18.36 from LB reduced to four carriages today - no particular reason other than to stop people like me getting on until the 18.51. Maybe Southern are involved in some huge psychological experiment to develop the next phase in mass torture, though I doubt they have a train system in Guantanamo Bay. The lucky swines!

Received this today also. A bit more info than the other one, and at least they've used my surname... I don't know if it's heartening or not. It does seem that 'consultation' has taken four years so far.


Dear Mr Lloyd

Thank you for your email.

Please be assured your comments on crowded trains, particularly at peak
times, are not lost on me.

I can understand your frustration. We would ideally like to be able to
provide a seat for all our passengers. However, as you have
experienced, many services have people standing on them every day. Whilst we are
running more services now than ever before and have all available
carriages in operation during peak times, the increase in demand over recent
years has grown such that it has exceeded these improvements. We
regularly monitor the number of people on each train and we do make changes
to the service where we can, although we are limited to the amount of
stock we currently have.

Having said that, there is currently a South London Route Utilisation
Strategy being considered by the Department for Transport which aims to
address the problem of crowded trains and to review the whole of the
South London Metro timetable.

These proposals were formulated by the former Strategic Rail Authority
(SRA) in connection with a review they undertook of the whole of the
Southern network in the early part of 2004. The document published by
their successors, the Department for Transport (DfT), aims to address the
huge increase in the number of people travelling on Southern routes and
to provide a new timetable that is suitable for today’s commuters,
rather than the current timetable which has essentially evolved over
years to be the best it can be without starting again.

I am currently unable to go into detail regarding the South London
Metro lines. However, I would refer you to the South London Route
Utilisation Strategy. The consultation did close on 26 October and we expect its
findings to be made known any time now.

You are recommended to follow the progress on this RUS on the Website
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/browseDirec...2895&root=

I hope that what I have said has been of some use

Regards

David Cotterell
Southern Customer Services

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