East London Line launches

Boris Johnson formally opened the first section of the new £1 billion East London Line at 0945 this morning, signalling the start of London Overground's East London route, which builds on and extends the old East London Line.

The line is opening at first with a "preview running" service of eight trains an hour between New Cross, New Cross Gate and Dalston Junction, between 0700 BST and 2000 BST, from Monday to Friday. Northbound services will leave New Cross Gate at 10, 25, 40 and 55 minutes past the hour, while Southbound services to New Cross Gate will leave Canada Water at 13, 28, 43, 58.

Full evening and weekend services will begin on 23 May, when 12 trains will run each hour.

Mayoral Elections

As there are no Mayoral hustings scheduled in the Borough, we asked each of the candidates to answer the following questions:

1. After a hard fought local campaign, the council has agreed to fund and build a new swimming facility in Forest Hill on the site of the old baths. These plans have now reached the stage where they are due to be submitted for planning approval at the end of May and the construction contract has been put out to tender. What commitment will you make to the future of these pools and what guarantees will you give that the pools will be built and will not fall victim to any budgetary cuts after the election?
2. At 70%, Lewisham has the highest proportion of residents that work outside the Borough of any Borough in London. What will you do to attract employment to the south of the Borough?
3. Approximately 30% of Lewisham's commuters use the train service to London Bridge along the Sydenham corridor. While welcoming the introduction of the East London Line and the new travel opportunities it presents, we recently presented a petition of 5800 signatures to the DfT and are greatly concerned by the reduction in service to London Bridge. The timetabled services due from May 2010 are predicted to be severely congested at peak times from day one. What will you do to lobby the DfT, TOCs and National Rail and achieve increased capacity to London Bridge?
4. According to Lewisham's LIP, Forest Hill Town Centre has had the highest vacancy rates in the Borough for at least 15 years. What will you do to revitalise the town centre?
5. The success of the Beach in the Horniman Triangle highlights the need for better youth provision in the ward. How will you address the needs for primary school places and extra curricular youth provision?

We will publish their replies in the order received.

Supermarket Shakespeare

Teatro Vivo will be bringing their Supermarket Shakespeare back to Forest Hill for a second outing. This year there will be performances on

• Tuesday 27th April at 7pm
• Wednesday 28th April at 7pm
• Thursday 29th April at 7pm
• Friday 30th April at 7pm
• Saturday 1st May at 12pm and 6pm, and
• Sunday 2nd May at 12pm and 3pm

Inspired by Sonnet 23, six performers will create contemporary characters that have intertwining stories and these will be performed all around the supermarket.

Supermarket Shakespeare is FREE to attend, with no need to book; just show up and find the characters in the Vegetable Section.

Get Involved

They want you to send them your pictures of Supermarket Shakespeare. Upload them to their Facebook Group and the best one taken at each store will win a prize!

DfT Replies to Petition

We have received a disappointing reply from the Department of Transport acknowledging our petition. Few of our concerns have been addressed and rather than providing the leadership we called for, the DfT will merely 'not stand in the way of the operators'.

A fuller rebuttal will follow in due course.

Train Services on the Sydenham Corridor

Thank you for your letter and petition of 23rd March 2010 to Chris Mole MP regarding changes to train services on the Sydenham corridor. I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Department of Transport.

As the Minister stated in the recent Parliamentary Debate on this issue, any changes to train services, however small, are often unpopular but he restated the view that overall the package of changes to be introduced this May will significantly enhance the service provided in this area of South East London.

When discussing these changes it is important that both East London Line and Southern services are considered together. The provision of an extra 8 East London Line trains an hour on this route, and the improved interchange opportunities this will bring will significantly alter the demand patterns seen today.

From most stations on the route train frequencies will double with many stations receiving 14 trains per hour in the morning peak compared to 6 or 7 today. This will reduce demand levels on existing services to London Bridge.

It will take some time for demand patterns to stabilise after the new services are introduced as passengers alter their travel habits to take account of the new journey opportunities that the line will bring.

We expect the ability to easily interchange with the Jubilee line at Canada Water to significantly alter current demand patterns. It is also very unlikely that the suppressed demand that you refer to from the RUS will emerge straight away. Such demand would normally materialise over a number of years that would accord with the extra train capacity delivered by 10 car trains that are to be introduced in 2012.

