THEO STEEL ASKS IF SOUTHEASTERN’S JAVELIN SERVICE HAS INCREASED PASSENGER NUMBERS
The South Eastern franchise has always been a particular challenge to bid, with the effect of the Javelin service to factor in from 2009 and now the effect of Crossrail when it eventually opens. It is very heavily commuter dominated and the rail market share is quite high so opportunities for growth are not as great as in other franchises.
The Victorian railway is slow and while there are some very affluent and leafy areas, other parts are not so wealthy, particularly east Kent, which has suffered from some high-profile setbacks like Manston airport closing and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals moving away from Deal. On the other hand, the London Bridge area bottleneck has now been eased, performance is improving, and the London Bridge and Cannon Street areas of the capital are developing fast. Access to Canary Wharf is also good via Woolwich, Lewisham and Greenwich.
Table 1 shows the Office of Rail and Road station usage statistics for a selection of stations served by Southeastern’s high-speed services in 2007-08, 2013-14, 2016-17 and 2017-18. Most are also served by slower trains on the traditional routes; typically, there is a …
