E mail response from Gordon Henderson with regards to the Kent MP meeting with Southeasterns' CEO Charles Horton on the 8 December :
Thank you for your email regarding Southeastern.
I can tell you that last week 14 Kent MPs met with Charles Horton to grill him not only about the abysmal service provided during the recent cold weather, but also Southeastern’s overall operation, including the proposed increase in fares. Mr Horton has promised to provide us by this week with a full explanation of what led to the service failure and what action he intends taking to prevent a reoccurrence.
As a follow up to our meeting with Southeastern the Kent MPs will be trying to organise meetings with both Network Rail and the Transport minister, Theresa Villiers.
I fully support everything my colleague Roger Gale said and agree with him that Southeastern must be stripped of its franchise as soon as is contractually possible.
Best regards
Gordon
GORDON HENDERSON MP
Sittingbourne and Sheppey
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
Monday, December 13, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Met the Manager...
First can I say thank you for responding to my earlier post asking for your questions. I am afraid that I didn't get any direct answers - to anything.
Unfortunately I arrived late, which was not a good start. I managed to talk to 2 managers.
Mike Gibson - Public Affairs Manager
Effectively blamed the the Government for our huge fare rises as increased public funding has been fixed. Poor service on Network rail because they don't make adequate resources available allowing them to run a proper timetable. He did manage to put his hands up to communication failures, however even then that was mitigated with Network rails 'complicated' information interface.
Kevin Goodman - Head of Service Performance Delivery.
He put the failures down to the weather forecast. They were not told about the significant snow until it arrived on the Tuesday. He admitted that Crisis command wasn't convened until Wednesday - too late once they realised everything had gone to hell. The emergency timetable took 24 hours to put into operation as stock wasn't in the right place until Thursday.
So in summery. I asked questions and I got flannel and spin in response.
Southeastern has performed poorly in managing the recent weather disruptions from the boardroom down to stock control. There seems to be no incentive for them to put the customer 1st and their corporate responsibility is to maximise their margins whilst doing the bare minimum to keep within franchise contract.
I think we can see now that the privatisation of the railways is ultimately a failure and how quickly the cracks in the system are getting exposed.
It came clear quite quickly that the meet the manager event was nothing but a PR event and that the managers were there for our opinions and not to give out any information contrary to the company line. For that you can get it from Southeastern’s letter to MP Bob Neill.
I can recommend anyone to go to these events. A great opportunity to let them know how you feel. But don't expect any sensible answers.
Unfortunately I arrived late, which was not a good start. I managed to talk to 2 managers.
Mike Gibson - Public Affairs Manager
Effectively blamed the the Government for our huge fare rises as increased public funding has been fixed. Poor service on Network rail because they don't make adequate resources available allowing them to run a proper timetable. He did manage to put his hands up to communication failures, however even then that was mitigated with Network rails 'complicated' information interface.
Kevin Goodman - Head of Service Performance Delivery.
He put the failures down to the weather forecast. They were not told about the significant snow until it arrived on the Tuesday. He admitted that Crisis command wasn't convened until Wednesday - too late once they realised everything had gone to hell. The emergency timetable took 24 hours to put into operation as stock wasn't in the right place until Thursday.
So in summery. I asked questions and I got flannel and spin in response.
Southeastern has performed poorly in managing the recent weather disruptions from the boardroom down to stock control. There seems to be no incentive for them to put the customer 1st and their corporate responsibility is to maximise their margins whilst doing the bare minimum to keep within franchise contract.
I think we can see now that the privatisation of the railways is ultimately a failure and how quickly the cracks in the system are getting exposed.
It came clear quite quickly that the meet the manager event was nothing but a PR event and that the managers were there for our opinions and not to give out any information contrary to the company line. For that you can get it from Southeastern’s letter to MP Bob Neill.
I can recommend anyone to go to these events. A great opportunity to let them know how you feel. But don't expect any sensible answers.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
My Questions
I have contacted my local MP Gordon Henderson's office. He has confirmed that he will be attending the meeting with Charles Horton and other Kent MPs' on Wednesday. The comparison of his feedback to the answers I get from the Meet the Manager event on Thursday should be interesting.
Let Me Have Your Questions
In light of the recent disruptions caused by extreme weather, I am sure a lot of people will be wishing they could attend the event, but for whatever reason won't be able to make it.
I am going - I commute to ST Pancras Monday to Friday anyhow. You can leave me your questions below and I will attempt to get some answers back to you.
Please note this is not a rant space - there are plenty of other places for that. Rants will get deleted immediately, except if they are particularly well written and creative.
Please check that your question has not been asked already
T&C's
No gratuitous bad language
Keep it succinct with supporting data/information if you got it
Cheers.
@Metr0dude
I am going - I commute to ST Pancras Monday to Friday anyhow. You can leave me your questions below and I will attempt to get some answers back to you.
Please note this is not a rant space - there are plenty of other places for that. Rants will get deleted immediately, except if they are particularly well written and creative.
Please check that your question has not been asked already
T&C's
No gratuitous bad language
Keep it succinct with supporting data/information if you got it
Cheers.
@Metr0dude
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