Hello All,
As you may or may not know the East London Line is going to close for two and half years from December!. If this effects anyone what alternatives are others going to use to get to the docklands?

As part of Transport for London's ?10bn Investment Programme, the East London Line is being extended. The new extended line will open in 2010 as the East London Railway.
The line will continue to operate between Whitechapel and New Cross/ New Cross Gate until 22 December 2007. The line will then be closed to allow it to be converted in preparation for the new train service.
From the start of the full line closure, London Underground will provide special bus services until the new London Overground service begins by June 2010.
For further information about the line closure, visit the East London line closure site.

The PDF from the East London Line closure site is here and contains some indication of what Ken expects people to do. There will be replacement buses both North and South of the river but nothing to link the two in any reasonably direct way, as far as I can see.

To get from FH to Docklands I would think that least stressful and unpleasant way to travel will be the bus to Lewisham and then DLR to the Isle of Dogs (unless you want to go by bike...)

Alternatively by train to London Bridge and then by underground.

I think that the trains will still run to London Bridge.

'Bus to Lewisham' and 'least stressful' aren't terms I usually associate with each other.

I'm currently mulling over moving job, from London Bridge to Docklands. Not great timing.

Good god, I hope they do!

I took the bus from New cross gate to DLR today (test run) and it was horible!
Waited 5 mins for a bus that was full, 2nd bus arrived 2-3 mins later, just about got on. Then a fight broke out with the driver as he said the bus was full. This took around 5 mins to resolve. The bus nightmare took me 20 minutes comparied to 2-4 mins on the ell to canda water.

I don't think there's any sort of commute in London which is entirely stress-free, but the point I was making was that if you get a Lewisham bus from FH (or HOP) it's probably the least evil. My other half tends to get a P4 from HOP and it's OK most of the time - certainly compared with going to LB and trying to cram onto the Jubilee Line it's preferable on most days.

As for the idea of train to NXG and then bus from there - not good. New Cross Gate always seems to be a horrible place to get any bus from, worse when you're travelling to Lewisham, maybe because it's reasonably close to the end of the routes.

I dread to think what the impact of the ELL closure will be on these already congested options, notwithstanding the Bus Replacement Services.

On the plus side, cycling is lovely at this time of the year as the fair weather cyclists tend to drop off in numbers.

Thank you davidl for that, I might try the P4.

I sometimes go into town on the 171. I can go all the way into town for 90 pence.

P4 from UDB is a good option - either up to Brixton and tube or to Lewisham and DLR.

For those on the other side of the tracks, the 122 can be quicker to Lewisham if traffic is screwing around at Catford Bridge. Personally I've taken the 75 or 185 to Lewisham many times and its great once through Catford.

For those Catford wannabes who pretend to live in Forest Hill, they can go back whence they came.

Before I bought my season ticket I spoke to one of the guys at FH ticket office. They said that trains would terminate at New X and then it would be a bus to London Bridge. He might have been mistaken or I might have misunderstood, but it's worth finding out.

Interesting read below
http://www.alwaystouchout.com/project/3

I'm not sure how accurate that information is so does anyone know if the number of trains to London Bridge from Forest Hill is going to decrease, remain the same or increase once the East London Line extension is complete?

the p4 takes 36 mins to get to Lewisham and then It would take another 15mins to get to Canary Wharf! It currently takes me 20-25mins to get to work via the ELL.
It's mad.

The P4 is a vastly quicker route to Lewisham than the 122, which in turn is vastly quicker than the 185, in my experience. Sadly my location (above Boots, basically) means the 122 is often best at this end.

Now if Ken had listened to BD then he would have simply built a larger footbridge at NXG and increased the East London Line service rather than extending it at the cost of billions so we can go to places we don't need to. Why do we need to go shopping in Hoxton when we already have Croydon.

Baggy does occasionally cycle to Canary Wharf through the Greenwich foot tunnel although always gets confused as he loses his bearings on the Isle of Dogs on the return journey and the routes are not well signposted. Oh well be sorted for 2012

Certainly an interesting site. From all the evidence I have seen there will be a decrease in the number of trains to London Bridge after 2010 but there are no plans to stop them completely during weekdays, although some closures will be necessary at weekends to allow for engineering works.

The East London Line will close completely later this year so all passengers on this line will need to take a replacement bus or the train to London Bridge.

Reading between the lines. and looking at the proposed tfl maps where forest hill is no longer marked as a BR station, it is fairly clear to me that the longer term intention is to cut the london bridge service altogether.

OK, a stray train may service FH in the rush hour, but I doubt you could rely on it.

(Worryingly) I agree with BD - they should have initially terminated the ELL at New Cross gate.

In the future, when (and if) the majority are crossing the Baggy Bridge to the ELL, then that would be the time to think about extending the line.

Bring back the canal!

The http://www.alwaystouchout.com/project/3 leads posters to a website which was last updated on 9 November 2006 - I think matters have moved on somewhat

If you work in the City the ELL to Shoreditch / Bishopsgate will probably be quicker than going into London Bridge.

I think somewhere way back it was confirmed the number of trains to LB would decrease to 4 p.h. though with more carriages overall. There will also be 8 trains p.h. on the ELL so overall a much more frequent service.

Be happy people.