SYDENHAM SOCIETY NEWS Winter 2011 Station Approach Shambles Bureaucrats get in the way of progress The last newsletter featured a colour double page centre-spread showing the finalised plans for the improvements to Sydenham Station Approach, and following completion of this, the main improvements to Sydenham Road, which we have been waiting for since funding was agreed in 2008. By now we should have had contractors’ plant in Station Approach and work should have started. All that was necessary at the end of August was for an agreement from the Office of the Rail Regulator (ORR) giving permission for the transfer of Station Approach from Network Rail to Lewisham Council. The ORR is a key stakeholder and permission is a statutory requirement. The delay last August was due to the original application for the transfer being set up using Network Rail’s National Consultation system, rather than an area-based consultation with the operators who use Sydenham Station. As a result the consultation was sent to every Train Operating Company in the UK! The consultation had to wait for the responses of 60+ consultees (some as far away as Scotland – who clearly had no interest in land transfer in Sydenham, London) and responses, not surprisingly, were slow in being returned or not sent at all. When the error was identified the consultation was revised so that it asked for the comments of the local consultees (about at the next NR departmental meeting and Cllr Chris Best will ten Train Operating Companies). The Sydenham Society, be having another meeting with them in the coming weeks keeping a close eye on progress, was told that the revised to check progress is being made. The key task that NR needs application would be re-submitted to the Office of the Rail to complete is to send the Office of the Rail Regulators the Regulator in mid-September. There were no objections and results of the consultation with Train Operating Companies it was assumed that the ORR would therefore authorise the that was completed over the summer. There have been no transfer, probably by mid- to late October. If this timescale objections to the transfer from the Train Operating Companies, had been followed Lewisham Legal Services would by now be so the ORR approval will be a formality once they receive the involved with the conveyancing and any other legal requirements, paperwork from NR.” and the tendering process would have been under way. As we go to press there has been no word about the Lewisham Council advises, “The design team recently transfer taking place and the timescale is such that it is highly met with Network Rail to discuss progress of the land transfer. unlikely that work in Station Approach will begin this side of From the meeting it became clear that problems with resources Christmas, as the tendering process is also being held up. within NR have delayed the transfer significantly. LB Lewisham Work on Sydenham Road, which should have begun in have offered NR any support they might require in an effort to 2009, and currently due to start early in the New Year after get the transfer authorised. Station Approach will be discussed completion of Station Approach, will now be further delayed. IN THIS ISSUE New Local Planning Group Launched • Peter Springall: Bee Keeper Extraordinaire • Kirkdale Institute Sydenham Community Library Seeks Volunteers • Profile: Roger Feather • Ernest Shackleton Plays Truant Your neighbourhood voice www.sydenhamsociety.com Sydenham Society News • Winter 2011 SydenhamSyDENhAM Society SOCIETy Contacts CONTACTS yOuR LOCALLy ELECTED OFFICALS Chair Conservation & Planning LOCAL MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT Annabel McLaren Barbara Kern Jim Dowd MP for Lewisham West and Penge [email protected] [email protected] Tessa Jowell MP for Dulwich and Upper Norwood c/o House of Commons London SW1A 0AA Treasurer & Membership Events Roger Feather Jackie Aldridge [email protected] 020 8778 5455 LEwIShAM COuncillors 020 8778 4318 Mob: 07837 838710 Civic Suite Lewisham Town Hall Catford SE6 4RU 020 8314 6000 Newsletter Editor Roads & Transport Pat Trembath Ilse Towler Bellingham ward [email protected] [email protected] Alan Hall Ami Ibitson Jacq Paschoud 020 8659 4903 020 8778 3743 Forest hill ward Newsletter Design & Layout Local History Anne Affiku Alex Feakes Philip Peake Julia East Steve Grindlay [email protected] [email protected] Perry Vale ward 020 8699 6398 John Paschoud Alan Till Susan Wise Newsletter Distribution Pat Trembath Contact Address for post Sydenham Ward 020 8659 4903 Sydenham Society Chris Best Liam Curran Marion Nisbet 35 Bishopsthorpe Road Sydenham SE26 4PA BROMLEy COuncillors Bromley Civic Centre Stockwell Close BR1 3UH The Sydenham Society is an independent group 020 8464 3333 representing the interests of local residents. Crystal Palace Ward Sydenham Society News is non-partisan, John Canvin Tom Papworth non-political and non-commercial. Penge and Cator Ward Peter Fookes John Getgood Katherine Bance ARTICLES PLEASE! If there is something you would like the society to tell SOuThwARK COuncillors everybody, or a local issue you feel strongly about, please send Town Hall Peckham Road SE5 8UB your article, maximum 300 words, to the editor. 