Dorking To Horsham - No Weekday Evening Or New Years Day Service

[yorksrob]

No, the Saturday service is the subject of the complaint: local pressure succeeded in getting SX evening trains restored, and that is what the OP wants - rightly.
The justification would be that people working in London (etc) often stay late in town after work, and need/want trains home. Mid-evening trains out of London seem to be much better used than in my (and your?) day. (Of course, while WFH is mandated, this is likely to be different.
On Saturdays they are much less likely to trek up to town for a show, or if they do, they may well drive further into town rather than plan around the infrequent service to the nearest station.

Perhaps it's different in Surrey, but generally I find that people who don't necessarily work in town, are more likely to trek in on Saturday for leisure and need an evening service.

Good on the locals for getting the weekday evening service restored, but Saturday really needs to be catered for in this day and age.

 

[30907]

Perhaps it's different in Surrey, but generally I find that people who don't necessarily work in town, are more likely to trek in on Saturday for leisure and need an evening service.

Good on the locals for getting the weekday evening service restored, but Saturday really needs to be catered for in this day and age.

Sorry: I meant to say that it's different in the North - or more generally, where distances are shorter/a taxi home won't break the bank (my adult children would shell out the £20 or so for 10 miles from Leeds).
Whereas 50 years ago I would have run for the 2332 off Vic... (and I am a proud Kentishman not one of the Four Yorkshiremen )

 

[Capvermell]

No, the Saturday service is the subject of the complaint: local pressure succeeded in getting SX evening trains restored, and that is what the OP wants - rightly.
The justification would be that people working in London (etc) often stay late in town after work, and need/want trains home. Mid-evening trains out of London seem to be much better used than in my (and your?) day. (Of course, while WFH is mandated, this is likely to be different.

Agreed that is indeed my issue.

The reason that the lack of a Saturday evening train service has become pertinent is because it is now being used as a weekday timetable (allegedly for the time being but that time being might stretch on to May or beyond), although that basic Saturday timetable has already been amended on weekdays to bring in to service a train around 6am that normally runs up to London Victoria out of service as a non passenger train.

In my opinion Southern should have also taken that step with a late evening train on the Saturday timetable that runs in passenger service to Dorking and then out of passenger service to Horsham by keeping the train in passenger service to Horsham

However the normal Saturday service has no train back to Horsham via Dorking after 5.25pm so I would say that as a minimum a train through to Horsham at 7.25pm and the conversion of the 11.26pm train that terminates in Dorking and runs empty to Horsham in to passenger service is the minimum requirement needed even on this short temporary timetable. Between 2004 and 2018 there was only a 2326 service from London Victoria to Horsham via Dorking and this was a train that prior to 2004 still through ran to Horsham but terminated for passenger service at Dorking.

The practice of running trains out of passenger service from Dorking to Horsham is in my opinion both unjustified, inconsiderate and extremely wasteful of limited public transport resources.

On Saturdays they are much less likely to trek up to town for a show, or if they do, they may well drive further into town rather than plan around the infrequent service to the nearest station.

I agree that in the past people may have driven closer to town or in my case even all the way in to town because of no evening train services south of Dorking on Sunday and noting that the cost of an Off Peak train ticket from Ockley to London is the same as Dorking Off Peak but that is not much use if no train service exists at all when one needs to travel.

However with the introduction of a ULEZ that impacts many existing vehicles covering the whole area inside the North and South Circular 24/7 and the Congestion Charge still remaining in force from 12pm to 6pm on Saturday and Sunday (after a change from the recent 7am to 10pm on Saturday and Sunday) everything has changed so that it is now much more attractive to take the train rather than drive in to London on Satuday and Sunday but so far Southern's pattern of train services south of Dorking on Saturday (no evening service) and Sunday (no service all day at all) has not caught up with this changed state of affairs with the 24/7 ULEZ and 12pm to 6pm on Saturday and Sunday Congestion Charge (this appears to be a permanent long term arrangement) now encouraging many more people to undertake their entire journey to London on public transport.

