No Martin. Just getting us used to trekking over the bridge perhaps? I assumed this mornings revenue blitz was continuing but it wasn't.

By the way, does anyone know what the once a week heavy police presence during morning rush hour is all about? Three PCSO's (or c.h.i.m.p.s. as a serving police officer friend of mine calls them) and two actual Police have appeared for no apparent reason a couple of times recently. The PCSO's had notepads out but the Police just wandered round looking bored. Is this Boris' high profile transport policing? If so it is woefully mis-targeted. The worst trouble I have seen in the morning rush is a few well chosen expletives from people unable to board chronically over crowded trains.

This morning when the revenue check was on, and a Police presence might have been some use, they were no-where to be seen. Mind you there were enough Southern staff on Platform 1 to tackle a whole rugby squad!

John Paschoud took some photos today showing people queueing to get over the bridge. Of course people with disabilities and buggies just have to wait and then struggle over the top.

They announced today that the barriers will be operational. I could not make out when they said they would be operational. The sound was muffled.

Station staff were rather taken aback at the vehemence of public reaction when I got off the 1825 from LB. And not even mine.

Sherwood, barriers are due to go operational on 7 July. Perfect timing for the quiet summer holiday period. Things will only get worse come September when 'full load' is resumed and the weather turns so everyone crossing the bridge has their brollies open reducing its capacity still further.

Tomorrow morning is your chance to meet the managers from Southern Railways at London Bridge station concourse.
Time: June 19, 2008 from 7:30am to 9:30am
Location: London Bridge Station
Organized By: Southern Railways

Southern's Meet the Managers programme gives passengers the chance to meet senior managers and directors and talk with them about the service - (such as arbitrary decisions to restrict access to and from Forest Hill station by fare-paying passengers). It's your chance to speak directly to the people who make the decisions which affect you and get a response on the spot. You'll get an insight into the running of Southern, and hearing your views will help us to improve the services and facilities we provide. Information about the questions you asked our managers at the last session are listed below. You can also read information about common questions and answers from the previous Meet the managers sessions by going to the Your Questions section. Meetings are held every four weeks alternating between London Bridge and Victoria stations and are always in the morning peak, which is the time we have found that most passengers have time to stop and talk.

Yippee. [sharpens claws]

(Incidentally, Michael, were you on the 7.20 to LB this morning? I think I was stood by you)

Last night at 6:20 pm, the platform 2 gate was closed. Leaving two families with babies and pushchairs wondering what to do.

Luckily they were with a small group and waited for most of the rush to go up the stairs. But one mother had an infant in a baby sling and a toddler in a pushchair. Daddy was with them, but what if she had been on her own? I am unblievably angry at the closer of the platform 2 exit.

Michael - I'm disturbed to hear that the gates on platform 2 appear to be locked in the evening after 8pm. The same thing is happening at Sydenham station where the gate on the up platform is now locked after 8pm denying step-free access to the station when the staff go home.

Both you and I were reassured repeatedly by Southern that gates at both stations would be left open after 8pm once the new gating system came into operation.

This entire gating system is a disgraceful way to treat passengers. Is it really too much to expect our political representatives - our MP, GLA member or local council to show some sort of leadership in sorting out this situation?

Barry Milton, Sydenham Society

Surely the real issue here is that there is no step free access from Platform 2 full stop. I think this forum and the FHS should be pushing more for a ramp down to Perry Vale than getting tied up in peak flows, and when and when isnt an exit manned. It only takes a couple of buggies going down the stairs on Platform 2 during rush hour to cause a potentially dangerous build up of people.

Apparently yesterday was a simply misunderstanding:

Southern Railway:
This was a misunderstanding as the member of staff at Forest Hill had been reminded to close the ?additional? gates (i.e. not the new ones in the ticket office but the gates to the side) on platform 1 but assumed this also meant platform 2.

