Thursday, October 02, 2014

Bakerloo line to Catford? Yes please!


Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the last few days it won't have escaped your attention that there is a proposal on the table from TfL to bring the Bakerloo line to Catford. I've completely missed the BREAKING NEWS bandwagon, but I can't let this go uncommented on completely.

Others have written lots about the detail, the politics, and how likely it is to happen

SE1
Diamond Geezer
Ian Visits
853
And of course Brockley Central have coined a natty new hashtag for the occasion.


I hear that Southwark Council is keen, and Lewisham are so keen they've launched a website and a petition (see below).

Of course, if you want something to happen, signing a petition, retweeting, liking on facebook, tweeting the Mayor and all of that are all well and good but TfL only really pay attention to consultation responses so for goodness sake fill that in as well as doing all the social media stuff.

There are a few things that are undecided, such as the route the line would take to get to Lewisham, whether it will be extended beyond Lewisham, whether it will go to Bromley and so on. I hear Bromley council aren't keen to push this, so if we want to see the line come beyond Lewisham itself and into Catford, we need to be active about responding to the consultation ourselves and not relying on others. It takes less than 5 minutes to complete.

The cost of the proposed extension is £2-£3 billion, which is £1-2billion less than the Mayor's roadbuilding programme, all the more reason to put a stop to that and push on with this.

And we really need to incorporate the cat!
(photo by Luke Agbaimoni)


Petition:

3 comments:

Simon H said...

"Pedantic of Purley" at London Reconnections has covered it as well: http://www.londonreconnections.com/2014/haykerloo-bakerlewisham/

Their conclusion seems to be that it would be too little by the time it's up and running, so we should skip straight to a Crossrail type solution for SE London.

Clare said...

Thanks Simon! :)

Anonymous said...

I opposed the extension to Catford Bridge because it would sacrifice the Hayes service to London Bridge, Charing Cross, and Cannon Street.

It is already fairly easy to get to the Bakerloo line by catching a train from Catford.