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Post by NoOnions on Sept 24, 2009 19:22:16 GMT
Cannon Street usage: I've not noticed any difference in usage, except for the odd day when the 06:34 from Rainham is even busier. When this becomes the 06:29 in December (and the first train to Cannon Street) I suspect it will be standing room only by Chatham. Evening trains home seem to be at the usual loading. Bearing in mind that many in The City have lost their jobs over the last year and that a number of City construction projects are on hold (many construction workers from Medway get the early trains to CS and Victoria) the customer (passenger!) numbers are steady - that must show that there is very strong demand for 'Classic' services to the traditional destinations (CX, CS, Vic and LB) Mind you, when did logic and common sense ever come into decisions about the Railways in this country?
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Post by chapelwood on Sept 25, 2009 7:28:15 GMT
This morning the 0705 from Ramsgate had a 10 minute late start, but still arrived at St Pancras on time. Journey time from Ramsgate was 69 minutes; from Ashford it reached St Pancras in 30 minutes.
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Post by moggycat on Sept 25, 2009 8:47:18 GMT
I don't want to turn into a train spotter but I think the 06.57 from Folk West was about 2 mins late getting into StP today but I'm not complaining.
I read in paper yesterday (and someone mentioned) that on Wednesday evening a live power cable became loose on the Eurostar platform at StP and it was 'writhing around sparking' 'passengers were screaming and diving for cover....and would have been killed instantly if it had touched them'.
This sounds bizarre does anyone know anything about it? Surely should not happen in such a new construction? Any health & safety implications?
Just being devil's advocate here. I do think high speed is good but am still seething about having to get the tube, the probable high cost and the appalling mess that will become the so called classic service.
Grrrrr.....
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Post by sibodkent on Sept 28, 2009 8:37:11 GMT
Oh deary me. They had to cancel the 06:40 from Dover to St P because of 'signalling failure' at Dover Priory. They were also meant to start the service from Ashford at 07:13 to allow for passengers from there up to Ebbsfleet could still enjoy their services.
However, somthing obviously went wrong and we had to wait for the 08:05 from Ebbsfleet. (meaning, essentially that Ashford preview commuters had to wait 2 hours for their next service???!!!)
The final straw was the HS1 train I was on stopping in the tunnel between Essex and Stratford without explanation for a couple of minutes.
I do so hope that SET have sufficient spare stock to allow for trains that are delayed down the line to not affect people further up.
I.E. anything that uses the mainline is far more prone to problems than trains using the HS1 line. So ensuring they have stock to cover getting a train to Ashford or Ebbsfleet to cover commuters at those stations should be a top priority as they are all premium customers.
Somehow I get the gut feeling they have plans to use every single train in stock?
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Post by Folkscomm on Sept 28, 2009 11:21:37 GMT
Nightmare this morning on first proper day trying to commute with HS1. After over 40 minutes waiting at Folkestone West following signalling problems at Dover we were informed that the High Speed Service would arrive in 10 minutes - they seem to have missed the point that we would have liked it to stop and pick us up!
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Post by moggycat on Sept 28, 2009 15:49:22 GMT
Hello Folkscomm Hope this means I have a fellow Folkestone comuter to commisserate with here?? I turned up to catch 06.57 HS. Waited until about 07.50 when a Cannon St train rolled in so got on that. Took almost 3 hours from when I left home; was about 1hr 15 mins later arriving at work. Seemed to me that HS was canned today and thank goodness for 'old faithful' Cannon St train. Why did I ever desert you? I was told that they are 'replacing' signal (box?) at Folk East and it was this work that went wrong and caused the problems. Annoying that nothing was mentioned on Radio Kent - so assume SE did not update their website. Monday morning - no one about/available/will get out of bed to sort these things out (engineering and website?) I asked about replacement bus to Ashford? - No. Sibod - I very much doubt that they will carry any 'spare' stock or have any contingency plan for such problems - and as the cold weather and leaf fall start problems with points etc will increase. So - high speed travellers paying a premium - you will not get any special treatment and can get on your bikes? Anyone like to comment?
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Post by chapelwood on Sept 28, 2009 17:35:59 GMT
Annoying that nothing was mentioned on Radio Kent - so assume SE did not update their website. Radio Kent were reporting signal problems at Dover from 0700 (I did not hear earlier bulletins) though it was some time later before it was clear to radio listeners that there were no trains in the affected area (Dover - Deal, Canterbury East, and Ashford, and reports about buses being organised were vague.
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Post by sibodkent on Sept 30, 2009 12:42:12 GMT
According to the announcement on the train this morning, they are going to start weekend preview services from October 10th running from Ashford International.
Nothing is on the SET website yet though.
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Post by O.V.S.Bulleid on Sept 30, 2009 22:32:21 GMT
Very interesting - for the first time GoVex will be able to measure real off peak choice - North London in 37 minutes or Central London in an hour.
(Unless there are planned engineering works on the Tonbridge route of course - cynical old me...)
