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The latest from London Rail on our campaign to save the Crofton Park - Victoria service

Here's the latest message we've received from London Rail:


Further to my email of 8 December, I wanted to provide an update on the TfL/London TravelWatch South London Line study.

 We have been evaluating the five shortlisted options that were presented at the meeting on 24 November, which are outlined again below:

 

Option 1 : A modified East London Line service from Dalston Junction of 4 trains per hour - 2 trains to Clapham Junction and 2 trains to Victoria

Option 2 : A modified East London Line service from Dalston Junction of 6 trains per hour – 4 trains to Clapham Junction and 2 trains to Victoria

Option 3 : A 2 trains per hour service between Victoria and Bellingham

Option 4 : A package of measures: Additional stops in 2 of the 4 existing Orpington – Victoria services at Clapham High Street & Wandsworth Road stations outside of peak times AND additional stops in the 2 trains per hour Gillingham or Dover / Ramsgate services at Peckham Rye & Denmark Hill stations

Option 5 : A package of measures: An additional service of 2 trains per hour between Hither Green and Victoria at peak times AND running of the existing two trains per hour Dartford – Victoria service all day, every day, which would also stop at Clapham High Street & Wandsworth Road stations outside of peak times

 

TfL and London TravelWatch have been liaising on a regular basis to discuss the progress of the study.  Meetings have also been held with DfT and Network Rail to seek their views on the feasibility and deliverability of the five short-listed options.  We are now in the process of calculating the costs, social benefits, revenue and forecast demand of each option.  Please note, the timescales for this analysis have been slightly extended as the availability of the latest and most suitable modelling tool for this piece of work was delayed.  We apologise for this as we know you are keen to see the results.

 

We expect the analysis to be concluded by around mid March, following which we will need to verify the (draft) report of findings with Network Rail and DfT.  We therefore intend to schedule a further stakeholder meeting towards the end of March/early April so we can present and discuss the findings with you.  An invite will be sent nearer the time (but with plenty of notice).  We also intend to circulate material in advance of the meeting so you have an opportunity to review it beforehand.

 

The latest on Southern trains

My colleague Max Calo is running a campaign to get Southern trains to refund their public subsidy for the days that it cancelled services during the snow.

You can read more and sign here:
http://campaigns.libdems.org.uk/snowtrains

And Caroline Pidgeon, Lib Dem Greater London Assembly Member and chair of its transport committee, has written to Southern trains to demand an explanation of why so many services were cancelled.

Key questions include why a freight service could run during many of these times, but not a passenger service.

You can read more here:
http://www.london.gov.uk/assembly/reports/transport/snow-report-letter-southeastern.pdf

This evening I asked Boris Johnson to save train services from Brockley, Crofton Park and Honor Oak.

I was at the People's Question time in Brixton - where I, followed up by Lib Dem Greater London Authority member Caroline Pidgeon, raised the petition that you have signed.

I asked whether Boris was willing to find the money to ensure that the Victoria - Bellingham service was reinstated, and what he would do about the planned cuts to the Brockley / Honor Oak / Forest Hill services.

You can listen yourself on LBC 1152 from 7pm tomorrow (Tuesday) and also on their website in the morning.

There are three things you can do to help our campaign:
You can join us handing out petition postcards at Crofton Park station tomorrow evening from 5:30 to 6:30pm
You can donate to our campaign by clicking here (https://www.paypal.com/cgi- bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick& hosted_button_id=7123324)
You can pass on this petition to your friends and neighbours

While we got no commitments from Boris, we’ve succeeded in pushing the issue up the London agenda, and I’ll be taking our campaign to a meeting with London Rail (part of Boris’s Transport for London) on 24th November. So if you can pass on this petition (bit.ly/YwszA) to your friends and neighbours locally I can take even more signatures to the Mayor’s office.