Overnight access at London Victoria.

[Alex365Dash]

I would be very surprised if customer service or the press office answered the phone at 3am, although you would be perfectly at liberty to try them if you wanted to. The Network Rail contact centre would probably not understand the nature of your enquiry, or direct you to the closed TOC customer service line.

On all of Southern’s station welcome posters, they publish the phone number for their control team for customers who require urgent assistance during their journey.

This would at least get you to the right team of people, although if the poster is inside the station, it wouldn’t be of much help unless you somehow already knew the number…

 

[MikeFromLFE]

Reading through this thread makes me wonder what the position of disabled traveller would be at Victoria at that time of night? It may be niche, but not beyond the realms of possibility.
Presumably Passenger Assistance could be booked, but would it turn up?
And, if a passenger travelling without assistance wasn't able to get to the departing train (when other passengers were 'running to board') would there be potential for a disability-discrimination case?

 

[Starmill]

On all of Southern’s station welcome posters, they publish the phone number for their control team for customers who require urgent assistance during their journey.

This would at least get you to the right team of people, although if the poster is inside the station, it wouldn’t be of much help unless you somehow already knew the number…

There is nothing wrong with trying any of these numbers at all, though as you suggest here, most people would be limited to whatever they can find on Google. That's not to say that in practice the calls would actually be answered, so a back up plan is still needed.

 

[trainmania100]

If there's a large crowd at 3am it makes me wonder why trains don't run through the night. Fine engineering works I can understand but the last service in this case, can't be that much sooner than the first.

 

[GoneSouth]

Reading through this thread makes me wonder what the position of disabled traveller would be at Victoria at that time of night? It may be niche, but not beyond the realms of possibility.
Presumably Passenger Assistance could be booked, but would it turn up?
And, if a passenger travelling without assistance wasn't able to get to the departing train (when other passengers were 'running to board') would there be potential for a disability-discrimination case?

I did think along similar lines. Also, were the people who missed the train unceremoniously thrown out of the station again because the station was ‘Closed’ again until the next train. Seems very harsh

 

[JonathanH]

If there's a large crowd at 3am it makes me wonder why trains don't run through the night. Fine engineering works I can understand but the last service in this case, can't be that much sooner than the first.

They do run though the night on Saturday night / Sunday morning, but at a frequency of one an hour, which is deemed sufficient.

The rest of the week, passengers use Blackfriars, because it works better for short notice engineering access.

Victoria lost its overnight service in the light of the Gibb report in 2017, which concluded that more engineering access was required.
https://assets.publishing.service.g...e8ab58e34/chris-gibb-report-southern-rail.pdf

Victoria station will be completely closed to passengers between 0100 and 0500, allowing increased station security, cleaning, maintenance and renewal of passenger areas.
• Clapham Junction station will be closed completely between 0120 and 0500, allowing increased station security, cleaning, maintenance and renewal of passenger areas.
• Thameslink will become the only round the clock element of the GTR operation, with appropriate and efficient overnight staffing levels focused on delivery of a simple and easy to understand product. The Southern and Gatwick Express brands will refocus on daytime operations only, and in particular on the commuter peaks. This approach will benefit by far the largest number of passengers.

 

[Mattplans]

On all of Southern’s station welcome posters, they publish the phone number for their control team for customers who require urgent assistance during their journey.

This would at least get you to the right team of people, although if the poster is inside the station, it wouldn’t be of much help unless you somehow already knew the number…

Are these posters also at stations not managed by Southern?