Southeastern and Wettons lost property

I'm not one to complain *chortle* but this morning I had a very concerning incident involving my beloved Gillingham football scarf which I in haste left on the train at Victoria station. (it was the 8.58 from Gillingham to Victoria arriving on platform 8)

It didn't take long to realize, in fact I had only walked from Platform 8 to the Swatch kiosk on the concourse. I ran back and the Southeastern barrier guard very kindly let me back through. I ran up and down the train frantically searching for it. This sounds silly, I know, but this scarf holds a great deal of sentimental meaning for me. It was my first piece of Gillingham kit God knows how long ago from my Granddad - who hated football but was trying to indulge my interests.

I was frantic as it could not be found and I was resigning myself to filling out the lost property and, to be honest, its total loss to oblivion when I saw it.

It is unmistakable and to be honest there are not that many Gillingham fans! It wasn’t on the chair I'd been sat on or in the floor - it was cruising past the window in a rubbish sack!

I jumped off the train and politely asked for its return before scuttling off. I thanked the barrier staff again and they asked me if the cleaner had given it to me.

I'm very grateful for the return of my scarf and for the help provided by the Southeastern staff but I am concerned that the lost property was in fact thrown away and when it was given back to me it was wet and covered in cold coffee and it worries me that other lost property may be being disposed of rather than being taken to lost property.

Enough of this Tories are bad with railfare BS

With my book deadline pushed ack to the end of the month and still a lot of work to do but I have taken ten minutes (odd) to question this latest Labour Tweet, the second of which I've seen in the last two weeks:

Rail season tickets in Chatham have gone up by 100% since 95. Tory complacency on economy as real pplfeel sting >> http://t.co/fkBTzUDAd2
— TrisOsborne (@cllrtrisosborne) March 18, 2015

Firstly I should state when it comes to rail fare I am completely neutral as I have been commuting for the last seven years and have watched my monthly Season ticket raise exponentially to the point that I am losing 33% of my wage which is somewhat unsupportable. It is something I have written about at length over the last five years feel free to browse.

I, like many commuters (the people that the tweet is aimed at in the hope of garnering support) know the history of the rising railfare.

The good ol' days of Cheap travel only 20 years ago!

Yes - the Tories privatised the railway. Was that a good move? Debateable. The people of Kent have had some bad franchises - Connex were awful and Southeastern, although debatably  *improving*, are still not a British company and a lot of their profits are being ploughed into the German railways and seemingly not into ours. Other franchises have been more successful on other networks. The reason for privatisation are at this exact moment beyond my memory and as mentioned earlier if it involves reading something that doesn't have a vessel sailing under a flag with an Iron Cross and Eagle on it then it is a waste of my time until the 2nd April.

The big point is that yes since 1994 the fare rise has gone up a significant rate but is it the Tories fault?

Let's consider who was running the country between 1995-2015. So John Major was Prime Minister up until 1997 (2 years) and the Coalition from 2010-2015 (5 years) which comes to 7 years of Conservative rule. From 1997-2010 we had 13 years of Labour Government in which the fares really started to go up with the introduction of RPI+3

Now when the government decided to construct HS1 from Ashford to St Pancras, you know that really expensive way to get to the wrong side of London that wasn't quicker than the other services from Medway (that's why the fast service to Victoria now stops at Meopham), you know the one that you can always get a seat on as it is too pricey? Anyway, they decided to spread the costs and so Labour came up with the escalator of RPI+3 (like they did for petrol) which ultimately is the Rate of inflation plus 3% so roughly your train fare would come up by 8% a year and they wrote it into the franchise contract so it could not be easily removed.

There was a fare freeze in 2010 (election year) I grant them. What did the Gillingham-Rainham MP do about it? Bugger and all as Paul Clarke (their candidate for 2015 for the same seat by the way) was a junior transport minister at the time. Thanks.

I'm not saying this government has been perfect either. Despite the remonstrations of Mark Reckless, Tracey Crouch and Rehman Chishti the government has done not much to improve it. Indeed the letter I received form the minister at the time Theresa Villiers basically was the written version of a shrug and a meh.

Yes prices have still gone up (though not always at the full RPI+3) this government but it hasn't been as bad. In fact for a percentage break down of 2004-12 which is telling check this out.

Basically to effect a movie/Star Wars metaphor ->

John Major's government came up with the idea of making Prequels to the popular Star Wars trilogy an arguably good/bad idea but sadly we got Phantom Menace.

Tony Blair/Gordon Brown's regime came up with the idea to make Phantom Menace that bit more appealing and make more money to fund episode II so they came up with the idea of the highly marketable Jar Jar Binks which ultimately made everybody's life gradually more unbearable.

Cameron's government have basically said Well it is made now  and we're releasing this but we'll throw in some more R2D2 will that make it better? No ah well....


So what are the solutions? I have no answers the only thing I can say is that;

1. This is a problem that ALL governments, both Labour and Tory, are responsible for this mess and something needs to be done and agreed on by Parliament as a whole before everyone but the rich are priced off the railways.

2. This kind of patronising political comment not only insults commuters, who are painfully aware of how we've got to this level of pricing, and is so opportunistic it actually stings my eyes to read it.

I had responded to a similar tweet a week ago asking about RPI but got no response. There is no need for this kind of BS and it is why people are turning away from blame the others style of politics of the big parties and turning to *Shudder* UKIP...

Right back to work, I have 6000 words on SMS Konigsberg to write before Saturday.

Southeastern Renew rail franchise

Well this is a sticky wicket.

Firstly I should say that for those of you who don't regularly read my blog will know that when it comes to rail travel and the EXTORTIONATE amount of time and money I throw at the railway system, I am apolitical on this subject.