 

[yorksrob]

Sorry: I meant to say that it's different in the North - or more generally, where distances are shorter/a taxi home won't break the bank (my adult children would shell out the £20 or so for 10 miles from Leeds).
Whereas 50 years ago I would have run for the 2332 off Vic... (and I am a proud Kentishman not one of the Four Yorkshiremen )

I must admit, I grew up in Kent and remember going up to London of a weekend and getting the evening train back.

Up north, the Saturday services are even busier of an evening with people coming back from town !

I think that if you don't work in the main city, you're more likely to go there of a weekend.

 

[yorksrob]

I was a district councillor for 7 years over 15 years ago but I am no longer involved with the council or related activities today. Also our local Member of Parliament is someone who does not seem to like public transport at all and favours travel by car (this may be to do with his age as some of us locally feel he should have retired some years ago and definitely by the time of the 2015 General Election) hence why he offered no opposition to South Western's recent proposal to halve its service frequency to Dorking from Waterloo unlike the neighbouring MP for Ashtead. Also I and this Member of Parliament do not seem to get along at all well so it seems very unlikely I could exert any influence over the matter through that channel.



The point is that the route actually gained a shuttle Saturday evening service during the main lockdown timetable that ran for over 6 months in 2020 because the same timetable was operated from Monday to Saturday, instead of separate Monday to Friday, Saturday and Sunday timetables, and Dorking to Horsham was covered by a shuttle service that ran between the two stations at off peak times of day. So to see another COVID related timetable that axes evening services in the weekday and has not Saturday evening service as part of it is exceedingly frustrating and disappointing. Also the long term direction of travel on this line in the last 18 years has been for services to increase and improve from an admittedly very low base during the 1980s and 1990s.



Thank you for your kind support on the points I have been making about the unacceptable post Christmas reduction in service on the line and my insistence that this should be reversed and evening services reinstated ASAP, even if a reduced COVID service pattern persists on Southern/GoVia's lines for some months ahead. However this episode very much emphasises the dangers of having a Saturday service without evening trains when at the drop of a hat this Saturday service can be turned in to a weekday service plus one very early morning train but with no counterpart mid or late evening train service..............

Thanks for the interesting background detail of the situation.

I think the situation illustrates how important it is that day long services are regarded and treated as the absolute minimum service, particularly for a radial commuter route such as Dorking - Horsham.

Allowing service providers to cut back evening services will do neither the industry nor passengers any good in the longer term.

 

[daodao]

I think the situation illustrates how important it is that day long services are regarded and treated as the absolute minimum service, particularly for a radial commuter route such as Dorking - Horsham.

There is currently no train leaving the stations between Horsham and Dorking that arrives at a central London terminus station between 0730 and 0930 on weekdays, which suggests that these stations are not currently used for commuting to the capital.

 

[Class 466]

There is currently no train leaving the stations between Horsham and Dorking that arrives at a central London terminus station between 0730 and 0930 on weekdays, which suggests that these stations are not currently used for commuting to the capital.

the timetable is currently a copy over of a Saturday timetable. Normally there would be other trains and I’m sure that from a couple of weeks time, they’ll return.

 

[30907]

the timetable is currently a copy over of a Saturday timetable.

...as even a cursory read of the thread would reveal. The OP hasn't mentioned the lack of morning peak trains, admittedly.

As for the lack of commuting in normal times, I would suspect that WFH has a much greater impact on rural Surrey than the inner suburbs - but also generally on the London commuter belt than on its Manchester equivalent.

 

[Capvermell]

Ockley. Centre of the universe

I don't live in Ockley but in Capel but my home is only 0.75 miles walk from the station that used to formerly and correctly be called Ockley and Capel for many years and is also named that way on the LBSCR network line map of the 1920s or so to be found on one of the station entrance passage walls at London Victoira. It was only called Ockley and Capel because the Station Approach is just in Ockley parish even though its actually nearer to most parts of Capel village than Ockley village. Renaming it to Ockley was a wrong and foolish decision by some mono syllabic marketing man and it ought to be reversed.

