Sydenham Hill trains overcrowded since timetable change

[davegr]

Does anyone know why, since the timetable change on 13th December, the trains from Sydenham Hill to Victoria are so overcrowded?

The 08:10 from Sydenham Hill used to have loads of seats and even a few left as far as Herne Hill.

The new 08:03 is rammed full and commuters at Herne Hill couldn't get on this morning. The same is true of the 08:17.

I did notice a lot of people getting off at Brixton today. Are these trains picking up people who used to get to Brixton via another train?

Does anyone know whats going on?

[girl_canuck]

I've been telling myself that it's because of the weather - people who normally cycle, drive, or walk (!) are taking the train this week. Oh I really really hope that's the reason, and that it's not going to continue!

It's been really retched the past couple of weeks. I usually get the 8:04 from penge east (8:06 from SH?), and I've had to stand all the way to Farringdon. The Brixton/Victoria ones are certainly no better.

Let's one of us get brave and ask people on the train where they've all come from

[Juwlz]

Well, all I know is that the First Capital Connect trains have been very screwed up for about a month or so now which particularly affects people who go to Farringdon & thereabouts. They say its a shortage of drivers but I really don't know. Lots of the trains are just cancelled with no warning.

Anyway alot of people are fed up of it as its become a regular thing and so they are having to get onto the tube at Brixton instead and continue their journey on the tube.

[Gaz]

Hi

I was wondering about the Sydenham Hill service tonight as I walked home after London Bridge shut down. How easy is it to get to/from Syd Hill Station from Kirkdale? Is it a 20min walk taking in a dark forest path or is there a bus that stops near by?

Thanks for any inside info..!

[sydeman]

I live just off Kirkdale, (Dartmouth Road junction area), and always tend to go to Penge East, the other side of the tunnel. Not sure if it makes any difference on the zones, but the thought of the dark wooded hilly lane to SH doesnt appeal to me!

[Ulysses]

Penge East is in zone 4 Sydeman. Sydenham Hill is in zone 3.

Julwz: I'm not looking forward to when we (those that use Sydenham station) migrate to Thameslink. Any firm than cannot even afford to change the announcement but just splices in "First Capital Connect" and runs that decrepit rolling stock makes me worry (although recently they've bought some Electrostar 377s).

Gaz: There are two options for you really, depending on how you are feeling. You could walk through Jews Walk or Wells Park Road and then either up Westwood Hill and then down Fountain Drive or walk down Wood Lane and into Dulwich (wood lane is the bit by the Dulwich Wood House).

Either way is a bit of a schlep for you and in all my years of walking along Sydenham Hill I haven't seen too many buses going along it so wouldn't recommend waiting for one. There were a bit of a spate of muggings there a few years back (wood lane) but this seems to have stopped and besides I 'buddy'. You don't have to talk to them but people seem to subconciously walk in pockets as it's fairly 'open' around there.

Can I ask if you had just gotten in when you posted? I managed to get the last train out of dodge (a Catford Bridge line) and then a precarious walk through the ice rinks of Catford home! All in all took about 3 hours. BUT I think I fared slightly better than yourself. Sorry to hear of your travails.

[davegr]

...and which cretin at South Eastern Trains thought that following last night's pandemonium caused by some snow, that putting on short trains and a Saturday timetable was acceptable this morning??

[Gaz]

Can I ask if you had just gotten in when you posted? I managed to get the last train out of dodge (a Catford Bridge line) and then a precarious walk through the ice rinks of Catford home! All in all took about 3 hours. BUT I think I fared slightly better than yourself. Sorry to hear of your travails.

Thanks for the advice Sydeman and Ulysses - it certainly felt like an Odyssey last night!

I left my mum's in rainy Portsmouth at 1420 and arrived at Waterloo at 1630 just as the snow started, so figured I'd better rush home in case London's transport infrastructure couldn't cope...

I got to London Bridge at 1640 just as they started cancelling all trains on the Southern lines (no information that they were being cancelled of course, they just disappeared from the screens as the departure time approached). The 1705 was standing there jam-packed but I don't think it left the station as it appeared nothing was moving in or out. I tried platform 5 (which was showing a Catford/Ladywell/LowSyd train) and then heard the announcement that no Southern trains were running, only SEastern from platforms 2-6.

They then closed platform 5, with the tannoy advising everyone to go to platform 4 (which was nigh on impossible as 4 was crowded, as was the concourse). It was getting dangerously close to a crush situation and tempers were running high so I thought I'd try a bus home (just as they were locking the LB entrance doors)...

Got on a packed 40 at London Bridge (about 6pm by then) which crawled along at a snail's pace to Elephant and then completely stopped behind stuck traffic along Camberwell Rd. Luckily I was able to get a map up on my phone so realised it was a pretty much straight (very long) road all the way home from there.

So I started walking back. Most buses by that point had pulled over not able to get past Camberwell Green (because of Denmark Hill). I got a bit cold by Denmark Hill station and jumped on a 176 that appeared to be trying to move. After moving 5 feet in 30 minutes I had warmed up enough to get back on Shank's Pony. Most of the traffic was at a standstill going up the hill and going back downhill was treacherous - even more so for those of us on foot sliding down the hill!

Then came the long, long schlep up Lordship Lane (and more hills!) before the welcome sight of the Hornimans and the last stretch up Syd Hill to Kirkdale (and a very welcome hot chinese curry takeaway from Lin Hong!).

Finally got in just after 9, pretty well exhausted after walking some 5 miles up and down hills in the snow, sludge and ice! I certainly wouldn't want to do that walk again if I can help it regardless of the weather.

I think they may have reopened London Bridge station at one point, so perhaps I should have just hung around in a pub for a few hours (but then, there was of course no guarantee that any trains would be running).

