On May 24, 8:44*pm, MIG wrote:

On 24 May, 20:30, Mizter T wrote:

On May 24, 8:07*pm, MIG wrote:
[snip]
Back in February I posted that standard announcements on Brockley
station were preceded by "Southern Railway on behalf of London
Overground ..."

I assume that it was/is still staffed by Southern, with new rules
imposed at a distance by LO who have no idea about the implications of
totally f*cking idiotic decisions like locking the main exit in the
rush hour.

No, you assume wrong - Brockley and all the other stations south of NX
Gate that the ELL calls at, including Crystal Palace and West Croydon,
are managed by LO and have been since 20 September 2009 - this was the
date that the new south central franchise began, and so I was
considered an opportune date to transfer these stations across to LO.

I knew that bit, but I guessed that maybe they had subcontracted the
work to Southern, at least till LO services were running. *No doubt
it's the same actual people in any case.

On the ground, likely to be, yes - at least some of them, as LO have
been bringing in more (new) staff - plus the management structure
above them would have shifted significantly from Southern to LO. So
the ticket clerk might be the same but I wouldn't take that to mean
it's all staying the same.


The response on the ground to all the complaints seemed to be on the
lines of "we're not permitted to open the gate; you can complain to
these people" offer LO complaint forms. *No sense of being part of a
team, more like a distant imposition.

That's not a good impression to get, but it's probably an honest one,
in that it represents their frustration. TfL is a bit of a big
bureaucracy, and it's only too easy to imagine that the diktat has
come down from above that gates must be operational at all times when
the gateline is staffed - logic being that 'there are gates for a
reason, so they should be used'.


Anyway, it's not a great advert for the improved ambience that LO was
supposed to bring to desolate NLL and Southern stations.

In this case, no it's not - though Brockley is now likely to be
staffed rather more of the time than it ever was before. But that
doesn't excuse this situation away - it sounds pretty dire during the
peak. If it is that bad, then I'd suggest that people get on to Len
Duvall, the London Assembly member for Lewisham & Greenwich.


(Of course the south central franchise holder didn't change but
remained Govia's Southern.) The legal lettering on the ticket machines
changed at this time, but outwardly little else did - the staff got
new LO uniforms more recently. (I assume the announcements you heard
were long-line ones made by Southern's control centre as part of an
interim arrangement - presumably such announcements will now be made
from the new LO ELL control centre at NX Gate.)

Also, a week or so ago I dug up various bits and pieces on the web
about the situation at Brockley - seems TfL are aware of it, not least
because of the complaints that have come their way. There was also
talk of plans for a rebuild at Brockley so as to accommodate the
expected growth in passenger numbers that the ELL is expected to
generate.

There has been quite significant building work recently, with some new
landscaping and so on. *Strange they'd do that only to have to it over
again.

I'll try and find that reference - having dug it up I appear to have
buried it again! - but it seemed fairly clear that the TfL viewpoint
was that the current facilities are inadequate. (Of course, there's
not a lot of money left in the pot - but perhaps that might also help
to explain some of the focus on the gates, as this line basically used
to be a free ride for local journeys - no I didn't do it, but I'm not
stupid either - plus see how the farebox take on the NLL rocketed
after TfL took over and decided they'd actually try and collect some
fares, unlike Silverlink...)