Trains

[Monkey]

So today I left work in moorgate at 1645 and might not be home in time to pick up my daughter in east Dulwich for 6.00pm. Spoke to three members of staff. It should get better by January. I encourage you all to log your complaints.

[Lowlander]

I've complained that it can take over 5 minutes to get off platform 15 in the morning peak, and that the crowd can be quite tight.

Not heard anything back...and apparently it's going to be like that until 2016?

[StraferJack]

2018 is completion of works

I am caught up in the platform squueze every morning and it's a royal pain - but given teh scale of construction what do people expect staff/TFL to actually do?

It is what it is...

[Lowlander]

StraferJack Wrote:

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> 2018 is completion of works

>

> I am caught up in the platform squueze every

> morning and it's a royal pain - but given teh

> scale of construction what do people expect

> staff/TFL to actually do?

>

> It is what it is...

Just tell me when it will stop - some say 2014, others 2015, now 2018.

The staff I've asked at London Bridge don't know.

I just want to be kept informed...

[StraferJack]

When will what stop? The whole project? 2018

The shuffling along platform_15? That's probably got variables in play - I just accept it is unlikely to happen anytime soon

[StraferJack]

http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/12179.aspx

[Earl Aelfheah]

I'm not convinced that it's going to improve much until the works are finished in 2018, but hope I'm proved wrong. For me it just emphasises why we should be pushing hard for an extension of the tube network into SE London. We are totally reliant on the trains with no viable, high speed alternative.... I know we have buses, but they're so slow in rush hour, that they don't represent a viable commuting option for many of us. We pay for the tube network through our taxes, we should be served by it as much as those in other parts of London.

[david_carnell]

Well everyone who doesn't live in London pays the same taxes and doesn't have a tube at all. That's not a logical argument.

And there are proposals to extend the Bakerloo line but the timescales are lengthy.

[Townleygreen]

Maybe take up cycling? You have control of when you arrive that way. I realise it won't suit all though.

[Jeremy]

I can't really agree with this "I demand we have a tube line" stance, but I can agree that the current situation is unacceptable, and at times, dangerous.

The trains are now so tightly scheduled that if one train is delayed, the whole network goes bang and they start having to cancel trains or miss out stops. Half hour waits are commonplace, as are 25 minute journeys. There is a lack of useful departure information at London Bridge. And at the end of all this... we'll have one less platform than we did to start with.

[grabot]

I think it would be nice to get some sort of reprieve. Maybe swap trains to different platforms periodically to share the joys of platform 15. Would this be achievable?

[StraferJack]

Platform 15 isn't the only one with this problem - 4 days out of 5 I am on one of the other platforms and the same situation occurs

[Earl Aelfheah]

Jeremy Wrote:

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> I can't really agree with this "I demand we have a

> tube line" stance

If you look at the tube map, I think it's obvious that SE London is massively under served. This should be a strategic priority for investment / expansion. I'm not suggesting East Dulwich necessarily, but SE London generally. An entire quarter of London is reliant almost exclusively on trains and buses and as a result, when things go wrong on the former, there is carnage on the latter, leaving people with few options.

[Lowlander]

StraferJack Wrote:

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> When will what stop? The whole project? 2018

>

> The shuffling along platform_15? That's probably

> got variables in play - I just accept it is

> unlikely to happen anytime soon

Just platform 15. That's all I care about.

[StraferJack]

Ah I see ? just like fazer71 and his planes noise threads

?I don?t care if everything is interdependent and connected, just fix my bit?

[AllyCat]

Looks like 2 more tube stations are heading South - sadly not in the SE direction though : (

http://now-here-this.timeout.com/2014/11/14/all-stations-go-for-the-northern-line-extension-to-battersea/

[Jeremy]

rahrahrah Wrote:

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> An entire quarter of London is reliant almost exclusively on

> trains and buses and as a result, when things go

> wrong on the former, there is carnage on the

> latter, leaving people with few options.

So you think every area of London should be served by at least three forms of transport, as a contingency measure?

Don't get me wrong, I'd prefer a tube too... but I don't get the argument that carrying on without it is some sort of great burden. The current situation, while painful, is not permanent.

[Lowlander]

StraferJack Wrote:

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

> Ah I see ? just like fazer71 and his planes noise

> threads

>

> ?I don?t care if everything is interdependent and

> connected, just fix my bit?

As it happens, I'm affected by the other parts too (no Charing Cross trains stopping from Jan 2015 to August 2016. Closure from 20 December to 4 Jan.).

But no-one seems to be able to give me a concrete answer to this one question.

[Earl Aelfheah]

I just think that it is ridiculous that the tube network has a massive hole in it. That out of 270 stations only 5 in SE London, outside of Zone 1 and yet it doesn't get addressed. Instead money from the transport budget is used to fund tourist attractions like the Emirate Dangleway, the garden Bridge and vanity projects like the 'Boris bus'. The latest extension of the northern line serves an area where there is no current demand or existing community - it's is just a huge public subsidy to a development of luxury flats. So yes, I think it's reasonable to demand that transport priorities shift, so that the budget is used to improve provision for existing London communities, rather than serve the interests of property developers or the mayors ego.

[Jeremy]

I prefer to look at holes in the "transport network" rather than purely the "tube network".

A once-a-ten minute train service to London Bridge - with easy interchange to Charing Cross - would be a perfectly respsectable service. If it worked. Without engineering works every. single. weekend. since. ever.

[Lowlander]

So despite messages to Network Rail and the Thameslink programme, I can find no further info beyond that platform 15 will remain narrow "until 2016".

Anyone able to confirm a rough date, even by quarter? 1 Jan 2016 is quite different from 31 December 2016...

[the-e-dealer]

They need to put a train service on the platform at platform 15 to speed people leaving the platform.