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South West Trains in Elmbridge
SWT spokesman faces Elmbridge grilling
A representative of South West Trains attended the 5 March 2009 meeting of the Elmbridge BC Environmental Affairs Overview & Scrutiny Committee to discuss the services provided by South West Trains in Elmbridge, and to respond to questions from the Committee.
Background
1. Train services in Elmbridge are currently provided by South West Trains, under the franchise awarded to Stagecoach South Western Trains in 1996. In addition to services in Surrey, the company also runs routes through Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Devon, Somerset and Greater London.
2. Therefore the services provided by South West Trains will have been experienced by a significant proportion of Elmbridge residents, either commuting to work or for travelling to pursue leisure activities.
3. South West Trains has expressed an interest in speaking with the Council about current services, and future plans for Elmbridge; and to listen to comments, issues and future priorities regarding those services. The Stakeholder Manager for South West Trains attended the meeting to discuss this with the Committee.
Useful links
South West Trains Passenger Charter
South West Trains - Weybridge Station and travel issues
Councillors raised many points about local facilities in their area, and level of service. Themes covered station access, quality and cleanliness of facilities, quality of customer service at stations, overcrowded trains, behaviour of guards on trains, and many specific local issues.
Cllr Miles Macleod raised strategic concerns about the frequency and quality of service, and local issues about Weybridge station access safety and providing more secure cycle storage facilities.
Questions and answers
Here are Cllr Macleod's questions with summaries of the verbal responses:
Strategic issues affecting Weybridge
- is important to the livelihood of many in Weybridge. Four trains an hour is good, but the irregular spacing can mean a long wait if you just miss a train. Can the timetable be adjusted to provide a more regularly spaced 'turn up and travel' service? - Response: SWT will look into possibilities of revising the timetable.
- is very important, particularly for those commuting towards Reading and the west, and for the many students who use the service. Will South West trains guarantee to retain this service if and when a competing Airtrack services come into operation through Addlestone? - Response: SWT recognises there is a potential issue, and does not wish to change the current level of service out of Weybridge on this line.
- at station booking offices and ticket machines? People have had an excessive wait at peak times at Weybridge, and waiting needs to kept to an acceptable level. Response: No immediate response on service level, but the importance of the issue was noted.
Local issues affecting Weybridge
- for pedestrians, who have to step out from between queuing taxis to cross by the steps to the car park, without a marked crossing point. It is particularly dangerous after dark as there is no proper illumination. Will SWT improve safety at this point? Response: SWT will look into this.
- , with poor visibility at the give way leaving the station approach. This is a matter for the Surrey County Council Highways Authority.
- at Weybridge Station, as has been provided in other parts of Surrey. How will SWT help meet that need? Response: SWT will look into possibilities for a secure compound.
We followed up on these questions with SWT (see below), and will continue to pursue them in relation to the Weybridge Station vision.
From: Phil Dominey at South West Trains
Sent: 18 May 2009 12:18
To: Miles Macleod at Weybridge North
Re: Elmbridge Borough Council - Weybridge Service and
Station issues
Dear Mr Macleod,
Strategic Issues Weybridge
Services serving stations in this Borough have not altered much since the December 2004 Timetable recast, basically
Although the Timetable has not changed the rolling stock has, either with lengthening of trains to 12-cars on the Main Line during the peaks and of course the use of the refurbished class 455s. On the issue of 4tph at Weybridge, the evening peak service to intermediate stations Surbiton to Woking is not as good as the morning peak, but we are unable to do anything about this due to pathing constraints on the Slow Line.
One thing we have done is introduced an early 0543 Woking to Waterloo service Mon-Fri which calls at West Byfleet, Walton, Weybridge, Surbiton and Waterloo. This train loads very well and now exceeds 100+ from Surbiton. No other changes are currently planned.
Addlestone Line
The introduction of the Airtrack is currently proposed to give an additional service to Chertsey over and above the current 2 trains per hours. We have no plans to significantly change services along the Addlestone line even when Airtrack is introduced.
Queuing Times
In response to the Queues at the ticket office, there is a charter standard were we will do out best to service customers within 5 Minutes peak times and 3 minutes at all other times. I am not aware of any serious breach but we will monitor the queuing standards.
There are 4 TVM's located outside the booking hall (by the dry cleaners), 2x cash and card and 2x card only payments. These offer a wide range of tickets, this includes travelcards, railcard discounts, weekly tickets, monthly + renewals, Ticket on Departure (prepaid) as well as tickets for the next day after 15.00.
Cycle Storage
We need to work with Elmbridge Borough Council on whether they would be interested in working with us to develop a secure compound proposal. Any help on this would be appreciated.
As I mentioned before, I am very keen to develop continuous dialogue with Elmbridge Borough Council and look to work in partnership on any station/cycle schemes. Any help you can give on this, would be appreciated.
Many Thanks.
Phil Dominey
Stakeholder Manager
South West Trains
If you have thoughts on this, please do make a comment. We will be pleased to hear from you.