Southern Railways are conducting surveys about what improvements passengers would like.
If you could spare 2 mins to tell them about how East Dulwich railway station could be better that would be fab:
http://www.southernrailway.com/survey
I’d prioritise betting rid of those 4 steps just before the ramp up to platform 2, more shelter space on platform 1, an indicator board at the entrance to platform 1 (so I know if I time to fetch a newspaper or snack), stairs directly at the start of the ramps so I can sprint to catch trains when time tight, and also asked about why the train can;t be flush with the platforms as they are for the Heathrow Express.
Do let Southern Railways know what your priorities are.
James,
Thanks for this.
I sent an email to Southern the other week. I have copied it below.
“Over the last 2 or 3 weeks trains from east dulwich around 9am
weekdays have been terribly disrupted. I have just waited 20 minutes
for the 0921 and the days this train is on time are few and far
between.
“Additionally for some reason you have stopped putting the number of
coaches on the information board. Coaches can vary from 2 to 8 coaches
at east dulwich and it is very useful to have this info. Why have you
removed it?
“I would be grateful to have your comments on both of these points.”
Their response was
“Thank you for your email on the 11th of November and apologies for the delay in response.
“I am sorry to hear that you have been experiencing delays. We appreciate that customers expect the services they pay for to be punctual, and although 90% of our trains arrive on time sometimes delays are unavoidable. I understand however that when there are consistent delays occuring on a particular service, then this is something that needs to be looked in to and rectified.
“For any delays of 30 minutes and over, we do offer a compensation scheme. You can download an application or complete an online form at http://www.southernrailway.com/your-journey/delay-repay/.
“With regards to the information about coaches, I am unsure as to why this information is no longer available on the boards. Hopefully this is a temporary measure, but I have made a note of your comments to pass on to the relevant department.
“We are continually looking for ways to improve our service and the performance of our trains is often under review. Therefore we very much appreciate your feedback, and I hope that it will g a long way in helping us to make improvements.”
Hardly helpful! Personally, the carriage information is the most importand thing to me. It’s good to be able to position yourself on the platform according to how many coaches there will be, and this is something it doesn’t cost a penny to do. I, and apparently they, have no idea why it stopped.
I agree with most of your comments, especially an indicator board at the bottom of the ramp to platform 1. Not sure how practical it would be to get rid of the steps or make the platforms flush, though.
Generally speaking, I’m quite happy with Southern’s service, actually.
Rick