NEWS
Long wait for Long platforms Plans
to alleviate congestion on rush hour trains
could be heading off the rails and into a deep void SEnine has learned.
In the next few weeks station platforms, at 34 stations in South East London including those at Eltham, Mottingham and New Eltham will be lengthened, at a cost of £60m in order to accommodate longer trains running to and from central London during peak hours.
But it may be many years before they are brought into use despite being ready for operation next year.
The aim is for all stations between
when the trains will be commissioned, how many and whether the carriages will be new or ‘reconditioned’ units from elsewhere in the railway system.
It now looks very unlikely that the new units will be running on the network before the end of Southeastern’s franchise in 2014 and could be delayed by anything up to fi ve and ten years.
The problem has been caused by the division of responsibilities between Network Rail, which looks after the railway infrastructure; the government, which buys new trains; and Southeastern, the franchisee responsible for running the service.
SEnine
This will put yet further stress on an already over-crowded network, which already contravenes national standards, according to the document.
A key indicator is the number of people having to stand for 20 minutes or more, a problem which impacts heavily on SE9 commuters.
The RUS says that the 50,000 people a day currently using the Dartford to London services to commute will increase by 3,800. The trains are already running at 88 per cent capacity over the rush hour period, in excess of the industry standard maximum of 85 per cent and implying habitual heavy over-crowding on the most popular services.
The document describes the service is ‘unacceptable’.
One possibility is that the purchase of new trains for Thameslink will enable carriages to be freed up, indirectly allowing extra stock of the existing design to be transferred to the Dartford lines. But this could mean a wait of up to fi ve years. It would be even longer if new trains had to be commissioned and bought for the south east London lines, as Southeastern believe is necessary.
New carriages cost around £1m and up to 50 will be
Dartford and London to handle 12 coach trains by May 2012, which will increase the passenger carrying capacity of the lines by 20 per cent.
SEnine understands that train operators, Southeastern, have been given no indication when they will be given the new rolling stock needed to make use of the new facilities.
Southeastern are believed to be locked in negotiations with the government over
4
Network Rail has embarked on the station lengthening programme without a defi nite commitment by the government to provide the extra carriages to make use of them.
A new policy planning document, the Route Utilisation Strategy, released by Network Rail over the summer, shows that demand for peak hour services from stations across the Southeastern franchise is expected to rise by a further eight per cent over the next 20 years.
needed to run a full 12-coach commuter rush hour service.
It is the second time that a station platform lengthening programme has run into trouble due to lack of funds. In the 1990s, a programme was halted mid-project, leaving some stations longer and others not. Falconwood and Kidbrooke were lengthened at that time, but the longer platforms have remained unused ever since.
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