AS news breaks of a proposed above-inflation rise in rail fares, a local parliamentary hopeful has announced success in persuading SWT to review a timetable which threatens diminished services for those travelling on the Alton/ Farnham to Waterloo line. Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for SW Surrey, has told The Herald that South West Trains (SWT) has pledged to review its controversial timetable, due to come into force on Sunday, December 12, and to cut travelling time on a key service. Claimed as "a victory for commuter power", the decision to take action to improve services on the Alton line is said to follow a meeting last Friday between Mr Hunt and Andrew Haines, the managing director of SWT, and SWT commercial director, Rufus Boyd. The key change agreed is designed to cut travelling time for passengers' journeying from Waterloo back home in the evening. SWT's new winter timetable has been widely criticised for introducing increased travel times on the Alton line for all save a few morning services. Many evening services for commuters will see increased journey times of up to 15 minutes. The first train out of Waterloo after 7 pm under the current timetable leaves Waterloo at 19.03 and takes 47 minutes to reach Ash Vale. Under the new timetable, that service was due to go and be replaced by a train leaving at 19.23 which would take 62 minutes for the same journey - resulting in a 79 minute journey to Alton. Now, according to Mr Hunt, Rufus Boyd - the man responsible for the timetable changes - has pledged to alter this key early evening service and bring the journey time back down. "The extended journey time will, unfortunately, be in operation for the first few months of the new timetable but is scheduled to be reduced late next spring," said Mr Hunt. Speaking after his meeting with the SWT team, Mr Hunt said: "I'm delighted that South West Trains have listened to the case we've been putting for change to their new timetable. The Alton Line Users' Association (ALUA) has been clear and focused in its demand for improvement to a service which has been unreliable in the past and which suffers further under this new timetable. "The change proposed by SWT, and the review they have pledged for the future, are both welcome. But more needs to be done to give hard-pressed travellers the fair deal they deserve. We shall be keeping up the pressure for improvement." Commenting on SWT's stand-down, ALUA chairman Chris Campbell was delighted to hear about the 19.03 but was keen that the same attention should be given to the 16.52 which currently arrives in Alton at 18.00 but which, under the new regime, will leave Waterloo at 16.55 and reach Alton at 18.13 resulting in an increased journey time of 10 minutes. "What we are pushing for is an extension in the proposed evening peak time to match the morning peak period of two and a half hours," said Mr Campbell. ALUA is also calling for improvement to the new off-peak service which will suffer increases in journey time due to longer stand times at stations. Commenting on proposals which will see new year rail fares increasing above the rate of inflation to pay for new trains and improvements to stations, Mr Campbell said: "It's a disgrace. We should be paying less not more for an inferior service."
