There's a new article on the London Reconnections site -
ELL: Updates, Launch Dates and A Glimpse Behind the Scenes

What's of interest are the TfL time estimates relative to Canada Water.

9 minutes between FH and NXG? That's a minute slower than the current Southern trains.

And 3 mins between HOP and FH? I know sometimes trains have been held at HOP for a minute before.

Incidentally it seems we'll have a ELL every 15 minutes from NXG from the end of April, which may help relieve the pressure of the Southern trains between NXG and LB.

The three minutes is the time from the train arriving in one station (FH) to it arriving in the next (HOP). They must stop for nearly 2 minutes sometimes, so that doesn't seem unreasonable.

From what I can gather, if you have a Zone 1-3 travelcard but wanted to go to Croydon, you have to get an Oyster Extension Permit to go to Zone 5 but this doesn't seem to be on sale from the ticket machine and normal pay as you go doesn't count and you could be liable for a fine if you don't get the correct ticket??

That's right. I'm surprised OEP's are not available from the ticket machines yet as they offer the full range of Oyster products, including bus passes.

However you must have ?1.50 or more on your card to have the OEP option.

If you can't get them from the station, Oyster ticket shops (newsagents) will put them on for you.

The plan is for 8 ELL trains an hour between Sydenham and NXG - so that's one every 7.5 minutes on average. 4 will be from W Croydon and 4 from Crystal Palace. The earliest opening date for the ELL is likely to be 23 May although I don't believe this has yet been confirmed.

Whether this relieves the trains between NXG and LB remains to be seen. From 23 May, in the new timetable, we are only expecting to get 4 trains an hour off peak to and from LB including during the evening peak, instead of the present 6. So it is entirely possible that the trains between LB and NXG will be MORE crowded that at present.

Just looked at the article in Muss' link and see that May 23 is now officially being mentioned. So I guess they must be expecting to run the full service from that date. Presumably they will be running empty trains before that date in whatever slots they can find between Southern services to familiarise drivers with the route.

Aren't they going to use the tracks?!

It's fair to say that the trains between NXG and LB have been busier since the ELL closed in 2007.

Loca:
One suggestion made about over crowding on trains is that we adopt what people do in India and Africa. This means you should be allowed to sit on the roof of the train or hang on the side of it from a door handle. I hope this solves your problem.

Jim Dowd has secured an adjournment debate for 2:30pm this afternoon about "Rail services in the Sydenham corridor after May 2010"

debate just started:
http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player...ndowsmedia

Maybe we can get Mr Dowd to copy Simon Hughes and bring Sadiq Khan/Boris/Head of TfL on one of our trains :D

A notice is up at FH station announcing trial runs of the new ELL trains, some will pass FH, others may stop, but will not pick up passengers.

Interesting to hear how resigned Jim Dowd was to the loss of the Charing Cross service - "some win some lose" (around 05:11~12) whereas Chris Mole (around 05:24) states that future re-instatement of the Charing X service was an aspiration for Southern and that possibility of re-provision would remain under review by them.

What, if any, are the plans next for protests etc?

Whilst some may indeed win and some lose, its an interesting comment given the relatively marginal position of a Labour parliamentary seat in Wet Lewisham and Dinge or whatever its now called, and the relatively high proportion of the likely electoral support that could be won by taking a more strident support to the withdrawal of direct services. I would like to see more support from the sitting MP please, as these are cuts which will affect the economic and social heart of Forest Hill.

I suspect the next ' protest' will effectively be some sort of voting shindig in May.......

Many of us including myself have emailed / written to Joan Ruddock and been met with a deafening wall of silence.

A curious irony, but it seems thst engineering works tomorrow (Sunday) have necessitated that all trains from Forest Hill to London Bridge will terminate at Charing Cross!

Has anyone spotted any ELL trains down here yet? I saw one pull out of New Cross Gate from the old tube platform this afternoon on a test run.