Forest Hill Rail Station
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craiggar1806
Posts: 3
Joined: Feb 2009
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11-03-2009 07:28 AM
I have had quite a number of weekly tickets that stopped working a day or so after I bought them
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davidwhiting
Posts: 80
Joined: Dec 2003
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11-03-2009 08:51 AM
In the past I found that the readers at the barrier at Forest Hill seemed less sensitive than those on the Underground. I had on a few occasions to take my freedom pass out of my wallet to get it to register. Not a a problem recently though.
On another point, Deutsche Bahn is excellent news. If you find the National Rail enquiry site is working slowly, go to http://www.bahn.de which will give you the same information in an instant (and also produce timetables for such useful journeys as Herne Hill to Samarkand - great fun). The German site may not always be updated for service disruption though, which may be a consideration round here.
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gingernuts
Posts: 505
Joined: Nov 2007
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17-03-2009 04:50 PM
On the subject of the back gate, it appears that it is now closed in when the station is not manned. This is just not acceptable.
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RobF
Posts: 27
Joined: Oct 2008
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18-03-2009 02:15 PM
Agreed...
I've travelled home after 9pm both nights so far this week, and the gate has been locked on both occasions. However, the ticket office was also closed and the two side gates on the up platform were both open allowing passengers to enter or exit as they pleased.
Why therefore, can't the gate on platform 2 be left open to save passengers the slog up and over the bridge and all the (much discussed on this forum) associated problems this brings?
Is this another example of Southern NOT thinking about "thinking like a passenger"!
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gingernuts
Posts: 505
Joined: Nov 2007
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18-03-2009 04:22 PM
It might be becasue they've put a monitor up on the wall down there and think it will be vandalised at night. Quite honestly, we've managed without a screen at the bottom of the stairs for the last 90 years or so - why on earth do we need one now? In any case it will only be useful when the gate is open! How stupid is that.
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ChrisR
Posts: 98
Joined: Nov 2007
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18-03-2009 04:44 PM
The ticket office was closed on Saturday morning, but Perry Vale gate was open as were all the ticket barriers. It seems at weekends we either have trains running or a ticket office open but not both at the same time!
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gingernuts
Posts: 505
Joined: Nov 2007
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18-03-2009 04:53 PM
Complain to Chris Daley the Southern Manager for Forest Hill and other local stations along our line at
comments@southernrailway.com
What's to say this screen wont be vandalised during the day anyway?
and have we ever needed a monitor to tell us about the late running of Southern trains at the bottom of these stairs before? Ughhhhhh!!!
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blushingsnail
Posts: 371
Joined: Dec 2005
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01-05-2009 10:41 AM
The Platform 2 gate is being locked in the evenings again. I've e-mailed Southern to ask why.
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ooameye
Posts: 2
Joined: May 2009
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14-05-2009 09:47 AM
I'm new to this site so hello fellow FH'ers. I have read many of your posts and found them extremely interesting. Thank you.
I have recently noticed a new Emergency Point has been erected outside of the WH Smiths and wondered whether anyone was aware of the reasoning.
I asked one of the 6 police officers at forest hill station this morning, (not sure why we they were there either), is this an indication of things in FH at the moment?
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jalapeno
Posts: 34
Joined: Oct 2005
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14-05-2009 10:00 AM
What did the Police Officer say when you asked?
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roz
Posts: 1,796
Joined: Mar 2005
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14-05-2009 10:03 AM
Hi Ooameye, welcome to se23.com.
There are frequently police at the station as a matter of routine and deterrant so I wouldn' worry. They just seem to support the ticket staff at busy times.
Dont know about the emergency point but I hope if ever its needed it actually works and doesn't go through to an answer machine.
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ooameye
Posts: 2
Joined: May 2009
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14-05-2009 10:03 AM
He was completely unaware of its existence, and thought it may have been a link to British Transport Police.
I would have though if that was the case the point would have been installed within the grounds of the station itself.
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gingernuts
Posts: 505
Joined: Nov 2007
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14-05-2009 10:27 AM
I wouldnt think this a reflection on Forest Hill, more so on policing policy in London generally. Cheaper to install a help point in the high street than maintain regular policing out of hours.
