NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2009

The Newsletter can be found below or you can download it in PDF format.

WEST SUSSEX RAIL USERS ASSOCIATION
64, Brampton Court, Stockbridge Road, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8PD
Tel: 01243 788028
E-mail:

This Newsletter covers forthcoming fares changes, other news of Southern tickets, the December 2009 timetable, details about installation of ticket barriers at some of our stations and a bit about our website and our blog.

Changes to fares from Friday 2nd January 2010

Regulated fares which include Seasons and standard day tickets will be reduced slightly from 2nd January. Under the rules set by Government, any increase by the operator is limited to RPI+1%. As the RPI in September was –1.4%, fares will fall by the 0.4% “difference”. For this reason, members whose season tickets expire just before 2nd January may want to defer renewal until the 2nd or even the 5th to get the benefit of the reduction. Increases in non-regulated fares which include cheap day tickets and other off-peak tickets are not restricted in this way and operators are free to increase these by amounts they consider reasonable. We know that some operators are adding up to 10% to these fares, but Southern have told us that some fares will remain unchanged and where there are increases these will not exceed 4%. Southern will also continue to offer reductions on tickets purchased via their website including the current advance tickets from coast stations to Victoria. If you know when you want to go and can pick both outward and return times (neither of which can be in the peak hours) it will still be possible to get to Victoria and back for £6 (and £4 with a railcard).

Southern on-line fares offer

A few weeks ago Southern started offering off-peak tickets at half-price if booked on-line and subject to availability. The offer was for travel up to the 15 December. The last date for bookings has now been extended to 24 December and for travel up to 3 months beyond that date. Availability of cheap fares to Croydon and London is restricted to trains arriving Victoria after 10.53 and not returning on trains departing Victoria between 16.00 and 19.00, but elsewhere in the network the only restriction is that travel has to be after 09.30. There are no time restrictions at weekends. The tickets are valid only on Southern trains, so you cannot use FCC (Thameslink) or the two FGW trains along the Coastway. It also means that these cheap tickets cannot be bought for Sunday travel to Southampton as no Southern trains go these on Sundays. If you have on-line facilities, it will pay you to register with Southern as they will send you details of offers, some of which are not advertised at stations. If I get to hear of offers, I will post them on the blog mentioned below.

New timetable from 13 December 2009

The new timetable shows only very minor changes of a minute or two in departure times of a couple of early morning trains from Portsmouth and Brighton. There are no other changes and none that affect other services on the Arun Valley and West Coastway lines. The new pocket timetables, now called Train Times, are available at manned stations. Train Times 3 covers the West Coastway and services to London via Hove and Arun Valley services via Horsham, Train Times 4 covers Horsham and Arun Valley services to London, Train Times 2 covers the Brighton Main Line, services between London, Gatwick, Three Bridges and Horsham as well as the Gatwick Express. These timetables can be downloaded from the Southern Website. For timetable gurus, the complete GB timetable is being published again and is available from WH Smith for £15. Alternatively, the 2,631 page document can be downloaded free from the Network Rail website here.

New ticket gates

Southern’s new franchise requires the installation of ticket gates at many more stations and the first three of these in our area will be Crawley, Bognor Regis and Angmering. These gates will be installed early in the New Year. At Bognor the gates will be adjacent to the bookstall, at Crawley and Angmering there will be gates on both platforms with some associated fencing work on the down platforms to provide the space need for the gates. As with existing gates, the new ones will generally be manned all day including weekends and will be left open when unmanned.

Website and WSRUA blog

We are grateful to Kevin Gordon for maintaining our website www.wsrua.org.uk which contains a wealth of information about the Association as well as recent newsletters. This newsletter will be added to the site within a few days. Thanks to Kevin there is also a WSRUA blog at wsrua.blogspot.com for members to give views, comments, moans, praise and anything else you feel is relevant to the Association and fellow members. Please use it, I don’t want to be the only contributor!

Membership

A few members have not renewed their membership for 2009. If you are one of these, a renewal form is enclosed with this newsletter and you should renew before Christmas if you want to remain a member. Renewal requests for 2010 will be sent in March or April to those members who do not have a standing order.

May I close by wishing all our members and our friends in Southern a very happy Christmas and a peaceful and delay-free New Year.

Trevor Tupper
Membership Secretary