The bike racks on platform 1 were often used I thought, but maybe my memory is playing tricks on me.

And what do you mean by funny angles - they look like they're at fairly normal angles to me.

It is a rather large structure, and a bit of a waste really, overkill is the word im looking for, but I think there IS a demand for it, and having the rack there will hopefully encourage a few locals out of their cars and onto their bikes.

If it stops just one person parking on the pavement outside the subway to drop someone off, its money well spent. Who do these people think they are!

I assumed the new bike racks in the car park are an alternative to using the ones on Platform 1, thereby avoiding the need for cyclists to wheel their bikes through the ticket barrier and get in other passengers' way.

As for the odd angles of some of the racks, I imagine someone had fun pushing them over before the tarmac around them had set hard. One for the 'Anti social behaviour' thread perhaps?!

It will be money well spent if they are used to near capacity every day.
Is there is a small charge like there is for the car park. I would not think a small charge out of order for providing a securish facility ( as people constantly walking buy and right by the coffee shop.).

of course there's no charge, nor should there be! If you start trying to charge for it, the racks won't get used and people will simply use other street furniture to secure their bikes and thus cause an obstruction on the pavement. And it's clearly not particularly secure if no sooner were the bike racks put in than vandals managed to wreck some of them.

Point taken and hope they are well used.
I must admit to being a bit surprised to see the state of sum of the racks today.

Please to see the racks on Perry Vale now being used, two bikes there this morning.

Not quite as convinced about the security of the perry vale bike racks, as those by P1, but at the end of the day, neither are really "safe"
Also noticed the state of the racks in the car park, hard to believe these things have happened at the mouth of the tranquil leafy suburbs of London Road

Happy to see new bike racks avoiding the need for cyclists to negotiate the inadequate ticket barrier arrangements in rush hour.

Any chance that the existing racks on platform 1 and the space around them might be converted to covered areas for foot passengers to (officially) shelter from inclement weather? You know - the very weather that delays trains and causes such a build up of people on platform 1 that the current sheltered area cannot cope?

Of course instead of spending money on piece meal development of the station such as the inadequate barriers in the booking hall, the new and yet to be tested Perry Vale ticket barriers (glad to read they won't close at 8pm), the new bike racks (an unforseen knock on cost from the ticket hall barriers?) wouldn't the sensible thing be to redevelop from scratch?

Why not build a station worthy of the passenger volumes in place of the current glorified portacabin? Knock it down. Do away with the with the token six - or is it eight? - parking spaces out front. Put the 'walled garden' between them out of its misery. Build a structure that is big enough to accomodate the ticket office, extra ticket barriers, secure bike stands inside and even a proper little shop space for the coffee stall - oh, and some canopies on platforms for the the passengers. Always Southerns last consideration the passengers.

While we are at it how about sensible platform level barriers on the Perry Vale side using the dead space at that end of the Perry Vale car park to provide proper disabled access rather than the new arrangement at the foot of the stairs which I worry will will lead in time to accidents and more disability. (Didn't Southern tell us that safety was one of the reasons that they couldn't do exactly what they are now doing when they wanted to simply close that gate forever?).

I have seen some good looking plans for redevelopment through links on this forum in the past but if money continues to be frittered away on half hearted, and some would say half assed, 'developments' like those in progress they will never come to anything.

Sorry to rant. Can you tell I have had a bad day? Am I really off the mark though?

You are not of the mark , many excellent suggestions but who is going to fund in the present climate.
I could be wrong ( am often ) but suspect any new station will have to wait many years.

I don't know who these racks are intended for? Most people will still take their (Usually folding up) bike on the train with them to get them to their destination.

I've yet to see someone park their bike there. Personally I think its all a waste of time and money as its surely too much of a security risk for expensive bikes which can easily cost ?1000. I thought there were new innovations in cycle parking at stations which reduced the risk of theft. This doesn't look like the news has reached Forest Hill.

I'm up for the noble ecological arguments as much as the next person but I would have preferred these to have stayed as car parking spaces for waiting cars when not used for disabled parking or for people using the cashpoint. I use(d) this area for waiting when I needed to collect family arriving with luggage.
I've lost track of where we are with the gates on Platform 2. Seemingly Southern have too.
Travelling back on Wednesday evening was a joke. Just as the last passengers were starting up the stairs another train arrived, yes, 10 minutes later, and it was pandemonium yet again. There was a woman with a double buggy trying to negotiate everything safely and an elderly woman with a shopping trolley all of whom had to be helped over. Also at this point people were also running down the steps to catch a train.