No party, no government is innocent in the journey that has led to this day.

However I'm.... happy with the final decision that has led to Southeastern having their contract renewed.

Perhaps happy is too strong a word. However I can see the logic behind it.

I first read about it on Tracey Crouch's website and had mixed feelings.

On the one side I will continue to put up with dirty trains (seriously I got on a train last Saturday morning and it had Metros from Friday on most of the seats!), overcrowding, cramp caused by lack of leg room, lateness, congestion and absent staff,

Then as I read the release from Tracey's office the more I thought about some of the issues.

Congestion can't be helped at London bridge, especially if there is a broken down train or signal cockup.

With absent staff, can you blame them? The way that commuters speak to staff when something goes wrong would make me want to backslide into an office when things start going badly.

I commute on a busy railway line to London and travel at peak time so I can't really complain about the business. Even if they were to throw on a couple more carriages or compromised more leg room for more seats then they wouldn't get many more of us sitting down though if they got rid of First class....

The other things are bearable. Sort of.

I can understand that Southeastern are aware of the London Bridge transformation and it makes sense that they continue. It is going to be chaotic enough let alone bringing in a completely new company which will still be wet behind the ears when the brown stuff hits the fan.

I also like that the Government are forcing Southeastern to invest money into the network in various different ways - its all on Tracey's website, it is late and there's no need in me repeating it all - and the fares will be frozen in "real terms"

Great

But they are going up by the rate of inflation and as my wages are being frozen yet again (some 4 years in a row) I'm going to be paying 25% of my take home... Great...

I did read an opposition point of view on it on Tristan Osborne's blog and there are areas which I disagree with. To be honest Connex were crap and things are getting safer and the rolling stock has improved but the escalator that Labour put in has really made rail travel the reserve of the richer.

I do not see HS1 as a victory for the average commuter.

I mean it is great for when I go to visit my sister in Newark as I can cut around London and walk to Kings Cross but it is of bugger all use to me when I work in South London, it also means my old fast train to Victoria (which used to be 45 minutes) now takes longer as it has to stop at additional stations (Meopham and Longfield) because it was faster than the HS1 into London....

It is also too expensive for a regular journey (especially if you factor on the 30 minute tube journey)...

Any way I'm getting side tracked.

Either way I'm screwed. All I can do is try and smile and hope that the optimism that Tracey's PR exudes actually holds water. Things need to be improved, the prices need to be reined in and well...

The network needs a lot of things and I could sit here bitching and griping about it but I'm sure no one would care that much - well definitely no one in any of the major political parties who have long forgotten the commuters and the system we have to put up with.

Rail fare Political football

Watching the Twittersphere from my fortress of solitude I noticed that Medway Labour, indeed Kentish Labour, were out in force today at Railway stations to campaign about the rise of train fares and this Government's failure to scrap RPI and for people to have more of a working wage...

I hate to say this but we've heard this all before.

I've been commuting to work in London since April 2008 and my fares have been climbing since then. My monthly fare is now up to £350 odd and is set to rise yet again in January. To some extent this Government, especially under pressure from the Medway Troika of Rehman, Tracey and Mark have listened and kept increases to RPI+1 instead of the usual +3 however when wages are frozen at 1% Per year and with the increases in other bills and costs it is just another bill that we eventually can't afford.

There are no fast answers and I fear that Labour's plans to Nationalise the network, which has the benefit of bringing Railtrack and the various Networks back "In house" may see the networks suffering from under investment or from the dreaded strikes of civil servants should Labour not get in the following Parliament.

Indeed why should I trust Labour with the Railways after they failed to do anything for 13 years of power and the introduction of RPI+3 to get more investment and to pay for HS1, a service that really only benefits a few?

The whole subject has become a political football that is kicked around by the political parties and ultimately it is us, the commuter and public, who are forced to pay for the overcrowded, work shy if the weather is even 4% out of the "Perfect weather conditions" required, dirty cash cow that is Southeastern and other commuter lines.

Who will win, Red or Blues? - It apparently doesn't matter and will be a no score draw.

I'm afraid the only solution I can find to this non ending nightmare and Political posturing and arguments is for me to either win the lottery, write a best seller or find a job in Medway...

The future for Commuters, I'm sorry to say, is bleak...

The Trouble with sleeping on trains is...

Some of you will know that I work shifts in London at an asylum - I mean museum. Half of this shifts start at

A combination of wanting to spend time with my family, house work and a mild Skyrim addiction means that I often try to top up my sleep on the train. This has lead to some problems...

Yesterday, whilst passed out and blissfully unaware what was going on a signal broke down at Swanscombe. I woke briefly in Dartford to see the station sign and then dozed off again. I awoke sometime later on a packed train, that according to the automated voice was heading to Crayford - back to London!!!

I looked at the time - 16:10 - we weren't due to Gillingham until 16:30 so I'd not overslept... I looked out the window and saw Dartford bridge was still on the left and drifting behind so we were going towards home.

I had to hurriedly jump online to find out what was going on and found we were the first train through and running about 23 minutes late.

Late enough to make collecting my kids from nursery by 6 an absolute nightmare but not late enough to get a delay/repay form in.

Other problems have seen me wake up having missed Waterloo and being sat in Charing cross station (once or twice Gillingham station) for 10 minutes in an empty carriage and no one had woken me!

Worse yet I have also been the victim of crime. Having been at work all day and then at the works Christmas party where I had consumed a fair amount of free beer I took the last train home and went to sleep. When I woke up at Gillingham Station my wallet (with season ticket but thankfully not my bank cards!) and mobile phone had been lifted from my jacket pocket. I now sleep with all my valuables in my trouser pocket on the wall side of my person.

6.30 which entails getting up at 4.00 am.