You raise a number of other points and I will seek to address each in turn

Charing Cross Services

As you are aware the withdrawal of late evening services to Charing Cross was necessitated by the complete rewrite of the Southeastern timetable as a result of the introduction of High Speed Services. Timetable planners at Network Rail, Southeaster, Southern, First Capital Connect and London Overground attempted for a number of years to develop a timetable that allowed these services to continue to operate, but it was not possible to find appropriate train paths that would allow these services to continue.

If in the future a way of timetabling these services to Charing Cross can be found the Department of Transport would not stand in the way of the operators of doing this.

However it is also important to note that the Jubilee line serves large areas of the West End and passengers may choose to travel via Canada Water interchanging with the 8 trains per hour service toward Sydenham.

Sydenham Services and the East London Line

As stated earlier it is important that the combined Southern and East London Line timetables are looked at together, alongside the improved interchange opportunities that the East London Line will offer.

We expect journey patterns in this part of London to alter significantly when extended East London Line services are introduced. For example passengers travelling to Canary Wharf from Sydenham are likely to travel via Canary Wharf [sic] rather than London Bridge, especially as the journey will be cheaper (avoiding Zone One). For passengers travelling to other stations on the Jubilee line we expect the significantly quicker interchange at Canada Water will mean a number of passengers will divert via this route. Other similar changes are also likely.

Given this we expect a reduction in the number of passengers using London Bridge services.

You suggest that Southern are reducing capacity from London Bridge in the evening peak. Southern will be operating the same number of services from London Bridge although two of those trains will operate fast from London Bridge to Norwood Junction. This has been necessitated by the difficulties in timetabling East London Line and Southern services together on the corridor. For passengers travelling to Norwood Junction and West Croydon we expect these faster services to be an attractive option and many passengers to use these fast trains, reducing demand levels on the remaining 4 slow line services.

Again this timetable has taken a number of years to develop and has involved Network Rail, Southern, First Capital Connect and London Overground. However, it has not proved possible to match all the available paths from London Bridge with those on the East London Line and through key bottlenecks such as Windmill Bridge junction.

We believe that a combination of

• Some Norwood Junction (and beyond) passengers diverting to 'fast line' services
• Some West End and most Canary Wharf passengers diverting to East London Line services via Canada Water
• Additional East London Line services south of New Cross Gate

will reduce demand on evening peak Southern services from London Bridge.

The combined evening peak capacity on the 'slow lines' south of New Cross Gate will increase by around one third when the new timetable is introduced.

Southern are committed to keep this situation under review after the introduction of the new services and officials will liaise with Southern and London Overground on demand levels later this year. Again demand patterns on the revised services will take some time to stabilise as people try out the new journey opportunities.

If additional services or stops can be accommodated within the timetable in future the Department would not stand in the way of these being introduced.

Platform Lengthening

Network Rail are committed to a programme of platform lengthening on the Sydenham route (and across South London) that will allow trains with 25% more capacity - an additional 2 carriages - to stop at all station son the corridor, with works to be completed by 2012, in advance of the start of planned works at London Bridge.

Yours sincerely,
Matthew Lodge, Franchise Sponsor

Election Hustings

The three main political parties have now unveiled their manifestos for the May 6th General Election and on Thursday, we can watch the first of the leaders’ debates live on television.

Amidst all the excitement (?), it’s easy to forget that there are local council elections taking place as well on May 6th which will have a direct impact on the way Forest Hill is run over the next few years.

Local Elections

If you want to find out more about what the parties have to offer local voters and challenge them on the issues that matter to you, please come along to the local council election hustings organised by the Sydenham and Forest Hill Societies.
This will be held on 22nd April at Sydenham High School, 7.30 pm
There will be one speaker from each of the main parties standing in our area.

Labour - Chris Best
Liberal Democrats - John Russell
Conservative - Ross Archer
Green - Jill Rutter

If you have any questions which you would like asked, please email Tim Lund of the Sydenham Society (timlundse26@googlemail.com) or submit them through the online hustings at Sydenham Town Forum http://Hustings.notlong.com

Residents of Sydenham ward can also listen to interviews with their candidates on Sydenham Community Radio Election Specials - broadcast on Thursdays, but available on their 'Listen Again'.

