East London Line - are we being shortchanged?
The new East London line trains are designed to run on existing overground rails and the ELL trains will stop at Sydenham Station platforms exactly as our current services do now. At New Cross Gate a flyover will be constructed to carry existing direct London Bridge trains so that ELL trains can be diverted underneath the flyover. In phase 2 of the scheme, the line will be extended north to Highbury and Islington and west to Clapham. At the same time, a link with the North London Railway at Dalston will form the first step in an orbital rail network linking London suburbs in an east-west direction.
Sydenham will not be on the Tube
Local politicians have been promising us all these years that Sydenham is going to join the Tube network. "The tube comes to Sydenham" was trumpeted in more than one election manifesto which dropped through our letter boxes in the run up to the May Council elections.
Local politicians have been promising us all these years that Sydenham is going to join the Tube network. "The tube comes to Sydenham" was trumpeted in more than one election manifesto which dropped through our letter boxes in the run up to the May Council elections.
Fewer trains to London Bridge
Those of you who may be thinking "the ELL doesn't concern me, I'll just stick to my usual train to London Bridge" are in for a shock in 2010. Plans are afoot to cancel many of our direct trains leaving only 4 trains per hour (instead of the usual 6 per hour) running to and from London Bridge. This will mean further crowding, especially in the morning rush hour. There are currently 7 trains from Sydenham to London Bridge between 7.45am and 8.45pm - cancelling 3 of them will mean a 42% cut in direct services to London Bridge during the most vital part of the day.
No more trains from London Bridge to Victoria
It is also planned that the handy twice-hourly service via Crystal Palace and Clapham Junction to Victoria will end. It will be possible to change at Crystal Palace, but this could well be via the very steep staircases with just a single lift (rather than escalators) planned.
Passengers still want access to the West End
It would be totally wrong to condemn the new ELL as a wrong-headed transport link. The line will greatly increase the total number of trains in each direction to 12 per hour, and open up direct routes to East London and the eastern edge of the City. It will also enable access to west London and Canary Wharf via the connection to the Jubilee line at Canada Water.
But the arrival of the new line should not mean a deterioration in our existing services. Many passengers (possibly a majority) will still want to access the West End, the City and Charing Cross via direct trains to London Bridge, especially since so many places of work as well as theatres, restaurants and music venues are located there. Nor should the Victoria/London Bridge Loop be discontinued. The Sydenham Society is determined to stave off these proposed cuts and is joining with other Societies further up the line to launch a Save our Services campaign. We urge you to support us by contacting local MPs and councillors as well as Len Duvall, our representative on the GLA. To spread further information and generate discussion the Sydenham Society is hosting a public meeting, The East London Line - what does it mean for Sydenham? on 13 March 2007 at 7.45pm. The venue will be announced soon. Please put this date in your diary.
Barry Milton
Those of you who may be thinking "the ELL doesn't concern me, I'll just stick to my usual train to London Bridge" are in for a shock in 2010. Plans are afoot to cancel many of our direct trains leaving only 4 trains per hour (instead of the usual 6 per hour) running to and from London Bridge. This will mean further crowding, especially in the morning rush hour. There are currently 7 trains from Sydenham to London Bridge between 7.45am and 8.45pm - cancelling 3 of them will mean a 42% cut in direct services to London Bridge during the most vital part of the day.
No more trains from London Bridge to Victoria
It is also planned that the handy twice-hourly service via Crystal Palace and Clapham Junction to Victoria will end. It will be possible to change at Crystal Palace, but this could well be via the very steep staircases with just a single lift (rather than escalators) planned.
Passengers still want access to the West End
It would be totally wrong to condemn the new ELL as a wrong-headed transport link. The line will greatly increase the total number of trains in each direction to 12 per hour, and open up direct routes to East London and the eastern edge of the City. It will also enable access to west London and Canary Wharf via the connection to the Jubilee line at Canada Water.
But the arrival of the new line should not mean a deterioration in our existing services. Many passengers (possibly a majority) will still want to access the West End, the City and Charing Cross via direct trains to London Bridge, especially since so many places of work as well as theatres, restaurants and music venues are located there. Nor should the Victoria/London Bridge Loop be discontinued. The Sydenham Society is determined to stave off these proposed cuts and is joining with other Societies further up the line to launch a Save our Services campaign. We urge you to support us by contacting local MPs and councillors as well as Len Duvall, our representative on the GLA. To spread further information and generate discussion the Sydenham Society is hosting a public meeting, The East London Line - what does it mean for Sydenham? on 13 March 2007 at 7.45pm. The venue will be announced soon. Please put this date in your diary.
Barry Milton
So is this going to happen? Well not quite. Although the ELL will appear on tube maps, the line will not be administered by London Underground. If it were, we could all be looking forward to new upgraded stations and improved safety. Instead, the new line and its various branch lines are to be called Overground and there is currently no money for station improvements. There will, however, be a specially designed Orange Roundel on all stations.
At the end of October it was announced that a consortium of Balfour Beatty and Carillion had won the £363m main works contract to build the railway. The existing East London Line will be closed at the end of 2007 for two years to allow work on the new line to proceed. On the surface this sounds great, but there is more to it.
Crowded trains
Hardened commuters dread the "short train" consisting of so few carriages you have to sprint to the front of the platform and try to stuff yourself onto an already overcrowded carriage, usually standing all the way shoulder to shoulder with your fellow citizens. Well, the bad news is that all ELL line services are going to be "short trains" consisting of only four carriages each. This is because many of the station platforms further up the line - Wapping, Rotherhithe, Shadwell and Canada Water - are only long enough to accommodate four-carriage trains. There is no extra money to extend these platforms so short trains will be a permanent feature of the line. ELL train engineers have already thought of a way to tackle the resulting overcrowding. If you look carefully at the image of the interior of an ELL carriage you'll see there are very few seats: around 80% of passengers will have to stand.
Hardened commuters dread the "short train" consisting of so few carriages you have to sprint to the front of the platform and try to stuff yourself onto an already overcrowded carriage, usually standing all the way shoulder to shoulder with your fellow citizens. Well, the bad news is that all ELL line services are going to be "short trains" consisting of only four carriages each. This is because many of the station platforms further up the line - Wapping, Rotherhithe, Shadwell and Canada Water - are only long enough to accommodate four-carriage trains. There is no extra money to extend these platforms so short trains will be a permanent feature of the line. ELL train engineers have already thought of a way to tackle the resulting overcrowding. If you look carefully at the image of the interior of an ELL carriage you'll see there are very few seats: around 80% of passengers will have to stand.
Interior of an ELLX carriage. Most passengers are expected to stand
Contacts and links:
Jim Dowd MP
House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA
email Jim Dowd
Len Duvall
GLA
City Hall
The Queen's Walk
London SE1 2AA
email Len Duvall
Phone: 020 7983 4517
Draft letter to Lewisham West MP
ELLX petition
For information on this article and the local campaign contact
Barry Milton
Jim Dowd MP
House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA
email Jim Dowd
Len Duvall
GLA
City Hall
The Queen's Walk
London SE1 2AA
email Len Duvall
Phone: 020 7983 4517
Draft letter to Lewisham West MP
ELLX petition
For information on this article and the local campaign contact
Barry Milton
June 2010 will mark a huge change to our local railway system with the arrival of the £1 billion East London Line Extension. The new line will have 8 trains an hour running in each direction: going north all 8 trains will terminate at Dalston Junction; heading south 4 trains will go to West Croydon and 4 to Crystal Palace.
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