All day HS service to DEAL (January 2015 Draft Timetable)

The draft Southeastern HS 2015 timetable has been released. This will finally give DEAL and Sandwich an all day high speed service and will also bring HS services to Walmer for the first time.

High Speed to DEAL via Ashford (approx 1 hour 22 mins)

High Speed to DEAL via Faversham (approx 2 hours 6 mins)

Peak mainline services (DEAL to Charing Cross & Cannon Street)

UPDATE: All-day HS for DEAL & Sandwich

Verbal update from Mr Gasche (KCC Principal Transport Planner – Rail)

The next phase of the highspeed franchise is the award of the Direct Award contract for the period covering December 2014 to June 2018. Existing DEAL & Sandwich highspeed peak-time services will be included in the contract and are guaranteed until June 2018. Highspeed peak services will largely stay as they are in terms of pattern and frequency, but some will call additionally at Martin Mill and Walmer.

There will be a new high-speed off-peak loop service which will operate in both directions every hour. This service will replace the off-peak mainline service to Charing Cross, but passengers at Martin Mill, Walmer, DEAL and Sandwich wishing to travel to Charing Cross can do so by changing at Ashford. Subject to the Department for Transport’s agreement, passengers from these stations will be able to travel off-peak on the highspeed service via Faversham at mainline fares.

The off-peak mainline service to and from Dover Priory will reduce from two to one train per hour.

The practice of attaching and detaching trains at Ashford will stop. Passengers travelling off-peak at the weekend from Sandwich or DEAL will pay mainline fares if they travel to and from London via the north Kent line. The premium fare applies to highspeed services operating between Ashford and St Pancras. 

The new highspeed timetable is likely to be publicly available from May or June 2014.

Isn't it time we had democracy for DEAL

Why is the district called Dover? 

Why is the constituency called Dover? 

Why should DEAL hospital be sacrificed for a new Dover hospital? 

Why does the district council throw its full resources behind a cinema for Dover yet appears lacklustre regarding the Regent Cinema?

I could go on indefinitely but I am sure you get the idea. Of course Dover used to be a primary urban area in East Kent but while its population has flatlined over the past 80 years, the population of DEAL has increased exponentially.

Ideally DEAL Town Council would have evolved into an entity ensuring the democratic needs of not only DEAL but also Walmer, Kingsdown and Ringwould were championed. However scandal and concealment has made it almost as detached from the community as the district council itself.

So what has all this got to do with trains I hear you ask. Well I have long held the belief that DEAL which I perceive includes Walmer, Kingsdown, Ringwould and the villages has always been treated with contempt by the district council but presumed it was 'just me'... But when I read this following extract in the latest edition of Kent Business which has a feature about DEAL I realised I might not be alone.

 

Kent Business (February 2014) 

DEAL has progressed significantly over the last few years but isn't it time we had democracy?

Southeastern proposal for all day HS services for DEAL

On the 17th December 2013 Trains4Deal reported that the latest Sountheastern stakeholder newsletter proposed that the December 2014 timetable (extended to start January 2015) should include an off peak all day and weekend high-speed (HS) service for DEAL, Sandwich, Walmer and Martin Mill.

Fantastic News *air punch*! Unfortunately my own personal jubilation was short lived when I read the full proposal the following day:

"We have received much demand from passengers, Kent County Council, Trains 4 Deal and Dover District Council for a continuation of the HS service from Deal and Sandwich, and if possible extending this to an all day service.

We are therefore proposing an all-day circular service connecting Ramsgate and Dover Priory. This will mean the HS services will begin to additionally serve Martin Mill and Walmer for the first time.

This service will replace the existing lightly-used off-peak mainline service."

My experience of using mainline services from DEAL have never given me the impression they are 'lightly-used', a considerable amount of people including school children rely on the existing mainline service. The London Bridge rebuild has also been shoe horned in as an excuse to stop mainline services. However I suspect the real reason is that Southeastern are not confident that the Kent Coast Line and its signalling which has had very little investment from Network Rail for years is up to the task of running an increased number of trains per hour.

I have long supported the idea of a HS loop service but had always assumed it would use the more logical Canterbury West, Sandwich, DEAL, Dover route.

But after a lot of mulling over, I have come to the conclusion this is a proposal that does benefit DEAL and can work in our advantage. Feedback on this draft proposal is required by 7th February 2014 and I would urge you to do so, whatever your opinion or alternative ideas are. The full proposal and contact details are here.

I am going to finish this post with my own pros and cons:

PROS

All day and weekend HS services for DEAL.
DEAL would be served entirely by a modern 395 class HS rolling stock.
Off peak passengers via Faversham would pay standard class only.
DEAL would have better access to job opportunities in North Kent/Thames Gateway.

