Station Approach Shambles

[Tim Lund]

Excellent front page article in the latest sydSoc newsletter:

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 ten Train Operating Companies). The Sydenham Society, keeping a close eye on progress, was told that the revised application would be re-submitted to the Office of the Rail Regulator in mid-September. There were no objections and it was assumed that the ORR would therefore authorise the transfer, probably by mid- to late October. If this timescale had been followed Lewisham Legal Services would by now be involved with the conveyancing and any other legal requirements, aid the tendering process would have been under way.

Lewisham Council advises, "The design team recently met with Network Rail to discuss progress of the land transfer. From the meeting it became clear that problems with resources within NR have delayed the transfer significantly. LB Lewisham have offered NR any support they might require in an effort to get the transfer authorised. Station Approach will be discussed at the next NR departmental meeting and ClIr Chris Best will be having another meeting with them in the coming weeks to check progress is being made. The key task that NR needs to complete is to send the Office of the Rail Regulators the results of the consultation with Train Operating Companies that was completed over the summer. There have been no objections to the transfer from the Train Operating Companies, so the ORR approval will be a formality once they receive the paperwork from NR."

As we go to press there has been no word about the transfer taking place and the timescale is such that it is highly unlikely that work in Station Approach will begin this side of Christmas, as the tendering process is also being held up. Work on Sydenham Road, which should have begun in 2009, and currently due to start early in the New Year after completion of Station Approach, will now be further delayed.

[Ronski]

Why does the high street need the Station Approach completed first before it can start? Sounds bonkers to me!

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[angela53]

I am convinced the improvements will never happen!