I was also assaulted, in the same way as Michael Crick was assaulted by Mr Bloom of UKIP. A very rude and surly ticket inspector who couldn't be heard over my IPOD shoved my shoulder quite hard and I banged my head on the wall of the carriage, he then barked Ticket. at me when I removed my earphone and looked at him through the haze. He couldn't understand why I was a little impolite with him!

Also if you snore, be wary of a sharp elbow to the ribs from other commuters or indeed if you are really self conscious try not to think that you may be providing entertainment for some one (even an MP!) ;-)

So weary travellers be careful and learn from the lessons of someone who has travelled too many miles at stupid times of the day.

*Sigh* Rail increase again...

Well it is no surprise that the Rail fare is projected to rise again next year by 4%.

It isn't a bad amount really, it could be a lot worse but it could also be better and save the already strapped British public some money.

So what does it mean for me?

Well, I'm on £21k p.a and I've been given a 1% pay rise for next year (woot!) totalling £210s P.a.

So I will be earning a mind boggling extra £175 per month bringing my wages to £1925 per month before tax, pensions and National insurance. Luckily the Liberal Democrats got one of their key manifesto pledges through parliament and my income tax will be effectively halved after April as I won't be paying anything on the first £10,000 I earn - Thanks Nick!!!

So... That will be an extra hundred free - maybe...

So say my take home is about £1450. Lets take off Mortgage of £450, Council Tax £110, Electricity £100s, Gas £15, Food costs, £80, my half of Nursery bill, Mobile is about £40 £200 brings me to £555s.

My current Railway bill  £352.60 (add 4% to this...) comes to £366.68 which effectively leaves me with £210s a month to live on or £50s a week next year.

That is excluding buying lunch for work, going on a day out with the family. A trip to London Aquarium costs £50 entry as Sam and I are £22 each and £13s for Sophie as a child (unless using vouchers etc). That is a week's flash money gone.

A meal for four at La Tusca is easily £40s, a trip to Westgate beach cost us that...
There are a lot of provisos in that set of equations. Nursery bills are bound to go up as are utilities and even food prices despite shopping in Aldi.

As Blackadder once said: I feel like a pelican. Everywhere I turn there is a large bill in front of me.

I wouldn't mind but my service has not really improved, it hasn't got any worse though. My train is still as it has always been. The staff the same faces at Gillingham station doing the same job. The speakers on the fast trains still broken and filling my ears with a tinny Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

for an hour each way. Still not enough seating at rush hour that leaves me sat in door ways or wedged into a corner. Finding a the toilets are locked, filthy or missing toilet paper. The same little darlings who clearly haven't paid for a ticket getting away scot free and me being woken rudely by a shove by a ticket inspector at 5am outside Dartford and having TICKET Please! barked at me.

There is a poster at Waterloo East that says in recent years Southeastern have invested millions into the network. I find myself scratching my head and muttering Where???

Yeah Gillingham Station has been polished and looks nicer except the toilets are usually locked on Platform 1 and 2. All the others are fairly the same, Strood doesn't have a lift still and I have to haul the buggy up and down the subway, Chatham is still reliant on platform staff letting disabled and buggy pushing travellers out the side gates. Trains are still the same units that have traversed the line in recent years... I can't see it.

So if the service hasn't improved why am I paying more out of an ever decreasing Sams family pot?

Lets not get political - bugger the They started it with Privatisation! They brought in RPI+1 - I'm not interested in it. It distracts from the real issue and is a vile point scoring exercise.

Commuters and the hard pressed people of this country want answers before we are priced off the network all together.

Rail fares, Political football and inevitability

One of the top policy debates that will come up in 2015, as it did in 2010 is the constant rise in Rail fares. It is a burning issue here in the Medway towns and it was definitely one of the things that cost Paul Clarke (a junior transport minister) his seat. Local Conservatives, who protested at the Railway stations are now being supplanted by Labourites waving the same banners.

Although local MPs have fought hard to keep the rise in tickets to RPI+1 and limit the rise a rise has occurred.

The usual tired old arguments have come out again ->

You botched up Privatisation

You Brought in RPI+ system

You lot haven't kept your election pledges

You lot left us a deficit

Omnishambles

Opportunists

Labour are now criticising the RPI+1 rise that has been brought in by the Coalition (after the hard work of local MPs) even though it is the amount their party proposed in an Opposition day motion.

Railfare has rapidly become a game of Political football.

OK, I know that I am a Liberal Democrat (boo hiss!) but primarily I am a husband and a father, a man who tries to earn an honest wage and support my family and I am seeing my wages slowly pouring down a black hole and it seems to me, as a consumer and voter that whomever wins - I still lose out.

It appears that successive Government legislation means that not much can be done.

Or is it?

To be honest, the local Tory MPs have done well to limit the rise having fought George Osborne's budget announcement (of RPI+3) and have lobbied the Ministers of transport on our behalf. Personally, Labour's calls seem a tad opportunistic.

But, if I was to carry on being honest - I'm starting to lose faith in the whole damn thing and am starting to feel pretty much defeated by the whole thing, resigned to paying more and more until I eventually can't afford to travel on the trains.

Here are the price rises from 2004-12 (thanks to John Ward's blog for 2004-11!!!)



Visual representation



Year	Amount	Percentage
2004	2260	2.73%
2005	2328	3.01%
2006	2400	3.09%
2007	2496	4.00%
2008	2740	9.78%
2009	3020	10.22%
2010	3068	1.59%
2011	3324	8.34%
2012	3672	10.47%

I don't know who to put my faith in on this come the next election and I'm sure that most commuters feel the same way. Although the Conservatives have a better track record on this since coming into power they also have not fixed the problem, merely steemed the bleeding.

