Ellie Reeves - the Lewisham West and Penge MP which covers Forest Hill and parts of Honor Oak has already been involved with our Southern issues after they stopped the peak weekday services to/from Victoria in September having only reintroduced them in May. She set up a meeting with Southern and representatives from @ForestHillSociety and Sydenham Society when Southern advised that they were planning to bring those services back in the December timetable which of course only lasted until Christmas Eve when all Southern services ceased for what was meant to be the 9 day shutdown of all our Southern services due to the engineering work closing all Southern’s tracks into Victoria. So Elllie should be the best person to contact about the ongoing issues. Contact - Ellie Reeves Labour MP for Lewisham West & Penge
I can work from.home but going in to the office a couple of times a week at the moment is better for my productivity and my mental and physical health.
It is very irritating that it is now more difficult to do that.
London Travel Watch are apparently the consumer representative group that can take this up with Southern and the regulator.
Also the direct London Bridge service is much easier and quicker than the Overground for those of us who work, or want to socialise, in the City, South Bank area and West End.
I tweeted Ellie Reeves and Southern have replied confirming there are three trains a day - all before 7am
Helpful!
At one stage I recall there was a suggestion that some Southern trains would stop at New Cross Gate to at least allow a transfer from Overground to rail for London Bridge. But that seems never too have happened! Looking at Trainline the advice is to walk to New Cross!
That’s what I did on Friday as I could not face the interchange at Canada Water. But obviously it is more expensive if you use PAYG as you have to tap in and out when you change stations.
Southern try their bullsxxt everywhere, but they are not allowed to get away with it in all boroughs. Southern tried to cancel all of their services through Wandsworth, as they have done in West Lewisham , but they were very heavily challenged by the council and the MPs, which resulted in Southern putting service back on the the tracks.
strong text
In light of all this I’ve mailed my MP Vicky Foxcroft about this; I hope if many of us do the same then this will get some attention. It sounds like issues with Southern are on Ellie Reeves’ radar already which is great.
It feels like action only happens after a raft of complaints, and it would be good to see what the council’s proactive plans are to sort the mess out.
I’m writing.
I’ve truly had enough!
the suspension of Southern services has really made me not enjoy living here.
This may sound melodramatic but its affecting my mental health. Work is tough right now and Canada Water is such a grey bleak and overcrowded interchange it just drags me down.
Even if I missed a Southern train going home from London Bridge at least I had somewhere airy that felt safe to sit and wait for the next one…Trust me after 8hours on my feet all day any chance to sit down on the way home is welcome.
And Changing from Northbound Overground to the Jubilee in the rush-hour going in is a stampede.
I sympathise, the Canada Water inter change is horrible. I used to commute to Stratford and the journey, although not that long, was horribly stressful.
Moving to a job where my commute just involves a single train to London Bridge was such a relief.
Agreed! I’m heavily pregnant and on my feet all day at work. I now have to do a longer diversion home involving tube, train and bus just to avoid the Overground interchange, I used to have the Southern train option from London Bridge to avoid the OG.
They really have no idea how much this affects people!
I see Wandsworth had Conservative councillors. At the risk of this post being banned, maybe that got some more visibility with the present government (and no, if that is the case, that most certainly is not the right way to run transport!).
One of my posts was about the activity of Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, who is a labour MP.
The screen-prints I have taken are from the Twitter feeds of the person posting the activity, not from general media.
I have not seen any of Wandsworth’s labour or indeed conservative councilors/MP’s lobbying/other activity relating transport promoted by general media, such as the BBC or other papers.
I do not see how the vigorous lobbying of labour and/or conservative councilors/MP’s is dodgy in anyway, it is just about letting train companies know they must do what is right for residents.
I’ve written to Ellie Reeves. Her email is ellie.reeves.mp@parliament.uk
FYI I found a template online for writing to your MP and have pasted my email below incase it’s useful for anyone. Apparently you should include your postcode when writing to your MP, which I didn’t know.
My name is << insert name here>> and I’m writing to you today about the reduction of weekday Southern railways services from Forest Hill, Brockley and Honor Oak Park to London Bridge. As someone who lives in your constituency and works in central London, this issue is extremely important to me and other commuters living in the area. This will be particularly important when Covid restrictions are eased later this month and more people will be returning to work.
I would like you to inquire about this with Southern Railway and find out when the service will be reinstated. Please can you outline the steps you intend to take to address these concerns and keep me informed of any progress.
Yours sincerely,
name
Full address including postcode
Thank you!
Thank you - I have written a similar email to Vicky Foxcroft (I am in Honor Oak which sits in the Lewisham Deptford consituency).
Thanks for all the facts, I have just sent Ellie an email too.
With the ongoing saga of no trains on the London to Victoria route, does anyone travel to Battersea or Victoria via FH. I just wonder what route people are taking to get there. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I dread the journey to Battersea now! I will also be writing to Ellie Reeves to express my discontent. Thanks