Well it’s the first week day of the new schedule. How was your commute?
The 0828 appeared a shorter train. All the seats looked filled from my favourite boarding spot. So I grabbed a coffee and waited for 0836 which was 3/4 empty and stayed as much to London Bridge. I’ve never seen a morning train leave New Cross Gate do empty. Shame it’s real old commuter stock. No tables. Spent a long time stopped outside London Bridge.
I can’t see how it would have been related to the new schedule, but I did get a seat when getting on an Overground train from FH to Canada Water at 0743. I literally can’t remember that ever having happened before!
Hmm. 0836 arrived into LBG later than the old 0845 did.
I left early this morning to catch the “new” 06.42 (old 0645) and it was late, arriving into FOH at 06.46. It was as busy as the old 06.45 was so no change there. I forgot to check how the “new” 06.58 (old 06.54) was running and it had dropped off the National Rail app when i remembered so it must have run pretty much on time. I did notice the 07.13 was running 6 minutes late when I looked though…
The 0658 arrived at 0658!
I was running late so got the 8:13am train at around 8:20am. Unsurprisingly it was packed, no seats available, and some Brockley commuters were left standing on the platform.
Seeing the way people were moving back up the platform it may also have been shorter than some people were expecting.
I much prefer taking the train an hour earlier.
I caught the 8.03 from Sydenham (which is 8.06 from forest hill) and the train was practically empty. Leaves about 5 mins later than old train but only starts at Crystal palace so usually good for seats and my preferred train. Albeit today it was even emptier than usual. So at Forest Hill still plenty of seats available.
I go to Victoria so easiest option is a walk to Sydenham Hill or a bus to Denmark Hill/Peckham Rye. The SH option is just a couple of minutes earlier. Denmark Hill changes are awful - fewer trains and bigger gaps in service. Unless you actually work IN Victoria station, you need to be on the 0817 to avoid being late. Previously there were two just after 0830 that got in before 0850.
I rode my bike today tho so was fine. I do need to take trains Thurs/Fri though which won’t be fun.
Mine was great, but then again, I don’t get the train lol
Well not since the Overground first started in 2010!
Absolute joke this new timetable. Catford is awful. Only 2 trains now I can get opposed to 3. They’re very packed too
Just saw the 0754 Overground to Highbury & Islington leave practically empty by rush hour standards.
The 0758 Southern to London Bridge was no more crowded then a train an hour later on the old timetable.
Awful, I have the choice of getting up 15 mins earlier and getting into to work 35 minutes early or scrape in on 9am if everything runs smoothly. Also I can barely squeeze onto the trains from Crofton Park whereas before a seat was guaranteed and same for overground. Not happy. Trying different route every day but disappointed by delightful commute is now a pain.
The loss of the 07:21 means that the 07-28 (running at 07:30) was very crowded.
Those of you using Crofton Park may find it better at the moment to try Southern from HOP or Brockley to London Bridge and change for Thameslink there, where there are more trains.
You can’t live next to a mainline then complain about train noise. Expect it to get worse as national rail is moving towards 24/7 trains.
Also there’s a reason property is cheaper near Crofton Park / Catford. Because they aren’t priority/mainlines and the service will always be crap.
Missed my train home tonight as I forgot about the new times. But discovered the new shop on the London Bridge concourse sells Cook ready meals and loads of wine. So that’s a win 
Oh. Which part? Station concourse? Lower concourse? Or that bit connecting the station to the underground?
Details please
Lower concourse, near the escalators for Platforms 8 and 9 (or thereabouts). It’s built around a central display and you need to head towards the back to find the freezers full of Cook meals.