It's as good as it's going to get during the pm peak and it is not difficult for passengers to change at London Bridge for southbound services.
I was quite surprised by the backlash to the new timetable. The press showed some pretty extreme images of crowds at LBR during disruption — whether that was fully representative, I’m not sure. And honestly, I’m not sure what LBR usually looks like during disruption anyway.
I'm not sure how helpful a choice of termini really is, as people seem to react best to clear and frequent timetables and providing 2tph to one location and 2tph to another doesn't work for a short distance metro service
I’m also not convinced that offering multiple termini is especially helpful. In my experience, people respond best to clear, consistent, and frequent timetables. Splitting services (2tph to one place, 2tph to another) rarely works well for short-distance metro routes.
I completely agree with the points made about Southeastern — and the same goes for Southern and Thameslink (look at Thornton Heath or Hackbridge, for example). We still see big timetable gaps even where there are decent tph figures on paper — 23 minutes on the Bexleyheath line off-peak, and I think Hackbridge has 26-minute gaps. Southern, Thameslink, and Southwestern haven’t yet restored their full off-peak frequencies either.
People like predictability. A “turn up and go” service only really works when you’ve got 15 minutes or less between trains. I’d honestly “TfL” the whole network: named lines, simple patterns, and a unified fare structure so you can change to the Underground or DLR without a huge price jump. I’d still have Southeastern/Southern operate the trains for compatibility with their mainline services, but branded and structured as part of TfL.
As for rolling stock, people don’t really like sitting next to people — and I think that’s part of why Overground-style seating works so well. On short journeys, no one’s filling up a 6-bay; two people in airline seats feels cramped. For sub-hour trips, the Overground layout is probably the best balance (even though, as an infrastructure fan, I prefer a window view!). On the Overground, people will fill every seat and keep a personal space feeling.
I’ve got friends in North Kent who wouldn’t dream of using Southeastern — they see it as confusing and expensive. But they’ll happily drive to Abbey Wood and take the Elizabeth line. That says a lot.
his shows the most basic way you can travel between each node, thus tracing out routes between destinations. You should be able to work out the station names from the two-letter codes
the map shared above is brilliant — thank you! It shows clearly how people move between nodes, and that’s exactly why people love the Tube map: it’s simple and frequent, with at least 4tph on every line.
Yes, you could send them to Lewisham – but there are no bay platforms at Lewisham, and all of the through platforms are far too busy to terminate and reverse a train every 15 minutes.
As for Lewisham, I don’t think the lack of bay platforms is an insurmountable issue. If there’s no room there, find the next feasible location with a bay or siding. Removing the Lewisham skippers and running 4tph to Victoria (or even better, Clapham Junction), with stops at Brockley, Loughborough Junction, and Brixton (see origional post), would really strengthen Lewisham as a hub — DLR, buses, everything — and maybe even reduce the need for the costly Bakerloo extension.
There’s nothing wrong with heavy rail as an urban mode — look at Germany. But it needs to be done better.
Could a train starting at Bromley North and running on the fast deliver a fully and standing 10-car load at London Bridge?
And yes — I recently made a trip to Bromley North to finish my London map. What a strange little branch! I’ve got friends nearby who live five minutes from Sundridge Park and have never used it.
In the long term, I’d love to see a tram-train setup from Crystal Palace to Beckenham Junction (replacing Southern’s lightly used 2tph), continuing to Bromley South, through Bromley town centre to Grove Park — and ideally to Lewisham somehow. Southern could then run 4tph to East Croydon.
