Letter: The Lonely Plight of Wanborough Passengers Abandoned by SWR

Published on: 5 Dec, 2019
Updated on: 5 Dec, 2019

From: Michael Aaronson

Frustrated commuter

See also: Guildford Commuters Standing By For a Month of Industrial Action

The commuter disruption caused by the failure of South Western Railway (SWR) management and the RMT Union to avert the strike over train guards this month is bad enough.

But there’s added misery for passengers from Wanborough Station, a few miles west of Guildford on the Aldershot line, that could be avoided if SWR talked to its sister train-operating company, Great Western Railway (GWR).

During the strike action there is no SWR service for Wanborough passengers, no trains, no replacement buses. This strands dozens of us who would normally take the train into Guildford, commuters, shoppers and, worst of all, schoolchildren.

SWR advises us to walk for 20 minutes to catch the KITE bus service from Aldershot to Guildford, at the wrong end of Normandy for rail travellers, requiring a further 10-minute walk back to the rail station in Guildford.

But the line from Wanborough to Guildford is also served by Great Western Railway (GWR), although only three of their Guildford-bound trains a day stop at Wanborough, at 0635, 1542, and 1642.

On the return journey, there is no service between 0910 and 2256. For we commuters, and the schoolchildren, this timetable is no real help. The obvious solution would be for them to stop more of their services at Wanborough, perhaps one an hour during the day.
But, despite repeated requests, going back to the last round of strikes in June, SWR has, in their words, “been unable to arrange for Great Western services to stop additionally at Wanborough”.

So many of us are forced into our cars, adding to the already heavy congestion on the roads in the Guildford area. Oh, yes, SWR is half-owned by First Group, which owns GWR.
This is a problem unique to Wanborough. The whole service between Guildford and Aldershot is suspended because of the strike.

At Ash, the GWR trains already stop at least once an hour in each direction, and passengers from Aldershot, who have a separate line to London, can also catch the KITE bus to Guildford next to the station. So only Wanborough passengers are effectively stranded.

How can it be that two train-operating companies are unable to reach a relatively simple agreement that would ease the misery of travellers in an environmentally friendly way?
We don’t know whether SWR have asked GWR to stop more trains and been refused, or simply haven’t asked. SWR has failed to respond.

Either way, the situation is a pretty poor reflection on them, and their claim on their website: “At South Western Railway we put our customers at the heart of everything we do and every decision we make.”

Really?

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