Temporary rail cuts due to London Bridge rebuild now permanent from 2018?
It looks like bad news for Southeastern passengers as recent
“temporary” service cuts and slower journeys introduced due to the
London Bridge rebuild could be made permanent after completion of the
work in 2018. Over the past couple of years I’ve covered the London
Bridge rebuild program which has caused much upheaval for Southeastern passengers across south east London.
I’ve reported on cuts between London terminals and Deptford,
Greenwich, Maze Hill and Westcombe Park, which were particularly severe
in the evening peak.
In August 2016 these changes occurred:
During the period from 17:00-19:00 service levels of 13 trains from
London Cannon Street to Greenwich reduced to 8 trains. A 38% cut.
Cuts for Deptford, Maze Hill and Westcombe Park stations saw 11 trains down to 8 (a 27% reduction) from 17:00-19:00.
Running shorter trains in addition to frequency cuts saw a 50% drop
in capacity. Here’s the reductions from that time, which now seem
permanent:
I didn’t criticise the “temporary” changes given major work being
carried out and the fact it was not supposed to last beyond completion
of the project, though I did question mitigation. Cutting train lengths
alongside was not smart. Southeastern had to change things within weeks as they misjudged passenger numbers.
Anyway, fast forward and those “temporary” cuts in capacity and
frequency introduced in August 2016 look set to remain after the
multi-billion pound scheme completes in 2018.
Click here
to see Southeastern’s planned timetable from January 2018. That is when
trains from Cannon Street will once again be able to stop at London
Bridge. I expected services to at least revert to how they were before
2016. But there’s still only around eight trains leaving London
terminals shown in the future timetable. And not only that, the padding
added in to the timetable over this period has been retained. More
massaging of stats. Cannon Street to Abbey Wood is two minutes slower.
In reality, I hoped for a slight improvement in journey times given
more tracks and platforms were being built which should have reduced
congestion.
Increasing the number of tracks and platforms at London Bridge from
six to nine was supposed to improve things for Southeastern passengers.
It was a major selling point. It was to mean less congestion on
approach or departure from London Bridge as Thameslink trains wouldn’t
cross Southeastern trains as services would mostly be segregated
enabling quicker journeys. Charing Cross services
More tracks and platforms for Charing Cross services was supposed to do likewise. No evidence of this at all.
It’s hard on my cursory look through to see many who use Southeastern that actually benefits from the scheme. Have a look and maybe I’m wrong.
Fast trains that run up to 2016 also seemed to have disappeared.
They’ve cut trains and made the few remaining services stop at every
stop. Particularly bad news for those going to Dartford and beyond.
The whole scheme seems to benefit Thameslink passengers in south and
north London, which was expected, but offer little to Southeastern
users.
The Greenwich line may receive two Thameslink trains an hour but that
will be a whole year afterwards. And even then some Southeastern
stations may see cuts alongside.
So another year with poor service for these busy stations? Even
adding Thameslink brings a net drop on service levels before the scheme
commenced. And in areas with masses of housebuilding underway. I’ve covered many new developments around Deptford station.
Close to Deptford station. One of many
Maybe planners think Crossrail coming to Abbey Wood and Woolwich
means cuts further along the line are fine. Again though, Crossrail
opens a whole year after. And peak gaps of near 25 minutes just aren’t
acceptable at very busy stations such as Greenwich. It appears to be
getting the worst service in decades after the completion of a scheme
that was sold as bringing many improvements.Was this always the plan yet kept quiet? Has this come about due to
Chris Grayling becoming Transport Secretary and George Osborne cutting
the transport budget massively at the 2015 spending review? Many Tory
voters are on sticky ground after this if commenting on poor rail
services. It adds to a catalogue of improvements now probably shelved
due to Tory action such as:
More all-day staffing at stations to man barriers and improve safety, especially at night.
Lower fares upon joining the TfL fare scale
Longer ticket office hours
Lewisham station and track upgrade work
Upgrade work at places such as Woolwich Dockyard for 12-car services
Longer trains and more capacity
More stabling space for trains
Integration with house building to provide additional income and better facilities
Much of that will go down the drain, or at least happen on a far more
limited scale with Tories blocking TfL control and cutting huge sums
from both the national transport budget and £700m from TfL. And local
Tories have mostly ignored it and tried to divert attention elsewhere.
Published by fromthemurkydepths
6 thoughts on “Temporary rail cuts due to London Bridge rebuild now permanent from 2018?”
I really hope this is a mistake. A permanent timetable that has double the capacity during off-peak hours is crazy.
The timetable is marked as consultative – is there somewhere we can give feedback? I can’t see it.
This will be an improvement if journey times are kept. Trains
from Greenwich were waiting outside London Bridge for up to 5 minutes
all of the time before.
However, a train every 5-8 minutes at commute times was expected.
I get your point about the waits but they’ve added in timetable
padding recently which increased journey times by up to 5 minutes on
many services, and those aren’t going in the 2018 draft timetable. So we
end up with less trains and no faster journeys due to stretched out
timetables after this very expensive scheme is complete.
Surely Southeastern have messed up. This can’t be right. 3 years
of disruption and a worse service than before? Grayling and the Tories
at work with cuts?
Some of the Conservative losses on the south coast were partly due to disgruntled Southern passengers. In the Southeastern region passengers ans politicians have barely raised a peep. We need to speak out!
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The timetable is marked as consultative – is there somewhere we can give feedback? I can’t see it.
However, a train every 5-8 minutes at commute times was expected.