Just another hellish commuter day in SE London

[DulwichLondoner]

This morning the only rail line with few trains cancelled was the East Dulwich to London Bridge one (note: few, not none).

From Denmark Hill:

no overground (broken down freight train somewhere)

most Thameslink trains to Blackfriars, Farringdon etc cancelled (some power problem somewhere near Blackheath)

most trains to Victoria cancelled (no clue why)

Supposedly none of this has anything to do with the handful of timid snowflakes in the air this morning.

Of course without privatisation it would have all been worse and those who dare suggest the opposite, or dare ask how John Major's promise that "franchises will provide a better, cheaper and more effective service for the commuter" reconciles with reality (spoiler alert: it doesn't) are dangerous Marxists.

I'm not sure if there is much comedy on the privatisation of trains, but this about a privatised police force comes to mind:

[cynical]

What made it worse, there were no staff available at Denmark Hill to say what was going on at 7am this morning. As I use the Overground to Clapham Junction, to get a connecting train out to Twickenham it is a nightmare. To get to work close to my starting time have to get a taxi.

I have to say that the London Overground service on a Monday morning has got steadily worse, with a mixture of excuses, from a broken freight train, to broken rails which always seem to be between Clapham and Wandsworth road, or being diverted to Battersea Park.

It never seems to be London Overgrounds fault, as I am sure they are trying to massage their figures

[Penguin68]

Most Overground track (and signals) are managed by Network Rail, and a freight train would also not be managed by TfL so it is probably true that they are not directly responsible for these failures.

[DulwichLondoner]

Well, either it's just a hell of a coincidence, or there must be some intrinsic reason why services in our area are so much worse than those in SW London - including those run by the same awful Southern Fail (eg the Balham to Victoria line). We pay the same fares but are stuck with one of the poorest services in the capital.

[Penguin68]

SW London extends along the Thames Valley, whilst we have a much more varied topography - it may be that this causes problems with line integrity (no idea, just speculating) - we are wholly reliant on Network Rail managed and maintained lines, whilst SW London has tube services - the lines for which are TfL managed I believe. What annoys me is that no account is taken of the poor services to SE London, for whatever reason, when London wide planning is concerned. It is assumed that everyone is at the same starting point and thus all changes have an equal impact. Making life more difficult for road users across London has a far greater impact on those more reliant on such usage.

[Monkey]

It's shameful. I now use Brixton tube. No going back.

[DulwichLondoner]

My modest proposal is: don't renationalise, don't cap the salaries and bonuses of the railway bosses, but simply force them to live in Brighton and to commute to central London for work. Every. Single. Day. Who wants to bet the service would improve drastically? :)

[DulwichLondoner]

@Monkey,how do you get to Brixton? I tried a few times, but the 37 bus is not frequent and takes a while to get to Brixton. From Camberwell there are more options and it's easier, but from East Dulwich it's a bit of a pain.

[Penguin68]

The 3 (from West Dulwich) goes to Brixton both quickly and quite regularly.

[Monkey]

I drive to Brixton which takes me about 10mns before rush hour. I've hired a parking space near the station. I go all the way to Marylebone and most of my travelling time is now spent in my warm car or walking to the station. Tube journey itself only takes 20mns. I know it is a bit of a luxury and not environmentally friendly but at least my money's not going to Southern. And there's no waiting on freezing platforms for a train to nowhere.

[Tractorlad]

Would this be a good time to recommend cycling?!

[JohnL]

They did mention directly on BBC or Sky (forget which) that no trains could get through from Peckham Rye to Denmark Hill.

So I planned bus from the start.

[womanofdulwich]

I agree. The tube from Brixton is the way to go. You get your steps in on the way :)- so save on gym fees too....Coming home the trains are more reliable than in the morning, so you can vary your route.

[Abe_froeman]

You are complaining that the service in our area is awful compared to sw London, but in your own words the only service that was running normally today was the service that is sxclusively on offer at East Dulwich.

All the other services you complain about pass through stations in other areas and go to west, south west or north london.

