Well done to all the people who were leafleting at stations up and down the line this morning. As a result over 300 people have signed the petition in the last 24 hours.


Further coverage at:
http://www.foresthillsociety.com/2009/11...-gear.html
http://brockleycentral.blogspot.com/2009...aches.html

300 more names is a great result in such a short time. Let's hope there are many more as a result of the leafletting in HOP and NXGate tomorrow.

As someone handing out leaflets, I have to say i was surprised at the number of people who had no idea these cuts were coming. Some where quite shocked at what was going to happen. I think we need to think outside the box (forums and societies) on this one on order to inform. No disrespect intended.. it's just not everyone gets online to SE23 Forum etc or partakes in local activities.

I feel there is more stuff to be done in order to raise awareness. I'm sure many will have ideas...and that FHSociety et al will be happy to hear them.

Well done to all those who took part in the leafletting and in particular to Richard H, new Chair of FHS, who played a pivotal role in organising it all.

Dipsolala is absolutely correct. Were it not for the efforts of local civic groups like the FH Soc and the pages of sites such as SE23.com, very few passengers would realise these cuts are planned. You can be sure that Southern weren't rushing to inform their passengers (Civic groups only uncovered the planned one third cuts in future services because someone spotted a small phrase in an email from one of the Southern managers in August - it took over a month of repeated communication with Southern to admit the facts. We are still waiting to discover, three months later, whether direct trains from East Croydon have been axed during the evening rush hours).

TfL, unfortunately, don't appear to be any different. A footbridge "disappears" at FH station without any basic information. Oystercards look as if they are going to be introduced in six weeks time without any prior warning or advice to passengers. There is simply no basic information about any future plans. Many things are potentially "good news" items and yet the lack of information frustrates passengers and turns them against the rail authorities.

And yet, try handing out basic information at station gates and you are met with aggression and harassment by the staff. Yesterday, when handing out leaflets at Sydenham station, a member of staff threatened to call the police if we didn't stop. A month ago when handing out leaflets at the same station - this time merely to advertise a Syd Soc public meeting addressed by the TfL PR department - we were threatened in the same way.

It was pointed out on both occasions by my fellow leafletters that "They do always seem to pick on you Barry. I wonder why?"

They could have a point.

Just got to work after leafletting. I spoke to two people who said that they had already written to Joan Ruddock and both said that they had to wait about 2 months for a reply. One person said that the reply that they got was a photocopy of a letter that had been sent out to someone else. And the other person got fed up and emailed Joan to tell her that he was actually a member of her party and only then did she reply but unsatisfactorily so. Now I don't know if she is being inundated but this doesn't really bode well.

Is it possible for a lot of us to speak to Joan Ruddock at one of her surgeries?

Nasaroc, It must be the After Shave you use which attracts these spoil sports to you? Have they threatened you with Elth and Safety yet?

I to am having trouble getting a response out of Joan Ruddock. Would be willing to go to one of her surgeries en masse to press her further on this!

Still warming up from a morning of leafleting at Honor Oak Station.

The number of people who seemed genuinely caught out by the news of the cuts was quite evident. Whilst only a few people had time to ask questions, you could see the disappointment at the news in many faces.

One gentleman (the Labour party member who cited poor response from Ruddock) suggested that a petition could be put on the 10 Downing Street website.

I'm not sure about the worth of having multiple petitions running side-by side.

On a side not, it was nice to meet some proactive local people

I too have just warmed up -it did get a bit chilly out there! ;-o Anyway - yes clearly the majority of folk this morning had no idea about the cuts. Lets hope we get a high level of people signing up over the next few days.

111 signatories so far today

Another thing I noted when I finished and got on the VERY delayed train to town was that the bins on the station platform didn't have ANY of our leaflets in them. In fact the cleaning lady took one of our flyers!

Sorry to sound like a tape recorder but if anyone does get to see Joan Ruddock, can you ask her not to support either the South London line reinstatement or the crazy idea of a new line from Bellingham to Victoria please?

It is not just our services that are being cut in South East London.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/a...are-cut.do

Complete madness...

Delighted to see that people in Brockley are beginning to realise the threat posed to their services by the SLL line campaign and the campaign for a new line from Bellingham to Victoria.

http://brockleycentral.blogspot.com/

When oh when is Alex Feakes going to tell us where he stands on these two campaigns?

2002 and counting!

I was speaking to someone from TfL the other day and he mentioned that Ms Ruddock is complaining hard.

My thanks to everyone for all their help in leafletting. We will continue the campaign and will leaflet the stations again.

I will also be talking to those involved to see what our next step is.

Wow, watch that petition number climb!

I put the petition link on the blackboards outside Honor Oak Park station. I hope this is helping!!

Good work people!

I'm happy to reiterate my position, which has been all along to support the campaign to save the services on the Sydenham line.

I do not support the reinstatement of the SLL, as this will affect our services, but do support the proposed Victoria service on the Bellingham line as this will be of great benefit to rail users in that area, and, as explained in an earlier posting on this thread, it won't have an adverse impact on the outer London loop services along the Sydenham line as there is capacity at Victoria already built into the RUS.

If anyone has any specific queries, please do email me at alex@alexfeakes.org. Many thanks.

I was having a conversation with some work colleagues earlier and they were telling me how great it was that there were going to be lots of extra trains from victoria to orpington and generally south east (not our way though) in two weeks time!

Great for them, they've probably got our paths by some convoluted route!!

Yes, I just had this email from them

Nothing from Southern though...