RPI+3

[stumpyuk]

possibly £6000 from Dover? Disgusted

[sibodkent]

Aug 14, 2012 18:06:06 GMT @stumpyuk said:

possibly £6000 from Dover? Disgusted

Up to £4435 for HS1 tickets from Gravesend.

7 years ago I paid £1600 for nearly the same journey. it took 50 minutes and got me to work in plenty of time.

Then they introduced HS1, took away my 7:50 service from Gravesend, and replaced it with a HS1 service to StP.

So with a choice of having to go in half an hour earlier, or half an hour late, I chose to get the HS1.

Back then, the premium over a standard ticket was £800 (1/3rd more). It was about £3400.

So in less than 3 years, the price will potentially have been raised by another £1100 or thereabouts.
That's an extra £100 on my work based 10 monthly season ticket loan, which I cannot afford!!

But they removed all the fast and convenient services from Gravesend to make way for High Speed 1 . So essentially I will be paying £1600 more a year than I did 7 years ago for a slow, , smelly, overcrowded train at times that are not convenient any more.

All this guff about 'Funding improvements' and 'taking the burdon off the taxpayer is just that. Hot air.

Southeastern dont need to automatically put up prices. They could look at reducing their own running costs. They dont have to raise gravesend fares by 11% every year. The only exception was last year when Mr Osborne capped the increase. otherwise we'd be looking at an even higher fare, possibly as much as £4664 for HS1 alone!

What exactly is this premium paying for? Werent we already paying for improvements through the general fare increases years before HS1 came along?

Weren't we supposed to get a 'First Class Service'? So first class that it doenst have any of the trappings of a real first class train! (No buffet, no trolly, uncomfortable seats, and so forth).


Yet we are powerless to complain, or do anything. We have no choice in rail provider, and Coach is my only alternative - although at the cost of having double the journey time of the slowest train.

[stumpyuk]

You're not wrong! it could have been so good, but the implementation has been bad. Its specifically been structured to maximize cash to SE. If I want to arrive in London on an off peak, I now arrive later than when I used to get the classic services via Tonbridge, and that cannot be right.. they have timed the 8.44 service to arrive just before the 10 o'clock cut off, so you have to get the 9.44 and arrive in London at 11.

Utter money grabbing rubbish..