CONS

Passengers would need to change at Ashford (for Charing Cross) or Rochester (for Victoria).
An HS loop via Canterbury would be more desirable.
Stopping at Walmer and Martin Mill will increase journey times.
Overall DEAL would have 10 fewer trains per day.

DEAL to London St Pancras in 81 minutes (Dec 2013 timetable)

Southeastern's new train timetable will commence Sunday (8th December 2013). The new timetable includes minor changes and a couple of morning services from DEAL to London St Pancras will reduce to 81 minutes.

(HS1 weekdays only)

 

Leader of KCC response on future of High Speed (HS) rail services to Deal & Sandwich

The present position in respect of HS to Deal and Sandwich is as follows:

Kent County Council's (KCC) financial support for this service ends - as it was always planned to  – on 31 March 2014, by which date the Council will have invested £430,000 in revenue support.  KCC has already urged the Department for Transport (DfT) to include at least this peak period service in the Direct Award specification which will determine the operation of the franchise between November 2014 and June 2018. We have also requested confirmation that Southeastern Railway Ltd (SER), if this were specified for the Direct Award by the DfT, to continue to operate this service, without any further revenue support from this Council, for the 28-week extension period of their existing franchise between April and November 2014.

KCC also supports in principle the aspiration of Trains4Deal for an extension of the HS service to operate off-peak and weekends. Any extension of the operating period, at least during the day on Monday to Friday, would have KCC’s strong support, and we shall urge the DfT to include at least a Monday to Friday off-peak service within the specification for the Direct Award.

Just to be clear about one point though: it is not that KCC has withdrawn the funding, but rather that the period of the current franchise has been extended, as a result of the DfT's revised franchise timetable.

So to summarise the present position: the most constructive way forward now would be for the DfT to agree to include these valuable HS services within the service specification of the Direct Award from November 2014, and then for SER to operate them without additional revenue support (and also without any requirement to forward additional revenue receipts to the DfT) between April and November 2014. That would ensure the continuation of these services right up to the end of the Direct Award in June 2018.

KCC is very well aware that many work/life choices have been made by residents of the Deal and Sandwich area predicated on the existence of these HS services. KCC will therefore continue to influence both the DfT and SER in the ways I have outlined above, until at least the existing peak period service - and preferably an enhanced off-peak service - is secured right up to June 2018.

That would be good news for East Kent - not just for the towns of Deal and Sandwich but especially for the Discovery Park Enterprise Zone and the essential economic growth which it supports. We shall not give up on this goal until we know that these vital HS services to Deal and Sandwich are secured.

I am monitoring development very closely alongside the MP for Dover and Deal, Charlie Elphicke. We are working hard in finding a long term solution.

Thank you again for writing to me about this important matter for East Kent.

With very best wishes.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Carter

Leader of Kent County Council

 

What's the DEAL Charlie Elphicke?

I had envisaged this post would be composed of many detailed paragraphs but I am going to try and use the KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid).

The previous Labour Government decided not to include DEAL in the HS1 rail service which they launched in December 2009, furthermore they reduced the existing classic service and increased journey times.

Good rail links are vital to DEAL.

Prompted by the Pfizer closure at Sandwich, Kent County Council (KCC) put their money where their mouth was and funded a peak high-speed (HS) service for DEAL & Sandwich until the expiry of the existing Southeastern franchise agreement in March 2014. The service has been a huge success and exceeded everyone’s expectations. Furthermore KCC agreed to promote all-day HS services for DEAL & Sandwich as their top priority additional requirement for the new franchise specification.

So what's gone wrong?

The coalition government had a "franchise fiasco" at the Department for Transport (DfT) which has resulted in delaying new rail franchises and subsequently potentially means DEAL & Sandwich will have no HS services from March 2014.

Whose fault is it?

It is the fault of the Government and the DfT and as local representatives of the Government; ultimately the blame must lie with Charlie Elphicke MP (Dover & Deal) and Laura Sandys MP (Thanet South).

Regardless of the existing 'franchise' in 2011 Helen Grant MP (Maidstone and the Weald) secured HS services to Maidstone West which as far as I am aware is not under threat from March 2014.

Charlie Elphicke has spent a considerable amount of his political time on securing the 'Peoples Port' of Dover and a new Buckland Hospital. But in DEAL we have lost a high school, our hospital and a children’s centre is under threat and now rail services.

The potential of Betteshanger Business Park has still not been realised nor has a North DEAL access road. In fact I am struggling to think of any direct positives Mr Elphicke has brought to DEAL.

So come on Charlie, now is your opportunity to actually make a difference and secure all day HS services to DEAL. It’s quite simple... all the DfT have to do is tell Southeastern to stop HS services at DEAL.