The Hi-Speed Drag
I was stood on Canterbury West’s London bound platform staring at my train that was a meager 40ft from the station, sat stationary!
In December, the bosses at SouthEastern trains developed a wonderful new timetable accross their network. Originally there was three trains an hour from Canterbury West to Charing Cross, formed of one express train and two stopping services. The newly revised table has axed the express service and a stopping service and replaced it with one Hi-Speed train!
My journey from Canterbury West to Waterloo East would range from 1:30 to 1:50 depending what train I caught, but now it’s just under two hours! I could opt to pay the £4.00 upgrade ontop of my normal extortionate train fare to use the hi-speed service and then be shot through the country side at spectacular speeds only to arrive at St. Pancras… the other side of London. I would then have to spend a further £2.80 (£4.00 without an Oyster Card) to get accross London to make my connection at London Waterloo. Basically I would have to spend an extra £13.60 every week, that’s half my fare! And here is the icing on the cake, my full journey on the normal service takes 2:43 and the journey via hi-speed – 2:43. The underground journey obliterates any time saved by the super fast speedy train as I would still end up catching exactly the same connection at London Waterloo!
I understand that Southeastern has to make their money back on these fast bullet style trains but it’s almost like being forced on one. It’s not just me that feels like this. Thousands of commuters from the south east have been screwed over by the introduction of these carbon monstrosoties. The official line from Southeastern Railways is a glorified, beaurocratic “Tough Shit”.
National Express anyone?
