A driver was forced to halt at Hampton Wick station when a man jumped on to the track to retrieve his wallet and phone. The man went on to pick up his dropped possessions, and was then given some strong words of advice by the train driver.
Click on the link in the line above to read the December 2010 edition of KATAlog.
You can also find it in the documents section along with previous editions.
More than one in 10 Londoners are excluded from large sections of the public transport network because buses, trains and stations are not accessible to people with reduced mobility - and the situation is set to get worse, a new report says today.
The London Assembly Transport Committee’s detailed study reveals step-free access and other accessibility measures fall far short of demand, and calls on the Mayor and Transport for London (TfL) to do more to demonstrate their commitment to improving accessibility.
Commuters will be able to top up their oyster cards at train stations across Richmond after South West Trains (SWT) agreed to adapt its ticket machines.
SWT finally bowed to Government pressure last week and agreed to make necessary changes so passengers can top-up at its rail stations.
Bus routes through Kingston, Tolworth, Surbiton, New Malden and Chessington are being reviewed by Transport for London (TfL).
Councillors are being asked for feedback on whether the routes should be continued when contracts are up for renewal between March and October 2012. School bus services are also under consideration.
A spokesman for TfL said it was part of the standard procedure for reviewing routes. If there were any suggestion of cuts or changes, there would be a public consultation, she said.
Disabled and blind volunteers have offered to give bus drivers extra training to raise awareness of vulnerable passengers’ needs.
Richmond Aid, which provides advice and information on disability, and Richmond’s visually-impaired society Visor, have joined forces to offer the free training.
It follows concerns raised over the challenges disabled passengers face when using the borough’s buses.
South West Trains (SWT) has signalled it still has no plans to offer Oyster services at stations - despite mounting pressure from politicians and passengers.
SWT is the only train operating company in the capital which does not offer Oyster facilities.
And it appears commuters are still no closer to being able to buy or top up Oyster cards after SWT reiterated it had no plans to offer the service to passengers.
A woman has been killed after being struck by a train at Richmond station. Police were called and the station was closed. The incident is currently being treated as non-suspicious.
A British Transport Police spokesman said: “Paramedics from the London Ambulance Service also attended but the woman was pronounced dead at the scene.“Enquiries are ongoing to establish the woman’s identity and a file will be prepared for the coroner.”
Doubts remain over the future of Kingston’s weekend ticket offices, after similar cuts outside London were criticised last week by trade unionists as “profit-driven vandalism”. Passenger watchdog London Travel Watch (LTW), has now questioned why weekend office closures at the 11 SWT stations had been approved by the Government, but they had not yet been for Malden Manor, Motspur Park and Berrylands stations.
A spokesman for LTW said: “We hope there is an announcement soon, but it seemed strange for some office closures to be decided and some not. It’s certainly unusual for this scattered approach to the announcements, but it may have something to do with the recent change of Government.”
A Kingston bus driver was floored by a punch to his face after he refused a passenger entry for not having correct change.
Kingston College student Matthew Powell admitted beating 213 bus driver Dexter Damalie, after the two were seen on CCTV rolling around the grounds of Fairfield Road bus terminus as the result of an argument.
Crown Prosecution Service prosecutor Liz West said: “At 8.32am, Mr Powell tried to get on the bus with a £10 note, but the victim told him he couldn’t change it.
Click on the link in the line above to read the August 2010 issue of KATAlog.
Bus drivers have been given special cycle awareness training as part of an innovative new scheme run by Lambeth Council to cut road deaths and injuries involving cyclists.
The council, and its cycle training provider, Cycle Training (UK), has been leading the way in promoting cycling safety to drivers of HGVs, and was the first council in London to train all its refuse vehicle and school bus drivers in cycle awareness.
Transport chiefs have not yet justified a potential seven per cent rise in Tube and bus fares next year, a new report from the London Assembly says today.
The Assembly’s Budget and Performance Committee says demand for public transport during the economic downturn has been higher than expected and so Transport for London (TfL) has collected more money from fares than it forecast. TfL also recently said that it does not intend to use fares to pay for the reduction in its government grant this year or its takeover of Tube Lines.
The Committee’s report ‘Balancing Act’ therefore calls on TfL to publicly justify why it plans to recommend to the Mayor that fares should rise by two per cent above inflation in 2011.
A man was killed when he fell on to train tracks during rush hour at Twickenham station. Eyewitnesses said the 33-year-old man, from Twickenham, suffered a "fit" and fell on to tracks at a packed platform, just before 6.20pm on Friday.
A student hit by a bus in Twickenham on Friday has been released from hospital and has since flown home to Switzerland. The 22-year-old man, who has not been named, was struck by a number 267 bus outside Twickenham police station, in London Road, at about 3pm.
Up to 170 flats could be built on the site of Twickenham station as part of a multi-million pound development.
A new ticket office, shops and an area of open space could transform the key site, it has been revealed.
The plans were outlined in a report submitted to Richmond Council on behalf of Solum Regeneration – a joint venture between Network Rail and Kier Property.
