Bellenden Residents' Group (BRG)

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.

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

 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. 

SLP 9th October 2009 - web report

Sidiq Khan to Boris Johnson 5th 0ctober 2009 - Minister's letter

London Mayor Boris Jiohnson has been slammed by a Government Minister for making "misleading and factually inaccurate" comments.. Read more ...

Southwark News 8th October 2009

1. The 'News' put questions from campaigner John Stewart to Ian Brown TfL Rail chief:

"Why was the Bellingham line dropped?" and several more questions. Read more'...

2. Campaign hopeful after meeting

.. A public meeting has fuelled belief amongst campaigners that the South London Line could still be saved."  Read more ...

We held a historic and very successful Public Meeting on Wed 30th Sep 6.30pm for 7pm-9pm at Institute of Psychiatry, 16 De Crespigny Park, Camberwell. Over 200 rail users came and saw [click here to see]: a SRUG overview on the role of the SLL in south London's rail system, and heard from a panel of three rail users covering all the stations what the issues are. Then there was a rail industry panel with speakers from Network Rail, TfL and London TravelWatch, who faced over an hour of questions and comments.

read South London Press report   read Southwark News report

South London Press 2nd October 2009  Jenny Clover

Rail chief: I'll compensate for lost service... but I won't bring it back

<http://londonreconnections.blogspot.com/2009/09/mayors-question-time-0909-overground.html> scroll down to see this exchange on 9th September Mayor's Questions:

Question to Mayor from Richard Tracey: "I believe there is cross-party support at City Hall for the Department for Transport to introduce the Victoria to Bellingham Line. Does the Mayor have any advice on how Assembly Members can play a constructive part in trying to persuade the DfT to reverse their decision and introduce this line?"