 

[Capvermell]

I don't live in Ockley but in Capel but my home is only 0.75 miles walk from the station that used to formerly and correctly be called Ockley and Capel for many years and is also named that way on the LBSCR network line map of the 1920s or so to be found on one of the station entrance passage walls at London Victoira. It was only called Ockley and Capel because the Station Approach is just in Ockley parish even though its actually nearer to most parts of Capel village than Ockley village. Renaming it to Ockley was a wrong and foolish decision by some mono syllabic marketing man and it ought to be reversed.

As of tomorrow 14th February Southern is now showing a lone 2325 service from London Victoria to Horsham via Epsom, reaching Ockley at 0037 rather than the usual 0038 but I note omitting Hackbridge, Mitcham Eastfields, Mitcham Junction, Carshalton and Ewell East that it would usually call at so no idea why it isn't getting to Horsham faster than the normal 2325 train from Victoria. This is even though the rest of the services to Dorking are still running from London Bridge this coming week right up to the final departure at 2323 arriving Dorking at 0030 (four minutes after the restored 2325 from London Victoria will have departed Dorking for Horsham at 0026).

This service pattern of one isolated train from Victoria to Horsham via Epsom and Dorking is repeated on 15th, 16th and 17th Feb but not on my birthday on Friday Feb 18th, which doesn't make any sense in terms of running Monday to Thursday but not on a Friday.

But then as of Monday 21st Feb the Southern timetable is showing restoration of full normal hourly evening service to Horsham via Epsom from Victoria right up until the final 2325 service and this continues after the end of the Brighton Main Line Blockade.

Bottom line is I don't trust the full evening service to Horsham via Dorking to actually return on Feb 21st as currently indicated (as Southern seems to have been only removing the normal timetable in favour of the London Bridge Saturday based operations a week at a time) and its more than likely that Southern will remove it from the timetable before we get there in favour of just the lone 2325 service from London Victoria to Horsham and the rest of the services still running out of London Bridge until the final 1725 service.

Also if they are genuinely running a 2325 service to Ockley, Holmwood and Warnham from Victoria as of tomorrow evening then why hasn't the Southern Customer Liaison Manager I have been speaking to about the issue bothered to phone or email me to give me this good news? Anyway I'm hoping the 2335 from Victoria to Horsham via Epsom and Dorking will still be running on Wednesday 16/2 when I am due to be up in London for the evening........

 

[Surreytraveller]

Its been stated all along that the normal service will resume week commencing 21st February, as that coincides with the mainline block, and is what the planning department has been working towards.
Why the 23.25 is shown as running to Horsham all this week apart from Friday I've no idea

 

[JonathanH]

Also if they are genuinely running a 2325 service to Ockley, Holmwood and Warnham from Victoria as of tomorrow evening then why hasn't the Southern Customer Liaison Manager I have been speaking to about the issue bothered to phone or email me to give me this good news?

No sign of 2Z98 2325 London Victoria to Horsham running tonight. The 2323 from London Bridge to Dorking is running (and I am aboard). This is effectively a London Bridge to Epsom service extended to Dorking

Just as well they aren't both running as they have the same timing to pass West Croydon. The 2323 to Dorking leaves Epsom in the timetable at the same time as a Waterloo to Guildford train.

There does appear to have been a 2345 Balham to Horsham bus organised but I am not going to investigate where it is for real or not particularly since Carshalton is the last pick up point and it is presumably then just on request to the places required by any passengers.

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:X43617/2022-02-14/detailed

Four people got off the train at Dorking tonight.

 

[Capvermell]

No sign of 2Z98 2325 London Victoria to Horsham running tonight. The 2323 from London Bridge to Dorking is running (and I am aboard). This is effectively a London Bridge to Epsom service extended to Dorking

Shown as existing but Cancelled on www.southernrailway.com, www.nationalrail.co.uk and www.realtimetrains.co.uk/

No Rail Replacement Bus shown by any of these sources currently

Absolutely disgusting as I could have gone to London based on the listed timetable expecting to be brought back by this train only to find myself stranded (a very expensive prospect of around £40 for a taxi on the rank to my home although I now known I can walk the mile North to Boxhill and get an Uber from there for £16). However as it was in the timetable until whenever they cancelled it (presumably only in the last few hours) the Station Supervisor at Dorking (there till the last train) would surely have called me a taxi on their taxi account. Although it appears such a decision also has to be OK'ed by whoever remotely manages them and would they have been available at this time of night?

