Red67,

I do think the FH Society would wish to see cuts to ELL services before they even start running, what we want is for the rail authorities to look at every possible way to avoid cutting trains from London Bridge.

From May next year the plans are, in the evening peak, to have 6 x 8 carriage trains on Southern as well as 8 x 4 carriage trains on ELL. This will provide Southern with only 60% of the overall capacity on the line despite more than 70% of passengers sensibly wishing to use Southern route. What does not make sense is to run more (and shorter) trains on the line that is less used, rather than the one that will be most used. Nor does it make sense to run 8 trains in the morning peak and only 6 in the evening, it just demonstrates poor planning.

We have suggested a few ways to alliviate the cuts to capacity from London Bridge. One possibility would be to stop fast trains as happens at present, or just at New Cross Gate, another possibility would be to run 6 trains per hour on the East London Line to Forest Hill so that 8 trains can be run from London Bridge, another possibility would be to change the timetable to allow for the same number of trains in the evening as in the morning (by far the preferred option from my point of view).

Some of these changes, if they are ever considered, will inevitably have negative effects for other commuters, but it is a matter of weighing up the difference between the massive conjestion on London Bridge trains with the new routes that will benefit the minority of rail passengers.

It was only last year when the DfT changed the final version of the South London Route Utilisation Strategy to include 8 trains on the ELL rather than the original plans for 6 trains. We had thought this was a positive change until we recently realised that it would mean a cut in services to London Bridge.