4 September - Lesnes Abbey regeneration and Southeastern trains both going nowhere fast
Alternate Sundays
is when BiB usually compares the progress Bexley Council has made with Lesnes
Abbey and what Network Rail has done to Abbey Wood station, but that’s getting
to be ridiculous because the only discernible change to the Abbey park over the past month is that
the weeds have grown.
I thought this might be a quiet fortnight at the railway station following the
completion of the second North Kent platform but I was very wrong. Today sees
the biggest picture gallery so far showing the daily progress.
Unfortunately I missed the two main roof beams going in because of another trip
to East Ham delivering essential supplies and yesterday’s action is largely missing too.
That’s because I had an invitation to be away on either the 3rd or 4th of September and consulted
Crossrail’s published list of line closures. Their poster was wrong, I chose the wrong day
and therefore missed the action.
Nevertheless the two week’s of photos include the first train to use the new
platform, the wooden jigsaw which when assembled will form the new station roof
and the demolition of the old Dartford bound platform. The platform that was
extended from 10 car length to 12 in 2012 and never once saw a 12 coach train!
The roof components are being
shipped in from Austria and have been hoisted into position by a remote
controlled device which I am told is called a Self Erecting Tower Crane. To help
with all this hi-tech gear there is a man with a big hammer and a bag of nails.
See the 139th photo out of 180.
Despite the generally good news on the Crossrail front it has been a very bad
two weeks on the trains. A friend who started a new job this week was late three
times, fortunately so was the boss and all because of Southeastern. Or was it?
London Bridge was closed throughout the bank holiday weekend (Network Rail), there
was no service to Cannon Street until 2nd September (NR), there were signal
problems in all sorts of places (NR) and emergency engineering work on Thursday at London Bridge (NR again).
That was just what I observed while on photo jaunts. Lots
of trains were running very late and no one is willing to confirm the
sighting of a 12 coach train so over crowding was the norm. Why are there not more trains and more modern
trains that might be able to cope with Woolwich Dockyard’s short platform? That
seems to be the Department of Transport’s (DfT) fault for failing to authorise the
expenditure. The only North Kent line failure I heard of last week that might be attributed to
Southeastern was due to a train breakdown at Blackheath but the Class 465 units are 24
years old and that must be the DfT’s fault too.
Train expert Councillor Stefano Borella is welcome to offer corrections if he knows better!
Despite most problems being beyond Southeastern’s control there
are many discontented commuters pushing for a TfL takeover. Unless TfL can bring
more political pressure to bear I don’t see that as a solution (†) although I would
welcome the end of South East London fares tax. i.e. Freedom Passes being invalid
before 09:30 and children being charged more.
A friend and two cousins live alongside the Liverpool to Chingford line which
was taken over by TfL in May 2015. Their experience of it has not been good but
maybe there are
improvements on the horizon.
Nevertheless the pressure continues and another petition for a TfL takeover of
Southeastern suburban services has found its way on to the net. If you are more
optimistic for improved services than I am then https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/166062 is the place to go.
† I have been reminded that if TfL takes over the DfT drops out of new train commissioning so
the chance of getting new rolling stock improves. Thanks to various transport experts for putting me right.