Parliamentary Candidates

Similarly, if you want to find out more about the people who want to represent Forest Hill in parliament, Churches Together in Sydenham and Forest Hill are organizing a (live!) 'general election forum' for the Lewisham West and Penge constituency. Candidates from the Conservative, Green, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties have agreed to take part. It will be held at 7.30 pm on Thursday 29 April at Living Springs International Church, Zoe House, 8-10 Devonshire Road, London SE23 3TJ (on the South Circular Road, just round the corner from Forest Hill station). There are more details on their website which also has a facility for submitting questions in advance. Everyone will be welcome.

35 Sunderland Road - House of Favour

The Forest Hill Society has objected to plans to convert 35 Sunderland Road into a Church. You can view the planning application here.

You can read the Forest Hill Society objection here.

Oyster PAYG Explained

Oyster is now valid on the trains as well as the tube, buses and trams, which is great news. Indeed an additional 500,000 journeys have been made using Oyster Pay as You Go every week on the National Rail network since 2 January. However, there have been a few teething problems, with a lack of Oyster readers at the local stations and some people have been over charged for their train journeys due to problems touching in and out.

At the moment you cannot buy an Oyster card at the station. LOROL (the people who operate Forest Hill station for TfL) are supposed to be upgrading the ticket counter machines by April so that they will be able to sell PAYG Oyster cards and weekly Travelcards on Oyster, but the machines will not be able to register new Oyster cards so you will not be able to buy Monthly or Annual season Travelcards on a new Oyster card. It is unclear whether you will be able to buy a Monthly or Annual Travelcard on a previously registered Oyster Card

In a series of posts, we will explain how things should work (below), how they may go wrong, how to get the cheapest fare and how daily price capping works.

So how should it work?

An Oyster card can hold a maximum of three Travelcards and £90 pay as you go credit on it. You can also add your Disabled Persons, HM Forces, Senior or 16-25 Railcard if you are eligible.

Bus and tram journeys are charged at £1.20 for adults or 60p if you are entitled to the 16+, New Deal or Bus & Tram Discount fare. You are charged when you touch-in on the Oyster reader. The amount deducted and the remaining balance are displayed on the reader when you touch in. There is no need to touch out when using buses or trams. The Bus & Tram Discount scheme is available to help Londoners on Income Support, Employment and Support Allowance and those who have been receiving Jobseeker's Allowance for a minimum of 13 weeks.

When travelling by tube, train or DLR using Oyster PAYG, you need to touch in at the start AND end of your journey. When you touch in, an entry charge is deducted from your Oyster card. This is known as the “maximum fare” which is currently £6 (peak) and £4.30 (off peak) within Zones 1-6. When you touch out at the end of your journey, the correct fare for your journey is calculated
and your PAYG balance is adjusted as appropriate.

You only need sufficient credit on your Oyster card to pay the minimum fare when touching in. In other words, your Oyster PAYG can go overdrawn but it will disable any Travelcard you may have on it until the PAYG balance is back in credit.

If you have a Travelcard on your Oyster, you will want to know how to combine your Oyster with PAYG

Oyster PAYG - What is the cheapest fare?

The Off Peak Day Return which used to be available on the trains has been discontinued with the introduction of Oyster PAYG. You can still buy a paper ticket, and we have tried to work out the various costs for you. There is still some confusion as to what fares will be charged for the East London Line, but at the moment, it looks as though we will be charged TfL rates for stations served by the ELL.

TfL have taken advantage of the flexibility of Oyster to introduce an evening peak period. As a result, the Peak Fare now applies Monday-Friday 0630-0930 and 1600-1900. Off-Peak fares are charged at all other times and on Public Holidays. The fare will be determined by the time the Oyster card is touched in, rather than the time of departure of the train, so be careful when travelling around 0930, 1600 or 1900.

As can be seen from the table below, the cheapest fare currently available is with a Gold Card discount followed by Oyster, with cash fares (Paper tickets) being the most expensive single fare.

