"CJB" wrote in message
...
In a master stroke of inconsideration for hapless passengers
trying to
get home late at night South West Trains - the company headed
by a bus
driver - has in its wisdom - decided to make things really
difficult
at Feltham Station.


At 23.00 to 06.30 it is now closing all entrances and exits at
platform 1 (on the up line). It just so happens that the major
bus
station interchange is also situated just outside platform 1.
The 285
all night bus runs to/from Healthrow and Kingston and uses that
bus
station - the area IS a major bus/rail interchange for the
area.


Indeed. I used the recent Network Rail survey opportunity, as
published on this group, to "complain" about this decision.

Now with the late night closure of all entrances/exits between
platform 1 and the bus station any arriving or departing
passengers
will have to lummox their luggage over the railway footbridge
in order
to use the gate at platform 2.

But there are lifts, if needed (and assuming they are working)!

This gate effectively dumps them late
at night in the station car park which is not served by any
buses at
all.

Agreed - but if you know the area, it's a short walk to
alternative bus stops, or alternative routes.

In order to get from platform 2 to the bus station (outside
platform 1) this means a walk of about half a mile around the
industrial zone; or alternatively along an unlit alley-way to
the
level crossing - in an area of town more noted for its drunks
and
feral youths. That is if anyone knows the way.

*I* know the way - but then, I live in Feltham (no, I'm not
drunk, and I'm not a feral youth!). I wouldn't use that alleyway
late at night. A nearby block of flats at the end of that alley
was recently raided by the police, and several arrests were made,
in connection with supply of drugs. I'd walk through the car park
to the foot of the road bridge, where there are traffic lights,
and cross the main road into Hanworth Road, where the 285 also
stops.


However, in yet further inconsideration to its hapless
passengers, no
direction signs have been erected to help them. The
extrance/exit
gates at platform 1 are simply locked at 23.00 and that's that.
And
for the disabled, aged, or less than mobile - this unwarranted
closure
is a gross inconvenience.


Indeed, it may actually be illegal under the Disability
Discrimination Act - but it needs a genuine complaint, from
someone with mobility problems, to the Equal Rights Commission in
order to follow that particular route of action to get the
original situation restored.

There aren't many arrivals / departures on P1 between 23:00 and
06:30. From the LDBs tonight, and the Journey planner for
tomorrow:

23:05, 23:10, 23:15, 23:35, 00:05...05:06, 05:45, 06:16 - a total
of 8 trains.

If arriving on one of those trains, and wanting to catch an
onward bus, it could only be Service 490, 285, or H25. The 490
and 285 can be boarded at the Hanworth Road stops. If, however,
one needs the H25, or, if, as you say, one has mobility
problems - hard luck. Surely it can't be saving huge sums of
money by closing early / opening late?

--
MatSav