In answer to JohnC, the Forest Hill Society is trying to get access from the Perry Vale car park to the station. this is inevitable if the platform is to be extended for 12 car trains. Unfortunately nobody is currently willing to invest in the necessary work and they are going ahead with plans to make the station less accessible.

Did anybody else 'meet the managers' and tell them what they thought about the gates?

I had to rush (the time when most people can stop and talk, indeed!) so I just said they needed to know that their customers hated their plans to vandalise their own stations.

The bloke I spoke to said it was a TfL/Southern/NR issue and that lots of people had raised it.

I stopped and spoke to them this morning. The bloke I spoke to was Irish (couldn't see his name badge) and he seemed to think that having the Perry Vale gate open between 16.30 and 19.30 every day was quite enough to meet their "health and safety" obligations.

He also said that this was a tactical move, and that the long term plan would be to have more barriers and a ramp on the PV side. I may be mistaken (and he did squirm a bit when I asked him to quantify "long term") but this might start within 6-9 months.

As far as I am concerned, this all sounded pretty credible. To be fair to the bloke, he was pretty much shrugging and saying "we appreciate this isn't great, but it's the best we can do" - and it sounded like they've been using the old canard of "health and safety" as an excuse to actually do something, rather than the other approach of using it for inaction.

There is exactly the same set up as what is going to happen at Forest Hill when I go to visit my parents in Epping which is at the end of the central line. It's an overground tube station, with a bridge, one side the gates are permanantly locked and the other side there are three barrier gates. There are even more commuters travelling home from the city in Epping and it is a nightmare getting over the bridge on your way home. It can sometimes take about 10 minutes just to reach the barriers - and with the stampede of people going over the bridge it often creates a bit of barging with the few people trying to get over from the otherside to get on the train.

I spoke to Yvonne this morning at the managers' meeting about the gates and about the franchise:

Gates:

1. Southern and TfL are looking at phase 2 gating plans for both stations. Yvonne is going to get some information about where TfL are with this proposal. For Forest Hill phase 2 almost certainly means barriers at the bottom of the stairs, not the Perry Vale car park entrance. I'm disappointed that they continue to pursue phase 1 implementation when they know they need to do better.

2. Continued to voice concerns about the need to use 4 sets of stairs rather than one for passengers with mobility issues.

3. Yvonne is going to follow up within Southern regarding the idea of a buzzer on the Perry Vale gate (similar to the one at Sydenham) for use when the gate is closed (6am-3pm).

4. Raised concern about the buzzer not being answered at Sydenham when station is staffed and the affect this has on mobility restricted passengers.

Franchising:

1. Made clear that we want the franchise holder to re-open this gate. Yvonne pointed out that since station management will pass to TfL in Autumn 2009, the new South Central franchisee (which could be Southern) would not be responsible for gates.

2. Asked for Southern to consider off-peak services to Charing Cross in the franchise (which are currently planned to be scrapped but RUS does give a glimmer of hope on the continuation of this service)

3. Asked for Southern to consider longer trains to Victoria off-peak (not 2 carriage trains as they sometime run).

I think this move is rediculous!! As some other people have said I too was caught up in the queues the other evening when they closed the exit on platform 2. It takes such a long time to clear the backlog and adds to the misery of commuting home.

They are clearly adding gates to get in line with the east london line extension, but shouldnt there also be some investment in making the station accessable from both sides. What is the point in annoying all communters now when they intend to carry out phase 2 within the next year. With the extra staff costs its surely not going to save any more money in that time!?!?

I intend to do everything in my power to make this as difficult as possible, using any exit i can, not showing my ticket (i incedently have a fully paid travelcard). They should not be using a quick fix and put some proper investment in to cater for the masses of commuters that use FH station.

The joke is that when the station is not manned, the gates will be closed. So they'll be no one for you to protest to during these times of anger and resentment.

if the gates are closed and the barriers are unmanned i intend to jump the barriers!! also, they cannot have closed unmanned barriers as this causes problems with safety.

Yes - I'm pretty sure that if the barriers are unmanned then they have to be left open