Replacement of railway bridge in Kingston upon Thames
As I have written in a previous entry, I hardly use my cars at all. We are blessed in London with a great public transport system, that is cheap, frequent and reliable. For under £7, you can purchase a travel card, and travel throughout London all day on trains, the underground (metro) or buses.
All is well if the systems works.
There could be engineering works, strike by the transport workers, the wrong sort of weather, (eg snow), there could be leaves on the rails so that the trains cannot move, a passenger intervention or a passenger taken ill. These excuses wil cause delays or cancellations.
Then the system does not work. But, this is OK if one knows in advance, you can take and make alternative arrangements.
I happened to notice a road sign which said that the main road into Norbiton and Kingston upon Thames, London Road, would be closed between August 7th till August 16th for bridge replacement.
If the bridge is to be replaced, then that will mean no trains to get into London. OK they provide a bus replacement service, but that can add almost an hour to the journey.
I inquired at the Norbiton railway station ticket office as to whether there would be no trains during this period, and with only one week to go, they did not know there were going to be any bridge replacement.
One would have thought that SouthWest Trains would inform their own staff what will be happening so that travelers can make alternative arrangements, if they are to close the railway line.
All is well if the systems works.
There could be engineering works, strike by the transport workers, the wrong sort of weather, (eg snow), there could be leaves on the rails so that the trains cannot move, a passenger intervention or a passenger taken ill. These excuses wil cause delays or cancellations.
Then the system does not work. But, this is OK if one knows in advance, you can take and make alternative arrangements.
I happened to notice a road sign which said that the main road into Norbiton and Kingston upon Thames, London Road, would be closed between August 7th till August 16th for bridge replacement.
If the bridge is to be replaced, then that will mean no trains to get into London. OK they provide a bus replacement service, but that can add almost an hour to the journey.
I inquired at the Norbiton railway station ticket office as to whether there would be no trains during this period, and with only one week to go, they did not know there were going to be any bridge replacement.
One would have thought that SouthWest Trains would inform their own staff what will be happening so that travelers can make alternative arrangements, if they are to close the railway line.
Strange that there was no information when you went to Norbiton. It was on posters on platform 2, and just outside the main ticket office door. It was also on the website, with extra posters put up in the week before. I don't think they could have publicised it any better.... (and no - I don't work for SWT)
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Thank you for the comment. At the time of writing the blog, I had just returned from the station at Norbiton, looking for posters or information. I had asked the South West Train ticket office lady what she knew about the bridge replacement, she said she knew nothing as she had not been informed by SWT.
Perhaps our clocks were not synchronised. Whatever.
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