Rail Cuts Campaigns

Campaigns against cuts to rail services in South London are gaining momentum on at least two fronts.

The Save Our South London Line campaign is focusing on Boris Johnson's decision, as Chair of Transport for London, to close the South London Line from 2012. This service runs between Victoria and London Bridge via Battersea Park, Wandsworth Rd, Clapham High Street, Denmark Hill, Peckham Rye, Queens Rd Peckham and South Bermondsey. It is one of the few services that directly links South East and South West London without requiring a journey into town and back out again, and connects among other things the hospitals at Kings and the Maudsley at Denmark Hill with Guys at London Bridge More details of the campaign here.

The Save Our South London campaign includes Southwark Rail Users Group, Clapham Transport Users Group and Lambeth Public Transport Group. They are holding a public meeting this week, Wednesday 30th September (6.30pm for 7pm-9pm) at the Institute of Psychiatry, 16 De Crespigny Park, Camberwell, SE5.

Meanwhile the Forest Hill Society and the Sydenham Society are amongst those opposing cuts to services to London Bridge from Brockley, Honor Oak Park, Forest Hill, Sydenham and other stations on the same line. Southern Railway, who were awarded the South Central franchise this summer, intend to cut evening peak services from May 2010, resulting in a 30% reduction to trains running to these stations (from 6 trains per hour to just 4 trains per hour). Daytime off-peak services will also be cut from 6 to 4 trains per hour, and as from December 2009 there will no longer have any direct trains from Charing Cross, journeys back from the West End will always involve a change at London Bridge late at night. Campaigners have launched a petition here.

(See also the various discussions on this at 'the glass is half full actually' Brockley Central)