2014's top posts

OK, this is utterly self-indulgent given I've only posted 25 times all year, but here is a run down of my top 7 blog posts of the year (why 7? Well, that's all I can get Blogger's stats to tell me....)

7. Pollution in Lewisham, Hither Green and Catford; or why I am against the Silvertown Tunnel (6 May 2014)

Well, this one had to be in there didn't it? After all, it's something I've spent about half or more of all my free time on this year...

6. The worst thing about cycling in London is...? (11 July 2014)

Another thing I bang on about all the time, and pretty popular on the blog too...

5. Update on Catford Town Centre Plan and the Catford Bridge Tavern (17 September 2014)

Lewisham council's first full meeting for over 6 months had lots of interesting stuff, not least on what the future might hold for the Catford Bridge Tavern (still closed but with work going on things look more hopeful than they did earlier in the year.)

4. Lewisham Council's official response to my 20mph petition (6 June 2014)

I started this petition to get Lewisham Council to change their mind on making the whole of the borough a 20mph zone at the end of last year, handed it in around Easter time and received a pretty hopeless response in June. However, following the petition, it was made a Labour manifesto commitment that the borough-wide zone would happen. I must admit I need to follow up on just how far plans have got since.

3. Lewisham Council election results 2014 - the detail (30 May 2014)

It took Lewisham what seemed like forever to get their results online compared to other councils, and when they did they were in the form of a handy pdf... However, thanks to the efforts of the Lewisham Green Party typing the results from pdf into excel by hand, I was able to do a bit of analysis on them in this blog post. The big news of course being the complete melt down of the Lib Dems and the rise of everybody's favourite left wing party, People Before Profit. Not too much going on for UKIP, except on the very outskirts of the borough.

2. How likely is it Lewisham will go 'all Labour' in May? (13 March 2014)

Everyone loves a bit of speculation...

1. Lewisham Council and Mayoral Election Candidates 2014 (25 April 2014)

And everyone loves a list. Election fever struck Lewisham this year then!

Any predictions for 2015?

Train services from Hither Green as of January 2015

Unless you've been hiding somewhere under a rock, it won't have escaped your notice that Southeastern train services are changing from January 12th 2015. It's all part of the Thameslink Programme, known for amusement value as Thameslink 2000, designed to make everything through London Bridge run tickety boo and never ever late. This must be a good thing of course, but the whole thing is going to take years (it's due to finish in 2018) and the biggest disruptions start now.

To be honest, I hadn't really got my head round it at all, and as it's nearly January I thought it might be a good time to try.

I moseyed along to the Thameslink Programme website, which has a lovely feature where you can pick your station and see how the changes in January affect you. Brilliant. Right? No - all it does when you choose Hither Green is tell you your train operator is Southeastern (no, really?!) and direct you to their amazing website for more info.

Frankly the Southeastern website is as confusing as it's possible to be, and has information on at least three different pages about the January changes, at least some of which I think is actually wrong.  I decided the best plan was to download the timetable and sort it out for myself. Yeah right. For starters, to get services from Hither Green you need two timetable books. Then once you open them they are impossible to understand. I tweeted to that effect and got the following reply from Southeastern themselves almost immediately:

  

@clogsilk For individual journeys please use: http://t.co/pACqXEmz2g
— Southeastern (@Se_Railway) December 23, 2014

Right.

OK then, off to the National Rail website for me. And this is what I have managed to ascertain:

Morning Services to Charing Cross
06:29 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 6 06:50
06:38 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 2 07:02
06:56 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 2 07:18
06:58 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 1 07:23
07:16 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 6 07:37
07:19 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 5 07:44
07:36 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 4 07:58
07:39 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 2 08:04
08:02 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 3 08:24
08:15 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 3 08:36
08:22 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 1 08:44
08:38 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 6 09:03
08:42 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 2 09:05
08:55 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 5 09:20

09:08 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 1 09:32

09:16 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 3 09:37

09:37 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 5 09:58

09:42 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Charing Cross [CHX] Platform 3 10:03

None of these trains will stop at London Bridge. (Hip Hip Hurray!) 

Morning Services to Cannon Street
06:46 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 3 07:10
06:49 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 1 07:08
07:08 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 5 07:26
07:11 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 1 07:34
07:28 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 1 07:45
07:32 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 4 07:56
07:49 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 2 08:10
07:53 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 1 08:18
08:12 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 6 08:37
08:32 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 5 08:56
08:50 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 3 09:13
09:00 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 2 09:23
09:19 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 4 09:42
09:28 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 6 09:55
09:49 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Cannon Street [CST] Platform 4 10:12

All these trains will stop at London Bridge (enjoy!)

Morning Services to Lewisham
06:38 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 06:42
06:46 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 06:51
06:58 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 07:03
07:11 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 07:15
07:19 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 07:23
07:32 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 07:36
07:39 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 07:43
07:53 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 07:58
07:58 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 08:03
08:12 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 08:16
08:18 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 08:22
08:32 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 08:37
08:38 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 08:42
08:50 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 08:54
08:55 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 09:00
09:00 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 09:04
09:19 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 09:23
09:28 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 5 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 09:32
09:49 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 Lewisham [LEW] Platform 1 09:53

Ooh lots of trains to Lewisham, exciting.

Morning Services to Blackfriars
07:58 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Blackfriars [BFR] Platform 3 08:29
08:18 Hither Green [HGR] Platform 3 London Blackfriars [BFR] Platform 3 08:48

All new and exciting! Woo! (Not. The 07:58 replaces the 07:58 to Charing Cross). The 08:18 might be new though - can any train geeks confirm or deny?

Morning Services to Victoria
Aha ha ha! You're having a laugh aren't you? This will only happen if something goes wrong somewhere...

So there you have it. Everything you wanted to know about morning services from Hither Green into town on a weekday. For anything else there's nationalrail.co.uk.

A date for your diary - Lewisham Bloggers' Meet - 30 January 2015

I know you're all thinking about Christmas, but here's a thoroughly non-festive date for your diaries in January. I'm afraid that in the best traditions, we are completely ignoring dry January, though feel free to stick to diet coke if you wish. Anyway, the detail...

What: Lewisham bloggers' meet up
When: Friday 30th January, 8:30pm
Where: Jam Circus, 330-332 Brockley Road, SE4 (nearest station is Crofton Park and the 122, 171 and 172 pass by the door)
Who: You, if you are a Lewisham (or wider SE London) blogger or twitter person who fancies a beer and a chat.

Post in the comments below to say you are coming so we can book a table nearer the date.

See you there!


(Photo by Ewan Munro on flickr, used under creative commons license)