The fact of the matter is the prices keep rising and no one has any real solutions and it seems to be a constant rise under both parties.

There are a lot of Pie in the sky ideas like renationalising the network or cooperatively run franchises - all well and good but Southeastern still have the franchise and the Government are still setting the permission to raise prices.

So where does that leave us?

To be frank - I've almost given up and I'm walking out of the stands of this game, I tire of watching it and am resigned to paying more until the day I have to resign because I can't afford to travel.

It is issues like this and the petty squabbling and point scoring that has left many people disenchanted with politics as nothing seems to change.

January Southeastern Fare rise

With the new year comes a fresh fare increase to Southeastern train's customers. Hard pressed commuters will be asked to fork out RPI +1 % on their tickets.

Indeed my ticket, a monthly season ticket from Gillingham to London not valid on the tube or HS1 will rise to something like £352s or roughly £4200 PA which is 20% of my £20.000 PA wage.

As a commuter and someone on a low to medium income with a mortgage and two children it is more money that I can ill afford and something I have consistently campaigned and written about on these very pages. I've also written to my MP, Rehman Chisthi who passed it to Theresa Villiers as well as Medway's other MPs Mark Reckless and Tracey Crouch.

RPI+1 is not a great outcome but it is an acceptable outcome. I've got a 2% breathing room which is better than a kick in the proverbials.

I'm not a Tory (no really!) but I know that the current incumbents fought hard over the last year to lower the fare increases that had been announced at the budget as RPI+3 to a more affordable RPI+1 and for that I give thanks.

Despite the other debacles that rocked the Department of Transport, such as the West Coast line franchise and blooper and with the state of the economy RPI+1 was the best we could hope for on the grand scale of things however much I, and many others on low to medium income prayed for a freeze or just an RPI rise!

RPI+1 was the position that the MPs in the Coalition (Both Conservative and Liberal Democrat) agreed upon and something that the Labour party put forward at an Opposition day motion and one that was very hotly debated and watched by commuters like myself with great interest!

Although I am confused as why the current PPC for Labour in Chatham and Aylesford whose press release stated:

Regular commuter and Parliamentary candidate Tristan Osborne has attacked the SouthEastern fare rise as a another Tory tax rise on low and middle income working people, and calls on Conservative MPs to stop the constant lip-service and call for the Department of Transport to sort out the fare and franchise mess

Even though it is by the amount that Labour wanted - I -

Y'know, bugger it, I'm not making any political point here, partially because I don't need to, words have failed me so I'm just going to skip on by.

What I am saying is, that RPI+1 was the best I guess we could have hoped for, not the best solution for people like myself but the best the Government and the companies were willing to offer and I would like to thank my representatives for fighting as hard as they did just to secure this little victory.

I echo Cllr Osborne's call for the Franchise to be sorted out, many suffering commuters will agree with me that Southeastern are far from perfect and that there are certainly big gaping holes in their customer service and state of their trains. stations and facilities which do not offer value for money and I would like to encourage local representatives of ALL parties to work together in our interest and try and sort this mess out.

I agree that the railways could end up becoming a rich man's transport and this is something that needs to be reversed before those on low incomes who commute to the capital find themselves forced to give up work because they simply cannot afford the price of transport.

Southeastern epic fail today.

I was going to continue writing about Medway Tunnel or share with you all the latest letter from Nick to the membership but instead, after a really nightmarish journey into work, I thought I'd share with you a letter I am writing to Southeastern delay/repay scheme and an illumination of the chaos that I witnessed on a modern railway system....

---

Dear Delay and repay team,

I am writing to you on the off chance that my journey today may be applicable but I am not holding out much hope.

The original fault was indeed my own. I had failed to notice the thin green line on the Engineering works posters that ran through the Medway towns and thus didn't realise there were buses until 8.45.

Still, I came up with the following journey that would get me to work on time:

7.55 Bus from Gillingham station arriving at Rochester at 8.13
8.21 Train from Rochester to Strood arriving at 8.26
8.31 Highspeed train to Saint Pancras arriving at 9.05
Then jump on the Northern Line and within half an hour I'm at the Imperial War Museum, ready for work at 9.35 - a whole 15 minutes early!

I bit the bullet, accepted it was my original cockup and bought the HS1 return to add to my Season ticket (see attached sheet) and headed off. It all went to plan at first but at Rochester it went hilariously wrong.

At 8.16 a train arrived on Platform 4 and terminated - resting in the station.
At 8.19 we were told our train was at Higham and only 5 minutes away.
At 8.26 a train pulls in at Platform 3 and we were advised this was our train. So we all boarded and the platform staff, who were genuinely fantastic, told us that they would telephone ahead to Strood to advise them to hold the HS1 for us, it was all very doable!

8.29 the Train on platform 4 leaves for Slade Green depot.
8.30 We're all ordered off the train on Platform 3 as it is also going to Slade green depot and that our connection was outside Rochester awaiting a platform because these two trains had been sat there doing nothing.
8.35 The train arrives on platform 4 and we watch the other train leave platform 3.

8.38 ish we leave Rochester and the train is running around 17-19 minutes late. There is no Highspeed train at Strood.

So now I'm stuck on the stopping service to Charing Cross. It isn't all bad as, if it is running on time it will arrive at 9.41 and I can get to work a by 9.53 - however we're running 20 minutes late.

When I get to Gravesend I checked the National Rail enquiries progress report (as there had been no announcements) and the train's progress will be sped up by skipping Eltham, Blackheath and Lewisham and getting to Waterloo by about 9.44.

I was then very interested that we stopped in Eltham, and Blackheath... Then came the funniest thing. At Lewisham we're told (although we're running late) that an "All stations" train on platform 1 was going to be in front of us so our journey was further slowed down.

