No trains East Dulwich to London 12-13/11/11

[Anders]

No trains from East Dulwich station to London again this Saturday and Sunday. More of a heads up to others planning to travel on that route, but if anyone know's the reason for this lack of service at the weekends or when these problems will cease i'd love to know.

I know it's not all the time and I don't want to be accused of moaning about nothing but the replacement bus service on a Saturday certaininly does not take 25 minutes, sometimes it takes close to an hour depending on the time of day. Since i've lived in East Dulwich (3 years) this route has had more closures than any other i've encountered in London, although I can't remember the exact number of weekends there has been no service, it's always at the most inconvenient times (obviously)

Southern and National Rail no help on this matter either, apparantly even though they can see there are planned closures on the route, they can't say why or when the service will be back to running every weekend.

[bloonoo]

I've never even seen a replacement bus! Actually I lie - one time I saw it when it was 10 mins earlier than the scheduled time on the National Rail site so I just had to watch it go off in the distance as I was walking to the stop. Have given up waiting for the replacement service and get the 40 now.

[Earl Aelfheah]

Business as usual then. Would be more notable / post worthy if the trains were running at the weekend.

[KidKruger]

Where does this bus service go to - Peckham Rye ?

Or is there no trains all the way from ED to LB ?

Perhaps Denmark Hill (then bus) is an alternative - I need to make this journey over the weekend.

[KalamityKel]

could you perhaps change the title of your thread to display the correct year?

Got me all confuzzled it did!

[Jeremy]

I've lived in ED for around 9 years, train closures on the weekend have been regular for at least 7 of those years, and has been particularly bad for the last 4 years or so. And people stil wonder why local residents feel they need to own cars...

It looks like Denmark Hill to London Bridge is also out of action, although Denmark Hill to Victoria will be running.

[KalamityKel]

Guess there's the bus... ::o

;-)

[Anders]

Hopefully changed the date to show 2011 instead of 2012!

[Anders]

...or not, sorry not sure how to change the title

[jonsuissy]

To be fair we do at least have a Sunday service which wasn't alweays the case.

Jon

[Ladygooner]

When do people expect maintenance to be carried out then? During the working week?

[Anders]

Neither Southern rail or National rail could confirm that it was for maintenance but i'm sure you're right about that being the reason, however if it's been going on regularly for the last 7 years, why does this part of the track need such regular maintenance, and will it ever remain 'maintained' for long enough to get a decent run of weekend trains?

I've lived all over London and never experienced a train service as poor as this one for travelling at weekends.

Don't want to turn this in to a rant, just wondered if anyone knew of any reason for such a drawn out disruption to the service as the various train companies I contacted didn't have a clue!

[Jeremy]

Ladygooner - I expect maintenance to be carried out overnight, and on occasional weekends!

Not regular outages for the whole weekend, spanning several years!! It's unacceptable that many of us have paid in advance for a service which we are not receiving.

[jimmyay]

It is appalling and has been going on for years.

I'm certain that there's no engineering on this line. Its just a thinly veiled excuse to not have a service, for whatever reason . You don't have this kind of disruption for 5 years with frequent whole weekend shutdowns on most other lines.

People in our area obviously don't complain enough.

[KidKruger]

Well maybe that's something we need to mobilise on then.

I've had many a weekend journey screwed by there being no service from ED to LB.

[Sue]

jimmyay Wrote:

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

> I'm certain that there's no engineering on this

> line.

xxxxxxxx

How do you know?

If you can demonstrate that there isn't, then a strong case can be made to bring the weekend service back.

But I suspect that actually there are works carried out.

I agree it's a ******* nuisance, but I'd rather they did engineering works than people were killed due to the lack of them. And unfortunately the weekend is the obvious time to do them.

[KidKruger]

It's a reasonable conspiracy theory to me.

I mean how many issues can a line from ED to LB have had in 7 years that requires the entire weekend service is removed week after week.

When I have a little more time I'll start looking into this - if anyone has sources they've already exhausted, let me know, I don't want to cover same tracks (no pun intended, honest).

[Sue]

KidKruger Wrote:

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

> It's a reasonable conspiracy theory to me.

> I mean how many issues can a line from ED to LB

> have had in 7 years that requires the entire

> weekend service is removed week after week.

> When I have a little more time I'll start looking

> into this - if anyone has sources they've already

> exhausted, let me know, I don't want to cover same

> tracks (no pun intended, honest).

xxxxxxx

But it's not always out at weekends, is it?

I've often got a train from ED at weekends.

ETA: What happened to that very helpful guy (Barry someone?) who was in charge of the trains round here and used to have a thread on the forum? I'm sure he would sort it out, should it need sorting out.

[Jeremy]

Not every weekend, but a significant proportion of them, and over a period of several years. I am 100% sure it is not just a matter of routine maintenance to keep people safe, I've never experienced another line with the same level of outages.

I actually suspect it's related to the new London Overground extension, which will require connecting a new spur to the line somewhere around the Queens Rd Peckham area. Obviously a big job. But that doesn't explain 7 years (or whatever) of intermittent weekend service.

[Anders]

Just Spoke to Adam at Southern customer services again (i had to call them again after another failed call back...the 5th in total) and he said he would escalte my complaint to another department and 'call me back' when he has had a response.

He seemed ok although he had no idea just like the rest of the people I have spoken to there and on the whole I would say that Southern customer services are pretty dreadful.

Knowing now that this problem has existed for 7 years I feel even more determined to get some answers, just wish I had made a note of all the weekend closures this year as i'm sure they either won't/can't provide that information, which by the way is their favourite answer to all questions.

Sue - I know they have to do engineering works but this line is closed too frequently at weekends and it's not on when many people pay for this service in advance.

[Sue]

Anders Wrote:

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

> Sue - I know they have to do engineering works but

> this line is closed too frequently at weekends and

> it's not on when many people pay for this service

> in advance.

xxxxxxx

Don't get me wrong, I agree with you, and good for you for trying to pin them down to say exactly why the line is closed so often.

[peterstorm1985]

Network Rail engineering works

Took a minute to find this- if you look on the Network rail site it tells you where work is being carried out (You just type in your travel date and Train company and there's a list).

If you look on the Network rail site it gives more info about what is being done and why

[Jeremy]

I emailed Southern to ask for an explanation last week. I just received an email in reply, with absolutely no attempt to answer any of the questions I raised. The reply did say "If you need any additional information regarding this request, please answer to this email", so I did... only to get it bounced back to me, as [email protected] apparently does not exist. Which I thought was a good metaphor.

Public transport in the UK is second rate.