Hi guys, does anyone know why there seemed to have been no overground trains any weekend in August, only 1 weekend in September, and only about 2 weekends between now and December? Does anyone know when this might end and is there a way to complain? 
Hi @Soph and welcome to the forum. There have been a few discussions about this recently. See topics tagged “trains” (click here: #trains).
It’s so unbelievably frustrating.
Making things even worse, it coincides with Southern providing next to no service - even if you are prepared to more than double the cost of your journey by going via zone 1 and then transferring onto the underground.
Good luck complaining 
It would be slightly better if they could explain why and give an end date but at the moment it just feels like it’s never ending and it’s so frustrating as you say
It took me over 90 minutes to get home from my job in Central london this evening because of this- (remarkably only just over an hour to get in this morning)
Deeply depressing after a long day at work waiting in the dark and drizzle to get on a rail replacement bus then get stuck in traffic.
It actually puts a downer on living here-the fact that our connections to W1 are the worst they’ve ever been.
That sounds really tough and I’m really sorry to hear that. I completely know what you mean. It really makes everything so much harder. I’ve emailed our MP and network rail but I’m really not expecting to hear anything back
Hi again.
Is that Ellie Reeves? I’ll also contact her about the train situation.
So sorry hear - what a nightmare. Especially now the nights are pulling in and it’s getting quite a bit colder.
I actually emailed our MP months ago about the transport here and Southern rail (about axing the Victoria service) and never got a response from the MP.
I hope you do better!
My particular bugbear is that I believe it was suggested that the Southern service would be reinstated to Charing X like I believe it used to before we moved here (we moved here in2011 and far from doing this they’ve now axed the Victoria Service which was handy as an option to get to Central and West london.
I just spoke to my colleague who lives in Eastbourne and she got home only 15 minutes after I did this evening !
Plus this as we all know will continue for most of the year.
Its almost as if they assume that everyone on our stretch of the line just stays locally at the Weekend.
Not to mention the paucity of trains after 10pm (this was prior to the current curfew)
It definitely used to when we moved here in 2005 - it was brilliant. I can’t remember now why it was stopped.
I’ll see if I get a response from our MP. Surely they can’t just ignore the situation if a number of people complain.
Ha the council only come alive when landlords or new builds something similar bring in money anything else is petty issues and boring… Sorry… I believe so many important issues are being over looked or ignored? The cracks are showing more and more it’s like meh!!
Only a few will shout about it and if it ain’t broke has the saying goes but silliness brakes it so baffled about so many things it’s purposely meant to cause confusion And so fourth boredom sets into quickly for some 
Oh dear, well it can’t hurt to complain and surely the more who do, the better chance of some action. Fingers crossed!
I really do hope!!
I so wish I could be more upbeat about the council like I used to many let downs and lack of confidence. I just pay them taxes 
I have emailed Ellie Reeves.
You need to include your address (and contact number) in order to get a reply as MPs can only deal with their own constituents.
Thanks for the info 
I have received the following reply from Ellie Reeves, our MP:-
"Many thanks for contacting Ellie regarding the lack of Overground services from Forest Hill at weekends. I am responding on her behalf as a member of her casework team.
We have written to Transport for London on your behalf to highlight your concerns about the frequency of weekend services.
We will of course let you know as soon as we receive a response.
With best wishes,
Juliet
Caseworker to Ellie Reeves MP
Member of Parliament for Lewisham West and Penge"
Hi, I’ve also received a very similar response today, from Juliet on behalf of Ellie. Let’s hope they reply with the answer from TFL.
The more people complain - the higher the chance of action 
I also wrote to the council but haven’t heard anything back.
FYI from this thread about the FHSoc AGM Ellie Reeves will be there virtually and you can submit questions ahead of the meeting
Thanks Clausy,
The more people that can get behind this the better,
I’m happy to submit some questions. Everyone seems to be on the same page over what the issues are, and the extent of them.
I hope so:
The Council, Lewisham Mayor, the GLA, and London Mayor, and even the Govt, all want us to drive less. Yet the public transport services are worse than they were - at a time of pandemic this also means the services are less safe.
Totally agree, and I’m happy to submit some question too. I just got a response from TFL and they say it’s to do with Network Rail so we need to contact Network Rail too. I hope Ellie’s office will contact Network Rail as well as TFL
It’s sad because I have neighbours who did work for TFL. So many wrong people in charge making silly decisions the amount of hard working fighters to stop what they could from happening.
Sadly people who make bad decisions like the Ian Duncan Smith of the world don’t realise how out of touch they are with reality.
This spoils its amazing how such people get into high positions get so much power Or abuse it. Once they leave make there mark after there golden handshake before and after. Well they take their money couldn’t care less about the damage caused they didn’t care.