Journey	Oyster Peak	Oyster Off-Peak	Paper Single	Gold Card Single	Paper Return	Gold Card Return
Forest Hill – Underground 1-3	£3.70	£3.10	£5.10	£3.50	£8.60	£5.70
Forest Hill – London Bridge	£2.60	£2.00	£3.10	£2.05	£5.30	£3.50
Forest Hill – Victoria	£2.60	£2.00	£3.10	£2.05	£5.30	£3.50
Forest Hill – New Cross Gate	£1.80	£1.50	£2.10	£1.15	£3.70	£1.90
Forest Hill – Honor Oak Park	£1.40	£1.30	£1.70	£1.15	£2.90	£2.90
Forest Hill – Norwood Junction	£1.80	£1.50	£2.10	£1.40	£3.70	£2.45
Forest Hill – West Croydon	£2.20	£1.70	£2.60	£1.70	£4.50	£2.95

If the fares switch to TfL's Zonal system when the East London Line starts operation, then these fares could be reduced by up to £1 (However, fares to Victoria and London Bridge might increase by 10p or 40p, but this is unclear at the moment).

Does Oyster have a One Day Travelcard?

Oyster cards work slightly differently from paper tickets. Instead of buying a One Day Travelcard in advance, with Oyster you simply touch in and out on all your journeys but the amount you are charged each day is capped to the equivalent Travelcard. However, be warned that if you fail to touch out then you will be charged the maximum fare for that journey and it will not count towards your daily cap.

If you only travel on buses and trams between 0430 one day and 0429 the next, then your charges will be capped at £3.90 for adults or £1.95 if you are entitled to the 16+, New Deal or Bus & Tram Discount fare.

When you travel on the tube, trains or DLR, then the daily price cap is the same price as an equivalent One Day Travelcard for adults and 16+. The child fare is capped at half the Adult fare for peak and £1 for off-peak. The current Adult caps are

Zones Covered	Peak	Off Peak
Travelcard 1-3, 1-4	£8.60	£6.30
Travelcard 2-6	£9.00	£5.10
Travelcard 1-6	£14.80	£7.50

Once you reach a cap, you must continue to touch your Oyster card on the card reader on every journey, to ensure you pay the correct fare for the zones you travel through. If you do not, you could be charged a maximum cash fare, a Penalty Fare or you may be prosecuted

However, the cheapest way to travel at the weekend or on Public Holidays is with a Network Railcard. This allows you to buy a Zone 1-6 Travelcard for only £5.00. The railcard itself costs £25 unless you are lucky enough to know someone with an Annual Gold card, in which case it will only cost £1.

Oyster PAYG - When do things go wrong?

There are a number of circumstances when you might not be charged the amount you expected or are used to paying with your old, trusty paper ticket.

• If you don't touch in and out correctly, then you will be charged the "maximum fare" as the initial charge is not adjusted. Since the system only registered one touch, it cannot adjust your fare and you may pay more than you should. Your journey will not count towards your daily price cap as you have broken the rules.

• If your journey takes longer than the maximum time allowed, then you will be charged two "maximum fares"; one when you touch in and the other when you touch out. Your journey will not count towards your daily price cap as you have broken the rules. The maximum journey times are shown below

  
  

  Maximum Journey Time (minutes)	Mon-Fri 04:30-19:00	Mon-Fri from 19:00 and All day Sat	Sunday
  Within Zone 1 or 2	90	100	110
  Within zones 1 - 2 or 2 - 3	90	100	110
  Within 1 zones	70	80	85
  across 2 zones	80	90	100
  across 3 zones	90	100	110
  across 4 zones	100	110	120
  across 5 zones	110	125	135
  across 6 zones	120	132	144
  across 7 zones	130	145	160
  across 8 zones	140	155	170
  across 9 zones	150	165	180

