Network
chaos
Since
the last newsletter in the spring, train services have improved considerably —
well, they really couldn’t have gotten much worse, after half of the evening
peak services from London Bridge were cancelled between January and May of this
year due to poor planning of services around London Bridge station’s
improvements. Since May’s timetable changes, Southern trains have managed to
run on a relatively reliable schedule, although there still continues to be
more cancellations than anyone would like to see.
As a
result of the appalling service at the beginning of the year, the Office of
Rail and Road (ORR) severely criticised Network Rail for their inadequacies in
planning for the impact of Thameslink’s engineering work and timetabling. The
ORR subsequently fined them £2m, which is not a great deal for a company that
receives a £10m per day subsidy from the taxpayer; no doubt, any higher a fine
would only have made it harder to achieve passenger improvements. In addition,
the chairman of Network Rail was sacked and Sir Peter Hendy, one of the most
respected managers in UK transportation and who had been head of Transport for
London (TfL), was appointed as his successor this summer. We can only hope that
Network Rail will now improve services.
The
Forest Hill Society had been asking questions about changes to ticketing and
timetabling — which would occur during Thameslink’s planned upgrade work at
London Bridge station — for the four preceding years. Despite our continued
expressions of concern, Network Rail and train operators proved that they had
not adequately planned for the chaos that was to result from the temporary
removal of so many tracks into or out of the station.
On a
positive note, work around Bermondsey appears to be progressing well; and, this
time next year, train services should be running to and from Charing Cross
again albeit without direct services to and from Forest Hill (as was once the
case).
Bakerloo
line
You
may remember, at the end of last year, TfL consulted about plans for a Bakerloo
line extension to Lewisham and Hayes; and, possibly, Bromley. Not surprisingly,
96% of 15,000 respondents were in favour of such plans. Notable amongst the 4%
who opposed TfL’s plans was Bromley Council, which was concerned about slower
connections to London for people who would use the proposed extension to Hayes.
Despite the objections, the idea of extending the Bakerloo line seems to be
gaining traction, with many candidates for 2016’s London mayoral election
expressing their support for the concept.
Recently,
mutterings have been heard from Croydon Council about a different route for the
Bakerloo line that would run to Croydon. Why this is necessary, when there are
fast services from Croydon to most main line stations in London, is not clear
at this stage. The location for such a route is also not clear but, given the
congestion around Norwood, it is possible that tunnelling close to Croydon is being considered
rather than taking over busy tracks and junctions - but all of this is
speculation.
The
Forest Hill Society continues to support the concept of extending the Bakerloo
line. Our belief is that almost any route would be advantageous to large areas
of South London, and the sooner an extension is started the better!
