SOUTH West Trains' new timetable got off to a punishing start this week, with a thwarted revolt by passengers using the 06-44 Alton to Waterloo service, which carries Farnham commuters. They had threatened to pull the communication cord at Clapham Junction as a protest against the axing of the train's scheduled stop at the busy south London station. In the event, two British Transport Police officerstravelled up on the train, having been tipped off about the proposed action, which could have brought part of the network to a grinding halt. The revolt came as hundreds of thousands of commuters faced a massive timetable shake- up, and one which has left Farnham commuters with the slowest service for 50 years. The timetable, introduced on Sunday, has drawn fierce criticism from the Rail Passengers Council (RPC), which on Monday accused rail chiefs of using timetable changes to make journeys longer to avoid having to pay compensation for poor punctuality. The rail passenger watchdog said it feared the timetable changes could lead to yet more overcrowding on busy trains. While pointing out that for some passengers Christmas appeared to have come early, with quicker services and more frequent trains, RPC chairman, Anthony Smith, said there was "a stone in the snowball" for others, who would find that their regular train was no longer running or that their fast train now stops at more stations. The statement coincided with the published findings of a new survey by the Rail Passenger Committee for Southern England which, while showing "real improvements" in Southern England rail commuter services, saw SWT drop to third place in the Train Operating Company (TOC) table for failing to improve its punctuality record. Although receiving praise for working hard on its other customer services, the conclusion was that "SWT must improve its punctuality and not by making journeys longer and targets easier to hit". The results of the survey hit a raw nerve for Alton Line Users Association (ALUA) chairman Chris Campbell, who described the new timetable as "a really bad package". The Alton line, he said, had not only "lost out" to other lines, but trains were waiting just outside stations or at platforms for four minutes at a time, causing frustration amongs passengers and an extension in journey time of up to 20 minutes. "There has been too much time built into this timetable so that the trains can be said to run on schedule," said Mr Campbell, who wants to know why it is that some services, such as the Basingstoke line, have actually been speeded up, while Alton line trains are being slowed down. Aldershot's Labour Hampshire county councillor, Mike Roberts, who, as an executive member of ALUA and a regular commuter into Waterloo has first hand experience of travelling on the line, agreed that the new timetable seemed designed "to improve services in two distinct corridors between Woking and Basingstoke and Woking and Haslemere, at the expense of everything else". He pointed out: "They (SWT) have confirmed that the Alton line now has the worst timetable on its line for decades, with trains taking up to 82 minutes to complete a journey which was 20 minutes quicker in earlier years. "It will now take 70 minutes to travel the 22 miles from Alton to Guildford, but you can almost travel double the mileage between Woking and Winchester in just over half the time. "On top of that, commuters who used to change trains, now find that they have up to 26 minutes' waiting time at the peaks and that their journeys are longer in every sense of the word." On the question of the threatened Clapham incident, Chris Campbell was adamant that ALUA would disassociate itself with any such action. ALUA, he said, was hoping to negotiate the reintroduction of some stops at Clapham Junction, but pointed out that due to track constraints this would lead to delays as everything was put on hold when a train stopped at the station. He could be disappointed. A spokesperson for SWT told The Herald that the company had no intention of adding Clapham Junction stops at a later date. "This has been a radical shake-up in the timetable and we have done everything we can to make sure it is going to work, but there are going to be winners and losers - while many passengers will find their journey easier, some will find it more difficult. However, we will be reviewing it and looking at solutions if any problems occur," she said. The spokesperson went on to confirm that for those passengers on the Alton line who hold existing season tickets to Clapham Junction, SWT is intending to give special dispensation for the additional part of the journey into and out of Waterloo. l Students using the 08-26 service to commute to Alton College from Farnham have lodged a complaint that the train now leaves them only eight minutes to get from Alton station to the college.