High inflation could mean Londoners are hit by a big rise in public transport fares next year, the London Assembly heard.
Transport for London told the Assembly’s Budget and Performance Committee that high inflation is affecting its costs and some of that may need to be passed onto passengers next year.
TfL is therefore likely to recommend to the Mayor that fares from January will need to rise by two percent on top of the rate of inflation, which would be seven percent based on current figures.
The London Assembly Transport Committee is examining how the experience of people with reduced mobility on the capital’s Tubes, buses and trains could be improved. This includes people in wheelchairs, older people, and people with buggies and young children.
The Transport Committee will take a ‘whole journey’ approach to the experience of passengers with reduced mobility, from journey planning through using each form of transport and the interchanges between them.
A prolific graffiti vandal from Surbiton, who caused nearly £38,000 of damage to trains and stations across London has been sentenced for his crimes.
Kieran Deeny, 18, pleaded guilty at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday, May 14, to five counts of criminal damage and endangering safety.
New era of rail travel as London Overground's east London route opens to public:
Kingston’s train services will not run during evenings next week as part of a massive disruption due to industrial strike action after the Easter holiday.
South West Trains have announced trains going through Kingston will operate a vastly reduced service and will not be running after 7pm during the strikes on April 6, 7, 8 and 9.
Click on the link above to read the KATAlog for March 2010.
South West Trains (SWT) has been revealed as the only train company in London refusing to allow passengers to top up their Oyster cards at its stations, despite pressure from Transport for London (TfL).
All national rail operators in London agreed to accept Oyster cards for pay-as-you-go journeys in January, and the association of train operating companies said the most of the 237 additional stations currently or would soon also allow customers to buy or top up their Oyster cards.
But South West Trains will not introduce this technology at its stations, having said it was not part of its franchise agreement with the Department for Transport, forcing passengers to go to nearby newsagents to top up.
Kingston’s buses are set to carry messages of peace in an effort to counter extremists who hijack the Islamic faith for political means. The Ahmadiyya Muslim community will also distribute thousands of leaflets on the subject of loyalty, freedom, equality, respect and peace, to reassert true Islamic principles.
Buses in Kingston will carry the message “Love for All. Hatred for None”.
A rogues gallery has been released as part of an ongoing campaign to tackle yobs who cause chaos on buses. Police have spent months trying to track down seven individuals after various crimes were committed on public transport - and took the decision to release these images as a last-ditch public appeal for information.
The move is part of Operation BusTag, which is run by a Metropolitan Police transport team and CCTV investigation unit to identify, arrest and bring to justice anyone caught carrying out criminal damage by on-bus cameras.
South West Trains has announced plans to close ticket offices at Kingston’s quieter train stations during the weekends.
Under the proposals, customers will no longer be able to buy tickets during the weekend at Malden Manor or Berrylands. Motspur Park’s ticket office will be shut on Sundays.
The London Assembly is to set up a cross-party review of London TravelWatch, the official representative of transport users in the capital.
Managers from beleaguered rail company First Capital Connect are to host a question and answers session with commuters. FCC managing director Neal Lawson, as well as other directors and managers, will be at Tulse Hill station between 7.30am and 9.30am next Tuesday to talk to customers about the recent service issues and what the company is doing to ensure improvements are made.
Click on the link above to read the latest issue of Katalog.
The London Assembly Transport Committee’s response to the Mayor’s draft strategy highlights concerns that overcrowding, congestion and carbon emissions will not be tackled effectively without further intervention from the Mayor.
In the reality of restricted resources – particularly funding and road space – and a growing population, the Strategy should set out the Mayor’s thinking in relation to the difficult decisions he and his successors will face.
These decisions include setting future fare levels; the relative priority of the stalled step-free access programme compared to schemes to provide additional capacity; balancing the flow of vehicles against the movement and safety of buses and pedestrians; and the potential for financial incentivisation schemes to encourage people to change the way they travel.
Two pickpockets who preyed on pensioners, including a 91-year-old, in bus queues in and around Kingston, have received three year prison sentences. Both Perry Mahoney, 48, from Stockwell, and David Turner, 50, from Lambeth, were sentenced to three years and four months.
South West Trains (SWT) has pledged to improve its communications with passengers, after a number of incidents during last week’s snow storms left people confused and without information. For example, passengers at Worcester Park station were waiting for up to an hour-and-a-half for a train to Waterloo on Wednesday evening, even though the departure boards indicated that trains were running on time.
Is the much-maligned Dial-a-Ride service actually getting any better? And will integrating door-to-door services lead to improvements for the half a million Londoners with mobility impairments?
A new investigation by the London Assembly Transport Committee will look at what progress has been made on addressing more immediate service problems, as well as assessing proposals to create a more coordinated, borough-led door-to-door transport service.
A train caught fire just outside Berrylands station on Thursday morning causing travel chaos to trains heading into London Waterloo. Around 200 passengers waited on the smoking train for about an hour and a half before being evacuated along the snow-covered tracks to Berrylands. Firefighters said the fire was caused by an electrical fault.
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