No idea why the train that was Cancelled also wasn't scheduled to stop at Hackbridge, Mitcham Junction and Mitcham Eastfields as it normally does but still got to Dorking at the usual 0026 time.

Anyway thanks for your message as I nearly walked down to the station to ask the Train Supervisor why he thought just this lone train was now suddenly running again after 6 weeks of no evening trains south of Dorking.

Just as well they aren't both running as they have the same timing to pass West Croydon. The 2323 to Dorking leaves Epsom in the timetable at the same time as a Waterloo to Guildford train.

There does appear to have been a 2345 Balham to Horsham bus organised but I am not going to investigate where it is for real or not particularly since Carshalton is the last pick up point and it is presumably then just on request to the places required by any passengers.

Surely the train from Victoria to Horsham wasn't passing West Croydon at all?

 

[Capvermell]

Its been stated all along that the normal service will resume week commencing 21st February, as that coincides with the mainline block, and is what the planning department has been working towards.

And why is it acceptable for these stations from Dorking to Horsham (i.e. Holmwood, Ockley and Warnham) to have no weekday evening train service at all after the 1725 from London Bridge for 7 weeks when this is not happening anywhere else on Southern's network. Other stations merely get less trains in the morning and evening peak than on a normal weekday.

If no train services are being run at all during the weekday evening then Southern should have to compensate rail users for having to take a taxi home instead.

Why the 23.25 is shown as running to Horsham all this week apart from Friday I've no idea

Well that seems odd as you seemed to have special inside information on exactly when Southern would be restoring the normal timetable that they have not shared with their fare paying passengers in any information announcements given on their website.

 

[Capvermell]

Tonight (Tuesday 15/2) they are showing a rail bus leaving from Balham at 23.45 getting to Ockley at 0207 that you would have to get a 2314 service from London Victoria to Balham to connect with the rail bus when it departs at 2345.

This would be a hugely tortuous journey that they have proactively advertised (nothing on the ground at Ockley Station about it) to precisely nobody when surely the cheap and efficient thing to do would be to run a small mini bus from Dorking down to Horsham at the time the last service of the night from London Bridge gets there and/or to intersect with trains earlier in the evening to Dorking.

So perhaps this rail bus did run last night but had disappeared from the schedules by the time I cam to look for it last night?

There has been no service for 6 weeks from Dorking to Horsham but now they put this service on but don't even communicate with the main person who has been complaining about the removal of evening train services south of Dorking that they have done so. Also no way of getting back to Ockley between the 1725 service from London Bridge and the 2314 train service to Balham connecting with the Railbus at Balham at 2345. Something tells me it will be empty but I may be travelling on it tomorrow night if it is still running then..............

 

[JonathanH]

Surely the train from Victoria to Horsham wasn't passing West Croydon at all?

No, last nights supposed 2325 from Victoria was routed via Selhurst for a staff stop then non stop to Sutton.

There is no corresponding service tonight.

That 2345 bus from Balham is intriguing. I can't imagine anyone would actually use it. I'm quite tempted to give it a go but it would be a bit awkward if it didn't turn up.

 

[Capvermell]

No, last nights supposed 2325 from Victoria was routed via Selhurst for a staff stop then non stop to Sutton.

There is no corresponding service tonight.

That 2345 bus from Balham is intriguing. I can't imagine anyone would actually use it. I'm quite tempted to give it a go but it would be a bit awkward if it didn't turn up.

Thanks for explaining that. That also certainly explains why it didn't stop at Hackbridge, Mitcham Eastfields or Mitcham Junction.

As things stand the Southern timetable shows the 2345 rail bus from Balham taking two and a half hours to reach Horsham running tonight and tomorrow night and I am considering getting it tomorrow night when I have to go to London. But its possible to get the 2321 from Balham to Sutton and then connect with the train to Dorking from London Bridge at 0004 and get to Dorking at OO30 but this wouldn't get me back to Ockley, especially bearing in mind I don't currently have a working car and Ockley is only an 0.8 mile walk from my home.

