South Eastern Railway timetable changes involving the Lewisham crossover

[whole diary]

[Mark A]

People aren't happy about Southeastern's timetable being rearranged to remove traffic from that crossover at Lewisham, but at a cost of forcing a change of train on people heading for Waterloo and Charing Cross.

It's not surprising people are unhappy - thinking of journeys to and from Charing Cross which will now involve a change at London Bridge, apart from the pffaff,  the new service pattern will extend journey times to and from Waterloo and Charing Cross by 25 to 50% 

This does bring benefits too... Cannon Street being suddenly overprovisioned, and also the call at New Cross means easier access to the London Overground there. And of course the new presence of the Elizabeth line at Woolwich - which offers new journey opportunities.

It's difficult to work out the exact increase imposed by the SE railway December timetable as online timetables are optimised to find the quickest journey,. For many trains, a change at Lewisham offers faster end to end times so the online planners point people to a change at Lewisham not London Bridge, and Lewisham doesn't have good circulation and stair capacity - and one of the platforms is missing a lift.

To retrieve journey times via London Bridge, I've a question: using an online journey planner, for journeys on the services affected, is there a setting I've not discovered that allows me to mandate a change at London Bridge? That'll make it easier to discover journey times using the recommended change rather than the time-optimised option.

Mark

[Electric train]

People aren't happy about Southeastern's timetable being rearranged to remove traffic from that crossover at Lewisham, but at a cost of forcing a change of train on people heading for Waterloo and Charing Cross.

It's not surprising people are unhappy - thinking of journeys to and from Charing Cross which will now involve a change at London Bridge, apart from the pffaff,  the new service pattern will extend journey times to and from Waterloo and Charing Cross by 25 to 50% 

This does bring benefits too... Cannon Street being suddenly overprovisioned, and also the call at New Cross means easier access to the London Overground there. And of course the new presence of the Elizabeth line at Woolwich - which offers new journey opportunities.

It's difficult to work out the exact increase imposed by the SE railway December timetable as online timetables are optimised to find the quickest journey,. For many trains, a change at Lewisham offers faster end to end times so the online planners point people to a change at Lewisham not London Bridge, and Lewisham doesn't have good circulation and stair capacity - and one of the platforms is missing a lift.

To retrieve journey times via London Bridge, I've a question: using an online journey planner, for journeys on the services affected, is there a setting I've not discovered that allows me to mandate a change at London Bridge? That'll make it easier to discover journey times using the recommended change rather than the time-optimised option.

Mark

I have work colleagues who live the Bexley Heath area already use the Elizebeth Line into central London, they also say a lot of their friends and family are doing the same, faster service.

I suspect the numbers of people it will adversely impact will be quite small once folk work out new routes / services.  Crossing services over the flat junction at Lewisham means a lot of dwell time is built into the timetable

[Mark A]

I have work colleagues who live the Bexley Heath area already use the Elizebeth Line into central London, they also say a lot of their friends and family are doing the same, faster service.

With the timetable change, it's the Bexleyheath line that, off-peak, will gain 2 direct trains an hour to Abbey Wood too, yes? 15 minutes journey time from Bexleyheath, so if that's popular now it'll be more so in the future.

Mark

[Mark A]

Difficult to say how much of this was South Eastern's December timetable and how much was down to a trespasser at Hither Green provoking an 'All stop' notice to go out (not sure how widely) - the result was a large number of passengers building at London Bridge this evening, both on the concourse and at platform level.

Photo from Twitter.

Mark

https://twitter.com/khaiyamckenzie/status/1618311177616130049

[Mark A]

An article in the Standard on last night's issue, with some questionable quotes and the sound observation that the crowding is in part down to the volume of people who, with the route changes imposed on their lives by the new timetable, are now required to change trains there. On a good day this merely imposes a convenience and time penalty. When the trains are disrupted, London Bridge is now prone to congestion on the councourse and platforms.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-bridge-station-overcrowding-safety-review-southeastern-trains-network-rail-b1055743.html

Mark

[ChrisB]

This is pertinent….

Southeastern said passenger rush-hour demand this month was higher than it had been before Christmas.

More people reverted to office working to save money on their utility bills through wfh?

[Mark A]

Ahead of the date of the switch, the House of Commons Library was moved to produce a briefing on the new timetable:
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cdp-2022-0221/

... the briefing quotes a response from Huw Merriman to a written parliamentary question:

"Southeastern operated 1988 services on a typical weekday in September 2019 with 1722 on a typical Saturday and 931 on a typical Sunday. Following the upcoming timetable change on 11 December 2022 on a typical weekday Southeastern will operate 1686 services with 1392 on a typical Saturday and 835 on a typical Sunday."

... also, the briefing has insights, particularly on timetable consultations (no longer required as this no longer involves a TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company), but definitely needed nevertheless).

I don't think this can be said to be down to more people 'Choosing' not to work from home. This is down to a strong recovery in demand for rail, colliding with a DfT^» (Department for Transport - about)-driven timetable that runs considerably fewer trains and which has changed the connectivity of the network so the timetable is a worse fit with people's travel patterns.

Mark

[bradshaw]

It might seem that, after Christmas, there has been an increase in commuting. There are complaints that the Elizabeth line is becoming too busy!
Michael Holden on Twitter is saying that the SWT^▸ (South West Trains) is also busier this morning, supported by people replying.

https://twitter.com/holdmch/status/1618525625039589376?s=61&t=C2fJZCqrm_Ji9yRjf3IwmQ

[ChrisB]

Oh, I'm *sure* it's people choosing to go to work in order to save money at home.

It'll drop off again once it warms up / Spring arrives.

Who's a'thought it - seasonal commuting!

[Timmer]

Oh, I'm *sure* it's people choosing to go to work in order to save money at home.

It'll drop off again once it warms up / Spring arrives.

Who's a'thought it - seasonal commuting!

That’s if the boss hasn’t got use to seeing everyone back in the office again.

Could be a risky strategy for some.

[Electric train]

The Lewisham timetable change was on the card pre pandemic, it came about as part of the review post Thameslink timetable changes made in 2018.  All the review of the 2018 timetable changes did was confirm proposals made in around 2015.

[Mark A]

Reports that London Bridge isn't having a good evening again through the evening peak, as a result of signalling issues taking out three platforms at Cannon Street. Possibly one casualty too, (which might be unrelated to the congestion).

Mark

[TaplowGreen]

Reports that London Bridge isn't having a good evening again through the evening peak, as a result of signalling issues taking out three platforms at Cannon Street. Possibly one casualty too, (which might be unrelated to the congestion).

Mark

Certainly sounds that way......https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/london-bridge-dangerously-overcrowded-rush-hour/?s=09

[IndustryInsider]

Blimey.  And during this new era of hybrid working as well!

[ChrisB]

Tuesday is thefirst officeday of the working week for very many