But another 3 months away! That’s a long time to wait for those of you who need this route for your commute. I’m going into Central London for the first time since February tomorrow afternoon and need to get to Victoria. I was originally going to get the 185 but with the gas works on Waldram Park Road and the diversion northbound due to the part closure of Vauxhall Bridge I’ve decided the best option will be to get a Forest Hill - East Croydon train and change onto a Victoria train there as at least there are a lot more trains to Victoria if one looks too full for my liking!
Bus to Denmark Hill, Overground to Clapham Junction, train to Victoria.
(or 30 mins by bike 
)
Thanks @Clausy. With 2 arthritic knees cycling is not an option and probably not advisable for anyone hoping to have a few or more glasses of wine before returning to SE23!! 
I think I’ll stick with the East Croydon rail connection getting there but depending on what time I come home I may get the 185 bus which I have done a lot over the years.
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Haha absolutely - I do plenty of cycling and wine, just not on the same evening - not a wise move
I do love the bus too - often get the 176 home from Waterloo Bridge at weekends because it’s easier than trains or there’s line work - sit at the front and watch the world go by.
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Luckily I’m not much further from catford/catford Bridge than i am from forest hill so may just have to do that -but yes, three months definitely a pain! I just hope they do bring the service back. Not sure I trust them…
I asked at the ticket office at FH and I was told that it’s not coming back this year and Southern are looking for an excuse to get rid of it due to congestion. As trains are, in theory, still quiet Southern won’t even think about bringing back for the forseeable.
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Hi. Does anybody know why there are only 2 trains an hour FH to LB on Saturday, but 4 on Sunday? Is this normal or temporary? 4 trains is ok but still quite light for zone 3.
Also, are there really no weekend services from FH on the overground for the rest of the year?
The combination of the two leaving us with only 2 trains an hour isn’t really that great.
Couldn’t it just be one of them at once with no/greatly reduced service - rather than both Southern and LO down/reduced? Don’t they coordinate with each other…
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My guess is that the two missing trains are the Victoria to London bridge trains.
This would not be too much of a problem, if the Overground trains were running. You could get an Overgound train to New Cross Gate and pick up a mainline train there. Some mainline trains are fast to New Cross Gate and then onto London Bridge.
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It’d be much better if the overground trains ran at the weekend. 2 trains/ hour for zone 3 isn’t really ok. Not sure how they’re getting away with it really…
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Its rubbish-I’m sounding like a cracked record moaning about this but as someone who works weekends its actually making me pretty damn miserable and the hours I work mean that I always end up with a 20 min wait at London Bridge on Saturday. 
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I think it’s a very valid moan. Two trains/hour I mean this is zone 3!! I don’t mind whether it’s Southern or Overground but I think the council or whoever need to pick this up with TFL.
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Absolutely no doubt that Forest Hill is now a worse station to be living near in terms of services. Scrapping the London Bridge to Victoria service is a nightmare for those of us that needed it. Adds in a other unnecessary change and +15 minutes to journey time.
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According to the TfL website there’s no overground service on the Forest Hill branch pretty much every weekend until December.
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@Sherwood is correct. Pre Covid-19 2 of the 4 Southern trains an hour Monday-Saturday from Forest Hill to London Bridge were the Victoria service , and therefore when the Victoria service was suspended when the temporary timetables were initially introduced that has resulted in only the 2 Coulsdon Town services operating. However on Sundays Southern operate a London Bridge - Crystal Palace service which has not been suspended. Therefore when London Overground had engineering work every weekend in July and August and we were only left with the Southern services, this was why there were 2 trains on Saurdays but 4 trains most Sundays!
The London Overground work on July and August weekends had been delayed from being done over the Easter period when it would have taken less time but Covid-19 regulations has affected the way rail engineering work can be done but as it is safety critical it can’t just be left.
The engineering work for the next 4 weekends is resulting in no Southern or London Overground trains on our line at all. There will be bus replacement services between New Cross Gate and West Croydon and London Overground will be operating northbound from New Cross Gate and v.v… There will be no Southern service from New Cross Gate.
Depending on where in SE23 you live when we have engineering work on our main line it is often worth looking at options from other stations in the area. E.g. Catford Bridge (served by 185 and 171 buses) to London Bridge and Charing Cross, Penge East (served by 75 bus) to London Victoria or Crofton Park (served by 122, 171, 172 buses) and Catford to Blackfriars (change at Denmark Hill for Victoria)
Prior to all of this they also removed the peak time trains to/from East Croydon, which I think was far more useful than going to West Croydon.
It definitely feels like Forest Hill Station is less useful than it used to be.
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Forest Hill never gets any visibility in transport surveys despite it been the third busiest station in Lewisham (Lewisham and New Cross Gate are busier) and 25% busier than the next (Brockley). The busiest by far in Ellie’s constituency
https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/popular-statistics/busiest-stations-in-britain/
It is also the 93rd busiest station in the UK - busier than Huddersfield, Kingston and Peterborough! Almost ever busier station has more than 2 platforms
https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/usage/estimates-of-station-usage/
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No LO or Southern for the next 4 weekends - really not ok.
If you live on the East side of FH then travelling by bus/foot to Catford/East Dulwich/Sydenham Hill/New Cross can easily add 20/30 mins to the journey.
Has TFL been challenged on its decision to close the LO for the rest of the year at weekends? I appreciate maintenance needs doing but it has been down pretty much every weekend since about March if I remember correctly.
Does whatever needs doing really take this long or are they just taking advantage?
There is a big push to get everyone travelling by public transport or on foot/bike - really difficult for that to happen if they cancel all of the trains/LO!
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Who by?
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Oh I see - not entirely sure how political representation works but it’d be good if the council could try to sort this out.
Where have you found the notification that LO will be closed at weekends for the rest of the year?
There is a lot of engineering work planned but neither TFL’s “planned line closures and service changes” or National Rail Enquiries “future engineering works” shows every weekend!