But on Thursday they are showing the normal 2325 (up to December 23rd) as running to Horsham in the usual 1 hour 12 minutes but clearly via Selhurst since Hackbridge, Mitcham Junction and Mitcham Eastfields are not listed as Stopping Points by Southern on their online train lookup. But then on Friday 18/2 they show no train or rail bus late evening service at all south of Dorking. Then on Monday 21/2 they show a full normal service hourly until 2325 to Horsham via Dorking from London Victoria. But I will only believe that when I see it and it also may well be withdrawn again in favour of running out of London Bridge again as soon as the Brighton Main Line Blockade is over if they still claim they are short of drivers due to Omicron infections.

It it totally outrageous that there are no Meet The Manager Sessions, even online on Zoom, so one cannot go Beard The Dragon in its Den about precisely what it thinks it is playing at....................

 

[Capvermell]

If the Rail Replacement Bus wasn't apparent Set Down Only (although this is now shown by Southern in its online timetable lookup for the journey) it would be very tempting to get the 2323 service from London Bridge to Dorking tomorrow (especially due to where I am going to be north of London Bridge) and then wait in its extremely well heated waiting room between platforms 2 and 3 for the very slow, bumpy and uncomfortable Rail Bus to show up at 1.48am just to make a point by keeping the Station Supervisor at Dorking (who can normally only go home after the last train when it is not Set Down Only) there until I have got on the ridiculously slow Rail Replacement Bus service. But there seems a fair chance no bus will show up at all if I do that. Having said that I'm also far from confident of being able to track it down outside Balham Station.............

 

[JonathanH]

If the Rail Replacement Bus wasn't apparent Set Down Only (although this is now shown by Southern in its online timetable lookup for the journey) it would be very tempting to get the 2323 service from London Bridge to Dorking tomorrow (especially due to where I am going to be north of London Bridge) and then wait in its extremely well heated waiting room between platforms 2 and 3 for the very slow, bumpy and uncomfortable Rail Bus to show up at 1.48am just to make a point by keeping the Station Supervisor at Dorking (who can normally only go home after the last train when it is not Set Down Only) there until I have got on the ridiculously slow Rail Replacement Bus service. But there seems a fair chance no bus will show up at all if I do that. Having said that I'm also far from confident of being able to track it down outside Balham Station.............

If the bus is running, it should really be made available for pick up from Dorking on request to the station supervisor but I guess there is no way to do that without it having to wait time at Dorking or advertise that in practice. Having to pick it up at Carshalton or further north isn't exactly passenger friendly (although neither is elongating the journey for people on board). It seems obvious that it will miss out any station calls south of Carshalton for which there are no passengers aboard at that point.

 

[Capvermell]

If the bus is running, it should really be made available for pick up from Dorking on request to the station supervisor but I guess there is no way to do that without it having to wait time at Dorking or advertise that in practice. Having to pick it up at Carshalton or further north isn't exactly passenger friendly (although neither is elongating the journey for people on board). It seems obvious that it will miss out any station calls south of Carshalton for which there are no passengers aboard at that point.

If its listed in the timetable without Set Down Only then they run the risk of passengers left waiting for it complaining to Southern itself via Teleperformance Call Centre or online contact form (in which case the complaint will simply be ignored, obfuscated and not responded to in my experience but some keen passengers like me might take the matter to the Rail Ombudsman) but not sure how many will actually be waiting for the RRB given no service at all for 6 weeks south of Dorking and Southern's totally capricious actions last night in suddenly cancelling the scheduled train at 2325. I can count a lot more on the 2323 to Dorking from London Bridge (or 2338 from Waterloo to Dorking) and then getting off at Boxhill and being able to call an Uber there (they always come to Boxhill as its in range of Ubers hanging out further North near Leatherhead and beyond but Dorking Station only 1.1 mile south is not in range and always shows Cars Not Available) for only £13 in their current 20% off Promo. If the RRB doesn''t show up at Dorking then the licensed ran taxi drivers there would be charging about £37 on their 50% surcharging after 11pm Night Rate to get home to Capel.

