►►Clapham Junction: From Sunday, Overground trains will provide a London orbital service with a change of trains at Clapham Junction ◀◀


London's new Overground orbital service from Surrey Quays to Clapham Junction begins on Sunday 9 December 2012.

But this will mean the end of the current South London Line service which will sadly leave some rail users with a worse service.

Southwark Rail Users Group is planning to mark the event on Saturday 8 December 2012, in the hope of highlighting the problem and securing service changes.

SRUG report:

This coming Saturday 8 December the South London Line service will end. It first started in 1866 and has served us and our predecessors more or less faithfully all that time. This is an invitation to join us for all, or just part, of an extraordinary group journey on this last historic day.

One of the joys of being a south Londoner is the pleasure of sailing along the roof tops of inner south London on the historic line that connects all our local stations (South Bermondsey, Queen's Road Peckham, Peckham Rye, Denmark Hill, Clapham High Street, Wandsworth Road, Battersea Park) with central London stations London Bridge and Victoria, any journey to central London
taking 20 minutes or less.

Some of those journeys to central London in future will take two to three times as long and be long and circuitous instead of short and direct, and/or less frequent or partial.

To mark the passing of the service, local rail users will gather at Denmark Hill on Saturday from 10.45 for the beginning of a celebration of the 146 years of our South London Line service. We will then catch the train to London Bridge, spend 20 minutes or so there, catch the train for a full length journey to Victoria, and then back to Denmark Hill for refreshments.

Here is the journey:

10.50 Photo opp at Denmark Hill
11.24 Train to London Bridge
11.36 Arrive London Bridge & action
12.11 Depart London Bridge
12.36 Arrive Victoria & action
13.11 Depart Victoria
13.24 Arrive Denmark Hill

Denmark Hill refreshments in convivial company at The Phoenix

If you cannot be with us all the way you can maybe join us for part of it or at your local station stop, or at a main line station, or for the refreshments. We hope we will be enough in numbers for us to be a visible contingent and ensuring that other passengers know the historic journey they are taking. So do please join us and make yourself known!

We want to record the events in photographs and short film clips (for YouTube and the web), so if you have any digital filming equipment in your mobile, or digital camera or more sophisticated equipment do please bring it along and contribute to our visual record. We will give details later how to get the clips and photos to us.

Bring your own hand-held placard (cardboard will be fine) if you can, to add to our visibility. Put your own South London Line farewell message on it (in bold black felt tip)! We look forward to seeing many of you.

Any queries please email SRUG at e.conn at nutbrook.demon.co.uk.

For more information about the ending of the South London Line, and the impact of that, please visit:

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