Bellenden Residents' Group (BRG)

The campaigners battling to save the South London Line have published a short report which argues that it is vital to retain the line if South London is ever to enjoy a train service which runs at a tube-like frequency 

The report shows that key stations in South London will suffer if the South London Line is withdrawn.

Asembly Member Caroline Pidgeon wrote to the Mayor asking for his position on several aspects relating to the South London Line. This is his reply of 25th January 2010.

'Vital transport link proves its worth'  SLP report by Jenny Clover  12th Jan 2010

As many rail services were cancelled and disrupted during the cold weather, rail users reported that the one service that seemed to keep on going was the South London Line. Read the article.

Here is a useful map showing the geographical relationships between the South London Line, East London Line as extended, and Victoria - Bellingham service as proposed. 

• Under the original TfL plan all we would have in place of the current South London Line (the green line between Victoria and London Bridge) is the yellow line - East London Line.
• TfL have conceded in principle that we should have a direct link into Victoria (the red line), but have said they can't pay for it. The Rail Minister (DfT) has offered to get it paid for under the train companies' new franchise from 2014 so TfL would just have to pay for under two years from 2012. They still have not conceded that. We continue to lobby the Mayor to agree this.
• DfT and Network Rail current position is that they will not revive the London Bridge link with Victoria - the green line. The campaign to reverse that decision continues.

 Article from Nunhead Voice, the Nunhead Community Forum Newsletter Issue 20 Winter 2009 page 4

The campaign to Save the South London Line continues!

We have succeeded in getting the rail industry, Transport for London (TfL) and the Department for Transport (DfT) in particular, to agree we need direct links to Victoria. The details of that are progressing, but we have a way to go to ensure that action is taken. However there is a big battle still to conclude on the links to London Bridge. It is Network Rail and DfT who have the keys to that. We now know that TfL puts a very high value on east-west orbital travel eg between Clapham Junction and Shoreditch (because it is their own over-ground rail service), and a very low value on our direct links to central London rail stations.

But Network Rail and DfT also seem not to care about our links to central London stations because they have fewer numbers and lower revenue than the long distance commuter trains. This rail industry alliance is really how the decision to cut the South London Line happened. This is what we have to get reversed for the sake of a sensible integrated transport strategy for our part (Zone 2) of inner South London.

Good news is that Southwark Council agreed (4th November) a cross party motion that fully and comprehensively supports the campaign. For details, visit www.southwarkrailusers.net and click on campaign information page, and click the link there under Campaign News/Southwark Council.To keep up to date with the campaign join the mailing list  SRUG@southwarkrailusers.net.

South London Press 4th December 2009 by Jenny Clover  photo and read article

Transport campaigners dressed in Edwardian garb celebrated the 100th anniversary of the first London electrified train line this week. The Save the South London Line campaigners met at Denmark Hill station Tuesday morning for a champagne breakfast. It was 1st Decemeber 1909 that the first electric trains carrying passengers ran on the line ...

Southwark News 3rd December 2009; by John Prendergast   read article

Champagne corks were popped for the threatened South London Line on Tuesday; but they were to celebrate its centenary rather than stopping the route from being axed. Campaigners met at 8am at Denmark Hill station to enjoy some drinks and nibbles, to toast the 100th anniversary of the line becoming electrified.

Message from the Save the South London Line Campaign*:
 
At a meeting on 24th November 2009 with stakeholder groups in South London, TfL recognised one of the main objectives of campaigners, the need to keep radial services to Central London for current South London Line stations. TfL has proposed a variety of short-listed options for keeping service to Victoria, including diverting the East London Line from Clapham Junction, introducing a Victoria-Bellingham service and making current Victoria-Dartford services run all day, guaranteeing for Denmark Hill and Peckham Rye all day trains to Victoria. This is in contrast to TfL's earlier assertions that SLL passengers should take ELLX to Clapham Junction and change for Victoria there.

Letter to Modern Railways magazine  (read article)    From:    Graham Feakins

Just who is this man, emboldened with the title of "London Rail Chief Operating Officer" and by name of Howard Smith, who can dismiss in two short sentences the total future of the South London Line (MR Dec. 09) by stating that Network Rail has 'already said' that the London Bridge end will be cut off in 2012, there has been "some controversy" and that the Victoria enhancement will not even

 Mayor's Question Time – 18 November 2009 Transcript: Mayor's Oral Update

Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): … Of course the Members who came on the delegation [regarding the South London Line] to see Sadiq Khan [Minister of State for Transport] will know exactly what happened. I think it was, on the whole, a successful mission. The Government certainly heard our points and it heard the points that we were able to relay to it about the concerns of rail travel users in south London, and it is agreed that the Department of Transport (DfT) will give serious consideration to finding alternatives following the withdrawal of the South London Line mandated by it. In this whole story and in this conversation that has begun about rail travel in south London I think there is a danger that we will miss the big good news point - and I think I am entitled to stress the good news as the Mayor - that the extension of the East London Line, connecting it up with the North London Line, will hugely increase capacity for rail users in south London… 

Does the Mayor then just take the TfL line that the new East London Line is more important for South London than the direct links into central London? Read full transcript here.