Although Southern have announced that a few services will be operating to/from Victoria from Monday 10th January unfortunately most are still being diverted into London Bridge which means they are not reinstating the stopping service from East Croydon to London Bridge which would normally provide most of our weekday services or the weekday peak hours “service” between London Bridge and Victoria!
They have only published timetables for next week at present which for Forest Hill/Honor Oak Park appears to be the same as has been operating this week. ie. 3 early morning trains to London Bridge
departing Forest Hill at 0558, 0643 and 0658 (Honor Oak Park 3 minutes later) and 4 late night trains from London Bridge at 2310, 2340, 2358 and 0035!
Timetables https://timetables.southernrailway.com/SN/#/timetables/702/Table%20K
Although Southern are planning to operate full weekend services with Victoria closed to Southern services again this weekend and services diverted to London Bridge we were not due to have a Southern service this weekend . But there should be services next weekend which is just as well as there won’t be any London Overground for the next two weekends due to engineering work at Surrey Quays!
South Eastern who operate from Catford Bridge into London Bridge, Cannon St and Charing Cross are bringing in a slightly reduced timetable (7%) from Monday 10th January which doesn’t seem as drastic as Southern’s. So that might be worth considering if you need to get to those areas and can either walk to Catford Bridge or are close to a 171, 185 or 75 bus stop!
Changing at Norwood Junction seems to be another option as there are plenty of additional services (largely Southern south coast services) which will be making additional calls at that station. Southern have also claimed that they will decide if they’ll make additional calls at “other stations” by which they mean New Cross Gate by midday of the day before, so will be on journey planners on Sunday afternoon if they do add any.
I’ve noticed that many of the connections via Norwood Junction only have 3 minutes. That’s not long considering there is a platform change involving 2 lots of stairs. Not great for anyone with mobility issues!
I just wondered if there was any intel on how long this will be going on for?
The canada water interchange was hideous this morning and the overground trains when I travel at least seem to be filling up despite the ‘WFH’ where possible instruction.
also the 3 morning and evening trains dont help the majority of commuters.
I went on the Overground today and it is indeed shut this weekend on our route but the poster said the contingency is not bus replacement, but Southern trains running this weekend into London Bridge. The Southern site says for 15/16 Jan “We plan to operate the full timetable on Saturdays and Sundays, but it is important that you check your journey before travelling as some on-the-day alterations are expected. Services will be affected by engineering work on some routes.” But wait for more knowledgeable people on this thread to confirm.
In general though its cream-crackered. The pandemic means less ticket revenue, I suspect Southern would prefer to concentrate on longer routes. Maybe the Forest Hill route into London Bridge will become a “heritage service”, one weekend every two months, pulled by steam trains. We wouldn’t notice much difference tbh.
Your reference to a heritage service got me googling old train times. In 1938 it took 9 minutes to travel from London Bridge to Forest Hill. In 1963 it took 12 minutes. In 2021 it takes 16 minutes.
How about that for progress!
I suspect the reason for the 2021 time is partly due to the driver operating the doors and consequent safety features. The old slam door trains spent much less time at staions. I also suspect if you have generous timings your trains are less likely to be late which I think train companies are penalised for.
No! The severe reductions are only on the weekday timetables. As I alluded to in the 3rd paragraph of the original post there should be a normal weekend service on Southern this weekend which should mean 4 trains per hour to London Bridge, 2 trains per hour to Victoria and 2 trains per hour to East Croydon. And it should be the same the following weekend.
Although Southern have announced they are planning to operate a couple of extra routes into Victoria on weekdays next week there are no planned changes to our weekday services from Forest Hill/Honor Oak Park
The weekday timetables on the Southern website haven’t been updated date-wise yet (the weekend ones which are valid “until further notice” should be correct except when there is engineering work). Journey planners for next week’s services should be updated by Saturday.
The 8.02 Overground this morning was pretty busy despite the WFH directive.
I feel like we are the poor relation when it comes to transport this side of town.
So apart from a couple at 5 and 6 am there are STILL no weekday trains from Forest Hill to London Bridge (and back unless you wait until midnight) and we don’t have any idea when they will restart!
Correct! Until the Southern mainline services from places such as Brighton, Eastbourne, Littlehampton, East Grinstead etc are moved back to Victoria I can’t see much chance of us getting our Southern services back! Full details can be found here: Southern - Revised-timetable
The OG has sacked the job off a few hours early and there are - NO - trains running on the line. As there are NO Southern trains either, anyone travelling in and out of FH will have to go Victoria and then get off somewhere in Southwark/Bromley and find a bus from Penge or Crystal Palace or wherever city mapper takes you!!
This is so annoying.
In the 12 years we’ve lived here the transport options seem to have deteriorated.
It’s hardly like we live in a hamlet in the sticks.
When this happens (as it did last night) I tend to go to Peckham or E Dulwich and get a bus. Obviously that was an additional challenge last night due to Peckham station being closed after a police incident (sadly it appears a woman was raped near the station on Thursday night).
