It’s an emergency measure to take the spotlight off the PM.
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It would be helpful if they fixed this soon - like many people I am expected to be back in the office for 60% of the time from next week.
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7 days on and still no response/ acknowledgement from Vicky Foxcroft unfortunately.
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I messaged Vicky Foxcroft on this today also. Given the announcement on dropping all WFH guidance came out over a week ago now, it’s completely unacceptable that Southern are remining silent on this. Reduced service is understandable, no service is pathetic.
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I see the news that there is easing of restriction re overseas travel / testing which will boost overseas travel, especially for half term. Of course if you want to go to Gatwick, Luton and to a degree Heathrow then…rail connections to East Croydon or London Bridge would be very helpful.
I am beginning to think that the Southern new strap-line is “you can like it or lump it”; or perhaps “we don’t have customers any more - just collateral damage”.
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I’ve emailed Ellie and Len duvall demanding a response and update on this.
the silence from our local MP (bar a standard reply to all) Is exasperating!
I’ve asked her to refer to this thread and please respond on the forum
Next stop local press me thinks…
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Tweet her?
What a joke - “February half term school holidays” should not be one of the “external factors” for changing the essential train schedule for an area containing hundreds of thousands of people in SE London. Disgusting
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Sent to Sadiq Khan mayor@london.gov.uk. Of course you get the email back, aim to reply within 20 days. Am trying to work out how best to contact Department of Transport. I have a bit of a fear this is only partially about staff sickness, e.g. Southern/Govia may simply want to put as much possible through London Bridge whilst the Victoria work goes on - which snookers our line. So the Mayor, Dept of Transport may be useful contacts.
I’m writing to you today about the removal (not reduction!) of all weekday Southern railways services in the key commuter line for Sydenham, Forest Hill, Honor Oak Park, Brockley and New Cross Gate into London Bridge. Before the pandemic this was 4 trains an hour into London Bridge. Going south from London Bridge, Southern Rail provided the key routes for the above stations to London Victoria and East Croydon.
These trains have been reduced to zero between Christmas and New Year and have not returned. There is no indication from Southern when they will return.
I of course understand that Southern Rail will have many staff off sick or isolating at present, and also that there are major works into London Victoria. However, I am very disappointed that there are no Southern services at all into London Bridge (and there aren’t even any stopping at New Cross Gate to allow an interchange between London Overground and Southern trains). I appreciate that we do have the London Overground, however, these trains are crowded being much shorter, and the interchange at Canada Water takes time to travel back into London. Furthermore, the interchange at Canada Water is very crowded.during peak times.
The current situation is very severely impacting commuters in South London. This will be particularly important given the removal of work from home guidance. Furthermore, not having the connection to London Bridge, London Victoria and East Croydon does not encourage people to socialize in Central London, thus meaning a drag on recovery for many businesses there. The route into East Croydon / London Bridge also is heavily used by those flying from various London airports.
I would be grateful for your to influence Southern Railway (Govia Thameslink Railway) and get them to reinstate as quickly as possible their services for the key Sydenham to New Cross Gate stations into London Bridge/Victoria.
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Really good email. I would be interested to see the response.
We should probably all write a similar one.
Tried this too but no reply, and I’m not the only one who has been trying to draw attention to this via Twitter.
Response in from Ellie Reeves:
Thank you for contacting me in relation to the Southern Rail Services provided within the constituency.
I have now met with Southern Rail and have received the below written response from them which I am sure you will wish to review.
Following the meeting, I can share with you that current reduced services are unfortunately likely to remain in place until Monday 21st February 2022, thereafter Southern Rail aim to go back to the pre-Christmas tameable. This means that the East Croydon to London Bridge should resume from Sydenham and Forest Hill on that date. However, Southern has told me that the London Bridge - London Victoria loop line that was due to be brought back at peak times from the beginning of January is unlikely to come back until staff absences drop to 12%
This is disappointing as we were expecting increased services and a new timetable from the 4th January 2022. Due to high levels of staff unavailability (much higher than what was experienced between September and late December when I previously voiced my concerns to Southern Rail) the planned increase and new timetable will no longer go ahead.
