Victoria rail services - the Minister replies
Email to SRUG mailing list from SRUG
Last Autumn, we let you know the latest information about the gaps in our services to Victoria that will be created by the loss of the South London Line (trains between London Bridge & Victoria via Peckham Rye and Denmark Hill) from December 2012. We asked users to email the Transport Minister and the London Mayor to let them know how you as users would be affected by this, and to ask them to fill the gaps in services.
THE MINISTER REPLIES
Your efforts paid off as we received recently an email from the Department of Transport. This said that the Minister had received several dozen emails as a result of our campaign, and they asked us to display the Minister's statement in response on the SRUG website. We have done this - see here http://www.bellenden.net/victoria
In brief, the Minister's statement says that the feasibility and desirability of additional stops in peak times are under consideration, but claims that both Peckham Rye and Denmark Hill will retain a service of two or more trains per hour both to Victoria and Blackfriars/Thameslink network, and that because the Government is committed to its localism agenda it will not therefore intervene in decisions of the London Mayor.
* for the text of the Transport Minister's statement see: http://www.bellenden.net/victoria#statement
SRUG's reply thanked the Minister and the Department for this acknowledgement of local concern and the consideration of additional peak stops. However the reply points out that from December 2012 there will be no trains to Victoria in the evenings or weekends, and that these gaps are the result of not only the Mayor’s decision to complete the East London Line extension to Clapham Junction, but also the national decision to rebuild London Bridge station which will cut the South London Line trains to Victoria. In view of the fact that it isn't a case of interfering in a local decision, the letter asks the Minister to reconsider the role of the Department and Network Rail so they can join together with the London Mayor and TfL to provide an interim joint solution, until the new franchise can remedy the gaps.
* for SRUG's letter in reply to the Minister see: http://www.bellenden.net/victoria#SRUGletter
ACTIONS
If you haven't already emailed the Transport Minister, the London Mayor or your local elected representatives and you feel strongly about the need to have a full 7 days a week regular service to Victoria, do email them as soon as possible.
If you have already written, but wish to support the case for the DfT and TfL to fund jointly an interim measure until the full service can be provided in the new Southeastern franchise from 2014, it is really worth emailing again as soon as possible.
These actions will help also to keep the spotlight on the need to provide the full Victoria services in the new franchise.
The email contact details are here: http://www.bellenden.net/victoria#emails
See background and action information on this page: http://www.bellenden.net/victoria
If you have any queries, please do let us know.Thank you for taking action and adding your voice to other users on these important matters.
SRUG
http://www.southwarkrailusers.net