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About the campaign

Our history and what we are fighting for

Commuters on the Catford loop have had enough and its time for us to take action

Commuters travelling with Thameslink through Denmark Hill, Peckham Rye, Nunhead, Crofton Park, Catford, Bellingham, Beckenham Hill and Ravensbourne have had enough.

Residents of Crofton Park and the surrounding areas have come together to call for change from Thameslink. We've done our research - looking at timetables from the 1950s we have discovered that today there are fewer, less frequent trains despite the growth in commuter numbers.

There are 36% more passengers than just 4 years ago - but no improvement in trains, the timetable, and even worse performance.

The current timetable

Mostly there are just 2 trains/hour. The same as to Paris or Leeds from London
Just 7 (of 149) London stations in zone 3 have such a poor service.

1956

2016

NUNHEAD      CROFTON PARK      CATFORD      BELLINGHAM      BECKENHAM HILL      RAVENSBOURNE

The day to day passenger experience

  • Crofton Park is a rail station in zone 3, south east London.

Trains run north to Elephant & Castle, Blackfriars, the City,

Farringdon, St Pancras and beyond and south to Sevenoaks.

  • Just 55% of trains arrive on time across the GTR franchise.

  • Anecdotal experience suggest Crofton Park gets an even

​worse service than this at peak times. Broken down trains 

and abrupt cancellations are common.

  • Overcrowding is habitual on morning and evening peak

​trains, especially when there are only 4 carriages.

Passenger growth

There is good reason to believe these startling figures under-count (Crofton Park ticket office is often shut; there are no ticket barriers)
We did a careful visual count throughout one day in April 2013. Extrapolating the numbers we found a ‘real’ figure of 887,840 entries and exits. Adjusting for latest official figures gives 1,022,486

The six

forgotten stations

The high-growth local area

  • London is growing fast in every sense, and the area is no exception
     

  • One stop to the south is Catford station, where the former greyhound stadium is being developed into Catford Green, with 588 new homes
     

  • The arrival of London Overground through Peckham Rye and Denmark Hill has proved very popular and led to more people changing from Catford Loop services at those stations
     

  • Neighbouring stations, for example Honor Oak Park (also in zone 3) have fared much better – it now has 12 trains per hour to London plus first to last staffing, improved lighting, CCTV and station upkeep

What we want to achieve

Short term

  • ​A reliable day to day service

  • All trains in the morning and evening peaks to have 8 carriages

  • 4 trains per hour in the morning and evening peaks both north and southbound

  • Reinstate services to London Victoria to provide a much needed link to Central and West London

Long term

  • 4 trains per hour throughout the day all day every day

  • Engage with Thameslink on the 2018 timetable consultation

  • Station standards that match London Overground

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