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Victoria Road
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Chiltern Drive
Late Oysters for Surbiton
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Route79 SWT negotiations stall card acceptance.
South West Trains (SWT) passengers will be the last to be able to pay for their rail travel using their Oyster cards. Complex franchise negotiations between the Department for Transport (DfT), SWT, and Transport For London (TfL) mean it is unclear when a deal will be struck which sees passengers able to use their Oyster cards to pay for one-off journeys on SWT trains.
Oyster card readers are in use at many train stations in the capital, including SWT stations, but passengers can only use them currently if they have a season ticket loaded onto their Oyster card.
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Comments
Goodness me, have you never travelled on commuter trains elsewhere in London. SWT run one of the cleanest and most efficient services. Try London Midland from Euston into Hertfordshire or one of Great Western's local routes on their smaller trains. They are an absolute disgrace.
Absolute rubbish. I am fed-up with Southwest Trains and their appalling customer service. I am not alone in feeling this way. My partner was so disgusted that he complained to them in a letter a few weeks back. Their ticket agents are often surly, their train guards are bored and rude, their trains are rammed, they're usually dirty and often their toilets are out of service. All this, and now we have a massive increase in rail fares and the news that they're going to be cutting station staff AND that (unlike every other train company) we can't use our Oyster cards. What a joke. Our governments (from Thatcher through to Brown) tell us that privatisation is the answer to providing a better and more efficient service, saying that it offers competition and choice for consumers. What choice? We have no other option in Surbiton - we have to use Southworst trains. We can't opt for a competitor, nor can we boycott them if we want to get to work. They have us where they want us and we can't do ANYTHING about it. The rails should be re-nationalised. At least then we can vote the government out for incompetence and hope that a change will bring us better service.
[quote=Anonymous]Absolute rubbish. I am fed-up with Southwest Trains and their appalling customer service. I am not alone in feeling this way. My partner was so disgusted that he complained to them in a letter a few weeks back. Their ticket agents are often surly, their train guards are bored and rude, their trains are rammed, they're usually dirty and often their toilets are out of service. All this, and now we have a massive increase in rail fares and the news that they're going to be cutting station staff AND that (unlike every other train company) we can't use our Oyster cards. What a joke. Our governments (from Thatcher through to Brown) tell us that privatisation is the answer to providing a better and more efficient service, saying that it offers competition and choice for consumers. What choice? We have no other option in Surbiton - we have to use Southworst trains. We can't opt for a competitor, nor can we boycott them if we want to get to work. They have us where they want us and we can't do ANYTHING about it. The rails should be re-nationalised. At least then we can vote the government out for incompetence and hope that a change will bring us better service.[/quote]
Chill out will you. I find the staff at Surbiton station are very good and polite. Yes the fares are quite high, but at least in Surbiton we have a fantastic train service – very regular and new good quality trains. It’s actually quite rare that there is much of a delay that’s more than a few minutes.
If you use the trains daily, then you can always get and use a monthly travelcard on an Oyster – and that’s working right now.
[quote=Nobby]
Chill out will you. I find the staff at Surbiton station are very good and polite. Yes the fares are quite high, but at least in Surbiton we have a fantastic train service – very regular and new good quality trains. It’s actually quite rare that there is much of a delay that’s more than a few minutes.
If you use the trains daily, then you can always get and use a monthly travelcard on an Oyster – and that’s working right now.
[/quote]
I don't disagree with the trains running on time, nor do I have a problem with Surbiton staff themselves (I've had problems with Southwest Trains staff as a whole over a number of years). I think you miss my main points.
I agree with all of your comments, but I think the two key points here are:
1. SWT were quite happy to accept the zonal fare changes that came in at the start of 2008, increasing the cost of single and return journeys from stations like Surbiton by up to 35%. This zonal pricing was introduced mainly to allow journeys to be made by Oyster prepay holders.
2. The Oyster hardware has been in place at Surbiton for years, so it cannot require much investment in their part to start accepting prepay.
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