[crossposted to uk.transport.london - originally posted on uk.railway]

Alex Hemingway wrote:

Could anyone help me with some information on the fate of Brockley station
during the ELL extension works. I know that there are plans to shut the ELL
for 18 months from 2007 / 2008, but what will happen to the stations from
Brockley onwards on the current mainline? I'm looking to buy a house in
Brockley, and I'm concerned there will be no London Bridge service for an
extended period. Will the mainline services continue to run throughout the
works. In fact, will there be mainline *and* ELL when the ELL opens, or just
ELL?

I've called ELL and Southern, but they both say they will respond in writing
- I was hoping for a more immediate response!


A similar question was last asked on uk.transport.london in september
'05 - unfortunately none of the replies really answered the question
(you can read it for yourself courtesy of the Google Groups archive
[1]).

I understand that both ELL *and* Southern suburban ('metro') services
will call at all stations from West Croydon to New Cross Gate. I
presume there will be a reduction in the number of Southern suburban
trains on these slow lines that go through to London Bridge, but such
services will still exist.

The line between NX Gate and West Croydon will not close - the new ELL
trains will essentially be mainline overground trains, thus they'll be
able to run on these lines. The existing ELL is closing so changes can
be made in order to bring it up to a mainline standard, so the new
trains can use it (signalling systems need to be replaced etc).

I guess there could be extra weekend engineering works on the NX Gate
to West Croydon stretch, but it certainly isn't going to shut.

If anyone has information on how the ELLX phase 1 will affect existing
service patterns south of the river please speak up!


[1] "A different ELLX question" uk.transport.london thread
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk....37b3dc8b79d79/