Hi Tinkerbell and se23northener,

When I saw both of your comments I wanted to yell, "Noooooooooooooooooooo". But I'm in the office, so I did it just in my head. (It’s still echoing in my head though.)

Well, the cat is out of the bag. It was only a matter of time. Anyway, we've had a good quiet, quick year of doing this little scuttle far from the maddening crowd.

Anyway, this certainly is a great travel tip for our travelling SE23.com forum users who have stumbled on this thread and your nippy, nifty directions. Helping your fellow human being and all that rubbish, I suppose.

A new site http://www.fixmytransport.com/ has been launched to log problems with transport.
I have asked for Southern to make the evening peak services more regular as I'm fed up waiting for 17 minutes between trains when others are just 3 minutes apart. You can 'support' this issue at
http://www.fixmytransport.com/campaigns/...ridge-to-f

Actually, I preferred the old service of one train every ten minutes.

That's my point.

If you're planning on travelling into town using the ELL this Sunday, forget about it. It's closed all day Sunday between Highbury and Islington and New Cross Gate and Sydenham to Crystal Palace, leaving a 4tph service to West Croydon.

LOROL are not providing replacement buses up to Canada Water and suggest local bus routes (Walk to NX and catch a 225) instead.

Southern services to London Bridge will operate as normal.

More changes to our trains in the peak from December from the latest Southern Passenger Forum email.

And....

Also....

Overall, longer coaches on peak services, with two trains axed in the evening peak, however those longer coaches will compensate.[/quote]

So that will mean that in the morning the 7:12 train from FH will have 10 carriages and then the 7:20 will continue to only have 4 carriages.

The train at 9:36 from Crystal Palace should leave FH at 9:42, just 3 minutes before the next train to London Bridge.

The removal of the trains with 'low passenger numbers' is not surprising. That is what happens when you schedule trains 3 minutes after the previous service.

The two filler services appear to be a temporary 'fix' to compensate for reduced seats due to the 8 car platforms

It'll be interesting to see how the extra two carriages will make any difference to the 4 car peak services that follow after with some spare capacity with regards to seating and standing.

This is a short fix, we should have 12 car platforms for Southern and 5 car ELL services and those two additional trains in the peak from CP to Dalston Junction.

What about the 17:53 from London Bridge to Victoria? Is it unaffected?

I'll miss the 1824. By far the most pleasant train home. Because there was never anyone on it. Couldn't last.

I too enjoyed the 17.25 and the 18.24 - a rare treat to have a modern empty train during the evening rush.

If anyone travels Northbound home in the evening, as I do, then you may well have spotted that there is a service missing (Caterham to London Bridge via Forest Hill).

Trains run on the hour an half hour from East Croydon. Apart from at 1800 that is which is when the majority of people using that route actually want to travel of course.

Please support this issue at:
http://www.fixmytransport.com/campaigns/...-to-london

Thanks to Michael for the heads up on FixMyTransport. What a cool site.

Southern and London Overground's Christmas and New Year services have been announced on the National Rail site.

In summary, there are early ends as per usual on Christmas Eve with the 21.36 from LB being the final train to FH and the 22.05 from H&I on the ELL.

No trains on Christmas Day or Boxing Day.

However the good news is London Overground will keep the ELL open until 0220 on New Year's Eve to help revellers get home with trains every 15 minutes between H&I and West Croydon.

Pardon me if I'm cynical...the trains they're cancelling (17.24/18.24, or something similar) go to Crystal Palace only, and leave 3 minutes after the Victoria train, which also goes to FH, Sydenham etc and Crystal Palace. Of course they're empty - most people want to get home ASAP and cram onto the Victoria train, which also left from a more convenient platform (9 rather than the outer reaches of 15/16).

If the Crystal Palace train left before Victoria, it would have been packed.

I can't help wondering. Southern didn't time these trains so they could say "we tried running an extra train but there isn't the demand for it..." ....did they? Sorry if previous posts covered this

That would make a lot of sense. Might be wrong but I think there will only be 4 terminating platforms (won't be sad to say goodbye tio platform 16) for our sevices in the remodelled London Bridge station, so they'll be actively looking to justify which terminating services to cut.

Has anyone experienced what happens at Canada Water when the ELL goes up the spout? During the latest instance, a train to Crystal Palace started from the northbound platform, which was announced on a tinny tannoy system that most people on the southbound platform couldn't hear, so the majority of passengers were left behind without any idea of what happened as the train left!

Not sure reducing the number of available platforms is a good thing when you get a tailback of trains as a result of delays and disruptions.

I rarely use the ELL, I'm not knocking it as an addition to the area- but for me (and I suspect many like me) things are worse since they stopped running LB bound trains every ten minutes. I am NOT convinced the changeover at Canada Water is quicker for my particular journey needs - in fact it's a positive faff having to travel to London Bridge or Charing X this way.

I actually prefer to wait another 3 minutes for the quieter train, rather than crowd on to the first.....oh well it was nice while it lasted.

The big question for the next few days will be whether or not all the platforms have been extended to 10 carriage length.
Monday will see reduced services out of London Bridge in the evening rush hour, compensated for by 10 carriage trains running on our line for the first time - assuming they can open the doors.

mrwandle,
There will be 6 terminating platforms (a reduction of 3). As I understand it these 3 will serve through trains. The good news is that the plans (although not finalised) include at least some of our services operated by Thameslink and running through to Blackfriars, Kings Cross and beyond.

'The good news is that the plans (although not finalised) include at least some of our services operated by Thameslink and running through to Blackfriars, Kings Cross and beyond.'



This is the bit I can't figure out - will Thameslink services operate through HOP, or will there just be the increased service via Crofton Park?

In the London and SE RUS there are to be 6tph through Crofton Park (the 'via Catford' reference). But no mention of through HOP/Sydenham etc.

As far as I'm aware, out of the current Thameslink services, only the Wimbledon loop line will lose it's through service by terminating at Blackfriars, which leaves the current Southeastern/FCC service to Sevenoaks which runs via Catford as it is.

However the increased capacity at London Bridge and the reduction in platforms gives us on the FH/HOP line the opportunity to have at least 2tph to either Luton (replacing the Wimbledon services) or Bedford stopping at all stations.

Speculation on my part is the possibility they'll replace the current Caterham stoppers (which would still call at NXG and Norwood Junction on the fast line) with Southern keeping the Victoria to LB via Crystal Palace terminating at LB.

Incidentally, as the new timetable is now in force, on Sunday we now have 8 carriage trains on the East Croydon route to LB as Southern operate a split service to Caterham/Tattenham Corner.