Bellenden Residents' Group (BRG)

Roger Evans Assembly Member blog 10th November 2009 

Ambush at the Academy 

Over a thousand people attended last nights Question Time, the third such experience for Boris Johnson and assembly Members elected in 2008. The venue was the O2 Academy in Brixton, more often the scene of concerts and sell out music performances....Local Member Val Shawcross did a good job of chairing a session that became unruly at times ... A large contingent of 'Save the South London Line' protesters turned up, some wearing campaign T shirts, and Val can perhaps be  forgiven for squeezing every last drop of publicity out of their attendance, calling transport chairman Caroline Pidgeon to lay into the mayor over his 'lack of action'.  Read more...

Save our South London Line Campaign PRESS RELEASE 

200 South London Line Campaigners Pack Mayor’s Question Time
Biggest contingent ever on a single issue at any Mayor’s Question Time
Mayor to lead delegation to see Transport Minister
 
read press release

TfL / Mayor of London Press Release 

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, will this week meet with the Transport Minister, Sadiq Khan, on behalf of Londoners living in the south of the capital in a bid to resolve their concerns over the future of rail
services in their area.  read press release

Evening Standard 9th November 2009  Dick Murray, Transport Correspondent
 
Boris Johnson is fighting proposals to close a rail route into Victoria and London Bridge stations after accusing the Government of ducking out of its responsibilities to pay for an alternative service.  read Evening Standard ...

Southwark News  5 November 2009   John Prendergast

Pressure from campaigners has led Transport for London (TfL) seriously to reconsider saving the South London Line (SLL), after TfL initially sent out mixed messages about its retention.  read more...

The TfL invitation to the Stakeholder meeting on 24th November reveals that the campaign has successfully got trains to London Bridge back onto the agenda. These originally were excluded from the TfL review which was looking only at services to Victoria. The letter says:

 Letter from TfL: 2nd November 2009

 I am writing to provide an update on progress of the TfL/London TravelWatch South London Line options study. ... We are now proposing to hold the first meeting on 24 November (as opposed to October as stated in our initial letter). We will report back on the outcome of the above work at this meeting.  Read more

web report:  Southwark News 29 October 2009   John Prendergast

Mayor Boris Johnson has finally agreed to meet with campaigners and talk through the future of the South London Line. 

South London Press By Jenny Clover 16 October 2009

LONDON Mayor Boris Johnson finally agreed during a City Hall question time to meet rail campaigners about plans to axe a train line. Boris said he would receive a cross-party deputation about plans to axe both the South London Line (SLL) and its proposed replacement. He also said he would head a joint meeting between campaigners and the Department for Transport (DfT), who reached a deal with the City Hall’s transport arm TfL to abandon the planned replacement service.  Read more

See & here this exchange on the City Hall webcast - 10 minutes in on Mayor's Question Time here: http://www.london.gov.uk/assembly/webcasts.jsp

from ITV London Tonight 12 October   

click here for broadcast clip: http://www.itv.com/london/boristransportplans57650/

THIS IS FROM THE TRAM FACEBOOK PAGE:  INDOMIE Thursday 15 October 2009 2.50pm
Some of you may have seen this week’s announcement of the Mayors new Transport Strategy for London (not to mention today’s steep bus fare increases too!)

You can read the document at http://mts.tfl.gov.uk/default.aspx but I’m afraid there is very little in there about South East London and no mention of the Cross River Tram at all [or the South London Line]! There is now a vague mention of a possible extension of the Bakerloo Line sometime after 2020, but this is subject to further research. It’s an option that has been looked at in the past and ruled out on cost and technical grounds – hence the preference for the Tram. There is a real danger now that our needs will be pushed further down the list of priorities as any Bakerloo extension is unfunded and could well fall foul to a change of Mayor in the future. We seem to be going around in circles!