020 7525 5000 Sydenham Society News is read by many local residents, College Ward old and new, so please spell out all acronyms and explain Helen Hayes Lewis Robinson Andy Simmons anything that a newcomer might not understand. All articles are subject to editing by the Editorial team. Email your article to the editorial team at: OThER CONTACTS [email protected] or send hard copy to 97 Longton Grove SE26 6QQ. 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The deadline for articles for the next newsletter will be Friday 3 Feb 2012. 2 Sydenham Society News • Winter 2011 Rush hour London Bridge trains to be extended to 10 carriages – but two evening rush hour services are axed Good news and bad news for rush hour passengers who Platform 2 is being extended to take 10-carriage trains. travel to and from London Bridge with the introduction of the new winter timetable which comes into effect on December 11. First the good news. Southern has announced that nine of our morning and evening peak services will be lengthened from 8 to 10 coaches. Times of the morning lengthened peak-time trains leaving Sydenham will be: 06.39, 07.09, 08.09 and 08.39. Times of the evening lengthened peak-time trains leaving London Bridge will be: 16.36, 17.05,17.36, 18.06 and 18.36. In addition, an extra service to London Bridge will be practically no time for passenger numbers to build. introduced, calling at Sydenham at 09.39. This welcome The Society has contacted Southern asking them to additional service fills a 17-minute gap in the existing timetable. reinstate these services and to spread train times more evenly. But, as we’ve come to expect, good news for rail travellers However, we have been told that this is impossible since there is often mixed with bad. The new timetable will also axe two are no extra “slots” at peak times in the crowded interchange peak-hour trains leaving London Bridge at 17.25 and 18.24. around Norwood Junction. Southern put this down to “low passenger numbers”. But as regular commuters will know, these two trains are scheduled to Barry Milton, Roads & Transport Committee run just five and six minutes after the previous services, allowing Tel: 020 8778 6914 Sydenham Station Some eye-watering statistics Sydenham is an extremely busy and well-connected station carrying passengers to London Bridge, Victoria, and East and West Croydon using mainline Southern services, and to Highbury & Islington, West Croydon and Crystal Palace on the new East London Line - part of the London Overground network, which links Sydenham directly with the Jubilee Line at Canada Water, and with the District and Hammersmith and City Lines at Whitechapel. The station has 14 trains per hour in each direction during the rush hours and 12 trains per hour in each direction during the off peak. The latest figures from the Office of the Rail Regulator show that in the year ending April 2010, 2,162,656 passengers used the station. This equates to over 7,000 passengers per day. This was an increase of over half a million extra annual passengers since the same period in 2005. Transport for London’s figures on passenger numbers using After the Investiture on 26 October, Pat Trembath MBE and the East London Line are as follows: Annabel McLaren, Chair of the Sydenham Society share a moment or two with Yeomen of the Queen’s Bodyguard During the first full month of operation, June 2010: 40,000 passengers used the line daily; By September 2010: 70,000 passengers used the line daily; To Postal Members In March 2011: 100,000 passengers used the line daily; Members who receive their newsletters by post are By the end of 2015: 120,000 passengers will use kindly reminded that they should add £2 to their the line daily; 2012 subscription if paying by cheque, or issue a new According to TfL the new line means an extra 1,000 standing order for an increased amount to include the passengers using Sydenham Station every day.