Several accidents waiting to happen I think. What on earth is going on with all of this? I'm able bodied but hate going up and down these stairs amongst a heaving crowd in case someone trips.

There were four bikes locked up there when I got off the train last night.

Might not be appropriate for our station but on some - notably Ipswich station - they have these large bike size secure lockers. Would also bring in a few coppers and look a lot less obtrusive

"but who is going to fund in the present climate.
I could be wrong ( am often ) but suspect any new station will have to wait many years. "

A fair enough question but maybe in the current climate this is precisely the sort of infrastructure project that should be funded to create a few building jobs now and prepare us for the return of the 'good' times? In terms of the actual cost - I couldn't put a figure to it of course but miniscule relative to the overall budget for transport in London.

Once the ELL extension opens and the number of trains per hour increases to ten or even twelve will there be any real alternative to a proper rebuild? I think we nearly all agree that the current facilities struggle and often fail to cope at rush hours now. Extra trains to and from Docklands won't spread the loading they will in the medium term - and possibly sooner with the Olympics - increase it.

There will be a much greater incentive for people to travel that route once there are direct services than there was with the semi impossible change at New Cross Gate. (The few times I tried that I ended up on a bus because the trains from LBG were just too crowded to board.) That will make everywhere on the line a much more attracive dormitory for Docklands workers.

Any discussions about a possible redevelopment of FH station has been held up because of the uncertainty about who actually owns it. Once TfL take over the station next year, maybe discussions will get somewhere. Although I do feel quite strongly that we would've had a better chance of getting the money for redevelopment from Ken that we will from Boris. He's abandoned several major infrastructure projects since coming to power. We're lucky our section of the ELX was so far gone that it was impossible to scrap it.

Apparently there has been a large drop of passengers on most lines because of the downturn. The Railway Companies are probably going to have to go back to HMG for more funding.
Would be great to have a new station we have waited so long. Herr Goering's Luftwafe destroyed the last one it has been a hotchpotch ever since.

For the record
- Although the station was damaged in 1944, so were very many other buildings. Most were repaired. Forest Hill Station was patched up but neglected until it was demolished in 1972 - nearly 30 years after it was bombed. I guess the satisfaction that BR got from the demolition of Euston Staion in 1962 lasted for a while before the need to undertake more acts of vandalism got the better of them and Forest Hill Station was a suitable candidate!

Quite correct Andrew but the bombing had left it in a bad state , if my memory serves me correct . Lived in Sydenham in 60's but passed through the station many times.
Why did they get rid of the central platform

Bombing left lots of buildings in a bad state but many were repaired. Just a question of priorities I guess.

The central platform must have been a very narrow island platform. If it existed today, I'm sure it would be closed for safety reasons. If a narrow island platform is full of people and more peple try to get on to it either from an arriving train or via the stairs, there is a real risk of people getting squeezed off the platform onto the track. However, it's possible that it was just removed as part of a rationalisation programme that determined that there was no requirement to stop fast trains at Forest Hill. Does anyone remember?

I recall that Angel station on the tube was completely rebuilt in a new location some years ago largely because both tracks were served from one central platform and increasing use of the station meant that it was unsafe.

Browsing the 'Beyond SE23' part of the forum I came across Steve Grindlay's link to bomb damage maps of the area. Forest Hill Station is visible at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevegrindl...445257235/
Where the car park now is is marked in black denoting it as 'totally destroyed'. The southern bit, which I presume is the bit demolished in 1972, is Light Red denoting 'Seriously damaged but repairable'. Lots of the Light Red buildings on the map still exist ... I hadn't realised it was hit by a V1 - as was the house called Fair Lawn - where the school now is.

It seems that the overcrowding at Forest Hill Station is now officially recognised.

See P34 of the London Assembly Transport Committee report here which shows Forest Hill as one of only four stations outside Zone 1 (which is excluded) to have between 1.5 and 2.5 million passenger entries and exits per platform. Of course if Southern had got their way and halved the number of exits by closing the Perry Vale exit completely Forest Hill would probably have gone straight to number one on the list as the scale only goes up to 3.25 million.

A good case for prioritising the funding of the complete rebuild the station needs should be possible to build based on that. If being in the top four blackspots isn't sufficient to get sensible action taken then the future for the entire network would seem bleak.