Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:25:53 -0800WeeblyWed, 16 Nov 2011 08:27:02 -0800http://www.mallingrailtravellers.com/1/post/2011/11/new-committee-members-invited.htmlIf anyone is interested in joining the committee then please contact info@mallingrailtravellers.com

Meeting will be held next week - Tues 22 Nov - 20.00 at SPITFIRE (Kings Hill). ]]>Mon, 06 Dec 2010 05:50:26 -0800http://www.mallingrailtravellers.com/1/post/2010/12/bbc-compensation.htmlThis interview makes great viewing for anyone who hasnt seen it!!!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-11915002

BQ is intrigued that Charles Horton and Vince Lucas appear to have vanished - did anyone see them being interviewed last week?

BQ has obtained compensation information from SE - here is ALL the information you would need in order to send in a claim - Good Luck as we deserve it BIG TIME!!!

Compensation policy is as follows.    Passengers holding Daily and Weekly tickets – claiming Passenger Charter   As per our Passenger Charter passengers wishing to claim for delayed journeys can submit their daily or weekly ticket and a note of their delayed journeys for Customer Services to process.   Monthly and longer ticket holders   Our Passenger Charter does not offer financial compensation for individual journeys that have been cancelled or delayed. Instead our Charter explains that we compensate monthly or longer ticket holders if we don’t meet our punctuality and performance targets set by the Department for Transport. This compensation is then provided as a discount of 5% or 10% when the customer renews their ticket.   However, passengers are welcome to contact our customer services team with a brief explanation of their experience - and their season ticket details – and we will consider each claim on a case by case basis.   Passengers who were delayed for several hours onboard trains unable to move on icy rails We had some trains (particularly on Tuesday 30 November evening and early hours of Wednesday 1 December morning) when people were delayed onboard stuck trains for several hours.  Names and address of passengers affected were taken by staff and we’re writing to them with a gesture of goodwill. If there are people who didn’t give their names and addresses, or who we missed, they’ should contact customer services with the details of the trains they caught and we will send them a gesture of goodwill.   People who’ve missed work, special events, taken taxis, etc, due to problems with the rail service This is something we call ‘consequential loss’: and it’s not possible for rail companies to compensate people for things they feel they’ve lost as a result of problems on the railway line (e.g. loss of earnings, theatre tickets, etc). Again, if people wish to contact our customer service team they’re welcome to - and we will look at each case individually.  There may be times when we consider that a small ‘gesture of goodwill’ may be appropriate.   Customer Services contact details Postal address is: PO Box 63428, London, SE1P 5FD Telephone number is 0845 000 2222 Contact details can also be found on the website and our online webform is the quickest way to ensure a timely response from us.   http://www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/about-us/contact-us/   I hope this is helpful   Public Affairs Manager]]>Fri, 03 Dec 2010 05:51:52 -0800http://www.mallingrailtravellers.com/1/post/2010/12/lets-not-blame-the-snow.htmlYES indeed - its been a complete nightmare this week.   Thanks to all of you who have put your journey experiences onto our website  (I will be sending this onto KCC and SOUTHEASTERN in due course).

For anyone who hasn't yet vented their anger yet please feel free to do click on the Your Journey Experience tab to the left of here and posting your journey nightmare.

Rather interestingly we were contacted by The Evening Standard asking for our tales of woe - so if anyone can spare the time please e-mail:   joshua.neicho@standard.co.uk   You may wish to also copy us in on anything you send over.   The MDRTA are collating all this information and continue to fight for improvements to this service (well it cannot get any worse in reality can it?).   Thanks for your support and lets hope this batch melts quickly so that we can all get back to normal before the next wave arrives!   BQ]]>Wed, 03 Nov 2010 04:46:39 -0800http://www.mallingrailtravellers.com/1/post/2010/11/fare-increases.htmlOnce again our esteemed chairman has made it into the PRESS!

Check out this link

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23893981-rail-fare-rise-will-force-commuters-into-cars.do



]]>Wed, 27 Oct 2010 09:28:48 -0800http://www.mallingrailtravellers.com/1/post/2010/10/what-really-happened-at-kent-rail-summit.htmlBQ and some of the committee attended.

The central issue throughout was the loss of our beloved City Services which was encouraging.

Sir john Stanley did us proud once more although the response to him by Southeastern was muted and effectively glossed over the Q.

Sir J is chasing up Teresa Villiers (and already has done twice with a letter and personal chats) as she had promised him the response once the cuts had been announced.
 
KCC declared that they are going to put together an action plan and will present this in April 2011.

We have since receive an e-mail stating that:

"KCC is now using all your views and comments to produce a Kent Rail Action Plan by mid-December. This will be shared widely until the end of March, with a view to agreeing it by the Third Kent Rail Summit next April and presenting it to Ministers at the Department for Transport.
 
