Category: News

Rail passengers and local residents might not welcome this news, but GTR has advised us that parking charges are to introduced at both Earlswood and Salfrods Station.

The charges to be introduced at the end of March will apply Monday to Friday between the hours of 4 am and 5 pm. Evenings and weekends will remain free.

GTR said that the money raised from parking charges will support the management and maintenance of the carpark and will help towards investing in parking on the network.

Initially, it was stated the charge to park for a day would be £9.10 at both Earlswood and Salfords. With payment being possible through an app, the ticket machine at the station, or by phone.

This figure was successfully challenged by the RRDRUA and subsequently reduced for Earlswood to £8.30. The price was benchmarked against Horley station – which seemed extremely peculiar given that Merstham/Redhill/Reigate are all significantly closer and also cheaper!

• Redhill Station – All day = £7.15
• Merstham Station – All day = £6.60
• Reigate Station – All day = £5.30

Sadly there was no movement on pricing at Salfrods.

The news comes as both a positive and a negative for users of these stations.

The change from free to paid parking spaces will, of course, be a blow to passengers travelling from these stations who arrive by car. And will only increase the amount of rail travellers parking on local roads in Earlswood where there are no parking restrictions or charges. Around Salfrods residents actions have already resulted in streets near the station being covered in double yellow lines – preventing commuters parking but also residents from using on-street locations outside their homes.

Residents near both of these stations tend to leave cars in the station spaces – something you can spot on a cold winters morning as cars parked at the station have been there all night and are covered in frost. The introduction of parking charges will likely (assuming the parking is enforced) increase the chances of being able to get a parking space at the station.

If you have no choice but to drive to Earlswood or Salfords to park before catching a train – while prices have now been introduced the chances of finding a space will have increased.

Unfortunately, parking provisions for stations in our area are wholely inadequate and overpriced in general. Redhill station is now often full before the majority of peak services have run – and unless you buy one of the limited ‘premium’ parking season tickets, your space is not guaranteed.

If you have to drive to the station and park before catching a train, we don’t recommend parking in an official station carpark. And not to purchase a parking season ticket for the station – as you may end up paying twice – with no guarantee of a space.

The best option is Gloucester Road carpark. Charging is applicable between 8 am and 6 pm with all-day parking costing £6 (which is considerably cheaper than Redhill/Earlswood/Salfords station. At just a 7min walk from the station, it is the best option.

Network Rail has launched a consultation about adding a 3rd platform to Reigate Station.

While the consultation doesn’t open until the 24th February, they have started promoting it through leaflets, posters, and listing several public meetings where you can meet Network Rail staff, see the plans, and ask questions.

There were some comments on a local parent network Facebook group about the impact of Platform 3 at Reigate and while we posted there also we wanted to post the comments here for a broader audience to see them.

So first off some facts.

At the moment it is just a consultation by Network Rail and opens for feedback on the 24th February. In all reality, if it goes ahead, this new platform won’t likely appear for 2-3 years at the very earliest!

In May 2018 Reigate lost it’s direct trains to London Bridge and instead, a frustrating solution of joining 2x four coach trains at Redhill replaced it. Most Reigate passengers (based on passenger data at the time) want to go to London Bridge so have to change.

The Earlswood/Salfords Victoria train service was significantly slowed down as it has to sit at Redhill for about 10mins to wait for the Reigate half and the attachment. Inevitably things go wrong:

– One portion of the train could go missing (fault/driver not available/issue somewhere on the line)

– The connection (or separation) might not work.

– When things go wrong four coach trains run into London which is normally full by Coulsdon South!

– In the off-peak, these services are timetabled to run as a four coach train between Reigate and Victoria only.

So what’s proposed here.

The 3rd platform at Reigate to allow a Thameslink train to pull into Reigate, terminate and then go back. It is returning a London Bridge Service for Reigate and ads resilience to the network. When issues occur on the network, it gives GTR somewhere to turn back trains off the Brighton Mainline if there’s a problem further down the line.

It will likely mean that Reigate will lose it’s Victoria Service. But you will be one station away from a change at Redhill that will be much more reliable.

What does it mean for Earlswood and Salfords?

No timetable changes have been drawn up yet as an impact of this new platform as it’s only in the consultation stage.

GTR has said that there will be NO changes to the PEAK – So trains to London Bridge and Victoria as they are now. The morning trains into London will still run, and you’ll get back again in the evening. During the day it’s likely that the service will be a Victoria Service.

It also means that it’s highly likely that more trains will be available to these stations as there will no longer be a short four coach Victoria train trundling through and waiting at Redhill blocking a platform. So Longer trains coming up and potentially more destinations. Suggestions for getting Horsham Trains back through Merstham/Redhill/Earlswood/Salfords etc. giving local access to stations south (perhaps not surprisingly commuters don’t all go to London!)

A rumour suggests Earlswood will only get 1 train per hour

There has been no comment from GTR about reducing Thameslink trains to 1 per hour in the peak at Earlswood/Salfrods. 

There is no timetable for what the train services will look like after Regiate platform three has been developed – and any activity would likely go through a consultation with stakeholders and rail passengers.

The RRDRUA has had direct conversations with the timetable team who told us at the meeting ‘no peak changes’ at Earlswood!)

We fully support Reigate Platform 3 as it will serve to benefit rail users from all of our local stations.

