New posters at Southern stations aimed at helping passengers choose quieter trains have confirmed what Brighton commuters already know – that you’ll probably have to stand for your whole journey during peak hours.
The data – also available online – shows that on all but two trains up to the 8.30am from Brighton each weekday, there is standing room only, and passengers are likely to have to stand for more than 20 minutes. Only the 5.23am and 6.14am have “a few seats”.
And the journey back is no better. From 4.30pm to 6.30pm, all but one train is marked as full – with the 5.42pm the only train where there are “a few seats”.
A spokesman for Southern said: “The information on these posters is intended as a guide to help passengers identify less busy trains if they can be flexible in their departure time – and at the same time a way for us to be open and transparent about trains that are likely to be very busy.
“As such, the indications of seat availability are estimates rather than precise calculations, so they are not a guarantee of a seat or space. We aim to update the information after every main timetable change.
“As you can see on the web site, the information is provided for evening peak departures from London Victoria, including services to Brighton.
“As our RailPlan 20/20 programme progresses, implementing the improvements made possible by the Thameslink Programme, capacity from Brighton will increase, with new direct links to Cambridge from May this year, and by December we will have tripled the number of direct trains to London Bridge in the morning peak to 15. All these trains will be full-length 12-carriage services.”
If you want to see how likely your train will be on time, you can also find out at http://www.recenttraintimes.co.uk – which takes Network Rail data feeds and shows the average and actual times trains have arrived.
Also helpful for Delay Repay claims.
I’m not sure this data is correct – the 07:44 Victoria train is always 12 coaches and there are always a few seats available!
Don’t worry from May all southern trains to London Bridge will be replaced by themeslink class 700 and they have far more standing room, less seats (if you can call what the have seats!)
In summary less trains to London and significantly less seats. With Thameslink taking over completely from Southern there will be no trains starting from London Bridge and no competition when the network is split up.
Honestly I couldn’t make this up.