Timetable displays
Still on the subject of Transport for London, a reader was annoyed to find that at Wembley Central there were no timetable posters on display for Southern or London Northwestern (then London Midland) services.
Wembley Central is served by both operators, as well as by the Bakerloo Line and London Overground. But despite having through trains to Milton Keynes and East Croydon, the station is managed by London Underground.
LU has 5.8 million passengers a year pass through the station, and National Rail 3.4 million. Our reader knew it was no good taking it up with LU as it has no interest in timetables, so he emailed both Southern and London Midland.
It is interesting that Go-Ahead-owned Southern seemed as if it couldn’t care less, and said it was LU’s station. Yet London Midland (also Go-Ahead) responded: “We have now notified TfL and LU in regards to your comments and have asked that we work together to rectify the situation as quickly as possible.” I shall miss London Midland - I always found the operator responsive and positive, and its trains clean.
While on the subject of station usage, I note that three of the least-used around the country have experienced significant rises in annual use ( RAIL 842): Coombe Halt (Liskeard branch, four trains a day) has increased from 48 to 212; Shippea Hill (seven trains a week) from 12 to 156; and Pilning (two a week) from 46 to 230.
Campaigning, special trains and (not least) local groups fighting really helps - as did the All the Stations project that has been so wellfeatured this year.
One real oddity remains Newhaven Marine. It’s open, but trains haven’t called since 2006 owing to safety concerns regarding the canopy. Southern provided a taxi for those with tickets to Marine, but got around that by removing the station from the fares database!
Compare that with Norton Bridge, which officially closed on December 9. There has been no trains there since 2004, but it had a replacement bus, so is in the fares database. That replacement bus is to continue until March 2019.
So, as a reader who is a booking clerk pointed out: “I can now sell a ticket to Norton Bridge, which is closed, but not to Newhaven Marine, which is still open. Isn’t rail bureaucracy wonderful?”