successful Public Meeting on Wed 30th Sep 2009
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
A lively debate ensued and the overwhelming sentiment of rail users was that the South London Line's direct links to London Bridge and Victoria were too precious and valuable to lose and a way had to be found to keep them. TfL acknowledged that the cut in the SLL and the Victoria–Bellingham plans left serious gaps in services to Victoria, and confirmed their review with London TravelWatch to see how those gaps might be mitigated. However they made it clear that their main interest was in creating the orbital rail link east and west between Clapham Junction and Canada Water, and not in maintaining the area’s direct links into central London.
Network Rail's representative in explaining the rebuilding of London Bridge station between 2012-2015 said that he would not recommend the retention of the SLL as it was not ideal, but it was not impossible. So in both cases - the link to Victoria and the link to London Bridge - the obstacles to retaining the SLL and maintaining and improving direct connections to central London are not overcome yet; but the meeting confirmed there is room for movement which the campaign will continue to probe and explore. read South London Press report read Southwark News report