[DulwichLondoner]

The Thameslink trains that were cancelled were from SE to Central London; I don't know if they were meant to continue to North London (maybe some were) but I know they have nothing to do with SW London.

The trains, all cancelled, from Denmark Hill to Victoria were from SE London to Central London. They all stop at Victoria, so nothing to do with SW, West or North London.

The overground to Clapham Junction does go through both SE and SW London, true.

The ED to London Bridge line was working normally, which means the usual 10-minute delays, but at least it was running.

Yes, overall I call this that we get in the East Dulwich - Camberwell - Peckahm area an awful service. What do you call it?

And, yes, most SW London stations have much better connections.

[BrandNewGuy]

DulwichLondoner Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> The ED to London Bridge line was working normally,

> which means the usual 10-minute delays, but at

> least it was running.

According to http://www.recenttraintimes.co.uk, the 07:09, 07:30, 07:50, 08:10, 08:30 and 09:10 arrived on time, the 08:20 arrived 6 mins late, the 08:51 1 min late and the 08.57 2 mins late.

[DulwichLondoner]

I was on the 8.51 this morning which left almost 10 minutes late (I remember double checking my watch which synchronises to my phone, so is quite accurate). I admit I did not jot down what time the train arrived in London Bridge, so I cannot verify whether the website's claim that the train arrived only 1 minute late is accurate.

[BrandNewGuy]

You'd need to take that up with them, because they're claiming it was on time.

[B&G]

Yup. A three hour commute for me this morning. Still, nice to get to use a range of trains and tubes, and enjoy stations previously unvisited. Pah.

[JohnL]

DulwichLondoner Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> The Thameslink trains that were cancelled were

> from SE to Central London; I don't know if they

> were meant to continue to North London (maybe some

> were) but I know they have nothing to do with SW

> London.

>

Bedford or St Albans is the final destination of the Thameslink trains northbound

[Angelina]

I either get the bus to Brixton (I have an app on my phone so know when the bus is coming) or the 185 to Vauxhall and jump on the tube there.

Denmark Hill station is depressing - more so with the buses not stopping outside on the way home.

Maybe it's all more tolerable when it's not freezing cold - roll on summer

[NewWave]

I have a massive bee in my bonnet by how much we have to rely on the overground in this area of SE London.

In SW London there are many more busses taking us into central hubs with the option of catching a tube or linking to another bus.

I live FH/ED border and either have to walk up to get a 12 or do a 2 bus journey to get to weork in central London if the trains are playing up.

or at the very least we need a Hoppa bus that does FH/ED/Peckham into New Cross and terminates at Canada water so at least we had the option of picking up the Jubilee line at Canada Water.

I'm always ranting about how the poor transport in this part of town just gets me down.

The reliablity of the trains is getting worse meaning that I often have to give myself an extra 40miniutes to get to work 'in case' of problems.

[Penguin68]

terminates at Canada water so at least we had the option of picking up the Jubilee line at Canada Water

The Overground from Forest Hill or Honor Oak will get you to Canada Water. I now rely on access to the Jubilee Line to get me into town, you can interchange with both Northern Line Spurs (London Bridge & Waterloo), District & Circle (Westminster), Victoria Line and Piccadilly (Green Park), Central Line (Bond Street) etc. It's crowded, mind you.

[DulwichLondoner]

I'm not so sure there are many more buses in SW London, but:

there are way more trains; when you have trains to central London every 3-4 minutes during rush hour, even if they cancel two in a row it's not the end of the world

in some stations (Balham, Earlsfield, I think Putney but not too sure) there are multiple lines converging into central London - not so at ED; this builds some redundancy, because if there is a problem on one line, there are still other lines which work just fine

Also, no one will confirm it officially, but I do get the impression that the East Dulwich to London bridge line is not Southern's priority; I genuinely do not understand why the Balham to Victoria (also Southern) worked reasonably well even when ED to London Bridge had 1 train per hour in the morning for two consecutive summers

[siousxiesue]

On a similar note, I travelled from a SE postcode (SE22) to another SE postcode (SE10) and it took me longer to get there than my friend travelling from Bloody Shepherd's Bush! Sums it up for me