South London Line battle still on track says Val

Labour London Assembly Member for Lambeth & Southwark, Val Shawcross AM, today joined cross-party colleagues and community members at Clapham High Street station to refresh calls on TfL to keep peak services running at the beleaguered station.

Clapham High Street stands to lose out if the South London Line rail service – the twice hourly ‘loop’ service from Victoria to London Bridge via Denmark Hill and Peckham Rye – is cut in 2012 as Transport for London have planned.  TfL have proposed a mitigating service to run from Victoria to Bromley South instead, which would keep a link to Victoria but this would only run during peak hours due to constraints in Southeastern’s timetable.

Val said ‘People mistakenly assume that Clapham has plenty of access to public transport because it has the tube, but in fact the local underground stations are hugely busy at rush hour – so badly that it can be necessary to wait for two or three trains, and for the platforms to be closed while congestion clears. There’s also a lack of direct bus services into Central London, so Clapham High Street’s direct links to both Victoria, London Bridge, and the hospitals at Denmark Hill, is very necessary. ‘

She went on ‘TfL, the Mayor of London and the coalition government are currently considering the options for this line and today shows that we haven’t gone away, and that parties from all sides and across the boroughs are still on board and fighting the corner for south London rail users.  Ideally of course, we want the South London Line to be retained, especially if the works on Thameslink at London Bridge – which the service is making way for – are delayed or cut back. But if that proves impossible we want to keep services running to as many affected stations as possible – and the Victoria to Bromley South proposal is vital to Clapham High Street and up the road at Wandsworth Road. ‘

Transport for London have stated that should the option of a Victoria to Bromley service go ahead – which is as yet unfunded, with a costing of £900k per year – peak services would not be possible without a ‘recast’ of the entire Southeastern timetable.  But Val commented ‘If we can’t keep the South London Line, then we will call on Southeastern and the Department for Transport to work with Transport for London to do their recast early. Clapham High Street and Wandsworth Road must keep their peak commuter links to Victoria. The aim of my cross party colleagues getting together this morning shows that we haven’t forgotten these commuters and will continue to fight for their best interests.’

          ENDS

Notes:

 §         The demonstration took place on Wednesday 28^th July 2010 at Clapham High Street station.