This happens everywhere and I like many am fed up. So many different companies running so many trains charging an holiday package ticket for the year to receive poor service.
The government shouldn’t of allowed it to be privatised to many fingers in the pie. Don’t get me started on ticket inspectors not all of them but some have such a bad attitude and like to look like hot shots in front of work colleagues.
This again spoils it for the few that care about working for public transport.
Yes…the whole Shebang is not working and to many cracks are showing with unnecessary drama.
How has this happened and who has allowed because it was never broken. Sometimes fancy shiny things can blind you or cover up the glass that was swept. Oh dear me I am on one again best get of my box 
Unclear what Iain Duncan Smith has to do with anything. And many of the problems are due to Network Rail (public sector company) infrastructure and nothing to do with privatisation.
Maybe best that we just leave national politics out of this discussion?
Totally agree 
I emailed TFL a while ago and they said to contact Network Rail, so I did. I finally got a response from Network Rail this morning and they said to contact TFL! I really feel like I’m going crazy with this.
yes I went through all of this ages ago and went round and round in circles-I even emailed the mayor’s office but got no response
Hence it is a political matter. The system has been designed to obscure accountability.
I don’t believe that we gained any advantage when the Overground came to Forest Hill. Before then we had a mainline train to London Bridge every ten minutes. In the evening mainline trains went from Forest Hill to Charing Cross and back again.
If passengers wanted the East London Line, they just got off at New Cross Gate and transferred.
This was discussed at the FH Society AGM last night. Ellie Reeves was there for part of the time, and, slightly surprisingly, didn’t seem aware of the issue, even though I see from earlier posts here that her ‘casework team’ have been involved. I think it was agreed that the FH Society should take a more active interest in the issue.
I said that I was quite cross that our line had been getting such a poor weekend service for so long - from well before the COVID lockdown, which someone said might have something to do with it . I had always understood that the problem was caused by the need for weekend work connected with Crossrail, but I’m not sure that applies any longer. I do wish somebody would give us a clear explanation of what’s going on.
There was weekend work for Crossrail at Whitechapel. However, I have always maintained that the Overground could still run to and from Canada Water. I was on an Overground train one evening that pulled into the southbound platform at Canada Water. I know it is possible.
Disappointing to hear that our MP has no knowledge of the issues, given that a few of us have received responses from her office. Why would that be the case? Are they just avoiding the issue because it might be difficult to sort out?
However, it’s important to the local people and area, and so why should it be ignored?
Did Ellie agree any action regarding the poor service from Southern and the Overground?
Yes even just having a sense of when it might be running again would be good!
My memory (I hope someone will correct me if I’m wrong) is that she asked the person who raised the issue last night to send her more details and undertook then to raise the issue with TfL and ?Network Rail. (I see from earlier posts that her staff have in fact already written to TfL. It appears from @Soph’s post however that TfL say it’s a matter for Network Rail.)
As a result of the AGM Ellie has already written to TFL - her letter will be attached to the AGM minutes which will be up on the website soon.
Thanks, Clausy, and great to hear.
This pre-overground timetable sounds way better than the current one.
tonight coming home from work my shift finished at 8.30pm therefore I had to wait 20 mins for a train at London bridge.
2 trains an hour from London bridge to a station in zone 3 is laughable.
the fact that our MP claims to have no knowledge of the issues is appalling.
This is something that directly affects the quality of life of her constituents.
We will be building a hotel on the old co-op site yet the train service is laughable.
they may as well not bother it it remains this way.
That’s great to see.
@robin.orton Your memory serves you right - I was the first person to ask about this, and she asked me to write to her, which I duly did. It’s good to see though that she realised it was a more widespread concern than she had previously appreciated, and took swift action to make amends.
I too was surprised that she was unaware of the problems we’ve faced in recent months, and that her casework team had not passed on concerns from constituents on the issue, as it’s clear that others had previously been in touch. I guess it may be a bit of an insight into how that sort of thing is managed when ‘the boss’ has become a shadow front-bencher (Solicitor General), and as she explained she also has to question the Attorney General, because the Labour shadow to the role is in the Lords. There is probably just quite a bit less time to deal with constituency issues. Though I guess there may also be a benefit given her relative high profile as a result of that role, in that her voice may be a bit louder in Parliament and with other public bodies when she does raise local issues.
Thanks for this, @jonfrewin. I didn’t intend to criticise Ellie Reeves personally. She must be under a lot of pressure, particularly as it seems she was away on maternity leave until comparatively recently and obviously, as she said, got a bit out of touch.
Sorry I didn’t mean to imply you had criticised her! I was also responding to a couple of other comments further up the thread.