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michael
Posts: 3,261
Joined: Mar 2005
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14-05-2009 11:31 AM
There has been an emergency point here for a long time, although the previous one was removed some time ago. The old one used to have grafitti on it saying that 'plants are evil'.
The increase in numbers of police is probably more a reflection on historic understaffing in Forest Hill ward now being corrected, rather than a crime spree. Forest Hill does not really have more or less crime than most other parts of London.
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Baboonery
Posts: 581
Joined: Sep 2007
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14-05-2009 12:09 PM
I do find it odd that opinion polls consistently suggest that people want to see more 'bobbies on the beat' and complain about lack of police visibility.
Then when they see police, they think it must mean some kind of crime wave.
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Sherwood
Posts: 1,414
Joined: Mar 2005
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15-05-2009 11:02 AM
Occasionally, tickets are checked on this line. Ticket collectors supported by police attend every station on the line.
The same happens on the Catford line.
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michael
Posts: 3,261
Joined: Mar 2005
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26-05-2009 01:02 PM
Bad news I am afraid...
The following is from Southern Railways:
The current position is that the gates are being closed at 8pm. It is not proposed to alter that arrangement whilst Southern remains the station operator. This is not the situation that I outlined previously for which I apologise. This is partly due to internal miscommunication on our part and also to changes to the specification of the gating project. The station transfers to London Overground (LOROL) on 20 September 2009 and they may want to adopt different arrangements.
The arrangements discussed with Southern, the Mayor, local MP and London Travelwatch predate the installation of the new entrance to house the automatic ticket gates on the Perry Vale side of the station and its construction has reduced Southern?s options for managing access to and from the station. Southern has been undertaking two gating programmes. One for Transport for London ahead of the transfer of stations (including Forest Hill) associated with the East London Line extension project and another for the Department for Transport. In the case of the latter, Southern has, where appropriate, been installing remote supervision and closure/opening controls on gateline entrances. This has been done to allow subsidiary entrances to remain open when the entrance is unstaffed. These arrangements have not been installed on gatelines/entrances for stations transferring to LOROL as this was not part of TfL?s specification. Specifically at Forest Hill a further complication arises because there is no secondary gate alongside the gateline building. This was originally considered by Southern when designing the project but the gate was not thought necessary by TfL. It appears that the difference in specifications for the two gating programmes was not fully appreciated across the business which led to some incorrect assumptions about how the entrance could / would be operated. Essentially, commitments were given about opening times based on the assumption that the gateline could be remotely supervised when this is not the case. The situation has not been helped as I understand that no notices were displayed at the station to say when the entrance would be open. This has been raised with the station manager and notices should now be in place.
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ChrisR
Posts: 98
Joined: Nov 2007
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26-05-2009 02:59 PM
Re letter above from Southern Railways
Another cop out from Southern! Why don't they just admit they don't care about their customers?
I fail to see what difference the work they have already done at the Perry Vale entrance makes to the situation. There are no ticket barriers or ticket machines on the Perry Vale side yet to vandalise - just one display screen so why do they have to close it off at all? The main entrance is often closed off in the evenings and weekends leaving the gate next to the taxi office open for entry/exit. If they can leave the station open on one side when they feel like it why not both sides?
Michael - do we have TFL's assurance that things will change for the better come 20th September?
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Fandango
Posts: 89
Joined: Nov 2008
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26-05-2009 03:13 PM
I noticed today there were 3 non-yet-active barriers in place along with a gap for what I presume will be a wider spacial access barrier.
So hopefully the gate closure issue will be sorted sooner rather than later.
Still no sign of a ticket machine on the Perry Vale side though.
And one day, when this is all sorted, the underpass might just get a facelift.... so much for the 6 weeks after commencement of building works as Forest Hill Central...
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brian
Posts: 2,002
Joined: Apr 2005
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26-05-2009 04:28 PM
I think we have to accept that nothing will happen until TFL take over in Sept. Less than 4 months now.
Southern will not spend any money on manning the gate where they do not have to.
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