Photo credit:
akanekal Station re-zoning petition hits Downing Street
A petition to get Kingston and Surbiton stations moved into zone five received 529 signatures through MP Edward Davey's website.
Mr. Davey has also written to London Mayor Boris Johnson twice since he took up the post asking him to honour his pre-election promise to take action, but no meetings have yet been arranged.
During the London Mayoral campaign, Boris Johnson told local newspapers - the Kingston Informer and the Surrey Comet - that he would support the campaign to win cheaper rail fares for local people, by having Kingston and Surbiton stations moved from zone 6 to zone 5.
Read more:
Surrey Comet 
Comments
Is this their final decision? I don’t think moving it to zone 5 is the greatest idea. Although there is facts of freeing up the later trains. But we also have to think about the passengers. They have to change the bus as well. This is really not good for them.
Taking into account the movement of Surbiton to Zone 5 - which i have to say i support - would it not therefore make sense to group claygate, esher and hinchley wood into Zone 6. They are tachnicaly greater london, and appear on the zonal map yet are not zoned - (esher misses a zone it by a few hundred yards)?
Does anyone think that'd make any kind of difference - it might stop so many people travelling into Surbiton to all pile on the train, the 20mins they spend on a bus could mean them getting a later train into Waterloo, freeing up space on the earlier trains
I don't think that Esher etc are technically in greater London - they are in Elmbridge, Surrey.
I do agree that they should be moved into zone 6, though. Before the parking controls came in on Claremont Road it was amazing how many people from Esher and Thames Ditton would drive into Surbiton, park up and get the train from there. I always thought it was senseless - a 10-15 minute drive, the stress of parking etc all to save a few pounds. A lot of people obviously felt it was worth it.
Moving Surbiton to zone 5 and leaving Esher etc outside of the zones altogether would probably start this problem all over again.
I think the distance to the London terminal which is important, not whether it's a London Borough or not. After all, the council tax doesn't pay for London transport. Stoneleigh (zone 5) is in the Surrey Borough of Epsom & Ewell, for instance.
Yes, that line gets off very lightly, doesn't it. Stoneleigh must be much further out from Waterloo than Surbiton, yet it is in zone 5. Worcester Park cannot be much closer to Waterloo and it is in zone 4!
Well we're all talking about it and Boris hasn't promised a meeting yet despite his pre-election promises. I bet that if even just the six of us who post a message also wrote to Boris, he'd finally take action.
Pen to paper. Ten or twenty minutes of your time to reduce your annual train fares. Probably well worth the effort.
Someone could even post a template letter here to get the ball rolling a bit faster.
Maybe the fact that Surbiton has a much better service than any other station of it's size has something to do with it? I'd rather pay a bit more and get a 'turn up and go' service, than have to look up timetables to see when the next train will come.
Anyone who moves to Surbiton knows what the deal is and what zone it's in. But people continue to move here because of the number and speed (direct trains to Waterloo in the morning) of the trains.
You would rather pay more???????
We are already paying a fortune for a substandard service.
As already mentioned, single fares have gone up by a third int he last year.
It looks more like "they are getting one of the best routes into London, so let's hammer their fares." mentality from SW Trains.
If we are to encourage public transport usage over car driving, fare control and regulation is paramount. SW trains are more worried about their shareholders rather than the public. Boris will do f..k all, probably because his mates are on the board of SWT.
Calm down Ionkontrol. Boris doesn't have the power to change it. You argue that more people should be encouraged to use the trains, but there is little room in the trains at the moment and it would be difficult to increase the numbers of trains travelling to Waterloo. The Eurostar lines are probably not the answer either, train lines in this area are very complicated and it would be much more likely that any spare capacity would benefit trains on their way to Reading. There are just too many people living in too little space and until this is realised, nothing will improve.
Perhaps, but Kingston is also in zone 6 (unfairly), and has a really bad train service for a town of it's size.
Surbiton has an excellent train service, but it is becoming increasingly overcrowded. Exiles from expensive London areas like Wimbledon and Clapham keep moving to Surbiton because of the fast train service and the fact it is not as dull as areas like Woking and Sutton. At the same time, the number of fast services into Waterloo has halved since the 1970s (when it really was a 'turn up and go' service)
I am very much in favour of moving Surbiton to Zone 5 (even though it may attract even more commuters), but the priority must be to get another 3-4 fast trains per hour running through the station by utilising the ex-Eurostar platforms.
Why can't they just be in both zones? Plenty of tube stations straddle 2 zones, so it can be done. Plus it means no increase for those who travel further out of London.
That would be a great idea (talking as someone who regularly travels both ways!) I doubt they would entertain it, though, as it would mean a bigger reduction in overall fares than moving it to zone 5.
Even though a move from zone 6 to 5 would actually slightly disadvantage me (I travel out more than in), I think it is the only fair thing to do.
A lot of people choose to live in Surbiton purely because of the ease of the commute. The price rises of upto 35% on single/return tickets last year was disgraceful and this will be replicated for season tickets next year.
The research done by Ed Davey is important - Surbiton is closer than a lot of zone 5 stations to it's London terminal, and therefore there can be no reasonable argument to leave it in zone 6.
People have not argued with Surbiton's zone 6 status in the past because it has not affected ticket prices for those who commute daily. Now that zonal pricing is being brought in, it is time to act.
Post new comment