GTR’s answers to Arlesey/Biggleswade RUG questions

Recently, representatives from the Arlesey and Biggleswade rail user groups attended a meeting that we had called to discuss the poor service provided by GTR. The meeting was chaired by Richard Fuller MP, and the Passenger Services Director and other members of GTR’s staff were present. Below are the questions that we put to them. The answers from GTR which were provided after the meeting are in bold italics.

When the ticket office is closed and there is only one ticket machine working, what leniency is being given to those passengers who may not have a ticket? Customers are required to have a valid ticket on all our services and where there are working ticket machines you will need to purchase a ticket before you board your train. Tickets are also available to purchase before you leave your home via our website or app. If you cannot buy a ticket then, as stated in the National Rail Conditions of Travel, ‘You must, as soon as you are able, buy an appropriate ticket for your journey’.
There are no replacement bus services for Arlesey, Biggleswade and Sandy on 3^rd December? There is no alternative public transport at Arlesey, Biggleswade or Sandy. Aslef has called industrial action on 3^rd December which means that no train service will be running that day. We are unable to provide replacement bus services for every station and route during industrial action.
It always seems that either the 08.00 or the 08.30 gets cancelled and it’s a constant worry about return trains being cancelled as I pick up my children from an afterschool club. I’m going to other stations just to make sure I have more train options to and from London if one gets cancelled. I’ve had to end up travelling to Stevenage and then paying an extortionate amount to relieve our childminder. Since the start of September, the 08:00 has been cancelled 3 times and the 08:30 has been cancelled 5 times. However, we know that any cancellation is disruptive for customers and are sorry to hear of your experiences. We continue to work hard to reduce cancellations to deliver the punctual and reliable services passengers expect.
For some reason over the past 2 months at least, there has always been a problem on a Thursday for trains after 6pm meaning it’s hard being able to get home after work (and at least once, impossible) Why is this? We are sorry that you have had difficulties travelling home on a Thursday evening in recent weeks. We have checked the performance data of the 6 trains that run from St Pancras to Biggleswade between 6-9pm during the last two weeks and they have been 14 cancellations during that period due to infrastructure and driver availability issues. The worst affected train being the 19.16. We are discussing the infrastructure issues with Network Rail to see how this can be improved and implemented a resilience plan at our Peterborough Depot to reduce the number of cancellations due to driver availability. We aim to see an improvement on a Thursday evening early in the New Year.
It seems that the Cambridge line always gets priority in terms of cancellations – we have an inferior service anyway. Why can’t our line be prioritised to keep the service it has? We do not prioritise the Cambridge line over the Peterborough line, including during disruption. However, it is not always possible to divert or add in trains at short notice to replace cancelled trains during disruption, and some drivers will not be qualified to drive some routes and so would not be able to switch routes during disruption.
There are numerous occasions when people are being left stranded – often late at night. How will GTR build better resilience to the service and offer alternative means of travel such as taxis? We are sorry to hear that passengers are facing difficult journeys when disruption happens. By its very nature disruption is a last-minute event that our rail control centre and station staff need to respond to as best they can with information that can quickly change (eg how long a repair might take or to remove vulnerable people from the train lines). We try to get passengers home as quickly and safely as possible during disruption which, depending on the situation, can mean asking passengers to get to the station that is nearest to their destination and taking alternative travel options to complete their journey.
Not sure if my issue will be covered here but – the complicated ticket rules are very confusing. I work in Canary Wharf and sometimes get the underground from Farringdon and sometimes from London Bridge (depending on issues with tube lines). I buy a return ticket to London Bridge as this is the furthest station but I am not able to get through the barriers at Farringdon as ‘I’m not allowed to break the journey’. The cost is the same to get to/from both stations from Biggleswade, the train is the same so I don’t understand why I can’t make a shorter journey on this ticket. Similarly, if Biggleswade to St Pancras train is cancelled, I am not able to travel on a Kings Cross train with a St Pancras ticket. Some tickets stipulate that the train ‘must stop at Finsbury Park’ or ‘must stop at City Thameslink’. Why? If I’m actually making a shorter journey than the one I’m paying for?? Assuming the ticket is an Anytime Day Single / Day Return Biggleswade to London Bridge, this is valid at Farringdon and London King’s Cross using the break in journey. The “via City Thameslink” or “Not valid on London Underground services” restriction is to indicate that it cannot be used on London Underground routings. The ticket is a “London Thameslink” ticket.
I got caught out (like the above) with this recently – St Pancras and City Thameslink come under “London Terminals” … but Farringdon, between the two, doesn’t. Nobody has been able to provide me a good reason why this is the case. London Terminals tickets are not valid for journeys to City Thameslink. Journeys using a London Terminals ticket from this area are valid to St Pancras and King’s Cross. If travelling to Farringdon or City Thameslink, you should use a London Thameslink ticket which, in addition to being valid for journeys to St Pancras or Kings Cross, is valid for journeys to Farringdon, City Thameslink, Blackfriars and London Bridge. Please see this site for more information on London Terminals and London Thameslink tickets: https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/travel-information/travelling-in-london/
The December timetable sees no changes for our line. If we aren’t going to get any additional services why can’t they move the 8:38 from BIW and the 19:18 from KGX to earlier times to try and relieve some of the overcrowding? We can look at changing individual train times where a particular time may better serve passengers. However, the new times would need to work within the already very congested East Coast Main Line and any changes would naturally disadvantage some customers for whom the existing times work.