Rebuilding the station at Gatwick

As a side note while work is carried out at Gatwick Station to rebuild the platforms and the concourse – changes in the May 2020 timetable suggest that Earlswood and Salfrods will only be served by one train per hour on Sundays.

At the RRDRUA we’re challenging this with GTR – with our view that the service level at this station should not reduce while the works take place.

Essentially there are 4 key issues currently impacting travel on the trains in our area currently:

• Our ‘unfair’ fares that create the ‘Redhill Hump’ and lack of availability of Oyster/Contactless at Reigate.
• Issues with infrastructure (Regiate’s platform can’t take the Thameslink Trains, and Stoates Nest Junction restricts the number of trains that can cross it.
• No ‘industry compensation’ for Reigate/Nutfield
• Trains missing form the May 2018 timetable (still)

While it hasn’t all been in the public domain we’ve been working with Crispin Blunt our local MP and RRDRUA President on many of the issues above for some time. Frustratingly when the RRDRUA makes progress with a transport minister their inevitably loose their job and it all starts again.

Continually promised action in meetings with ministers and the DFT (many of which RRDRUA committee members have attended over the years) Crispin has like us reached the limits of his frustration. Acting on this he secured an adjournment debate in the House of Commons raise our issues.

Jo Johnson then had to address the issues raised by Crispin, which are a matter of record in the house.

The full transcript of the debate can be read here.
And you can watch the snippet from the House of Commons here.

In brief summary:

• Fares – Whilst not suggesting Oyster zones would happen, and instead suggesting modern ticketing with pay as your go or smart card payment is the future – he did confirm that the ‘Redhill Hump’ would be addressed before the end of the current GTR contract. And this would start in January. We have no further detail of this yet – but it’s a big win. Either by reduction or fare freezing our fares will be brought in line with those around us.
• Reigate Platform 3 – This has been included in the scope of the project or the Brighton Mainline upgrade. Whilst it won’t happen over night, it’s on the books for consideration – a new longer platform at Reigate would allow the return of direct London Bridge services via Thameslink.
• Industry Compensation – No movement on this what so ever. Reigate/Tonbridge line passengers. Or those that purchased Dorking tickets are excluded, and are still excluded.
• The May 2018 Timetable – Jo Johnson said that in December 18 more trains will be added to our services through Redhill/Merstham. And we assume some of these will also stop at stations south of Redhill too. Conveniently there are 18 trains currently missing form our weekday timetable. Weekends are of course still very much missing in action.

We’ve made some big progress today with big thanks to Crispin Blunt MP for securing the debate and representing our issues.

If you have any comments or questions please let us know.

Finally apologies if you made it to Westminster for the debate at 5pm. Whilst Parliament has a set start time – all business follows the last business. And an earlier debate was short a number of speakers which brought us forwards – we had little notice this would happen.

This weekend (24 & 25 February) saw line closes on the Brighton mainline and through Redhill to allow Network Rail to carry out necessary track improvement works.

Having seen the advance notice provided by Southern Rail of the shutdown and that on Sunday – specifically all Gatwick and South Cost bound passengers from London would be terminating at Redhill to transfer to busses – we wrote to Southern/Gatwick Express/Network Rail to warn that Redhill station couldn’t cope with the number of passengers arriving  or that there would be enough trains for onward travel for those returning to London.

Sadly, despite replying to our emails they didn’t listen or take any further action. And seeing what has happened this weekend – especially today at Redhill Station – Our Chairman Stephen Trigg has written again asking that they listen and take action.

Stephen’s note is below in full:

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From: Stephen Trigg

Subject: ABSOLUTE FAILURE TO PLAN AHEAD [REDHILL 25/02/2018]

Date: 25 February 2018 at 18:28:27 GMT

To: Angie Doll, Stuart Cheshire
Cc: Tracy Hall  Scott Brightwell , Halsall John, Crispin Blunt, Jo Johnson, Linda McCord , Tim Bellenger, Tim Leighton

Dear Angie and Stuart,

As Passenger Directors of GTR Southern and GTR Thameslink I direct this email at you.

We tried as a Rail Users organisation to ask for better provision of services around the major closure between Gatwick and Redhill this Sunday (25/02) as we foresaw your plans were inadequate. We wrote to you and your teams several times concerned about the lack of service but only received replies from junior members of your team who didn’t seem to understand the problem. This is something you and your senior teams should have been on top of.

Today (Sunday) we have sadly been proved right. The situation at Redhill is extremely dangerous, not helped by the inadequate subway at the station that needs replacing anyway, inadequate space for buses to turn round and there are hundreds of passengers running all over Redhill Town centre trying desperately to get to their destinations by taxi or whatever other means they can find.

There is obviously not enough trains to get passengers to London nor are there enough buses to get people to Gatwick or the South Coast.

I have just driven past the station and there are people running across the main road with heavy cases. The situation is not just at the station but right into the town. I can see the police have been called to assist with the chaos your Company has created.

After the problems at Finsbury Park with overrunning engineering work in Christmas 2016, and at London Bridge the first day of the service cuts, we would have thought you would have tools to measure what is required for adequate provision of service. It sadly seems not.

I trust that you and Network Rail will cancel the next two weekends line closures until a point where you can work together to find a proper and safe solution.

We look forward to finding out how you will be doing this in future and happy to discuss if it will help.

Best Regards
Stephen

Stephen R Trigg | Chairperson | Reigate, Redhill and District Rail Users’ Association
E Chairperson@rrdrua.org.uk