Re RRBs calling at the replacement stops it seems to depend on whether they think there could be passengers there. So the RRB I got on at Leatherhead twice three weeks ago (in the only three nights it ran from Jan 25th to 27th) didn't call at Boxhill but did call at Dorking (there was even a staff member talking to the driver at Dorking so probably the Station Supervisor although might have been a night rail contractor) and at Holmwood (the busiest stop south of Dorking) even though no one on the bus had asked the bus to stop there. He didn't bother with Ockley as I said I didn't need to go there but would appreciate being dropped off on the Clarkes Green Roundabout on the A24 that is next to my home and directly en route down to Horsham.

Certainly there is no proper published timetable for these sudden service changes this week but only the online train lookup on Southern and National Rail and they don't appear to show Set Down Only designations against a service as far as I can tell. Only a printed timetable seems to do that............

 

[Capvermell]

If the Rail Replacement Bus wasn't apparent Set Down Only (although this is now shown by Southern in its online timetable lookup for the journey) it would be very tempting to get the 2323 service from London Bridge to Dorking tomorrow (especially due to where I am going to be north of London Bridge) and then wait in its extremely well heated waiting room between platforms 2 and 3 for the very slow, bumpy and uncomfortable Rail Bus to show up at 1.48am just to make a point by keeping the Station Supervisor at Dorking (who can normally only go home after the last train when it is not Set Down Only) there until I have got on the ridiculously slow Rail Replacement Bus service. But there seems a fair chance no bus will show up at all if I do that. Having said that I'm also far from confident of being able to track it down outside Balham Station.............

Some typos in the above unfortunately.

Should have read "If the Rail Replacement Bus wasn't apparently Set Down Only (although this is not shown by Southern in its online timetable lookup for the journey).................

 

[Capvermell]

The only people who are going to use this Rail Replacement Bus are those of us going to London who need to get back to Holmwood, Ockley and Warnham Stations as otherwise we have to pay for a taxi on top of the rail ticket we have paid for. Anyone going to Dorking is going to get on one of the direct and much quicker late evening services from London Bridge or London Waterloo and anyone starting their journey on the Mole Valley line but going to Horsham is going to work their way across to Redhill via Dorking Deepdene to get down to Horsham that way.

There are quite often people who get on the train at Dorking in particular, on the last train of the night, to get to either Holmwood (homes in Beare Green are an easy walk from the station for young drunk people after a night out) or to travel down to Horsham. A guy with a bicycle quite regularly gets the last train from Dorking to get back down to Horsham after presumably a cycle ride and a good night out but I doubt he would bother with this service not least because RRBs are notorious for their unreliability and simply not showing up. Also the fact that Southern is vascillating between a late train and a late rail replacement bus and then not bothering at all on Friday this week rather suggests that the whole thing might be some kind of computer scheduling anomaly.

If they were serious about a Rail Replacement Bus then they would have started running it from Dorking to Horsham six weeks ago today and kept running it until normal weekday evening services south of Dorking through to Horsham were restored on Feb 21st or as soon as possible thereafter.

 

[Surreytraveller]

I suspect the bus is only in place because of engineering works closing the line via Hackbridge. Probably why that other train you were on about was in the system, but was never going to run because no stock or crew was ever going to be in place.

 

[Capvermell]

I suspect the bus is only in place because of engineering works closing the line via Hackbridge. Probably why that other train you were on about was in the system, but was never going to run because no stock or crew was ever going to be in place.

That's possible but then why not just run it from Balham to Sutton where passengers can connect with a wide number of services including those south down to Dorking originating at London Bridge. Why run it all the way down to Horsham when Southern has clearly showing it couldn't give a damn about people needing to get to Holmwood, Ockley or Warnham stations after the 1725 service from London Bridge for 6 weeks.

Yes the bus may be being provided but that same one man RRB bus owning guy based in Pulborough but by offering service to Holmwood, Ockley and Warnham for two nights just like they did for three nights from Jan 25th to Jan 27th they only raise the question as to why they haven't run it throughout the seven week long operation of a basically Saturday based timetable on weekdays.......

