There were terrible delays on trains between Faversham and London today, with some people waiting up to an hour and a half for over-crowded trains.
I contacted Southeastern CEO David Statham asking for an explanation. This is the reply I received:
Dear Helen
Thank you for your email addressed to MD David Statham. David has asked me to respond on his behalf.
I am sorry for the delays to services this morning and appreciate you will be under pressure from your constituents.
The causes were a signalling failure, reported by Network Rail at around 0600 this morning. While its teams were on site as soon as possible, services were not restored until around 0930 by which time services into London were badly disrupted. I have accordingly copied this and your email to my colleague xxxxxx at Network Rail and I’m sure that he or one his team will be able to explain the causes of the signal failure and measures they took to restore services in more detail and would be happy to meet with you.
As to mitigation measures immediately after being notified of the service failure, we ordered replacement bus services. Unfortunately, at the start of the morning peak, bus operators are challenged to provide vehicles as many will be pre-booked for scheduled services or school runs.
Compensation arrangements will apply and please encourage those delayed by 30 minutes or more to claim.
Turning to over crowding, the cancellations forced passengers onto those trains that were running and I am sorry that people had an uncomfortable and frustrating journey. As you know, we have applied to the DfT for additional rolling stock and we look forward to an early decision.
Yours sincerely
xxxxxx
Public Affairs Manager
Photo credit: MattBuck
