Southeastern Rail is still full steam ahead

words by Nicole Muller, audio and pictures by Nicole Muller and Alex Dodds

It has been announced that Southeastern rail have been given permission to continue running services until 2014.

The two-year extension is likely to be a disappointment to the many passengers who experienced bad service during the snowy conditions at the beginning of the year. With countless cancellations and delays and even some train stations being closed completely, travelers were left furious at the lack of help provided by Southeastern rail.

On top of this, the company has encountered further controversy when it was revealed they scored 82.04 per cent punctuality in the last Passengers Charter period, which is just 0.04 per cent above the point at which customers can apply for compensation.
Despite a lot of questioning from the Parliament, Southeastern have maintained that there is no fault with the figures and have continuously pointed out that they have complied fully with the standards set by the industry.

Unsurprisingly these events have left many calling for Southeastern to be stripped of their new two-year contract completely.

Nadia Anderson, 19, uses Southeastern rail regularly to travel to and from university and describes the service as “awful”.

“I have experienced so many delays travelling with them over the two years I’ve been at university,” she said.

“They are by far the worst train service I have ever used, and the trouble I had getting anywhere with them when it was snowing was unacceptable as at one point they shut Canterbury station completely and offered me no other travel alternative. I was really hoping the contract wouldn’t get renewed.”

But Southeastern are trying to offer their customers with some good news as part of their extended services. They are introducing a scheme called ‘delay repay’ that will operate this summer, which will allow passengers to claim compensation if they are delayed for 30 minutes or more. Furthermore, there is a plan to extend their High Speed services to West Kent in May, something that has been quite limited up to this point.

Keith Ludeman, the Group Chief Executive of Go-Ahead and Chairman of Govia who share ownership of Southeastern, said: “Our focus will be on continuing to further improve punctuality and reliability of our services.”

“In the past four weeks Southeastern has delivered in excess of 90% punctuality. Southeastern is committed to increasing customer satisfaction, particularly through ensuring more effective passenger communication – especially in times of disruption. This continuation will allow us to further invest and improve performance.”


Want to know what train passengers in Canterbury think? Click below:

What do Canterbury passengers think? by adodds04