Why does the 07.19 on a Sunday hardly ever run? I’m working the next 3 Sundays and at the moment the 07.19 from Biggleswade is only running one Sunday out of 3. I’ve experienced no 07.19 train on a Sunday for the last 5 years I have lived here. I understand the East Coast works are responsible for most of it but every Sunday, no train running before 8am is rubbish. I have to be in London/work by 08.45 am. Makes like stressful for key workers who work weekend shifts. We are sorry for the difficulties that the engineering works are having on your journey into work on Sunday morning. Network Rail try to maximise the amount of time they have when the line is closed and fewer passengers are travelling to make essential repairs and infrastructure. We are sorry that this work is impacting on your journeys.
Pre covid there used to be a train around 8.08 from Biggleswade to Kings Cross that alleviated the morning rush hour demand. With more people returning to the office and the 8.00 being standing room only from Hitchin, is there any talk of this service returning? We do continually review passenger loading and are aware that trains from Biggleswade to London can be very busy in the peak periods. However, we are reaching the limits of capacity on the East Coast Main Line and the number of trains that can operate on it. We are currently tendering to expand the fleet, with units to arrive from next Summer. Some of those are planned to be used on our Peterborough to King’s Cross peak time services, providing more space on trains for customers.
We joined the Thameslink network in May 2018, at what point will they employ enough drivers to run the full service? The service reliability particularly around holiday times and on Saturdays has been abysmal, public transport is of no use to anyone unless it’s run reliably, and two successive cancellations or more on the Peterborough route happen all too often. We work to a ratio of around 2.2 drivers to every driver job (or a diagram) which is a similar ratio to the rest of the rail industry. Over the last few weeks we have had a spike in short term sickness at the Peterborough depot, which has meant that more drivers have been unavailable than normal recently. It has also coincided with the October half term when we have had more drivers on leave. We have a plan to improve the depot resilience and are training more drivers on the two routes driven by Peterborough depots which will provide more cover during times of low driver availability.
Their policy of cancelling stops on trains that are running 15 or more minutes late at very short notice needs to stop, it’s having a detrimental impact on making local journeys and on making connections to LNER services at Stevenage and Peterborough. During disruption, our control centre aims to get back to the published timetable as quickly as possible so that late running trains don’t affect other trains running on the same line. When a train is running over 15 minutes late that time is not recoverable during a journey or when a train turns around at its destination for a return journey. The control centre will therefore sometimes opt to run it fast to its destination to minimise the impact of the late running train on the wider network and passengers as a whole.
Peak Kings Cross trains need to be restored to 12 coaches and returned to class 387 operation, 700s are not adequate for these services. If not enough 387s, then lease some of the 30 x class 379s currently in store doing nothing. The usual Thameslink service for Arlesey, Sandy and Biggleswade is a 12 car service, but the Great Northern service that stops at Biggleswade and Arlesey and Sandy during disruption is an 8 car. However, we are currently tendering to expand the fleet, with units to arrive from next Summer. Some of those are planned to be used on our Peterborough to King’s Cross peak time services, providing more space on trains for customers.
Why are Peterborough line passengers being left high and dry with no alternative bus transport during periods of severe service disruption, such as Thurs 19 October? Unfortunately, the ongoing national shortage of bus drivers continues to impact our ability to deliver rail replacement bus services both during planned engineering work and during disruption. Whenever a service is disrupted, we speak to a number of bus suppliers to try and arrange alternative bus transport but sometimes this is not always possible.
My question is: considering the dreadful service experienced since extending the line through the Thames-link route, will they consider a review of the current service benchmarking against the previous service that ran to Kings Cross. If not, why? If they will do so, and the data demonstrates the line was more reliable when operating the KC route, would they consider reinstating it? The DfT made a major investment in rebuilding the Thameslink core stations to allow trains to run through London to provide better connectivity through the capital. There would be significant capacity constraints in reverting all trains from Biggleswade to terminate at King’s Cross and it would make journeys beyond King’s Cross less convenient through losing the onward connections which services through the core provide.
Despite repeated promises that opaque language and comms would be squashed – we still get “operational incident” as the blanket description. Can they just communicate to us in a respectful way that adequately describes why things have gone wrong? It will be annoying, sure, but at least we will know what’s going on. Operational incident is an issue that affects the running of the service but where the root cause is potentially unknown, or it would be inappropriate to speculate until the investigation is complete. For example, a train may have stopped short or released an inappropriate number of doors. This could be an issue with the driver, an issue with the signalling or an issue with the train. It can also be a very technical incident which realistically is difficult to capture within the character limits of customer information systems.