Although not the update I had wanted to share with you, I hope the below goes some way towards explaining the difficulties Southern Rail are facing and how this has affected services to and from stations within the constituency.
I will be monitoring the situation and getting back in contact with Southern Rail if services fail to return on the 21st February.
In the meantime, please do keep an eye on Southern’s website for any and all official updates: Southern - Revised-timetable (southernrailway.com)
Please find southern Rails response below.
Best wishes,
Ellie
Sent on behalf of Ellie Reeves MP
Member of Parliament for Lewisham West and PengeFirstly, we are very sorry for the disruption constituents are facing to journeys to/from central London at the moment. We know this is very challenging and we are working hard to improve the service.
Unfortunately we are currently facing a higher level of staff unavailability. To explain why the service is currently structured as it is, in late December as coronavirus cases rose, we needed a developed plan that would run reliably with fewer staff available as our absence level is very similar to the first UK lockdown, when we operated a Sunday service across the network. Absence is improving, but still significantly above the level which would make the December 2021 or September 2021 service suitable to try and offer to customers.The only realistic option other than a Sunday service was to continue the service that had been in place over Christmas. Relative to the alternative of a Sunday service, it had the benefit of a better match to standard weekday specification, including more school trains, but had been planned around the closure of London Victoria, meaning many long distance services that would normally use Victoria are operating to London Bridge instead. The timetable was also built around a Saturday base which means that trains start to operate slightly later. We appreciate this is frustrating for constituents as they return to work but unfortunately we can’t build more services, early morning services or add additional stops without replanning the entire service. This is because all our timetables are planned carefully and holding one train at a station or adding in a train often has a significant knock on effect on the network.
We know this is very difficult for customers and we are sorry, but we wanted to provide certainty over what would run so that customers could plan. We know how disruptive large and unexpected gaps can be, and how it can knock trust in a service. This is, just to be absolutely clear – a temporary timetable based on a viable contingency plan.
We know we need to move to a new timetable to be able to do much more and we are working on this. However, even with the head-start of existing plans to adapt, it is a long process. Realistically we are expecting this to mean this current base timetable will be in place until mid to late February unfortunately because of the timescales needed to develop a new safe and resilient service plan.
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Thanks Brett, it is good to have a response unwelcome though it is. I do not know enough to compare the Sunday service v what is happening now across the whole Southern Network, but I do wonder when they made their decision whether they factored in that they were completely sacrificing this part of the network for trains into London Bridge.
I guess they probably said, oh, they’ve got the Overground / they can sprint across for a 3 minute transfer at Norwood Junction.
But at least we have some material for follow-ons.
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I got that response too. Disappointing. Looks like I am resigned to Canada Water hell for at least a month.
I really want to get back to the office more, WFH is getting tedious, but the journey does not look good.
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I have the same reply and I’m also disappointed. I am also annoyed that the response from Southern reads as though they have reduced a few services and are providing a weekend service during the week, when in reality they have cancelled all services during the week.
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Thanks for posting Ellie’s latest response @Brett - you beat me to it - I’ve just received mine!
Whilst it’s disappointing news I wouldn’t say I’m particularly surprised given Southern’s track record especially over the last 21 months!
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Does this mean we’ll be back to 4 LBG trains per hour from 21st Feb?
Brilliant email.
I just received the update from Ellie Reeves quoted earlier.
I personally am not happy with being fed platitudes along the lines of ‘I know this isn’t the news you were hoping for’ or words to that effect-we were told a full service would be reinstated on 4th January this never happened-why should we believe the 21st of Feb will go ahead?
This leaves us without a full train service for over 2 months in total.
Furthermore I honestly don’t buy the staff absence as an excuse-how come other trains on other routes have been running?
I got a train to the south coast at the peak of the Pandemic there were no cancellations ( also a southern rail route) my colleague has been traveling from the south coast daily into work throughout and she was late once because her train was cancelled due to staff sickness.
It smacks of bull****.
I think more pressure needs to be put by those who can speak on our behalf ( councillors? ) to get things moving sooner
I’m sick of us being treated so badly by southern Rail.
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I doubt it as 2 of the 4 services when we’ve had them have been provided by the Victoria loop line which they’re not giving a date for!
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