On top of that there was no heating and it was freezing!

I finally arrived at Waterloo at 9.48 and work at 10:02.

I should have arrived in London at 9.05 and arrived at 9.48 most annoyed.

Does this count towards a delay/repay case as the 20 minute delay at Rochester and general confusion cost me the HS connection at the £3.30 I paid for HS1?

All the best,

Chris Sams

The Three charges against Helen Grant MP

A week after the charges levelled at Helen Grant over her expenses the dust has settled and the minister is still in post.

The big question is should she?

After all on top of the expenses there is a charge of ignoring constituents and their complaints and also fiddling an employees contract AFTER he signed it which I thought was highly illegal in employment law.

First, looking at her expenses it should be stated that what she is doing doesn't break the rules. However it is bad form.

Call me old fashioned but an elected representative should be elected from among the people to represent the people. There are of course grey areas like a candidate living in Rochester and standing for Chatham - the two areas are so close and if the individual has interests in the constituency then that is alright. However living in Reigate, which isn't even in the same county, is pretty far removed, especially when claiming a second flat in Vauxhall.

I had the distinct privilege to grow up just off the Weald, attend a school in Maidstone and to list the Weald as one of my favourite places in the World. If you don't want to live there you need to ask yourself if you're representing the right constituency. There are conflicting reports that say her mother lives in Sutton Valance and that Helen maintains a residence in Marden but no one has seen her in my home village and believe me - it's not that big!

It is one thing to turn up for events and surgeries but only ever weekend there and another to live and have serious ties there. In fact the MPs current operations have left constituents fear full that when her constituency office in Maidstone is sold off they will have to commute to London to see her. This has been denied according to the Cranbrook press but watch this space. Should this happen it would be a ridiculous state of affairs.

Say what you like about Anne Widdecombe but she always had the interests of Maidstone at her heart, maintained a residence and was a common sight around the countryside.

The next charge is failing to listen to her constituents. About three months ago I was talking to a couple of campaigners who are trying to stop rail fare rises but their MP - Helen Grant - had cut off all correspondences with them. Her political aide had this to say in an email response:

  It is clear from the Twitter networking site that your unwarranted and unpleasant activities have been ongoing since that email was sent.  We attach a sample for your ease of reference.  Mrs Grant, like any other individual, is under no obligation to engage with rude and abusive people whether it be in the course of her work or in her private life.

We would now ask that you desist from sending any further emails or other forms of communication to Mrs Grant or to her staff.  We consider your persistent unpleasant email approaches and twitter posts are a form of harassment and we reserve our right to take legal action to prevent ongoing activities if you do not cease.  We hope this will not be necessary.

I unfortunately do not have a copy of the emails sent to Mrs Grant but I do have a copy of the offencive tweets which had been sent in this email to the two campaigners. The tweets were not offencive in any shape way or form. They questioned her competence as an MP and indeed demonstrate the same level of frustration that we commuters feel about the system but none of them were abusive.

A while ago I wrote about the symptomatic social change of customer relations with staff etc. Unfortunately Mrs Grant has to come to terms with the fact that this is no longer the 1930's and that people can be demanding and a little bit rude some times especially when they are frustrated by the system that continues to milk them dry of their hard earned money and the MP elected to represent them seems to be a.) not doing anything to sort the problem and b.) claiming rail expenses so they don't have to pay for their transportation.

This of course does not stack well when other local MPs are not claiming expenses in this manner and are also regularly updating their twitter feeds, websites and press releases to show what they are doing to sort out the issue whether successful or not.

Also, like it or not, Twitter is a forum for freedom of speech and the statement of opinions that were made by the two activists were in fact that. Whether you like someone's opinion of you or not it is irrelevant to the over all situation. They are your constituents and come wind or shine you should be representing them. In responses you can stay aloof and rise above it.

I know as a solicitor and lawyer she will be accustomed to dealing with people who have more respect for her position but as an MP you need to earn that respect in today's political climate and frankly I think her publicised actions and expenses have not aided that. 

Finally, the accusation that the MP changed her political assistant's contract after it was signed. It was amended so that the usual 6 months paid sick leave was reduced to two weeks to -Save the taxpayer money. A somewhat hilarious notion considering the expenses claims...

As far as I'm aware, and my employment law is somewhat fuzzy since I left the PCS a couple of years ago, but your Terms and Conditions (of which Sick pay is a definite T&C) cannot be altered without negotiation with the contract holder. So what the heck happened?

There are some serious problems in the house of Grant that need addressing either by herself or by David Cameron as her party leader. This 2010 watershed was meant to bring us MPs who were different, who wanted change and to make the system better - not continue in the same vein.

Although Maidstone and Weald is a somewhat safe seat I really do hope that if this sort of disregard for her constituents continues, in 2015 there is a swing away to another candidate whether another Conservative or another party.

The White elephant of Highspeed rail travel?

With the proposition of the new HUB airport still grabbing all the media attention and every political sinew within the Medway towns it is time to look at one of the best alternatives - HS2.

One of the major problems with airport capacity is the amount of short range internal flights such as Eastleigh ( ok, Southampton airport) to say Newcastle turning a five and a half hour train journey into an hour and twenty minute flight with check in and check out- you don't even need to drag your luggage up and down escalators or across London on the Tube!

There's also the cost with a single train fare on that journey costing £170.50 for a single against the cheapest non-stop Flybe flight of £77 one way!

Just for a comparison, if you wanted to go from Paris to Berlin, a journey of 651miles (as opposed to the 343miles of Southampton to Newcastle) costs £169s (€211) and takes eight hours twenty minutes including a change at Mannheim or Frankfurt am main depending on your route.