Last week's Summit began to define Kent's major priorities for action. These included:
 
Reinstatement of the City service  to Maidstone and West Malling.  
Extending the high-speed service from Dover via Deal and Sandwich to Ramsgate.
Investigating with Network Rail the feasibility of extending high-speed services from Ebbsfleet to Maidstone West.
Improvements to the mainline service on the  North Kent line, while curtailing high-speed services east of Faversham.
Investigating the feasibility of introducing a through service between Gatwick and Kent after 2015.
Including Maidstone East as the principal Kent terminus for Thameslink services from 2016."

As you can see the top point concerns the maidstone and west malling issue so we have to try and continue to push it via the KCC and Sir John!

Over n out for now
BQ

The full Kent Rail Summit debate is now available on-line, together with the presentations from KCC and Southeastern. All are available by clicking the underlined words.

http://www.kent.ukcouncil.net/site/player/pl_compact.php?a=47246&t=0&m=wm&l=en_GB


]]>Fri, 17 Sep 2010 02:12:30 -0800http://www.mallingrailtravellers.com/1/post/2010/09/kent-rail-summit-21-october-2010.htmlThis is being held on 21 October at County Hall Maidstone and MDRTA will definately be standing up for Kent long suffering commuters!!!!!

The aim is to put forward the long-term improvements to rail services we want to see for Kent and is vital as we all know how the service has recently been butchered.

KCC have confirmed that "This will inform the investment and service plans of Southeastern, Network Rail and the Department for Transport as they prepare for the new Kent franchise in 2012/14.” 

See full KCC statement on LATEST NEWS page.

BQ is urging all fellow commuters to contact KCC
with any views and comments on services - pls send to nick.chard@kent.gov.uk
(feel free to copy in MDRTA with your e-mails)



 ]]>Fri, 10 Sep 2010 04:26:44 -0800http://www.mallingrailtravellers.com/1/post/2010/09/renewed-vigour1.htmlNow that we are all back from our joliies, the MDRTA reconvened this week to discuss the way forward.

We agreed to continue to try to get the City Trains reinstated BUT also to focus on new issued with our beleaguered service.

So if you are a commuter and have any suggestions for our action list then please let us know via the CONTACT PAGE!

If anyone would like to join the committe then please let us know as we have recently lost one member and the BQ likes to have a full and efficient team on her side.

Over n out for now

BQ]]>Tue, 18 May 2010 07:55:11 -0800http://www.mallingrailtravellers.com/1/post/2010/05/my-hs1-experience.htmlAnd lo it came to pass that BQ had to dip her toe into those HS1 trains.
Overall the train journey was very good, very fast yet very pricey!!!
The sting in the tail was the wretched tube journey from St Pancras to Monument which I would not normally have to suffer (usually arriving at LB or Cannon Street).
To compare time taken there wasnt much in it - I saved about 5 minutes on my journey door to door.
Car parking was a right royal rip off being £8 so not happy about that!
All in all the train bit was the most enjoyable albeit at a price of course - if I lived in Ebbsfleet I would almost consider it.
AND my final observation ONLY 12 people on our carriage......quelle surprise!!!]]>Thu, 06 May 2010 04:35:27 -0800http://www.mallingrailtravellers.com/1/post/2010/05/southeastern-stakeholder-forum-5-may-2010.htmlBQ and several committee members attended the Forum.  It was essentially attended by various User Groups from the area.

It was good to see that the Malling & district cause was the most discussed point during the Q&A session.
Nothing real new to report as inevitably the same responses were gives to the pointed Qs we made.

Important to note however that there is some scope for responding to the timetables etc. Southeastern are happy to consider any subtle changes to the times that could be deemed as an improvement for us poor commuters.

It was interesting to hear from people from Deal who are also very unhappy about the new timetable.

The highlight of the evening was the showing of how the new Blackfriars station would look.  It does look rather snazzy and interesting to note that it will accommodate travellers from both south and north of the river! (shame we only have a couple of trains going there

According to Southeastern the HS1 numbers are growing as expected with an additional 4,000 users rich enough to consider using it!

Overall the FORUM was well worth attending and I would encourage anyone to come along to the next one.

BQx]]>Mon, 12 Apr 2010 04:53:42 -0800http://www.mallingrailtravellers.com/1/post/2010/04/renewed-vigour.htmlA strong meeting was conducted on 8th April and was well attended by the committee.
Many new ideas were discussed and a variety of campaigns proposed.

The strategic approach to the FORUM Meeting on May 5th was deliberated and the committee will ponder upon the most useful Qs to ask - if anyone has any suggestion please send them to us through the CONTACT US page.

If anyone wants to attend this Southeastern FORUM meeting then kindly let us know.

To be honest BQ feels that it is a complete revelation to purely discuss the travelling stresses of the mere committee let alone a whole trainload of disgruntled passengers. 

The battle continues to improve what we currently have as it quick frankly aint good enough.

BQx



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