 

[Surreytraveller]

That's possible but then why not just run it from Balham to Sutton where passengers can connect with a wide number of services including those south down to Dorking originating at London Bridge. Why run it all the way down to Horsham when Southern has clearly showing it couldn't give a damn about people needing to get to Holmwood, Ockley or Warnham stations after the 1725 service from London Bridge for 6 weeks.

Yes the bus may be being provided but that same one man RRB bus owning guy based in Pulborough but by offering service to Holmwood, Ockley and Warnham for two nights just like they did for three nights from Jan 25th to Jan 27th they only raise the question as to why they haven't run it throughout the seven week long operation of a basically Saturday based timetable on weekdays.......

I'm only guessing, but I suspect the bus may have been arranged at some point in the past before it was known that the trains would still be running from London Bridge at this point, and it was assumed the 23.25 train would be running from Victoria, but diverted via West Croydon, and the bus would connect at Balham with the train for passengers travelling to stations to Carshalton.
I can assure you the bus wasn't organised on purpose with the existing timetable in mind, and it is just part of the ongoing balls-up

 

[Capvermell]

I'm only guessing, but I suspect the bus may have been arranged at some point in the past before it was known that the trains would still be running from London Bridge at this point, and it was assumed the 23.25 train would be running from Victoria, but diverted via West Croydon, and the bus would connect at Balham with the train for passengers travelling to stations to Carshalton.
I can assure you the bus wasn't organised on purpose with the existing timetable in mind, and it is just part of the ongoing balls-up

That certainly all sounds plausible but why have the two 2325 services to Horsham via Dorking also turned up yesterday and on Thursday evening instead of the RRB. It is however seemingly part of the same diversion down to Sutton via Selhurst event as the train that was due to run last night (but then inexplicably cancelled) and also scheduled to run on Thursday night this week by Southern again goes through the Thornton Heath, Croydon and Wallington areas (according to their own train map for the journey) and omits Hackbridge, Mitcham Junction and Mitcham Eastfields.

I think it is pretty remarkable that for all of this time Southern have failed to do the right and also simple thing, which is to either lay on a rail replacement bus from Dorking to Horsham covering the normal evening train schedule. A separate bus could then have been run between Balham and Sutton for the relevant nights this week to cover the three omitted stations (Hackbridge, Mictcham Eastfields and Mitcham Junction)...............

 

[Surreytraveller]

You say failed to do the right thing, but if no one knew, no one can rearrange

 

[daodao]

why have the two 2325 services to Horsham via Dorking

Why have any rail services from Horsham to Dorking?

Given the money that the railways are now haemorrhaging, IMO a number of lightly used lines should be considered for complete closure in a way that minimises disconnecting significant population centres/regions from the national rail network. Horsham to Dorking is one of these lines; it has become a duplicate route since the diversion of trains to the West Sussex coast via Gatwick Airport.

 

[Capvermell]

Why have any rail services from Horsham to Dorking?

If we follow your line of argument then there's clearly no need to have Navigation Road Station as well as Hale Station as there's no doubt a perfectly good bus service for people living in the Navigation Road station area to get down to Hale.......

In fact why not get rid of all non major city rail stations in favour of driverless Google Buggies and only leave major city centre to major city centre long distance lines remaining. Hale isn't a major city centre so clearly time to close that one down too if we follow your line of thinking.......

 

[Capvermell]

If we follow your line of argument then there's clearly no need to have Navigation Road Station as well as Hale Station as there's no doubt a perfectly good bus service for people living in the Navigation Road station area to get down to Hale.......

In fact why not get rid of all non major city rail stations in favour of driverless Google Buggies and only leave major city centre to major city centre long distance lines remaining. Hale isn't a major city centre so clearly time to close that one down too if we follow your line of thinking.......

I notice that Altrincham and Bowdon Station (itself a consolidation of the previously separate Altrincham and Bowdon Stations back in 1881) was closed down in 1974 and replaced by a bus station so this is looking to me like a case of you feeling that if you have lost your nearest local station then everyone else should suffer that fate too............