So obviously those of us with access to an airport are more likely to fly quickly and cheaply rather than battle with the UK's ageing rail network...

Hang on, hold the phone... What about HIgh Speed travel?

Well, that's something different. Like in the case of our European neighbours it is more than possible. The construction of new lines such as the HS1 Ebbsfleet to St Pancras, from that terminal to a HUB in Birmingham where it could springboard out or even do it from London to Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester and even Edinburgh and drastically reduce journey time.

Imagine a five hour journey from London to Edinburgh. You wouldn't lose a whole day travelling at each end of your holiday.

Yes, countryside will be spoilt by the construction. I remember the campaigns to oppose the Eurostar route through Boxley valley. However the damage isn't that bad (though I'm sure some residents would not agree!) and it is only a thin sliver of land compared to the massive swathe of destruction a new airport, especially in the estuary, would cause. We also know that Rail is a greener form of transport than aircraft.

The big problem will be cost to the commuter. Commuters in Kent were given the RPI+3 formula to help pay for HS1 service by the last Labour government and hence our fares are cripplingly high. Most of us don't even use the bloody thing. Yes it is quick if you want to get into London or want to get a connection for Kings Cross but it if you work in South or central London the time you save you then spend on the tube getting to work at the added expense of the tube and for an HS ticket.

For HS services, indeed for rail in general, operators need to keep prices affordable otherwise they'll turn an exciting, green infrastructural improvement into a great big white elephant.

Rail prices to rise but only at RPI+1

Finally.

My monthly season ticket

As many of my regular readers or followers on Twitter will know I'm a commuter. I travel to London most days from Gillingham. Unlike some commuters I don't earn a large amount of money, in fact I've had to move around in my job and get a position with more pay just to stay ahead of the increases. Unfortunately I have reached the end of the promotion chain for the moment and with the Museum industry facing cuts I can only look forward to a 1% pay rise this year. This would mean that I would definitely need to find a new job next year as if fares had gone up by RPI+3 in 2013 I'd be losing money going to work!

So you can imagine I am ecstatic that I get to keep my job for the moment.

Personally this is something that transcends party politics for me. Personally I don't care who does it, how they do it or who voted what - just so long as my fares stay affordable and to be honest the majority of commuters feel the same.

None of the parties are blameless in this struggle. Yeah the Tories ballsed up privatisation almost two decades ago which has lead to some disastrous franchises like Connex but Labour imposed RPI+3 on the Kent commuter to pay for HS1, a service most of us can't afford to use. Then Labour relaxed it for the election year in 2010 to +1. George Osborne then tried to raise it to RPI+3 and again the parties began to squabble.

Daala at Tssos Beacon

As I read political blogs from both sides playing football with this, PMQs and indeed even Maria Eagle's opening comments and answers within the Opposition day motion to cap fairs at RPI+1 I think back to my favourite book as a teenager. In Darksaber Admiral Daala gathers all of the embattled Imperial warlords and demand they reach a solution to the power struggle and redirect their powers against the Republic. After three hours of squabbling she loses her temper and gasses the lot and takes over herself. Like Warlords Harrsk and Teradoc the lead politicians and politicos seem to have lost sight of the reason this is a debate in the first place and are to busy trying to score political points over each other.

I should point out that I am not suggesting that we gas Parliament!

When I first read the Opposition day motion on capping RPI+1 I thought this is a good motion, clearly something that needs to be debated. However as I read it I became more and more disillusioned by the whole affair as I read the transcript of the whole thing. It was slowly evolving into a stick to beat the Conservative Government with and to score points rather than for the voters - or so the language of the answers led me to believe. I have since written to Mark Reckless and Tracey Crouch about the motion and asked why they didn't vote for it and the response was that the whole thing was thoroughly opportunistic and that they had abstained. However Tracey did manage to get a meeting with the Secretary of state to be attended by other North Kent MPs. It is they who have secured the 1% rise in this meeting.

Here is what she said;

I am sure that I shall like my right hon. Friend better in his new role than in his last.

The shadow Secretary of State was kind enough to quote accurately comments that I made to my local newspaper reflecting my constituents’ concern about rail fare increases. I said that I would continue to make representations on the matter. Rather than succumbing to the political opportunism displayed by the Opposition, who imposed RPI plus 3% uniquely on south-eastern commuters, will my right hon. Friend meet me, and fellow Kent Members, to engage in a substantive conversation about rail fares and services for our constituents?

However I'm sure many commuters, like myself, will just be jubilant that someone was listening and that someone has done something to keep the fairs affordable for at least another year, so I guess yet again I find myself saying - Thanks Tracey et-al.

I also want to just briefly talk about Nationalisation of railways. There is alot of talk recently of going back to the good ol' days of National rail and all I can say is - are you crazy?

Don't get me wrong I loved BR trains as a kid, I love slam door trains, the uniforms, the colours , the fact you could travel as a kid from Gillingham to Marden for £1!!!! (Seriously - it costs £5.75 for an adult now a days)

Can you remember the horrendous crashes in the late 80's early 90's? Cannon street? The danger of the old rolling stock? Can you imagine the bumbling government ineptness that has made a pig's ear of most of the NHS still controlling our railways? Whose to say that RPI+3 would not have gone on anyway? Would we be seeing a similar lack of investment in our railways that we had seen in the 80's and what we're seeing in other Government administrated departments?

Personally, and as much as I dislike Southeastern, I find myself saying maybe we should stick with the private companies. I travelled on Great Western a month ago and it was fantastic, plenty of staff, clean stations and trains, everything running well - they were a franchise i enjoyed travelling on. I can't imagine a Nationalised rail providing anywhere near the same level of service.

Energy bills rising out of control

Today's Metro (May 30th) ran an article painting a bleak picture for the people of Britain.