Yours sincerely O.V.S.Bulleid
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Post by genehuntisking on Oct 1, 2009 8:08:41 GMT
Hello Folkscomm Hope this means I have a fellow Folkestone comuter to commisserate with here?? I turned up to catch 06.57 HS. Waited until about 07.50 when a Cannon St train rolled in so got on that. Took almost 3 hours from when I left home; was about 1hr 15 mins later arriving at work. Seemed to me that HS was canned today and thank goodness for 'old faithful' Cannon St train. Why did I ever desert you? I was told that they are 'replacing' signal (box?) at Folk East and it was this work that went wrong and caused the problems. Annoying that nothing was mentioned on Radio Kent - so assume SE did not update their website. Monday morning - no one about/available/will get out of bed to sort these things out (engineering and website?) I asked about replacement bus to Ashford? - No. Sibod - I very much doubt that they will carry any 'spare' stock or have any contingency plan for such problems - and as the cold weather and leaf fall start problems with points etc will increase. So - high speed travellers paying a premium - you will not get any special treatment and can get on your bikes? Anyone like to comment? A couple of points to pick up on. From what I understand there was a major fault in the signalbox at Folkestone which knocked out all the signalling in the Dover area (Folkestone East signal box controls from Folkestone - Martin Mill/Kearsney). It happened at 06.20, and was rectified by about 07.20 when power was restored. It is suspected that there was some cable theft which knocked out the signalbox. It would seem that the 06.42 Dover - St Pancras stock which leave Ramsgate at 06.08 was already on its way, and beyond the point of no return to go via Canterbury. From what I can understand attempts were made to get back to Deal wrongline and then cross over and to Ashford via Minster and Canterbury. However by the time this was being put into action the fault was cleared. I am guessing the train went direct to Ashford depot. It might have been better to run it up even if late but for whatever reason that didn't happen. Buses were ordered, however particularly at this time of day it is very limited what can be supplied, as most of the bus companies are tied up with school runs. The only buses that were available were from Hams (based at Flimwell) and Travelmaster (who I believe are based somewhere in North Kent?) so there would be a delay in them physically getting to the area required, by which time trains were moving. I doubt passengers from Ashford on HS 1 would have had to wait two hours, as mentioned elsewhere. The 07.05 Ramsgate - St Pancras ran throughout and leaves Ashford about half an hour after 06.42 Dover. As for nobody being about on Monday morning, I think you'll find that a lot of the people involved had actually been up all night! As for the Radio Kent problem I can't comment, except to say that it was a decision by Radio Kent NOT South Eastern to remove the live broadcasts from Friars Bridge Court. Regarding quality of information since then, I'll leave you to decide if this was beneficial to the travelling public. I believe at present on the High Speed services there are eight units available for passenger use, of which seven are required each day. In some ways the High Speed Preview service has been a victim of its own success. The initial service in June required three out of four units, which had to be raised to four out of four when one of the Ashford trains was so busy. Then from three weeks ago the requirement was six out of eight, which had to be raised to seven owing to the numbers travelling on 06.42 Dover - St Pancras which was made up to a 12 car train. Hopefully more units should be available soon. Unfortunately the circumstances on Monday dictated that Dover and Folkestone in particular lost out, but if trains can't run they can't run (High Speed or otherwise). Hope this fills in a few of the details from what I can make out happened on Monday. The Gene Genie
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Post by jumpedup on Oct 2, 2009 10:22:41 GMT
Aren't computers fantastic?
Though the new pocket timetables are not yet published on the website the 'personalised timetable' function does include details from 13th December. I asked it for all trains from Faversham to St Pancras and most of its output was as expected. The following suggestion (which I suspect would not be covered on a season ticket) was, I thought, quite ingenious. In the week between Christmas and New Year the suggestion is as follows:
FAVERSHAM 22:14 VICTORIA 23:37 VICTORIA 23:51 BATTERSEA PARK 23:55 WALK TO QUEENSTOWN ROAD (BATTERSEA) 10 MINS QUEENSTOWN ROAD (BATTERSEA) 00:08 WATERLOO 00:16 WALK TO WATERLOO EAST 9 MINS WATERLOO EAST 00:51 LONDON BRIDGE 00:55 LONDON BRIDGE 01:00 ST PANCRAS INTERNATIONAL 01:30
My real point is, why won't Southeastern release the pocket timetables - the final timetable is agreed and in the computer. And, more importantly, why won't they release the fares information?
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Post by Richard Trevithick on Oct 2, 2009 16:20:47 GMT
I may be wrong, so somebody please correct me if this is the case. I have been fairly reliably led to believe that the new timetables are 99% finalised, but there is still a little tweeking here and there which needs doing. It has indeed all been loaded onto the computer, but is still therefore subject to (minor) change. Which is why I'm assuming the final paper products haven't been (printed? and) released.
As for that journey, I suspect it may be quicker to walk from Victoria!
Richard
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Post by moggycat on Oct 8, 2009 13:29:51 GMT
Good afternoon everyone. Can anyone explain why the high speed train that comes from Dover and gets to St P at about 7.45am did an emergency stop this morning just outside Ebbsfleet? The guard/manager or whatever they are called these days did apologise and say it was his fault but nevertheless it was alarming. There was a strong smell and some people thought it was smoke - but being a veteran of these situation I diagnosed it as the brakes - but boy there some fumes inside the carriage.
Then once we got going just a few minutes later there was a crash - I thought some luggage had fallen off the end racks (was plugged into Ipod at the time) but as I was walking along the platform at St P I saw a passenger (sorry, are we allowed to call them that?) saying he thought the train had hit something. There was certainly no visible damage on the side we alighted but I suppose it was possible. I don't think there are any animals in the fields? Anyone know anything? I hope there will be an inquiry.
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Post by sibodkent on Nov 17, 2009 10:53:21 GMT
Moggycat I beleive what you heard was grit falling from a lorry on the road above in Essex.
Apparently it blows off occasionally and falls onto the train roof.
This is what the inspector said when I was on the very same train :-)
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Post by sibodkent on Nov 17, 2009 10:54:34 GMT
All:
SET are advertising a 'Half Hourly Saturday service' from Sittingbourne to StP via Gravesend on HS1
Will be interesting as this is the first time the trial has run through a normal line.
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