We have been contacted by a number of our members who are concerned their children’s return to school. We have engaged with the rail operator Southern (part of a bigger company called GTR) alongside various local stakeholders and we do not feel that enough action is being taken. This article highlights what’s wrong and what needs to change.
Southern continues to show scant regard for the Tonbridge to Redhill line and their latest misstep is completely tone deaf to the COVID-19 pandemic we find ourselves in.
Before the pandemic a half hourly service used to run in the morning and evening peak periods, covering both journeys to school in the morning and journeys home from school in the afternoon. The timetable during the COVID-19 lockdown reduced this to an hourly service only, and the new timetable from 7 September is not much better. It is based on the Saturday timetable, with a later start than there should be on weekdays, and remains essentially hourly except it that it attempts to crowbar in an extra school service (possibly terminating at Tonbridge at around 08:15, but to be confirmed).
There are many excellent schools in the Tonbridge area that attract many pupils who rely on this train line. The service is so poor that kids will be forced to mingle with other kids all on the same train. Some kids will be at school nearly an hour early and others will likely be late most days – even if the timetable runs to plan! This feels like it’s creating an unnecessary level of risk during a pandemic which requires us all to maintain social distancing.
There are a number of elements that could help resolve this, most of which are within Southern’s control. We think the following needs to happen:
- Staff – Southern claims there aren’t enough qualified staff/crew for the level of service this line needs and the pandemic has stopped staff training for ‘route knowledge’. This is a poor excuse. The reality is they’ve run this line into the ground and now have failed to address this problem over many years. They ‘buy in’ staff from Southeastern to fill their gaps. Now the price is a sub optimal service that will force kids to mingle far more than they need to. This point becomes even more critical given that we may be a driver short as a result of the recent derailment of a Southern train in the sidings at Tonbridge. Get staff numbers up to a decent level and train them up (using an appropriate amount of PPE). The alternative is putting children at greater risk of infection whilst your staff twiddle their thumbs.
- Service – Southern need to stop this truncated Saturday service and reinstate a proper weekday service using three sets of carriages (currently they’ve only got two on the line – reducing the frequency and stretching reliability). This would allow more trains to allow pupils to stagger their arrival in Tonbridge and would help them comply with Government guidance (not to be at school any earlier than necessary). This would also allow an earlier train that would benefit key workers commuting to Tonbridge and Paddock Wood.
- Carriage length – another example of our line being short changed is the fact that these trains are now three carriages long compared to the usual four (overall this makes six carriages short of a full timetable). Southern are choosing to prioritise another line over this line – quelle surprise! We wonder whether the other service is as busy as we expect our trains to be (commuter services are very quiet lately). If not, Southern is failing to allow pupils the chance to socially distance while relatively empty trains run elsewhere. Parents are anxious enough about schools returning – why add to their burden?
- School starting times – we have seen leniency and understanding from schools around the challenges of this line and we’re grateful but we think there is a pragmatic case for working together and staggering start times to work around the train times. We’re not aware of any school changing their starting times to help their pupils out in this regard.
Southern, the ball’s in your court. Let’s stop playing around with a minute here and a minute there, let’s restore the half hourly peak service and get kids to school safely.