Projections point towards an increase in fuel poverty as prices are set to rise over the next six years.

According to Cheryl Latham's article one in three households will find that their energy bills will be unaffordable  by 2015 and consumer groups have reported bills doubling over the last eight years.

If they continue at the same rate then by 2015 they could be £1582 PA and by 2018 £2766 PA.

Already 6.5million people live in fuel poverty and it is becoming more and more common for families to start rationing power and gas usage or chose between food and warmth and it is estimated that 60% of these people do not have adequate heat.

According to Ann Robinson of uSwitch.com;
The UK is hurtling towards a cliff beyond which the price of household energy will become unaffordable. Time is running out- if pricing trends continue we will hit crunch point in less than three years.

There is also the added rise in price as large energy companies pass the price of making their organisation more green, which in my opinion should come from the share holders and profits.

This, however, is not the only rising price. The cost of living in general including Rail fare and even the basic prices of food are going up whilst wages stay level. Ultimately Capitalism is running off with itself and getting greedy.

Successive Governments have failed to regulate the private companies and now it really has reached that Crisis point. What can happen?

Companies cannot expect to keep rising prices when people can no longer pay. They need to compete and bring prices down and cut wages to Executives and share holders and be reasonable to their service users. What good is a service if it cannot be used?

Ultimately though these figures are merely projections and there may be no cause for alarm, but Companies like Southeastern trains and the Utility companies need to bear in mind that sooner or later their customers will be priced right out of the market.

Rail fare increases - Commuters lose out at PMQs

I was pleased that I was able to sit and watch PMQs at work last Wednesday, even more pleased as the lead topic brought up by Ed Miliband was rail fare rises.

Regular readers will no that I, as a suffering commuter am opposed to such hefty rises and I fear a time when the poor hard working commuter will be priced off the networks altogether. I honestly think that cross party cooperation is needed for this and hoped to see some serious debate happen and some head way.

My hopes were soon dashed... as I should have probably feared.

We entered a tit for tat round of who was to blame for the current rise in fares.

The Process of the rise was put in by the last Labour Government.


The rise was too hefty for commuters.


Autumn Statement cut the rise from RPI +3 to RPI +1.

We cut the rise - You reinstated it.

You only did it for one year - election year.

No we did it permanently.

No you didn't...

No answers were reached.

Right before I go on lets get the "Blame" out the way.

The Conservatives privatised the railways and made a bit of a hash of it.
Labour brought in RPI +3 formula with a variation of 5% on that so long as the average increase was a rise of 8% across the network and all the current Rail companies have that in their contracts with the Government and the Coalition is tied to this variance ruling.
Labour did bring in a change for 2010 and unfortunately for Ed Miliband a memo from Lord Adonis was found verifying that it was a one year kybosh as a sweetener for the electorate and unfortunately the Coalition had to abandon that.
The Coalition however has not done much to fight it. MPs have talked about it, the Autumn Statement has held it down to RPI+1 as a respite but the future has does not look as rosey as we might hope.

Two further points:

The Southeastern region has been on RPI+3 because we were paying towards the High Speed 1 rail route where as a lot of the rest of the nation kept RPI+1 and Sir Roger Gale MP mentioned in PMQs that his Constituents (Thanet) have paid up to 11% for a few years under Labour Government.

This battle of Political one-upmanship is never going to benefit the commuter. It is one of the very easy vote winners, lowering taxes and cutting prices will always catch someones attention as will casting blame and bringing up unfortunate truths from another party's past but ultimately it solves nothing - Prices will continue to rise.

I'm not even going to say that voting Liberal Democrat will change that, yes we want change and fairness but I can't promise you that we won't do the same thing because all parties are caught in the simple truth that David Cameron brought up on Wednesday;
It either has to come from the Taxpayer or from the traveller.
I can hear hundreds of thousands saying- I don't travel by rail, why should my money go into helping all those people travel by train up London? Surely they get paid enough? Aren't some of them bankers?

 It is a fair question - one that there is not a fair answer to.

Ultimately if you use a service you should pay for it.

However these rises in Train fares are not only damaging for the Consumer, but also they could eventually be detrimental to the economy as low paid workers are forced off the railways and maybe out of a job because they simply cannot afford the travel.

This all boils down to responsible Capitalism, which I'll be writing about later in the week, and Government control of the pricing - I know not very Liberal but - so that any rise is affordable by the users. Other solutions are being bandied around and I know Labour have set up a task force for it but I sincerely believe that a Cross party group needs to get together and lay all this history at the door as this childish squabbling is not achieving anything.

Train Fares to rise.

First of the month? Time to pay the fare!

So a wave of Railway companies have announced the January rise for commuters with an average of 5.91% across Southeastern trains.

Well... It is better than 8% but only delays the inevitable.

5.91% comes to about an extra £18's a month. Not much but about £216's a year and my pay rise of 1% (if it comes at all) = £200 P.A.

Effectively I'm paying out an extra £15's this year so a manageable increase?
It is certainly something that I can absorb this year IF you were to take out increases in utilities (mainly electricity as my house has no central heating and we rely on electric spot heaters.), Nursery fees for our daughter and without worrying about spot repairs or necessary work on our ageing house.

I.e. we need fresh carpeting in the Bathroom, may need a new toilet soon as ours is 30 years old and the flush is dying, a new roof for the conservatory as the old one has massive holes in it, paying off the new washing machine.... It is endless.

Another concern is that fares will rise again next year by a similar amount and I read a story on the Telegraph website that said fares could rise by a total of 24% of their current price over the next four years so that would be a rise of £75's per month extra by 2015!

