NEWS ARCHIVE 2008

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Timetable changes!

In December 2007 there were radical changes in the timetable for the Arun Valley line for all but a few peak hour services.

The changes effected those passengers travelling from south of Horsham with faster services from Barnham and Chichester but slower journeys from stations between Ford and Christ’s Hospital. Bognor Regis journey times were unchanged but there was the benefit of a second through service to London from that station. The reason for the changed journey times is that splitting and joining the Portsmouth/Southampton and Bognor Regis portions has been moved from Barnham to Horsham with the Portsmouth/Southampton portion now running non-stop between Barnham and Horsham.

From Horsham travelling northwards there has been little or no effect on journey times.

Why did this happen?

Southern wanted to speed up the journey time from Chichester in a bid to attract more passengers onto the line and to persuade those passengers from the Chichester area who were using SWT services from Havant to travel by Southern trains. Also, Southern were required to replace services between Brighton and Basingstoke/Reading then being operated by SWT and as a result, one of our off-peak trains is now running through to Southampton with the other t erminating at Portsmouth.

December 2008 proposed changes

Southern has now taken over the franchise for the Gatwick Express and there will be consequential changes on the Brighton Main Line in December. So far as our services are concerned, Southern has proposed the introduction of a clock face ½ hourly peak time service from Victoria from December 2008. If this is agreed by Network Rail and the Department for Transport Arun Valley trains will leave Victoria and 02 and 32 minutes past each peak hour. We will keep you in touch with developments on this in our next Newsletter.

Bidders for the South Central franchise

On Wednesday 20 August, the DfT annonced the four bidders for the South Central franchise when the current operator's franchise ceases in September 2009. The bidders are Govia (Southern) who have run our trains since 2002, Stagecoach, who have run South West Trains since the start of privatisation in 1997, National Express, who handed over the Gatwick Express franchise to Southern in July and who operate the services on the East Coast Main line as well as much of East Anglia, and finally Ned Rail (part of the Dutch National Rail Company) who have an interest in the small franchise of Merseyrail.

We already have regular meetings with Southern and we expect to meet the other three bidders to tell them our requirements for the new franchise and to assess whether they are likely to be able and willing to deliver these. We will approach these discussions with an open mind although we do have some doubts about Stagecoach who made little effort to continue the services they operated between Basingstoke and Brighton once DfT told them they need no longer run these trains. Also they have been less than receptive to complaints from passengers on the Waterloo to Portsmouth line when the comfortable 444 units with 2+2 seating were largely replaced with 450 units with 3+2 seating. We do not know much about Ned Rail other than the fact that Dutch railways run intensive services over short and long distances. So they ought to have the right experience but very little of this is UK based. National Express have a lot of UK experience, but having run Gatwick Express for several years, will they be trying to undo the Southern plans to integate some of the peak GEx services with the Brighton main line services? So there is much to find out from these bidders and we will keep you informed on our discussions.