I often commuted from Peckham Rye in the 1990's and 2000's. There were 4 trains an hour: two the south London line trains and two from Dartford. Unfortunately Dartford trains left a couple of minutes after the former and followed it slowly down the LBSC tracks to past Clapham High Street so would get to Victoria just before it, so in practice it was a half hourly service. The train was always two coaches long and never packed even in rush hour.
When its demise was announced I went to a packed protest meeting in a lecture theatre of Kings College Hospital which is next to Denmark Hill station. There are streets of large houses there and their rather entitled occupants were the protestors. Illogically they were most put out about losing the service to Victoria despite the Dartford train which ran at the same time carrying on. They were stirred up by the chair of the meeting, an alpha male consultant who did what I think is called shroud waving. Patients would die if they could not get easily to hospital etc. From that perspective Clapham Junction connected with many more people. He then gave the real reason why he was so cross and had organised the meeting. This was that his speciality was sports injuries and with a direct link to London Bridge he could do two consultations in his lunch hour (£££) but if he had to get off and wait for a following train from Tulse Hill he could only do one. I felt sorry for the manager from Network Rail who had given up a summer evening to be presented as the baddy.
It was obvious the Overground service would be an improvement but the south London railway network is too confusing for most people to get a handle on. It quickly became obvious to everyone that the new service was better and this was reflected in local house price increases. No more complaints.
One interesting fact that came out of the meeting was the number of paths on the south London line and the Catford loop reserved for non existent freight trains from the Channel Tunnel.
When its demise was announced I went to a packed protest meeting in a lecture theatre of Kings College Hospital which is next to Denmark Hill station. There are streets of large houses there and their rather entitled occupants were the protestors. Illogically they were most put out about losing the service to Victoria despite the Dartford train which ran at the same time carrying on. They were stirred up by the chair of the meeting, an alpha male consultant who did what I think is called shroud waving. Patients would die if they could not get easily to hospital etc. From that perspective Clapham Junction connected with many more people. He then gave the real reason why he was so cross and had organised the meeting. This was that his speciality was sports injuries and with a direct link to London Bridge he could do two consultations in his lunch hour (£££) but if he had to get off and wait for a following train from Tulse Hill he could only do one. I felt sorry for the manager from Network Rail who had given up a summer evening to be presented as the baddy.
It was obvious the Overground service would be an improvement but the south London railway network is too confusing for most people to get a handle on. It quickly became obvious to everyone that the new service was better and this was reflected in local house price increases. No more complaints.
One interesting fact that came out of the meeting was the number of paths on the south London line and the Catford loop reserved for non existent freight trains from the Channel Tunnel.
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