Christmas confusion reigned on the Barking-Gospel Oak line in London, said the rail user group.

It criticised Transport for London for failing to publicise service details over the Christmas and New Year period.

The situation was so confusing that the user group was forced to produce timetables itself.

Many passengers trying to use the line during the holiday period found themselves waiting on platforms for non-existent trains.

TfL failed to publicise the reduced service it operated on the local London Overground line, with trains every 30 minutes from Christmas Eve until New Year’s Day, excepting Christmas Day and Boxing Day when no trains ran.

Graham Larkbey, secretary of the user group said, “Thanks to our sources in the industry, we were able to publicise the reduced service on 17 December.

"We had expected trains to run to the current Saturday timetable as has been the case in previous years.

"Instead London Overground produced a special 30-minute interval timetable which we knew would confuse and annoy passengers expecting the recently enhanced 20-minute interval service during the mornings and afternoons.”

“We became concerned that TfL’s website and Festive Season travel information booklet showed a Saturday service operating on London Overground, when this was not the case.

"We hoped that TfL would quickly produce the correct information for passengers."

But by Christmas Eve only the TfL website had been altered and it stated that a modified Saturday service would operate. As there was still no information at the stations, the user group's dedicated volunteers produced timetables and spent Boxing Day posting them on platforms.

“Our volunteers found would-be passengers on every platform waiting for non-existent trains,” said member Richard Pout. “To make matters worse, when the reduced service was running, the automated information screens and announcements at some stations continued to announce the normal timetable.”

“We realise that in taking over a national rail service like ours, TfL is on a fairly steep learning curve,” said Graham Larkbey, “But all in all this should have been handled a lot better. TfL and their London Overground operators have a few sharp lessons to learn from this.”


Information from Barking-Gospel Oak Line User Group. Graham Larkbey. 020 7023 0527 or 07972 508543

www.barking-gospeloak.org.uk

info at barking-gospeloak.org.uk