|
|
Post by me1 on Sept 19, 2008 17:57:00 GMT
Greetings one and all,
I am new to this messageboard but used to occasionally read the old bbc site. Well done guys for keeping it going!
I currently commute from maidstone to london and i really really don't understand why there are such poor train links from Kent's county town to London? For example, there are NO fast services to Cannon St during either peak but a fast hourly service runs throughout the day! I really can't understand this as a lot of people do commute from the maidstone area, a lot now drive to Sevenoaks to catch the train from there which is hardly ideal. I therefore am stuck to catch the slow service to blackfriairs which takes over an hour or leave even earlier and go from maidstone west changing at paddock wood. (to catch a connection which doesn't wait but thats another story!)
I really feel something should be done about this as it'r bloody expensive for a poor service.
I am planning to move to the Medway towns next year where i'll have a decent service and it'll be cheaper!
Also, another question for you 'dead engineer's'- why does the electric rail swap sides every fifty metres or so? Been looking out the window whilst on the way home and couldn't think of a reason? !
Anyway, thanks in advence for your responses.
Me1
|
|
|
|
Post by Richard Trevithick on Sept 19, 2008 18:52:57 GMT
Good evening Me1, and welcome! I can't comment on the Maidstone service as I don't know the answers, but it does have a relatively good service compared to many places. I am guessing that not enough people will get on the train at Maidstone to fill it to a capacity high enough to justify running fast to London. The fast off-peak Cannon St service has baffled me for years, it does seem rather pointless! The conductor rail swaps sides simply to produce even wear to the conductor shoes on both sides of the train. It seems to be a mystery as to how distances were devised as it is different everywhere. On track without junctions, it will actually run for considerably longer distances than 50m (1/4 to 1/2 mile plus). 50m (and shorter) is typically found around junctions. The overhead cable is not actually dead central relative to the train for exactly the same reason. If it was, a groove would very quickly wear into the carbon head of the pantograph, which would eventually fail. Instead they zigzag from left to right. If you stand on a platform or on an overbridge on a straight piece of railway line, you will see this zigzagging with yoru naked eye. Alternatively, the best video I could find to demonstrate the effect is here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRgzeNOXRygKind regards, Richard |
|
|
|
Post by chapelwood on Sept 19, 2008 22:48:38 GMT
I can't comment on the Maidstone service as I don't know the answers, but it does have a relatively good service compared to many places. I am guessing that not enough people will get on the train at Maidstone to fill it to a capacity high enough to justify running fast to London. The fast off-peak Cannon St service has baffled me for years, it does seem rather pointless! The Strategic Rail Authority, before they were abolished, recommended that the off-peak Ashford to Cannon Street via Maidstone East service should be withdrawn, as it is poorly patronised, and this is likely to happen in December 2009. It does make sense, when there are no more than 2 or 3 trains per hour, to run them all from the same London terminus, but in the peaks, when there are more trains, each route should have a choice of City (Cannon Street or Blackfriars) and West End (Charing Cross or Victoria) trains. The Maidstone route has its main service to Victoria, with a couple of peak trains to Blackfriars, as it was built by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway - routes built by the South Eastern Railway mainly use Charing Cross or Cannon Street. Trains from Maidstone East are slow because they need to serve intermediate stations - a lot of passengers from the new development at Kings Hill use West Malling station - and because there are sharp curves which require low speeds, especially at Otford Junction and Swanley, also at Chislehurst Junction for the Cannon Street trains |
|
|
|
Post by lenhamite on Sept 25, 2008 23:26:57 GMT
I have to agree with me1 about the vagaries of the rail timetable with respect to the Maidstone East line, especially where it connects to other services in Ashford.
As a person who travels from Lenham to Dover for a night shift beginning at 7pm, I now have to leave 30 minutes earlier than before this year's timetable revision in order to get to work on time. This Monday evening the 5.24 train to Ashford did not make an appearance and no information regarding this was made available to myself or my fellow travellers in Lenham. We patiently waited for the 5.51 train and, having missed the two connections that would have got me to work on time, I was faced with almost an hour's wait in Ashford until the next train to Dover. I amused myself by watching the various trains coming and going in that time.
Basically, there were no less than four different trains going to Ramsgate via Canterbury West. There were either three or four trains going to Charing Cross at a time when most of the world is leaving London to go home after a day at work. There were no trains to Folkestone or Dover during this period, but within twenty minutes of the train I was to catch, there were two other trains scheduled to go by that route, one within a very few minutes of mine.
Finally, (with difficulty because of the number of bikes blocking doors on a train with a 'bicycle policy'), I boarded the train to Dover just after the time I should have arrived at work and had the pleasure of standing all the way to Folkestone Central which is something else that never happened before the trains were rescheduled.
I do realise that problems happen as they did on Monday evening, but I can't understand a timetable that has multiple trains going in one direction within minutes of one another and nothing going in the other direction for an hour or more!
L.
|
|
|
|
Post by heofgreatwisdom on Oct 17, 2008 20:41:29 GMT
Anyone have any knowledge of last Wednesday problems when a train split at Sydenham Hill? Packed with Maidstone/Ashford folk who had been told to get to Bromley South and change. They got there. One and a half hours later apparently!
Just back from 4 days on the French steam railways and Belgian trams.
HOGW
|
|
|
|
Post by chapelwood on Oct 17, 2008 21:16:28 GMT
Anyone have any knowledge of last Wednesday problems when a train split at Sydenham Hill? The BBC report is at: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/south/7672721.stmThe train was running late - there had been a fatality at Rochester during the afternoon, and things were fairly disrupted. It was formed of a pair of Networkers. A week or so earlier a pair of Express Networkers separated in similar fashion on First Capital Connect approaching Finsbury Park. It is not yet clear whether a similar coupling fault was involved in both cases, but it seems likely |
|
|
|
Post by genehuntisking on Oct 18, 2008 9:17:25 GMT
Anyone have any knowledge of last Wednesday problems when a train split at Sydenham Hill? The BBC report is at: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/south/7672721.stmThe train was running late - there had been a fatality at Rochester during the afternoon, and things were fairly disrupted. It was formed of a pair of Networkers. A week or so earlier a pair of Express Networkers separated in similar fashion on First Capital Connect approaching Finsbury Park. It is not yet clear whether a similar coupling fault was involved in both cases, but it seems likely The Penge Tunnel breakaway is suspected to have been caused by a coupler defect on the unit (465914) not long off a C4 overhaul where the coupler was changed. I have no information on the FCC breakaway, and whether either unit there was off maintenance, but the 365s in use over there are not overhauled at the same place as 465914 received attention. The Gene Genie |
|
