Secret deal to axe the planned Victoria-Bellingham service (via Denmark Hill & Peckham Rye)

[Eileen]

zephyr Wrote:

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

> but is it a reduction if it does not already

> exist. I frequently use Nunhead and would agree

> that the Victoria service at the moment is a pain

> - I generally use the service the Elephant instead

> and that even goes strainght to St Pancras,

> Kentish Town, Luton and St Albans now.

In this case yes it is in practice a reduction. Not for Nunhead, but for Peckham Rye, Denmark Hill, Clapham High St and Wandsworth Road. In 2012 they will each lose 2 tph to Victoria because the Victoria - Bellingham service, that was planned to take the place of the trains lost by the cut of the London Bridge - Victoria service, would not exist.

[tiddles]

I thankfully no longer have to commute, but I used to, and found the peckham rye/london bridge trains services to be so frequent so as to make getting 'up to town' easy and convenient. This is still the case. Anything that lessens public transport (train) links to and from central london is not, IMO a good thing. I too have no idea where the heck bellingham is, but I have noticed the last couple of times I used the london brige service home, it was the bellingham train. The powers that be cannot insist that people leave their cars at home if they are going to erode public transport links.

[JDR]

Bellingham is the area just after Catford if you were travelling towards Bromley from Lewisham

[R&A]

I'm w Eileen too - Considering how packed these trains are in the morning, losing two trains an hour would be a disaster, in my opinion.

Hopefully if enough people shout about it, the decision will be reversed....

[Kingsbury David]

I wish you luck keeping the service. Although I only have a very poor train service north of the river if I lived in a BR area and trains actually ran every 15 minutes or so I would use them if they went where I needed. They bang on about getting people out of their cars (not sure why though) and then one by one dismantle the public transport system.

I collected the old train tickets and know a number of services that closed while I did so. I found a cache of them stored in the closed office at Wandsworth Road from the old East Brixton which closed in the early 70s. Our local Primrose Hill could serve thousands of commuters in Camden but as it was on another little loop they hated routing trains there and although it retained a booking office was reduced to two trains a day. The old trick is they make a station impossible to use and then apply for closure from low usage. And when I had to go to New Cross recently considered taking the train and what? It's suspended. As long as public transport is run for profit this will always happen and a national system where the busy lines support the quiet ones is the only way to keep a proper system, and the buses. I'm no way Labour but public services are an exception to the free market as they are a natural monopoly and can only run properly if remain so.

[Pandora]

This press release popped into my inbox this morning: More frequent rail services for London and the South East. Govia, who run Southern, have retained their franchise so will keep running the services through East Dulwich and Peckham Rye.