Skip to content Skip to left sidebar Skip to right sidebar Skip to footer

Tag: rail

Have you got a railcard? Here’s how to save one third off the price of an off-peak Oystercard

Rail companies don’t go out of their way to advertise discounts. So rail card holders (16-25, disabled, HM Forces and Annual Gold Cards, Senior) probably won’t know that they can register their cards at any LU ticket Office or National Rail station selling Oystercards and automatically get one third discount on off-peak Oystercards on most rail, LU and DLR services.

Here’s the link on the National Rail Enquiries website – scroll down to “Railcards Oyster Pay As You Go” for details:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/travelcards_oyster.html

Buying a monthly Oystercard or annual season ticket at Sydenham station.

Local commuters have been advised wrongly by station staff that they cannot purchase monthly Oystercard or annual season tickets at Sydenham or Forest Hill and that they need to travel to London Bridge or another national station to do so.

 Thanks to an intervention by Caroline Pigeon, Lib-Dem member of the London Assembly, this  has now been sorted out. Here is a reply from TfL to Caroline on this issue:

 I can advise that passengers can purchase a Monthly ticket on Oyster directly from the ticket office or Ticket Vending Machines at the London Overground stations on the Sydenham line.  If a passenger requires an Annual season ticket, they can request it from the station but it would have to be collected the following day (or later).  We apologise if staff have been advising passengers to travel to another station as this is not the case.  Our operator LOROL has confirmed that the staff have been re-briefed them so this should not happen again.

 Kind regards

Emma

 Emma Shannon

Stakeholder Communications Manager
TfL London Rail

Our thanks also to Richard Hibbert Chair of the Forest Hill Society for raising the issue.

£1/3m Sydenham Park rail footbridge repairs given go-ahead

The footbridge over the railway between Dacres Road and Sydenham Park (close to the Dietrich Bonhoeffer German church) is to be given a major make-over in 2011.

Lewisham’s Mayor and Cabinet meeting on the 17 November approved a report of recommendations for schemes for inclusion in the 2011-2014 Local Implementation Plan.

 The report included a sum of £330,000 to be spent in 2011-12 on repairing the Sydenham Park rail footbridge.

Thameslink 2000 now becomes Thameslink 2018! North-south rail link is safe but will open at same time as Crossrail.

The £6bn Thameslink north-south link through the capital is safe from cuts, Transport Secretary Philip Hammond has announced. But the project will not now be completed until 2017-8 – opening at roughly the same time as the east-west Crossrail project is completed.

The newly revamped line – so long delayed that the project was initially called Thameslink 2000 – will enable passengers to travel directly from Sydenham station to Thameslink stations north of the river (via London Bridge). Existing lines from both south and north of London will feed into the network meaning that passengers from Sydenham will be able to travel to destinations such as Peterborough or Cambridge without leaving the Thameslink system.

 What Thameslink and Crossrail will mean for local passengers:

  • The ability to travel directly from Sydenham to Thameslink stations north of the river

  •  Direct access to Farringdon station giving links to Crossrail and underground network

  •  Brand new station at Whitechapel giving step-free access to Crossrail, Hammersmith & City and District lines.

John Bull, the respected rail commentator who runs the London reconnections blog sums up the situation:

“Overall, it is important to keep in mind the positives, and the confirmation that Thameslink will go ahead is most definitely a huge one. In addition, Hammond also confirmed a number of electrification schemes that will be of benefit to London and its surrounds – notably between London and Reading, Didcot, Newbury and Oxford all of which should be completed by 2016.

Given the potential for wholesale cuts, therefore, which had left many commentators (this author included) fearing the worst, today has represented another good day for London’s transport infrastructure. It is easy to pick at the details, but there are few who, pre-CSR, would have thought it likely that London would emerge with its Underground upgrades, Crossrail and the Thameslink project intact. Common sense, of course, indicated that they should all proceed, but it would not have been the first time that common sense had fallen victim to financial or political necessity.

So whilst it is easy to look upon today’s announcement as a re-announcement rather than an announcement – an exercise in confirming that which was already taking place – it is worth bearing in mind that this is ultimately very much a positive thing for the capital.”

http://londonreconnections.blogspot.com/2010/11/thameslink-confirmed-to-continue-as.html

Thameslink regional map 2018

Crossrail map

New Whitechapel station lower concourse
Whitechapel proposed ticket hall
New Farringdon station - Smithfield entrance