• Some journeys involve you changing station (for example, London Bridge to London Underground or Charing Cross to Embankment). These are known as "Out of Station Interchanges", or OSI, and you are allowed a fixed amount of time to make the change. This can be as little as ten minutes, but is typically longer. For example, when changing between National Rail and the Underground at London Bridge or Charing Cross, you have 20 minutes when transferring from Rail to Underground and 40 minutes when coming home (as you may have to wait for your platform to be announced). A full list can be found on London Reconnections. If you take longer than this, your trip will count as two journeys and it will cost you more.
• If you decide not to travel having touched in, or your train is cancelled and you decide to take a bus instead, then you will be charged a 'Platform Fee' equivalent to the minimum fare (£1.40 at Forest Hill) provided it is between two and 30 minutes since you touched in. If you call the Oyster helpline, they will refund this at their discretion.
• For some journeys, there is more than one route option available. For example, if you're going across London you may have the option of avoiding Zone 1. Pink Oyster Validators (rather than the usual yellow readers) have been installed at 11 stations so that you pay the lower fare. Simply touch your Oyster card on the pink validator to prove you used the cheaper route. The 11 stations are

  Blackhorse road	Kensington (Olympia)	West Brompton
  Gospel Oak	Rayners Lane	Willesden Junction
  Gunnersbury	Richmond
  Highbury & Islington	Stratford	Wimbledon

If you feel that you have been unjustly overcharged, you should allow 48 hours before calling the Oyster helpline on 0845 330 9876 between 8am and 8pm. It is also possible to call TfL during office hours on 020 7222 5600 (ask for Oystercard Ticketing & Refunds)to avoid these charges if your calling plan includes geographic numbers.

Oyster PAYG - Can I combine PAYG with a Travelcard on Oyster?

Yes. If you have a Bus & Tram Pass on Oyster you can use Oyster PAYG for rail journeys or if you have a Travelcard then you can use Oyster PAYG to travel outside the area covered by your Travelcard.

The process is very simple, unless you are travelling from the zones covered by your Travelcard to a National Rail station outside your zones. In this case, you will need to enable something called an Oyster Extension Permit (OEP) before you travel. You do not need an OEP when travelling to a TfL destination. Bizarrely, we believe that this will mean that someone with a Zone 1-4 Travelcard on their Oyster will need to obtain an OEP to travel from Forest Hill to East Croydon, but not for travel to West Croydon (as it is run by TfL). TfL do not like OEPs and have asked the Rail companies to justify the need for them.

Although OEPs are free, you must have at least £1.50 pay as you go balance on your Oyster card to set an OEP. If you travel beyond the zones covered by your Travelcard without an Oyster Extension Permit you may be liable to a penalty fare or prosecution.

In theory, you can get your OEP at any touch-screen ticket machine, Oyster Ticket Stop, Tube or London Overground station ticket office. However, until they sort out our local ticket counters, you will have to obtain your OEP from one of the local Oyster Ticket stops (newsagent) or the Ticket Machines outside the station. We have found that only one of the local Oyster vendors (Forest Hill Supermarket on Dartmouth Road) understands the process.

TfL recommend that you only obtain your OEP just before you need it as having an OEP enabled effectively turns your Oyster card into a PAYG card, but you can actually set an OEP at any time. However, once you have an OEP on your Oyster, you must touch in and out on every journey until you have touched out outside your Travelcard area in order to avoid paying the maximum fare.

If you fail to touch in and out on once you have set your OEP journey, then you will be charged the maximum fare. If this results in your PAYG balance being overdrawn (since it is possible for your Oyster card to go overdrawn when touching in), your Travelcard will be disabled until the PAYG balance is back in credit.

In summary:

• If you have an OEP set on your Oyster card, then you must touch in and out on every journey to avoid being charged the maximum fare. OEPs can be removed or disabled at the Ticket Vending machines.
• When travelling entirely within the area covered by your Travelcard, you do not normally need to touch in and out as you have already paid for your journey. The only exception to this is if you have set an OEP but have not travelled outside your area, in which case you must touch in and out on every journey
• When travelling entirely outside the area covered by your Travelcard you simply need to touch in and out and do not need an OEP. The system knows that this is a PAYG journey and so will deduct the maximum fare when you touch in and credit your balance when you touch out
• When travelling from within the area covered by your Travelcard to a TfL station outside your coverage you simply need to touch in and out and do not need an OEP. All TfL stations are gated and so you have to touch out to get through the gate
• When travelling from within the area covered by your Travelcard to a National Rail station, you must set an OEP on your card before travelling. You must also touch in and out