Thanks for sharing all the inside knowledge. I suppose what it confirms is that nothing has been publicly announced, which to me suggests there is at least an element of risk of it not happening.
That sounds intriguing. Would the treasury be prepared to open their coffers to buy out TfL, in return of having more control over London services? Would the Mayor’s office be prepared to let their success story London Overground go, at the time when all the prospective buyer is going on about is “levelling up”?
It would be a bit like selling off my landscaped garden to some uncaring neighbours just because I can’t afford the latest lawnmower.
Good to see this is in the news but rather worryingly the article says:
“Southern said that from February 28, trains running on the West Croydon to London Victoria line via Crystal palace will once again stop at all stations. Full service will resume on the East Croydon to London Bridge on the same day.”
I thought it was supposed to be from 21st February - see a previous post “Southern have announced their weekday timetable changes from Monday 21st February - Friday 25th February and with more services being transferred back to Victoria from London Bridge the stopping service from East Croydon to London Bridge is finally being reinstated”
Has My London got it wrong or has Southern “amended” their plans…
It wouldn’t be the first time My London hasn’t got their facts completely straight. As per my update yesterday on the “Revised Southern Railways weekday timetable from Monday 21st February” thread Southern have now added the actual revised timetables for the week of Feb 21st to their website, and this shows both the return of both the East Croydon-London Bridge stopping service as well as the Victoria-London Bridge service via Crystal Palace in peak hours.
Southern have advised more direct services to Victoria will be introduced from February 28th but have not yet published any further details. However, as both our Southern services are being reinstated on February 21st - I’d be surprised if there are any further changes to those on the 28th.
The trouble is, if the service isn’t running now the pandemic is apparently over, then I can’t use it so I can’t give them money for it. Because I got the Victoria service I don’t have a line any more so I cycle. Win for me on fitness and money saving but I’d rather have the choice. And the basic principle of sales is that if it’s not on the shelf you won’t get any money for it because no one can buy it. Southern isn’t getting money from me because the service I used to by isn’t available. But if the Victoria service ran I’d be using it and paying for it.
Vicki Foxcroft is chairing a meeting with Southern at 5pm 23 February
"Thank you for contacting my office regarding the issues you are experiencing with the Southern Rail service between stations in the local area and central London.
I have coordinated a meeting with Patrick Ladbury, Paul Codd and Olivia Barlow- who are stakeholder managers at Govia Thameslink Rail – the company that manages Southern Rail services. I will be chairing the meeting and will be joined by a member of my office team.
The meeting will cover the changes to services and I hope will present us with an idea of what will be in place to cover these services going forward."
I guess any others who wrote to Vicki will receive an invite.
I was just in Vicky Foxcroft’s meeting with Govia Thameslink Rail along with (I’m guessing) a couple of people who have been participating in this thread.
GTR say they are only committing to run the present services (which have just been reinstated) until May at which point they will reassess demand based on passenger numbers. Several of us raised the concern that passenger numbers are likely to be in correlation with the available services. For example for me personally I have been avoiding the Overground from HPA as it’s so unpleasantly packed and instead taking more circuitous, less convenient routes via Crofton Park etc. so I’m not being counted as a passenger on my normal route.
Sadly there is no prospect of the LBG-VIC route returning as far as I understood it.
Vicky suggested everyone check in again closer to May which seems sensible.
Yes I was in too - they did say they could possibly consider swapping the Lon Bridge to East Croydon for the London Bridge to Victoria (so still just 2 trains per hour into Lon Bridge). We said that we shouldn’t be forced to choose! And made the point that Norwood Junction is a really poor interchange if not able-bodied. To be honest I think they are interested in longer commuter routes than the “Metro” routes which stay largely within Z2/3.
I think they said they could consider restoring the Victoria loop in the May timetable…
But their case against is dependent on passenger numbers, passenger revenue and their chronic lack of drivers.
Govia’s franchise is up in April and there is a chance they could lose it though…
Thanks for the updates @SweetPotato, @squashst and @suze even though the response from GTR was pretty much as expected! And now it is becoming more difficult for them to blame staff either with Covid or self isolating they are finally having to admit that they don’t actually have enough drivers full stop. How ridiculous to even suggest they could possibly consider switching the East Croydon service for the Victoria service when we need both. I’m concerned though how they will reassess demand for the Victoria service when it has largely not operated for close on two years and those who used to use it are having to take totally different routes using other companies…
Perhaps our biggest hope is for GTR to lose the Southern franchise although with Great British Railways coming in next year what’s the betting Southern will be given an extension to at least next year?
It would be interesting to know how they will do this.
I took Southern yesterday to London Bridge and changed to to another mainline train, without scanning any card or ticket, How will the Southern computer know that I took their train from FOH to London Bridge? My TFL card (scanned at FOH) gets me to to any station in Zones 1 - 6. I had an additional ticket from Zone 6 to St Albans for the part of the journey not covered by the TFL card.
Presumably there will be an assumption that as you have not checked out at an Overground station you used the mainline train. Also, some trains seem to measure passenger numbers by weight. They seem to know which carriages have more or fewer passengers!
Exactly. To go from Forest Hill to London Bridge on Southern requires no need to go through barriers when changing on to Thameslink services. However, if you were to go from Forest Hill to London Bridge via London Overground and Jubilee Line at Canada Water, you will be required to go through two sets of barriers at London Bridge. One at the tube concourse and then walk to the main railway concourse and go through another set of barriers.