Barking Gospel Oak Rail User Group

For information

On Monday, 29 June 2015, 6:21, GLENN WALLIS <glennwallis@btopenworld.com> wrote:

Dear Stella,

BARKING - GOSPEL OAK LINE ENGINEERING WORK

A correction regarding the Barking - Gospel Oak weekend engineering work for 4-5 & 11-12 July. The whole line is closed and replaced by two bus services: Barking - South Tottenham & South Tottenham - Gospel Oak, both running about every 15 minutes. Anyone wishing to travel beyond South Tottenham in either direction has to change buses at South Tottenham.

BGORUG PUBLIC MEETING 9 JULY

Thanks to the boycott of our meeting on 9 July by Network Rail, TfL and LOROL, Christian Wolmar, one of the contenders for the Labour candidacy for Mayor, has agreed to be the "headline act"! Christian has built a career as a railway journalist, historian and author since becoming transport correspondent at the 'Independent' in 1992, where he documented, the privatisation of the railways. One of his earliest stories "Footpath to Nowhere" arose from a tip from a past secretary, Steve Foulger, about the efforts of a rail user group to get a footpath link between two stations in Walthamstow! Since that time Christian has lived in or in the vicinity of Tufnell Park, been an occasional user of our line and has shown interest in the opening of a new Tufnell Park station at the site of Junction Road station closed in 1943. As BGORUG is non political, I have asked Christian to mainly speak about London transport issues.

All MPs, Assembly Members and councillors with the line in their constituencies/wards have been invited.

WALTHAMSTOW CENTRAL "CAGE"

I recently spoke a member of LUL staff on the gate line at Walthamstow Central and he confirmed that the gate line in the upper escalator hall is being removed over the August shut down, and a new gate line in the subway to the bus station will be installed. At the same time the "cage" will be removed and the alterations to platform 1 (London side) will be reversed. When the Victoria Line resumes all passengers will have to pass through the gate lines in the Overground booking halls or the Underground bus station subway.

VICTORIA LINE AUGUST SHUT DOWN

In addition to the standard replacement bus service I mentioned previously a recent conversation with one of the bus company managers has confirmed there will be two additional bus services. As mentioned previously, the standard replacement service to Seven Sisters will start/finish at bus stops G/J in Hoe Street by the High Street/Church Hill junction.

Another bus service will pick up outside 'Costa Coffee' and run to/from Stratford via the Rail Replacemnt Bus stops in Selborne Road, the W19 route to Argall Avenue and Orient Way.

There will also be a '558' bus which will run from Chingford Mount (serving all bus stops I believe) to/from Seven Sisters via Blackhorse Road, Tottenham Hale and Seven Sisters.

More worryingly, and illustrating the 'silo mentality' that pervades large organisations these days, I have heard, that LUL staff have visited South Tottenham station and told staff that that they will be receiving several LUL Customer Services staff during the Victoria Line shut down because they do not expect all the replacement buses to cope and that large numbers will divert to the Barking - Gospel Oak Line between Walthamstow Queen's Road and South Tottenham (5 mins walk from Seven Sisters). They also spoke about the possibility of having implement crowd control measures. These LUL staff knew nothing of the normal dreadful overcrowding on peak Barking - Gospel Oak services (I assume that they assumed the trains were just like the Overground ones that run through Walthamstow and Seven Sisters). In addition due to rebuilding work the entrance/exit at South Tottenham is extremely narrow and constricted.

Any futher info that comes my way I will pass on.

Kind regards

Glenn

Glenn Wallis

Secretary

Barking - Gospel Oak Rail User Group

www.barking-gospeloak.org.uk

@RidingtheGoblin