I'm actually getting bored of the daily 'surprise' announcements that "we're being held at a red signal due to traffic/waiting for a platform to become available" every morning.

They know it's going to happen so we should be informed at the station before getting on the train.

MightyMouse, I believe Richard Curtis wants the movie rights to this and Hugh Grant wants to play you

Good point, rbmartin. The key to commuting success in future is going to be a bit of lateral thinking like this. Nice one.

Is Catford Bridge an alternative for those of us at that end of FH or are those services getting wiped out too?

Mr Numbers, he's going to need a sex change...

Mr Numbers, he's going to need a sex change...

Oops! Julia Roberts, then?

"Is Catford Bridge an alternative for those of us at that end of FH or are those services getting wiped out too?"

I have started using Catford Bridge.
Occasionally a train goes fast to London Bridge.

However, be careful because from January 2015 some trains will not stop at London Bridge. This is not a problem if like me you want to go to Charing Cross.

This is starting to get ridculous

Trains cancelled yesterday morning took an extra hour to get into work due to chaos!
Finish work get to London bridge train 17:51 cancelled
Work from for a couple of hours try to get back into work 10:57 trains cancelled miss meeting.
Now about to go slightly earlier as have a birthday dinner to go to and guess what the 17:37 has been cancelled!

Seriously what is going on, why is it suddenly become so bad?

I wrote to Southern last week to complain about the unreliability of Southern trains ( definition of unreliability - not being confident at point of need that every train will be there as advertised, and run on time to destination, a definition that absolutely encapsulates Southern) and their response says:

'The Southern route is complex and more importantly operating at maximum capacity. That leaves us with little room for error and one small delay to a train at a critical point on the network can have a significant impact.'

Note that this makes no mention of the rebuilding of London Bridge, so what this is saying is, at all times we are not able to run the network adequately and the likelihood of dysfunction is extremely high. How's that supposed to make us feel?! its basically an admission of incompetence and it also says to me 'we are not able to run this franchise adequately' and if that is the case, they should surrender it to a company that can.

This post was last modified: 19-11-2014 10:39 PM by Nick M.

Good post Nick M.

I often get the train to London Bridge and the times they are late are far more frequent than the times they are punctual.

For those of you planning to use Catford Bridge (or Lower Sydenham) to reach Waterloo East or Charing Cross. If you're a season ticket holder from FH or HOP. Forget about it, it won't be valid unless the line is closed and Southern arrange permission with Southeastern. A travelcard or a season from Catford Bridge may be a solution for the period.

As a rule, if the train goes to Charing Cross, it won't call at Lewisham, St. Johns, New Cross or London Bridge, running fast from Ladywell to Waterloo East.

The whole Hayes line won't have through Charing Cross services from around 8.30pm from January. After that time, they start from Cannon Street which will call at London Bridge.

Alternatives to consider is to travel to Lewisham, which will have more trains to Charing Cross, or use the DLR from there to commute to Canary Wharf. This may be a viable alternative if those Overground trains from Canada Water get even worse for the crush despite 5 car trains running soon.

I'm relying on a dodgy memory, here, but didn't Southern win the franchise after Connex had it taken off them for being completely useless?

Loving the 0801 from HOP. Had 2 seats all to myself this morning. Downsides are the wait for a platform outside LB and the fact that when you get down to the Northern Line at around half eight, the rest of London is also there. But that's my fault for not leaving earlier.

Also enjoying not arriving at Platforms 12 or 15. The worst platforms in the world.

My journey over the last week seemed to have improved until the 9:12 was cancelled this morning due to a signal failure. So we will have a nice new London Bridge but not the ability to get there because of failing infrastructure.

08:13 cancelled this morning thats 5 journeys in a row wonder if I can make 10 I will win a prize and have a train on time

By the way anyone have a link to wear I can log all my cancelled journeys so I canget a refund.

Thanks

That's correct, they were initially branded as South Central.

However, Southern is being merged into the Thameslink franchise from next summer. Thameslink is managed by Southern's parent company GoVia, so they'll be no change to branding.

This morning was lots better. The 0900 was only two minutes late and had a relatively smooth run into LB. Been terrible all week, so much so that I'm seriously considering Canada Water and Jubilee as my preferred option in the mornings, and I can see the platforms at LB from my desk.

I arrived at FH station just after 8.30am this morning and couldn't even get into the station. I assumed they had closed the ticket barriers to avoid overcrowding on the platform. Had to queue for a few minutes before they reopened them.

Randall - hurrah for the quiet trains!

Blushingsnail, that's exactly what happened - I got there just before 8.30 and they'd closed the barriers as the platform was too crowded. Once an Overground had come by and freed up some space they opened the barriers again.

After a dozen people had pushed past me - "Excuse me, excuse me, I need to get a train". Because I was standing there for fun, obviously.

I have a friend whose Twitter feed consists pretty much totally of rants at Southern, and I just don't see what she gains from working herself up into a righteous anger most mornings. I used to live in a zone 4 place which had two trains an hour, so I still feel deliciously spoiled by the service here. But I am getting a little cheesed off with all these delays and waits outside LB (and then the zombie shuffle down the platform at LB because there's no room for everyone as they disembark).

I also see that there are no trains over Christmas - and yes, I'm working as usual this year so instead of the nice peaceful journeys I was hoping for it'll be the Overground. Never mind.

Given how bad this week has been, maybe they should just start the Christmas closure now? It's not like we're getting anywhere anyway.

This morning was a disgrace. Tannoy announcements telling people to ignore the information on the boards, not offering any alternative information except to get on the Overground trains which were already full. This resulted in people crowding around the doors, jostling to get on and standing over the yellow line.

I witnessed two ladies, who were train guards for a separate train company and were trying to commute into London, ask people to move behind the yellow line because the train driver would not pull out of the station. The people actually employed to do this were all stood inside the station, around the heater. This caused further delays and frustration. I appreciate things are beyond their control, but they offer little assistance. Where should complaints about this be directed to? TfL?