Also £$%$" Tfl - don’t even have balls to say why the line is out.
You will see there are a few weekends with service from Shadwell to Surrey Quays - got to keep the tube drivers nicely paid while providing no service to the customers!
Just as a side note, it’s high time the Overground got it’s own individual line names - the network is almost as complex as the tube and if you see reports of ‘problems on the Overground’ it could literally be all the way over in North West London - it’s useless. I know it’s been hotly debated but it really needs to happen asap as it’s super confusing.
Next weekend with no works is 17/10 (but no Overground) - then back off on 7/11 - then you are into the “Southern Rail thinks this is too far in the future to give you information”
More pissed off with the obvious attempt to hide the closures and the reasons for them that the actual closures
I’ve never known so many weekends of closures on this line!
The November dates have only appeared in the last week or so! It seems very strange though that TFL are splitting the work on our line into two parts as that infers there will be trains running between Shadwell and Surrey Quays which I’d be very surprised is correct!
NRE are showing the whole line closed which is probably more accurate, although currently they only show the weekend of 20/21 November and nothing any later!
The early stopping of LO services south of Sydenham happens quite regularly and also affects Southern services south of Norwood Junction from around 11pm but probably doesn’t affect many of us in the SE23 area. There are normally the same number of services operating southbound as far as Sydenham as the services that would normally terminate at West Croydon are diverted to Crystal Palace. It’s only if you need to travel further south than Sydenham after around 10.30pm or are returning to Forest Hill from somewhere further south than Sydenham after that time that you will have to use Southern services to and from Norwood Junction and then the bus replacement services to or from West Croydon.
I had to opt out of late shifts in my job due to living here-my late shift ends at 10.30pm and it would have left me having to take 2 busses and getting home after midnight.
Needless to say my manager was NOT impressed- he lives in Winchester and manages to get home from late shifts and I live in zone 3 !!!
We’ve lived here 10years and its never been this bad.
its actually getting me down tbh.
@maxrocks I feel for you although I’m not sure your manager still has the late trains to Winchester that existed before the covid-19 timetables came in. I travel on that route fairly regularly and in the past I always found it crazy that the last train was a lot later than I could get from London Bridge to Forest Hill!
It seems TFL/National rail (whoever) just do exactly as they please with no communication or thought to people living in the area.
I understand that now is a good time to do engineering works, and also that services may need reducing/amending due to lower passenger numbers. However this should then surely mean that FH will have 100% service for the next couple of years. However I notice that TFL are already scheduling overground closures through to March 2021.
It really seems that London overground are taking advantage. OK so engineering works got delayed at Easter due to COVID, fine I understand. But let’s say Easter is 14 days - to have the service down every weekend for approximately nine months is around 72 days. Why the difference? Can’t they compromise and at least run a reduced service - 4 trains an hour - even 2 would be better than nothing. This is at a time where buses are operating at reduced capacity and are generally very unpleasant to be on.
I really think the council should support here - various initiatives ‘encouraging’ people to avoid using their cars. I am all for this, I do not actually have a car, however people will not stop using cars if the transport is as bad as it has become at FH at the weekend.
I agree that now is a great time to do works, but I have a few issues :
1)no communications (forest Hill Station regularly forgets to advertise at all) and there is no real advanced notice
2) the last few years have been covered in weekend closures. Normally you would only expect 1-2 weeks a year but our line has been closed enough to completely replace the tracks every year for 4 years.
3)no reason given for the works
4) no improvement to the service - in fact it decreases. They keep removing services - where are charing cross trains or the promised Kings Cross ones?
5)they deny past closures happened so you can’t challenge them
6) rail replacement buses are often (usually) not signposted and occasionally barely in FH (often you have to walk to honor Oak road)
7) no scheduling between Southern and LO so they sometimes close at the same time
@LeoGibbons these are the kind of factors that encourage people to use roads, so Lewisham Council possibly should be weighing in on this problem.
When I used to commute, this was the norm at Norwood Junction and it was crazily dangerous as people sprinted down the stairs, through the underpass and around the corners trying to make the connection between Southern and LO.
Everything you say is so true and causes me much frustration (especially the once promised Charing X train)
Personally I have found in the past that contacting our local councillors for anything travel related falls on deaf ears-either dent get a reply or you get a reply advising you to just contact the rail companies involved.
I emailed all and sundry about this some time ago and got nowhere.
@maxrocks The Charing Cross train would have taken 15mins off my commute and reduced the cost - thats a lot of time and money I’ve wasted because they can’t meet their promises (thousands of £)
Back in the late 1970s I ran into London Bridge station around midnight and just missed the last train to FH. I moaned to the staff member close to me as a driver walked past. The driver overheard and asked me to wait a minute . . . he then got on the phone (a fixed staff only one) and beckoned me to join him. Hop in he said - it was a lone diesel loco with no train behind it. I stepped up into the cab with him and he explained that he had been routed to take the fast track through FH and his call had been to the signalman to put him on the stopping line. We flashed through all the stations enroute and he let me get off at FH. The station was completely shut and I had to climb over a wall to get out.
It’s hard to know who to complain to: it is true that our local councillors and Lewisham Mayor don’t have direct management of any of this - but they could lobby. Same for our MP. Our GLA member should be representing our case to the Mayor, but I have no idea whether that is happening.
@Meldrew - That sounds like a good guy. Sadly I bet they have shut that type of thing down completely because of ‘safety’
Also jumping over the only wall in FH station these days will give you a 20foot drop so I wouldn’t recommend that!!
A single journey on the overground to canary wharf is £1.50 - increasing to £3 if you have to take a bus to New Cross. Over the course of the year this is huge.
Also - comms is terrible. I found out about the rail replacement bus on this forum. It does not actually go to the station but via Honour Oak Road. I just assumed TFL had failed to provide it however it should save the cost of the bus even if it adds hours over time to your journey.
Only way to travel is to just rock up at FH station and hope for the best - as the comms is so muddled and changes all the time.
We really need some action. Why cancellations through to 2021 TFL? More engineering works? Surely not. Apparently they have been done for the last 4 years!
Is it worth asking MPs & councillors TP push for a fare concession? Presumably the track maintenance needs doing, but they could at least make alternative tfl routes available on the usual ticket?
For instance, while the London Bridge / Victoria loop is out of service, we should be able to take the alternative routes at the same price. It might focus TFL minds on bringing the service back.