It’s very disappointing that the opening of the transport hub has been delayed. Has GTR met up with the bus companies to coordinate their services? We have, through the Council, been provided with the provisional timetable for the buses calling at the transport hub. We are currently looking at the timetable to see how our service and the bus companies’ timetables co-ordinate when the Hub opens.
I would like to understand what their commitments are to getting people home safely when they start cancelling all evening trains? They no longer seem to accept their responsibility for providing alternative transport home. With the cost of the service + the rising costs of living, who can afford taxis or, worse, hotels for the night Plus the impact on our families.. I’m a single parent, and I can’t risk not getting home for my child. Even though my head is caught up at work.. checking the trains from 2pm onwards has become something of a routine just to make sure I can make it back on time. Delay repay might cover the cost of your ticket, but the impact reaches much further than that.. financially, physically (on every member of your family) and emotionally too! We always do everything we can to get our customers home during any period of unplanned disruption; this can be particularly challenging at busy times when alternative routes or rail replacement buses are limited. The commitment is we provide alternative provision such as a taxi or a hotel if customers are at risk of being stranded overnight.
(Arlesey) When a train is reduced from 12 carriages (which is an issue in itself) they don’t seem to have the facility to make announcements at Arlesey? It’s always a last-minute scramble down the platform & overcrowded last carriage. Why can they not announce this? I am sorry that the customer has not heard any announcements when a service is reduced to 8 carriages. When the number of carriages changes from its published format we have a message that displays on the customer information screens that informs passengers of the change. This information is also conveyed during the normal speaker announcements and on the train information displays. Unfortunately, as the information is inter-linked and pre-programmed we cannot make additional announcements without staff being available on the station to make those announcements.
(Arlesey) Can we get a more frequent service rather than 2 trains per hour.? There have been significant housing developments within the area meaning more people are using the station. Our train planning team reviews capacity on all our routes on a regular basis and uses that data to make changes to the timetable whenever possible within the current budget and resource constraints. Adding stops to the fast service would impact other trains using the East Coast Mainline and given the significant congestion on the line needs to be done in consultation with other train companies.
(Arlesey) Can we get more carriages as those of us that commute every day into London have to stand up in a cramped carriage 4 days out of 5 for the full journey? Please see the answer to question 14.
(Arlesey) We have been promised for years that more drivers would be hired/trained on this route. Can GTR explain why we still see services cancelled regularly with the excuse “lack of drivers”? Exclude strike days but include school holiday periods because surely we should expect a rail service to function inclusive of school holidays. Please see the answer to question 12.
(Arlesey) Another regular excuse for cancellations is signal failures. Can GTR provide specific reasons for failures, the location of the signals failing and the frequency of each failure? Plus, and importantly, what has been done to rectify the failure learn from the failure and ensure it won’t fail again? Can they share the amount of investment they are putting into the Peterborough and Cambridge lines and overhead cables to help combat the continued issues with weather/cable theft that cause damage and leave the trains unable to run properly? Can they also share what exactly they plan to do with the investment? Network Rail is responsible for the infrastructure on the line (signals, tracks and overhead lines). They have provided the following update on what they are doing to improve the infrastructure resilience. Drainage – we have worked to improve drainage on this route, helping to reduce incidents of disruption on the route between Peterborough and King’s Cross. For example, we have installed 255 metres of new drainage, which is phase 1 of a 600 metre scheme. Power distribution – We have completed an investment of £500,000 in upgrading our power distribution systems between King’s Cross and Peterborough. Overhead line equipment – We have been working to upgrade overhead line equipment between King’s Cross and Peterborough and have completed 25% of this work. This includes rewiring and renewing components to help reduce disruption and minimise the chance of incidents. We have spent over £22 million on OLE upgrades in this area in the last three years. We are upgrading the signalling system on the route to replace lineside signalling with track signalling that links to driver cabs as part of our East Coast Digital Programme.
(Arlesey) Can they please stop treating Arlesey like a request stop? When the train is late they frequently decide not to stop there!! please see the above answer to question 13.
(Arlesey) Looking at the timetables which include crowding metrics why are they not better balancing time with crowding? For example, the 7:35, 8:05 and 8:35 Arlesey trains are red and very red by Arlesey and Hitchin but the fast service only gets to amber at Stevenage having missed Arlesey and Hitchin. What are they going to do to better balance loads which they clearly have some capacity for? Our train planning team reviews capacity on all our routes on a regular basis and uses that data to make changes to the timetable whenever possible within the current budget and resource constraints. Adding stops to the fast service would impact other trains using the East Coast Mainline and therefore needs to be done in consultation with other train companies. This is part of a wider East Coast Mainline timetable review which is being discussed by the rail industry with a decision made in the new year.
When planning for capacity at stations have they refreshed the model post-pandemic? Arlesey has a high proportion of frontline workers who don’t WFH. Our train planning team review capacity on all our routes on a regular basis and use that data to make changes to the timetable whenever possible within the current budget and resource constraints
Can they provide more detail on what they are required to do for passenger safety and how they are meeting those requirements regarding late train cancellations? There was an incident where a disabled passenger was essentially abandoned at Arlesey late at night. The incident referred to is currently part of a complaint that is being investigated.