be pretty near zero. The train operators have already been pleading with the Government to drop the rule and allow them to raise fares by the usual larcenous amounts. Today, perhaps surprisingly, the transport minister, Lord Adonis, told the Commons that he would refuse those demands.
 
So a double whammy is in effect: fewer passengers, no fare increases. With any luck, some of the companies will be unable to meet their franchise commitments and will have to hand back the keys to the Government. We will start to achieve renationalisation, a sane and unified railway, by stealth, and for nothing. Bring it on, I say.
 
Some companies, however, may try an interim option, of trying to cut costs. Not, of course, cutting their own fat-cat salaries and bonuses; probably not cutting dividends to shareholders; not trying to squeeze out the enormous waste in the Balkanised system – some of it, to be fair, the fault of Network Rail and the train leasing companies rather than theirs.
 
No, as Keith Ludeman, the ultimate boss of Southeastern, says, the option they will be trying first is “going to the Department [for Transport] and asking to take services out.” Cutting actual trains is quite complicated – involving negotiations with other operators and Network Rail as well as the DfT – although train lengths can be shortened. The service most at risk of being “taken out” is staffing at stations. Already Southeastern’s website tells visitors that the weekday opening hours of Greenwich station are “unknown.” Not to me, they’re not – the ticket office is currently supposed to be open until at least 7.30pm every weeknight.
 
Even a staffing cut has to be approved by the DfT. So it is our task to bring pressure to bear to ensure that “unknown” does not turn into “unstaffed.”