Chiswick South West Trains

Related links

ISSUE: HOUNSLOW LOOP LINE - CHISWICK STATION

Double Blow for hard pressed Chiswick Commuters using South West Trains as RMT votes for another strike

Beleaguered commuters using the South West Trains service from Chiswick Station have suffered a double blow with news of a New Year Strike and the publication of figures that show the network to be the worst performing in the South East. There will be two 48-hour "back to back" stoppages - on January 3 and 4 and again on January 7 and 8. This straddles the weekend. Originally the RMT intended to ballot for strikes on Christmas Eve.

A South West Train at Chiswick station.

The strike is on the issue of parity of pay rises between drivers and other staff. The drivers have awarded 7.6% and the RMT is insisting on this for other grades of staff. South West Trains have offered 3.8% and binding arbitration if this is not acceptable. They awarded a larger rise to the drivers, who are mainly members of ASLEF, to stop them being poached by other rail companies. Most guards and station staff are members of the RMT. SWT is one of the only networks to have continued to use guards on their trains. Further industrial action is anticipated against the disciplining of two union representatives for safety breaches.

An SWT spokesperson said, "They have chosen once again to go down the route of maximum disruption. 4% without strings is an inflation busting pay deal - the RMT has settled for far less elsewhere. They claim they want the same deal as the drivers - in that case they must do what the drivers did and talk to us about productivity."

Do you have a view on the the service at Chiswick Station? Use our pages to express yourself!

Want to contact South West Trains about this matter?
customerrelations @swtrains.co.uk

Or you can complete their feedback form

Most of the articles on this site are contributed by local people.

The latest figures from the Strategic Rail Authority also bring bad news for hard pressed commuters. The figures show SWT to be the worst London network in terms of arriving on time with only 71.6% making it within 5 minutes of the time-table. In addition it is the second worst for overcrowding according to the SRA annual report exceeded only by Chiswick's other service provider Silverlink. One regular user of Chiswick station said, " I'm sure the figures mask a much worse performance for the suburban lines like the Hounslow Loop. The fast trains always seem to get priority and in my experience it is far more than one in four trains that is seriously late." The figures are likely to provoke a bitter response from many Chiswick residents following recent comments from Hounslow Council that they pay higher CPZ charges because of "generally better" transport links. The award of the new franchise does commit South West Trains to increase the regularity of the service through Chiswick before 2004. South West Trains also have the biggest commitment to order new stock of any of the train operating companies. Passenger Rail Performance: July - October 2001
Percentage of trains arriving on time
	Overall Average
	22 July	22 July	19 Aug	16 Sept
	-	-	-	-
	13 Oct	18 Aug	15 Sept	13 Oct
London and South East All Day
Chiltern Railways	90.6	89.8	92.2	89.9
Great Eastern Railway	85.6	83.5	87.8	85.4
Silverlink	83.0	83.2	81.4	84.4
Connex South Eastern	81.8	83.0	83.5	78.8
c2c	79.7	79.1	81.3	78.8
Thames Trains	78.8	79.1	78.8	78.5
Connex South Central	78.4	78.1	82.7	74.5
WAGN	77.9	77.2	79.6	76.9
Thameslink	72.6	72.5	78.3	66.9
South West Trains	71.6	73.9	73.3	67.6
London and South East Peak
Chiltern Railways	89.6	90.8	90.1	88.1
Connex South Eastern	81.5	86.1	83.7	75.0
Great Eastern Railway	80.3	78.7	83.4	78.8
c2c	78.3	81.2	81.3	71.0
Silverlink	78.3	81.9	70.0	83.4
Connex South Central	76.8	79.1	81.9	69.6
Thames Trains	76.6	77.0	76.6	76.2
South West Trains	72.4	78.4	73.4	65.4
Thameslink	71.2	73.8	79.6	60.5
WAGN	68.8	67.4	70.5	68.5
Note London & South East and Other Operators show % arriving within 5 minutes of timetabled time. Source: Strategic Rail Authority, December 2001

Related articles:

Chiswick Residents Urged to Seek Representation on Passenger Panel

South West trains seek franchise renewal despite poor record

Would you use the Piccadilly line from Turnham Green?