Thursday 21 March 2013

Station clean-up efforts drag on

As many train commuters know, time can pass very slowly. A minute in real time and a minute in railway time can be worlds apart - especially when you are waiting for the train that the indicator says is only a couple of minutes away. 

A similar phenomena seems to have afflicted matters at our local station of late, or perhaps it's just some kind of weird rupture in the space-time continuum or whatever they say on Star Trek. Whatever the cause, time just seems to pass, deadlines come and go, and days turn into weeks and months...

You've heard all about the Deptford station saga, I'll wager - either you've read it here, or on Crosswhatfields, or you've heard people moaning about it on Twitter perhaps.

If it feels like we've been moaning about it for months, that because we have! Not just bloggers, but also a small group of local residents who have been wrangling with South Eastern's 'feedback' system for months, trying to get meaningful responses and promises of action with little success.

Lewisham Council, which paid some of the cost of building the new station, shrugged off its responsibilities to Network Rail, which in turn passed it on to South Eastern Railways, where the buck finally stopped. 

But despite endless complaints from the very people who use the station, it wasn't until we nagged the local press to get involved that any progress was made.


The week after this front page story in the South London Press, Southeastern Railways was suddenly and rapidly galvanised into action. Within days Deptford had three hours of cleaning time allocated every week day - a staff member on loan from Greenwich station twice a day - and there was a commitment for a proper deep clean of the station, to remove some of the ingrained dirt that has built up since the opening, and enable the regular cleaning to have more impact.

An initial commitment to have the deep clean done by the end of February slipped to a 'definite' date of 18th March, which has now slipped to a date of next Monday 25th.

No explanations or apologies have been offered for this lack of action, and we understand that the only reason we can be fairly certain the deep clean will happen next week, is that MP Joan Ruddock (who claimed a lot of the credit for getting the station refurb done in the first place) will be present for the official opening of the station.

Nice to see that Southeastern is pulling out all the stops for our local MP, who I'll bet rarely has cause to take a train from here. Be assured, your local train operator would not make such an effort on behalf of the fare-payers who endure these conditions day after day.

*Update: there is a meeting on Tuesday 24th March in Greenwich about a potential Greenwich-line rail users group. See 853 blog for more info http://853blog.com/2013/03/23/will-the-greenwich-line-get-a-rail-users-group-find-out/

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Speaking of the new station -- has anyone every thought to try and rally support for a mini-entrance at the east end of the platform (Deptford Church St)? All of us living on that side have to walk the entirety of the very long platform, which is accessed only from the far west end. Access time is greatly increased unnecessarily. Many stations have unmanned exits -- Greenwich, for example, where one can exit to the north side (Tarves Way/Straightsmouth).
Who's with me?

Anonymous said...

Speaking of the new station -- has anyone every thought to try and rally support for a mini-entrance at the east end of the platform (Deptford Church St)? All of us living on that side have to walk the entire length of the very long platform on the streets below in order to access the entrance at the far west end of the platforms. Access time is greatly increased unnecessarily. Many stations have unmanned exits -- Greenwich, for example, where one can exit to the north side (Tarves Way/Straightsmouth).
Who's with me?

Peter said...

Dame

I thought you'd appreciate reading this response from the rail company about the state of Deptford station when I complained recently...

Southeastern Customer Relations, PO Box 63428, London, SE1P 5FD
 
Thank you for your recent email.
 
I'm sorry to hear that you're unhappy with the condition of Deptford station. I realise how disappointing this must be.
 
This is very disappointing to us also; as we do want to make sure that the station environment is a pleasant experience for our passengers who are waiting for their train services.
 
We do try to ensure that our stations are cleaned and maintained regularly. The station management and their staff should therefore make regular inspections of all public areas, throughout the day. If any problems are discovered, then our staff should try to rectify these as quickly as possible.
 
You’ve mentioned that you’d like specific information in relation to the cleaning contract of the station. This is something that we will be unable to provide you. Please note that between 2003 and 2006, Southeastern trains were controlled by the Strategic Rail Authority (which is part of the Department for Transport) and was accordingly subject to the Freedom of Information Act. However, following the grant of the Independent Kent Franchise to the Go Ahead Group in 2006, Southeastern reverted to private company status, and was no longer subject to the Act.
 
I can however confirm that the appropriate actions are being taken to improve the cleanliness of the station. Just to list a few of them:
 
A three day deep clean of the station happened week commencing 25 March, however we did not get the result we hoped for from this, so another deep clean has been arranged.
 
Staff members will be attending every morning and afternoon to clean the station and have been given a clear remit of what is expected. This will also include cleaning of the glass.
 
Bins will be introduced to the station within the next few weeks
 
Replacement flooring has been arranged
 
Therefore I hope that you’ll soon see a significant change in the environment of the station. Thank you for your patience while we resolve this matter and thank you for taking the time to bring your concerns to our attention.
 
Yours sincerely
 
 
Emma Griffin
Customer Relations Officer
Southeastern
 
 
Please do not reply to this email, as we will not receive your response. If you’d like to email us another question or comment please use our email contact webform:
 
http://www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/about-us/contact-us/
 

Deptford Dame said...

Thanks Peter, that's very interesting. I knew a lot of that but hadn't heard about this replacement flooring. Sounds expensive!