This is the fourth in a series of blog postings which covers an aspect of the service that London Midland say they are working on.
More punctual
Under this heading London Midland say that their priorities are to run their trains on time, safely, reliably and consistently. The claim that they have "already made progress since the start of the year" and "aim to get back on target as soon as possible".
So what do we think?
It is ironic that this heading has come up in the week that has seen serious disruptions to the London Midland commuter services to and from Euston. The worst incident was on the evening of Thursday 23rd when a series of signal/points failures and then a bomb hoax at Watford Junction station caused some trains to run in excess of an hour late and (at one point in the evening) a complete suspension of the service. I think for the purposes of this piece it is probably better to look at a normal week.
The stats that London Midland produce do indicate an improvement in reliability (see ...and statistics). How has that improvement been achieved though? I'd suggest that it's by omitting one very important item from their list of priorities - journey time.
We live in a time when we are so obsessed with getting from one place to another as quickly as possible that we are prepared to spend billions on high-speed rail lines and yet we completely ignore the possibility of reducing journey times for a short-distance journeys.
On our line vast amounts were spent on the West Coast Mainline upgrade work a few years ago and millions have been spent on buying newer, faster trains yet I don't believe we have seen any reduction in journey times. If anything, the time to get from A to B with London Midland is now longer as trains seem to be making more stops and fewer commuter services have access to the fast line. Then there are the instances where trains can run faster but they end up spending longer at intermediate stops, slowing down or even stopping in order to keep to the timetable (see Timetable flab).
With the previous three subjects dealt with in this series I've summed up my view by the award of a tick, a cross or a question mark. With this one I have a real problem. The definition of punctual is "acting or arriving exactly at the time appointed" so strictly London Midland have achieved that. I believe that they have done so though only by a complete lack of ambition in their timetable.
What do you reckon? Do you feel that the service between your home station and London Euston is more reliable? Is London Midland meeting your expectations in this area? Are you getting to the office or back home consistently on time?
Following the same order as used by London Midland, the next one in this series will be Better information.
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