Good points were the camaraderie shown and that most people were looking out for eachother (and that I now know the way home if I need to walk..!). I was also pretty lucky as I was well prepared for walking in the cold/wet and relatively fit enough to be able to trudge for a couple of hours in the snow. I'd hate to think what it was like for some others, lost and stranded and not able to get home as 'easily'.

[Thomas]

The new timetable (from 13 December) for Sydenham Hill - Victoria offered an increase (not huge but welcome) in the number of trains, but the number of carriages on all morning peak hour services has been cut from 8 to 6. Having had hardly any overcrowding, my experience (using either the 8.03, 8.17 and 8.29 from Sydenham Hill) has been that trains are packed by the time they arrive at Sydenham Hill. There is a "meet the managers" session at Victoria Station (see link below), so I'll take this opportunity to speak to someone then, and it would be great if more people did the same. In the meantime, is there anything else that could be done to persuade Southeastern to go back to 8 carriage trains?

http://www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/in ... s/view/133

[Thomas]

Another extremely over-crowded service on the 08:17 this morning - I'm not sure if all Sydenham Hill passengers were able to board. The "meet the managers" session is too long to wait so I have submitted a complaint to Southeastern - it would be great if other regular users would do the same - see link:
https://www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/i ... acks/index

[girl_canuck]

I was running late this morning, so didn't get that train (I normally do).... but I've submitted a complaint about it anyway thanks to your link!

I'm 11 weeks pregnant, and have no troubles standing up for 10 minutes on the train at the moment, but as months go by, that's going to be a REALLY uncomfortable journey for me!!!

Same thing seems to have happened with the 08:09 from Lower Sydenham to Charing Cross.... could always get a seat before the timetable change, not anymore!

[girl_canuck]

Here's some blah dee blah I just found on their website - obviously we're not the only ones complaining..... but their response roughly translates to "Yes, yes, we know, but we're not going to take responsibility, and we're not actually going to do anything concrete about it.":


Some of you also told us that your train was now more crowded than usual.

As you know, the timetable changed on 13 December last year and the time of every train on our network changed. Such was the scale of the change that it will take time for new services to “bed in” and for our train planners to assess what the unit formation of each new service should be. As part of our review into how the new timetable we are carrying out a thorough review into loading patterns. This is being done by a combination of manual counts and passenger loading software now fitted to trains. Assuming the trains are uncomfortably crowded we can then looking to reducing the length of lightly used services and adding additional carriages to the busier ones.

[Bovine Juice]

Does anyone know why, since the timetable change on 13th December, the trains from Sydenham Hill to Victoria are so overcrowded?

The 08:10 from Sydenham Hill used to have loads of seats and even a few left as far as Herne Hill.

The new 08:03 is rammed full and commuters at Herne Hill couldn't get on this morning. The same is true of the 08:17.

The 8.10 from Sydenham Hill used to start at Kent House so was still virtually empty when it reached Sydders Hill whereas the 8.03 starts at Orpington. If you can get up a little earlier I'd recommend you get the Victoria service before that (it'll be about 7.49 in Sydders) as that one must start in Shortlands or Beck Jn as it's a lot less full when it reaches my station, Kent House.

[davegr]

Cheers Bovine. I might try that.

I wonder why SouthEastern coudn't tell me that. I made a complaint and I got a load of standard waffle about nothing really. They are a joke

[Bovine Juice]

Cheers Bovine. I might try that.

I wonder why SouthEastern coudn't tell me that. I made a complaint and I got a load of standard waffle about nothing really. They are a joke

Talking of which, the train I mentioned was cancelled this am...

[davegr]

No wonder the train I got (the one after that) was even more rammed than usual.

You couldn't make it up.

[bigbadwolf]

It's only a matter of time...

[Thomas]

I have now heard back from Southeastern and basically they are blaming this on a shortage of rolling stock. I have pasted the blather from their reply below if anyone is interested.

I am sorry that you have experienced an uncomfortable journey because your train has been formed by fewer carriages than usual. This is because we have suffered from some rolling stock shortages at a number of locations over the past few weeks, and this has meant that we have had to form some trains with different stock than usual.

This has caused us some problems, as every piece of train stock we have is deployed on our network. When we have to take trains out of service, it means that we have a variation elsewhere. It is not ideal, but we would rather deploy other stock than cancel a service. We are working hard to resolve this problem and to make sure that the normal stock is returned as quickly as possible.

During the busy peak periods, we currently operate as many trains as the infrastructure will allow, with the longest formations that we can – and while we would ideally like to strengthen a number of services on our suburban lines, we only have a limited number of trains at present that we can use to provide services for passengers.

We do have an on-going maintenance programme for our trains and they are serviced regularly whether faults occur or not. To be honest, no rolling stock is completely immune from breakdown and we will occasionally suffer technical faults on our trains. What is important is that we reduce these incidents to the absolute minimum by ensuring that our maintenance and repair programme is of a very high standard. We are also continuing to modify trains in order to make them more reliable.

All the same, I can assure you that all passenger comments are recorded to help us address the issues raised. To this end, all feedback we receive is analysed regularly by senior managers, who then investigate measures that can be implemented to address the concerns that passengers have observed. Your comments have been recorded for this purpose and brought to the attention of our Train Performance Managers. I sincerely hope that you notice improvements in this area soon. I also hope you will accept my apologies for the uncomfortable journeys you have had.

[LivesNearby]

[SouthEastern said] As you know, the timetable changed on 13 December last year and the time of every train on our network changed. Such was the scale of the change that it will take time for new services to “bed in” and for our train planners to assess what the unit formation of each new service should be.

This does not bode well for the London Bridge service review after May. How long do they need for the services to 'bed in'?