Yesterday Pete and I took the Hither Green Access for All petition to the Department for Transport.  Here’s Pete explaining more (you can credit me for the steady camera work..!)

Access for All Campaign Ramps Up! from Pete Pattisson on Vimeo.

The Lib Dem campaign to improve access at Hither Green station was ‘ramped up’ last week. We gathered hundreds of signatures in support of our demand to open up the closed ramps to platforms 1, 2/3 and 6. Currently anyone in a wheelchair, with a pram, or simply with heavy luggage really struggles to get beyond platforms 4 & 5.

We think opening up the closed ramps to platforms 1, 2/3 and 6 would help, but in the long term we need works to ensure access for all at this busy station (2.9 million people use Hither Green each year!).

If you back our campaign, please sign the petition HERE.

The photo on the right shows Pete Pattisson and local campaigner Jim Caple, who edits our FOCUS newsletter, collecting signatures at the station.

If, like me, you’re a South Eastern Trains commuter, then you’ve probably had some ‘interesting’  journeys to work over the last week.   I didn’t get to work at all last Wednesday, then ended up getting the DLR in on Thursday and Friday.  Last Friday, I met some old colleagues from Hyde for a drink in town, and we had to finish up at about 8pm so we could get back to south-east London.   Once again yesterday, the slightest amount of snow seemed to bring things shuddering to a halt.

Greenwich blogger Darryl has chapter and verse on the various initiatives frustrated commuters and politicians have set up, but I wanted to highlight a campaign my Lib Dem colleague Max Calo is running, for a public refund from South Eastern.  Max has discovered that SouthEastern receive £136million in subsidy from taxpayers.  He’s asking that they return three days worth – £1.1million – to Network Rail to be invested in improvements at the stations affected.  As Max says, ” It’s a practical way to compensate those that for 3 days have been inconvenienced and to publicly acknowledge that it must do better if it wants to keep on running this strategic public service.”  Who knows, perhaps it could pay to open up the closed ramps at Hither Green Station to save us crossing bridges to get to most of the platforms..!

To sign Max’s petition, just click here.    My Lib Dem colleague Caroline Pidgeon AM, who chairs the London Assembly Transport Committee has written to South Eastern MD Charles Horton, asking some pretty searching questions about his inability to run a railway.  I’m ashamed to say that the company ultimately responsible for this shambles hails from my native north east, and also run most of our local buses.

Not in our ward, but no doubt of interest to people who live near Lee High Road and use Blackheath Station to get into town.  My colleague Cllr Chris Maines, who represents Blackheath Ward, tells me that from the 13th December, Southeastern are planning to make major cuts to services from Blackheath Station.  In particular, peak time services between 8.00am and 9.01am will see a 50% cut in Cannon Street services, with three Cannon Street trains and one Charing Cross train being withdrawn.

Chris and the Blackheath Village Residents Group have been campaigning against these changes.    You can sign the petition against the cuts here, join the Facebook group here.  The campaigners are also planning to organise a mass lobby at Southeastern ‘meet the managers’ events.  There’s one at Cannon Street on Thursday 12th November – details here- and also one at Blackeath itself on Tuesday 10th November – details here.

Train fares were big news yesterday, with the news that most would fall by 0.4% next year.  

The amount train operators are allowed to raise fares is based on July’s retail price index figure, plus 1%.  So with this July’s RPI being -1.4%, train operators will have to decrease fares by at least 0.4%.  Prompt regrets about leaving London from some Lib Dem colleagues.

However, reading the small print, it seems commuters from Lee and Hither Green won’t benefit from this.  That’s because the our train operator, SouthEastern, has been given an exemption by government.  They’re allowed to raise fares by 3% above inflation – meaning fares could go up by up to 1.6%.  The Department for Transpoirt says that South Eastern has been allowed to do this to fund extra investment in its franchise.  Let’s hope commuters from Hither Green and Lee see some of this investment.  As Pete’s shown, it doesn’t look like those from Catford will.

Mind you, it could be worse.

Lewisham Council’s transport liaison committee is next meeting on June 9th.  Entertainingly chaired by Labour’s John Muldoon, the meeting gives us a chance to put questions to TfL, Network Rail and bus/rail operators.

If anyone has any suggestions for public transport-related questions, do let me have them (either using the comments section or via email) by Monday 18th May.