Following catastrophic disruption to evening commuter rail journeys in and out of London Bridge station this week, Reigate MP, Crispin Blunt, sought urgent briefings from both Network Rail and the train operator, Southern Rail, to find out exactly what went wrong and what steps the agencies involved are taking to remedy the problems.
Crispin Blunt commented "I remain deeply unhappy, although not entirely surprised, that these problems with the evening timetable were not properly anticipated. This week's evening chaos at London Bridge has compounded the miserable travelling experience of Reigate and Redhill commuters who are already suffering from a much reduced morning service owing to the Thameslink upgrade works.
My meeting with the Secretary of State for Transport has provisionally been arranged for Tuesday 20 January. I will be discussing how we can deliver fairness for Reigate and Redhill commuters who have to put up with paying a premium for a substandard rail service over the next three years.
I have also invited Southern Rail to meet with me in advance of my meeting with the Transport Secretary to talk about their central role in achieving this outcome. I, and the commuters I represent, hope we can reply on Southern's cooperation in this process."
Further reading: Briefing notes from both Network Rail and Southern Rail...
London Bridge – Network Rail Briefing Note
We apologise for the disruption at London Bridge We have made changes to the timetable and the management of the station to help restore a more punctual service with less crowding We should not lose sight of the work we successfully complete major rebuilding work at the station over Christmas and New Year and handed back on time
Apology: We apologise to passengers using Southern services from London Bridge who experienced disruption and crowding at London Bridge. This is not the level of service that customers deserve, expect or that we want to deliver.
Problem and our response
Following the works over Christmas the number of approach tracks at the Bermondsey dive under was reduced from six to three. This reduction in track capacity and meant that the evening timetable is proving challenging to manage. Further, this is the first time that trains drivers and signallers had used that layout and timetable. These factors have led to late trains and crowding at the station.
To reduce congestion we have removed a small number of evening peak services in the short term to allowed us to deliver a more punctual service to the majority of passengers. We also installed more passenger information screens, placed more staff at London Bridge, implemented additional crowd management plans to separate passengers entering and exiting trains.
The five services removed were those from London Bridge to West Croydon every half hour from 16.36 to 18.36 calling at New Cross Gate, Brockley, Honor Oak Park, Forest Hill, Sydenham, Penge West, Anerly and Norwood Junction.
Why wasn't the disruption predicted?
Modelling of the new track layout showed that we should be able to run a maximum of 22 trains per hour. However, in practice during the evening peak, the system struggles as the volume of traffic intensifies and while the timetable and layout is new. As an immediate measure, we temporarily withdrew a small number of services, 2 per hour, as we work to understand how we can achieve long term reliable performance.
Success of 16 day rebuilding works over Christmas and New Year
We should not lose sight of the successful work that we completed at London Bridge during the Christmas and New Year period (20 Dec to 4 January) over 16 days of major works. Our engineers finished two new platforms and removed and replaced 3km of track and signalling equipment into London Bridge. This work was completed on time.
Preparation for timetable changes
To prepare passengers and stakeholders for the part closure of London Bridge and timetable changes we worked in partnership with train operators, TfL and the DfT on communications. We put out:
► Media: Adverts in regional and national newspapers and radio
► Push alerts: Email, text and twitter alerts
► Station dressing: Vinyl wraps at 10 high impact stations and bespoke posters at each affected station
► Leafleting: Over one million leaflets for passengers
► 200 extra staff and volunteers during the part station closure and new timetable
► Stakeholders: Extensive individual and group briefings
Southern Rail Briefing Note
Following the completion of Network Rail's work at London Bridge over Christmas on the final two terminating platforms and the revised track and signalling layout, the station opened again on Monday 5 January. Since then there have been delays and disruption to the peak service in part due to faults, for example on Monday morning there were signalling problems at Merstham and at London Bridge, and last night there was a points failure at London Bridge.
However, even without incidents the revised infrastructure has struggled to deliver the timetable this week. Modelling of the new reduced track layout showed that we should be able to run a maximum of 22 trains per hour. However as the service intensifies during the peaks, particularly in the evening, we have found that trains gradually become later because minor delays lead to trains queuing approaching the station which then creates more significant delays. In practice therefore, we have simply not been able to get this number of trains into and out of London Bridge successfully during peak hours despite amending the train service in anticipation of the reduction.
We are very reluctant to remove services from the timetable given how busy peak trains are, but following an early review we decided we should cancel five evening peak services from the London Bridge timetable from Wednesday this week providing 20 trains per hour and reducing the pressure on the infrastructure to allow us to deliver a more punctual service. The services affected are the 1636, 1706, 1738, 1806, 1836 London Bridge to West Croydon services, as well as three northbound services at 1712, 1813 and 1742 from West Croydon to London Bridge. This will continue at least up to and including this evening (Friday 9 January) while the new operation beds in and we will then assess the service and consider if any longer term changes are required.
From Monday, we will terminate the 1751 Tattenham Corner to London Bridge train at Purley where it will attach to the 1805 Caterham to London Bridge train (currently the 1809 which will leave Caterham at 1805). This combined train will arrive at London Bridge at 1903 and help provide some margin at this point using only one path approaching London Bridge rather than two.
The issues this week were exacerbated by the change in layout to the concourse with crowding at the station as passengers naturally congregated by the information screens. The operation of London Bridge concourse has been amended since Monday with extra staff available and a second set of information screens installed so that passengers can use the concourse more evenly. This worked successfully on Thursday evening.
We and Network Rail have apologised to passengers for the disruption and delays at London Bridge. The situation has improved over the week and we will continue to evaluate the service and consider the options available to ensure we can provide a good service to and from the station as the construction work progresses.