Service improved? 7

London Midland have a page on their website titled Improving our services where they describe the steps they are taking to address a number of problem areas.

This is the seventh in a series of blog postings which covers an aspect of the service that London Midland say they are working on.

Better Stations

London Midland say they are "investing over £11 million in making our stations better, safer and easier to use. We are working with our partners to deliver a further £9.5 million worth of improvements at over 40 smaller stations across our network" (I'm unsure what the difference is between "stations" and "smaller stations"!)

Under this heading London Midland claim to have a programme to improve the signage at 147 stations and have 51 stations accredited under the national secure stations scheme. 

Some of the items that might be considered to fall under "better stations" have been covered under different headings (e.g. information and ticket offices), but there's a lot missing here.  What about toilets, shelters, or steps/lifts?  Where's the commitment to improve car parking or disabled access across their network?  How about putting staff back onto the platforms?

Putting aside what's said on the London Midland website, what has London Midland achieved in practice over the last year or so?  I can only write about Bletchley and Euston, but here goes...

At Bletchley the parking is significantly better than it was 3-4 years ago (it's also cheaper following last year's price reductions!)   VDU information screens (covered under Service improvements? 4) are miles better than they were.  Unfortunately, nothing else has changed.

The toilets at Bletchley (or at least the gents!) haven't been refurbished for as long as I can remember.  That said, they are OK but they are open only when the station is manned.  There are platform shelters only for southbound, 4 & 5.  They have heaters but frequently stink of cigarette smoke.  The shelter at the north end has no VDU information boards within line of sight.

Compared with other stations (e.g. Leighton Buzzard), Bletchley seems to be well kitted out with lifts and generally OK for disabled access.  On the latter though, London Midland let themselves down a bit with the doors into and out of the main station building.  For as long as I can remember, the staff have been bolting one half of the double doors (presumably to stop draughts).  This is a pain when there's a queue of people going through, and must be very difficult for anyone using a wheelchair or walking with crutches.

The biggest complaint about Bletchley has to be the absence of station staff on the platforms.  At 7am on a wet/dark morning when there's a problem with the southbound services from platforms 4 & 5, the nearest member of staff is far away, over a bridge and in the main station building. 

Is Bletchley a secure station?  I wouldn't like to find myself waiting for a train around midnight, alone on the platform (with the station unmanned by mid-evening) apart from a bunch of youths who have had a few alcopops too many...

So what about Euston?  Well it has facilities and staff by abundance.  The automatic gates for platforms 8-11 are a pain (see Platform planning) and are still a problem after the recent remodelling, but there can be no complaints about signage, access, or shelter.  Access to the toilets has to be paid for, but the facilities are good.

Until a couple of weeks ago I'd have complained here about the year on year increase in shops on the concourse (crowding people going to, from and waiting for trains into a smaller area), but having recently travelled through Kings Cross I know there's at least one other London terminus which is a lot worse.

So what's the overall rating?  Do I think that there's real evidence of London Midland improving their stations?  I started this by saying that I could only talk about Bletchley and Euston and for those two stations I think I have to say that yes, things have got better.  There's a lot of work still to do, but things have improved.

What do you think?  Has your station been changed for the better since London Midland took over the franchise?

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