Has anyone thought about making some flyers or handouts to give out at Forest Hill station? The advertising for this consultation is abysmal. One poster hidden on the platform. I bet it's different at somewhere like East Croydon where they need to get more positive responses.
Reading the consultation, it says Thameslink might stop at Norwood Junction. If this happens, I think the proposals might be OK. Because it will alleviate a massive amount of pressure on Forest Hill. As well as giving us an all day link to Gatwick Airport with 1 change over (Norwood Junction change instead of East Croydon).
Thoughts? Or am I not reading it correctly?
"Reading the consultation, it says Thameslink might stop at Norwood Junction. If this happens, I think the proposals might be OK. Because it will alleviate a massive amount of pressure on Forest Hill. As well as giving us an all day link to Gatwick Airport with 1 change over (Norwood Junction change instead of East Croydon).
Thoughts? Or am I not reading it correctly? "
I don't want to change at Norwood Junction coming northbound as it means lots of stairs-no fun with heavy luggage!!
There will only be 2 trains per hour linking Norwood Junction to Gatwick airport. But there will be 6 tph from FH to NJ. Approx 2/3 of the time you will probably be better getting the next train from NJ to East Croydon, and then changing to a faster (non-stop) service to Gatwick.
At present we only have 2 tph going to EC, but once there you know you have the fastest connection to Gatwick. We also have another 4tph via NJ, where you can change to EC services.
Overall the change would mean that we would still have two services per hour with a single change to Gatwick. The other services would remain faster if you change twice. However, interchange at NJ is harder than at EC, especially if you have luggage. And journey times to Gatwick would likely increase as the trains direct from NJ would be slower than the existing services we pick up at EC.
The consultation states that over 1600 passengers on our line continue on services south of NJ (which equates to over 500,000 journeys per year). That is not an insignificant number of journeys to disrupt. Not all would be heading for the airport of Brighton, but it is probably fair to say that most want to go to East Croydon and further south on the mainline, rather than services to other parts of Sussex and Surrey (where interchange at NJ would be possible).
I finally got round to filling in the consultation. The deadline is 5PM tomorrow so please get it done if you haven't already.
I thought it closed 8 December?
Sorry, my mistake. It is 8 December. I've confused it with something else.
Forest Hill Society have compiled a guide to help you complete the nine key questions in the consultation document:
http://www.foresthillsociety.com/2016/11...to_49.html
Our key concerns are:
a) Diverting all our East Croydon services to West Croydon - making it take longer to get to Gatwick and other destinations in Sussex.
b) Reducing our peak services to London Bridge to four trains an hour (the same capacity as the rest of the day). These services would be replaced by five carriage Overground trains to Dalston Junction.
Someone at Southern really hates FH.
TFL wants to take over Southern. Sadiq Khan, head of TFL needs to build a shedload of housing. He can't do that in Forest Hill. The areas he can do that in are Croydon and beyond.
Honestly, I would love to see more Overground trains. Jubilee Line in 2018 should have a lot of pressure alleviated from it because of Crossrail. People travelling from West towards Canary Wharf will definitely use it. Stratford going West same thing. The only people still using the Jubilee should be us.... And those people from East looking to get on the Northern Line at London Bridge.
One bit of positive news, Forest Hill to Heathrow using Crossrail will be under 60 minutes. Which is incredible. Should be step free the whole way too. Currently this journey takes a ridiculous 90 minutes+ (with an excruciating change over at Green Park).
Looks like they do!
Thanks for the link Michael, can I check something in your post - how are the London Bridge trains replaced by 5 carriage trains? Are TfL actually going to run extra overground trains? Suggests TfL and Southern working together on this...
SEN,
TfL are proposing 2 more Crystal Palace to Dalston trains per hour (which will be 5 carriage trains), these will run all day. But Southern tell us that there is not capacity for these additional trains as well as more than 4 tph on the Forest Hill line. This means that peak services will be cut.
Admittedly at high peak we currently only have 4 tph anyway, but this was meant to be temporary while London Bridge was sorted out, and that is why there are no LB trains between 08:22 and 08:45 - a ridiculous gap in the timetable.
With Thameslink coming along in a couple of years there will be more reason to go via London Bridge but it seems that there will not be capacity to handle this demand. Southern's figures show that demand for Thameslink services on our line is the third highest on their network. Despite this we will not have Thameslink trains, so we do at least need plenty of interchange opportunity at London Bridge.
It suits TfL to run more Overground trains (these are very well used services and they don't want to invest in the work required to run longer trains), and it suits Southern to use the two slots at London Bridge we will lose at peak for other (less busy) services on their network. It is a win-win for everybody - except for commuters on our line. I'm not sure they will pay much attention to our requirements, but it is worth people expressing their views via the consultation to encourage the rail authorities to find a better solution.
It only takes a couple of minutes to complete the consultation using the Forest Hill Society guide, all details at
http://www.foresthillsociety.com/2016/11...to_49.html
Have you considered taking the Overground to New Cross Gate and changing onto a mainline train from there to London Bridge?
No chance, have you tried it!
Yes there's only 2 tph from new cross that aren't ours. So it does not work. And they are on another platform.
Part of Southern's plan is for no fast trains to stop at New Cross Gate, so there will be no trains to change to. All NXG trains to LB will come through FH first.
Not an easy survey to complete but FOH Society guidelines were very helpful. Reminder of the deadline 8 December!! Please let them know pushing the majority of our services via Canada Water and West Croydon is not helpful.
http://www.southernrailway.com/your-jour...nsultation
Hi folks, last chance to have your say on cuts to peak hour trains to London Bridge, the consultation closes Thursday 8th, the detailed document is linked in earlier posts but suggest you use Forest Hill society's guide
here.
Please take 5 minutes to tell Southern not to cut peak trains to London Bridge - unless you enjoy the interchange with the Jubilee Line at Canada Water in the rush hour...
I was looking for somewhere to request a return of the wonderful trains which used to run from London Bridge non stop to forest hill. Those were really useful. I take it the late night trains back from charring cross will not be reappearing? They made the journey back from the west end a doddle.[/b]
The Charing Cross to Forest Hill trains were good. There was the occasional Forest Hill to Charing Cross train as well.