00:00 More than 50,000 in Kent get the train to work every day
00:05 and today four of the county stations have been ranked some of the worst for commuters.
00:11 Gravesend, Tunbridge, Chatham and worst of all Sevenoaks.
00:15 Last year it was more common for trains in Sevenoaks to be delayed by at least five minutes
00:21 than actually being on time.
00:23 The Rail Minister has said he hopes to see London's tap in tap out in more of Kent's stations.
00:29 So if you look at Kent, that's already been rolled out to Sevenoaks station for example.
00:33 What that of course means is you then end up with a simplified fare structure.
00:36 So that means that some people will end up paying a little more than they have done
00:40 but more people will end up paying less.
00:43 And of course that feeds into ranking so I do understand where we make changes,
00:47 where we make fares simpler and we try and sort of structure the railway differently
00:51 then of course there can be outliers that don't see it in such a favourable way.
00:56 So hoping this modern shift in how we use railways across the county will make services more reliable.
01:02 While some of Kent's railway stations are on the bottom of the leaderboard,
01:06 others today are being celebrated.
01:09 Today Hugh Merriman joined Southeastern and the Canterbury Society to unveil two new plaques.
01:15 The first was to officially launch the Flexi S ticket, essentially a digital season ticket.
01:21 It's a really important change for us to make to give people options and choice.
01:25 You know not everybody is going to want to move to a digital season ticket.
01:29 We have the key card, people can still choose to have their season ticket or a day ticket on that.
01:34 But some people find the convenience of having a ticket that they buy and store on their spot
01:40 with a car phone is a really great way to go. We're not taking away any other choices.
01:45 Another plaque today was to commemorate the first ever season ticket to be launched back in 1830.
01:52 This is about 100 yards from Canterbury West station, but this used to be Canterbury's railway station.
01:59 In fact it was the first place where a season ticket was ever issued.
02:03 So the plaque that's been unveiled at Canterbury West today will end up on this building in commemoration.
02:08 And these trees are right next to what was once the ticket office.
02:11 This used to be the railway line which linked Canterbury and Whitstable.
02:16 There are in fact already existing blue plaques dotted around,
02:19 but we thought it would be good to refresh that and add to that.
02:23 And we're very pleased that this, not being a particular person,
02:27 but being a facility that started in Canterbury, was the first to be unveiled.
02:32 It's been a tough couple of years for commuters across Kent and the country,
02:36 but those here today say they're on the right track
02:39 and hope to see Kent commuters travelling with more ease in the future.
02:43 Sophia Akin for KMTV in Canterbury.
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