This sort of increase is unsustainable for people on the bottom rung such as myself. I read in the Evening Standard that Boris Johnson was proposing keeping certain fares low so that people who work in the support and service industries won't have to pay as much as others. This is fair as Security staff (me), cleaners, council workers, ambulance staff, catering staff etc... all on £10-25,000 P.A cannot afford to have ever increasing chunks taken from their wages and sooner or later they will have to abandon working in London and look for elsewhere to live or work. As anyone who has played Jenga will tell you - if you remove the supports and the bottom level of any structure IT will collapse.

It isn't just the Season ticket rise that is the problem. It is the casual day trippers who are getting hit by even higher prices as the network is limited to an average rise of prices. Some lines will pay more. I heard recently that Tunbridge Wells to London was projected as a higher increase than Medway to London. My wife bought an all day Travel card to London for the cost of £33's  where as a Return to Winchester was £34's a much longer journey. There is certainly disparity and it is forcing people off the relatively Green mass transit railway in favour of their cars. Soon Working and the squeezed middle won't be able to afford railways.

The Metro drew a Pie chart showing where the pounds were going with only 3% of every £1 going to profits:

48% to Network rail (the guys who maintain the lines and disrupt our weekends)
4% energy and fuel
11% leasing trains.
17% Staffing
17% train maintenance, administration and contractors.

Last year though Network Rail made profits of £438 Million's... yep £438 Million pounds... More than my family has made since it landed in these lands in the 13th Century and more than we will earn (short of Sophie being a genius!!!) before the 33rd Century.

A feeling of hopelessness has befallen me and many other commuters. We've got no one else to turn to.
We've written to the Train Companies to no avail.
We've written to our MPs - Tracey Crouch, Mark Reckless and Rehman Chishti have done all they can and with the new secretary of transport managed to convince the Chancellor to keep a cap on it (reducing RPI+3 to +1) but any further restrictions would require money out of the public purse and that is being pulled to support services and the NHS etc... slightly more worthy causes.

I've written to the Deputy Prime Minister but heard nothing and he is a busy man and could not do more than our MPs really.

We've campaigned in the press.

What more can we do?

Something must be done before the prices become stupidly high and we cannot afford to go to work!

To quote Edmund Blackadder; "I'm starting to feel like a Pelican. Everywhere I look there is a large bill in front of me."

Winter is coming...

As I watched the snow try to lay in Gillingham on Friday and the ice on the cars first thing Saturday morning I began to think, and worry, about the up coming winter and the possibility of really bad weather and my mind wandered to a past time when it was truly cold. I'd like to paint a picture of this winter for you.

The snow's had been of no real surprise, in fact they had been expected by some and preparations had been sparsely made by some groups to keep them and their employees warm as the weather turned from warm summer to the icy cold that was winter.

The Snow fell and the temperatures dropped.

Roads that had once been buzzing highways, vital for the transport of goods and food to the areas that needed it petered out into nothingness. The temperatures were so cold that petrol froze in its tanks and fuel lines.

Men froze out in the open and over night where they lay, to touch bare metal would cost you your hand and frostbite and exposure became a major strain on the health providers.

To keep aircraft in the air mechanics would be roused at 3 or 4am to begin heating the engines so that they would be available at first light. Special heaters were provided that would sit inside cowlings to keep the petrol from freezing. Vast armies of men worked all morning and through the day to keep the runways clear of snow and ice so that the planes could still leave and land.

Yet the trains still ran, aeroplanes still flew and vehicles still got through.

This was the German front in Russia 1941. The temperature reached as low as -20 C.

That is cold.

According to the Met office, the mean temperature of the British Winter in 2010-11 was 2.4 C and the country ground to a halt. Airports were closed, the motorways ground to a halt and the railways were out of action for long periods of time. Despite the coldest winter since the 1970's occurring the year before no one seemed ready for it or done any preparation.

Southeastern seemed to grind to a halt. No passenger information was available and commuters took pot luck as to whether they got home or not. My work was sending those of us who lived quite a distance home as soon as the railways looked like they were going to close up.

London terminus's differed in busyness depending on the day. Sometimes the stations were dead as people just hadn't even attempted to get into London, others trying to board a train was like trying to board a lifeboat on the Titanic, people pushed and shoved and wedged themselves onto any train that was even half going their way.

This year Southeastern have laid on special emergency kits in trains including foil blankets, glow sticks, torches in case of breakdown. They're also heating more rails and running more trains to keep the tracks warm. They've also promised to keep passengers better informed of any disruption.
This said, in the last few weeks there have been delays caused by "Adverse Weather conditions" which were wind, on one day and rain on another. Both of these weather conditions are both exceptionally common on this island and if rain and wind can cause such chaos then when the snows come I fear another network shutdown.

Medway Council has provided a leaflet in Council run buildings about "Keeping our roads safe this Winter." which provides a lot of helpful information and reassurance that within 24 hours of snow and ice the primary routes will be salted, A and B roads and major bus routes as well as danger spots.

Pavements will not be salted until the snow and ice is starting to lay. This however probably only applies to main routes and high streets as well. Still it is reassuring that the Council has plans and is there to help.

If you have any queries they suggest you should telephone 01634 333333 or go to
www.medway.gov.uk/saltingroads

The view from Gillingham Station February 2011

As for my winter preparations?

Having read a lot about the Wehrmacht in the snow I always try to keep a realistic idea of what is cold and what is chilly but I also am clinging to the motto of be prepared. My boots are by the door, a couple of spare uniforms are stored in my locker at work with some changes of clothes and I think I'm going to take my sleeping bag and stowing it just in case I get stuck at work. As the credit crunch bites I cannot afford a hotel for an indefinite period and I know work cannot afford to help cover the costs.

Winter is coming, the question is how prepared is everyone?