The reason the Perry Vale exit is taking more than three months to refurbish is because the sub-contractors hired by Southern have not installed the barriers? This is beyond Southern's control and there's nothing they can do about other than point the finger of blame at someone else and wash their hands of the inconvenience to all commuters.
This has got me thinking...will we really get a better service once TFL take over the station and line?
At the moment, one service (trains to/from Forest Hill) is dependent on four independent companies
- Railtrack (responsible for tracks and signals)
- Train Leasing Company providing the carriages to Southern
- Meteor (company that provides temporary ticket inspectors/staff manning barriers)
- Southern (full time staff, train drivers, services)
When TFL take over we will have
- TFL (responsible for the station, service)
- Whatever Train Operating Company TFL has awarded the Overground contract to
- Leasing company providing new Overground rolling stock
- Company providing temporary staff/permanent staff
That's eight separate companies providing one service at a single station.
The temptation for one company to blame another is strong if something goes wrong or an unpopular change is pushed through or there is a change in business practice that might be beneficial to a company (but not to the commuter).
It's already happened. didn't Southern say that they were forced to install ticket barriers by TFL?
Maybe I'm being pessimistic, but I'm not expecting a vast improvement in services. More like a commuters caught in the middle with companies passing the buck. I'd like to be proven wrong.
ps. Has anyone noticed how Southern treats the Metro and the six Metro bins with more respect and care than us commuters? I'll save that for another posting....