Hundreds of thousands of commuters have faced a week of commuting hell as the Southeastern Network was hit after a freight train derailed at Lewisham in south London. Disruption was expected to last all day, but that turned into a week. The derailment happened just before 6am on Tuesday the 24th of January 2017. Pictures in local media showed images of a carriage lying on its side with its cargo of sand spilling across the track.
The disruption affected journeys from Kent (Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells, Orpington etc.) all the way to London Canon Street and Charing Cross, two very busy and important stations for commuters. All trains from New Beckenham, Sidcup, Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks to Charing Cross and Cannon Street were cancelled completely. The route to and from Charing Cross from Hastings was diverted to London Bridge via Redhill while outbound Ramsgate trains were diverted to Victoria.
Southeastern commuters were left freezing on the platforms as Network Rail revealed trains running to and from London's Charing Cross and Cannon Street were severely disrupted. My sister and I were part of those “hundreds of thousands of commuters” because we use Southeastern to get to Chislehurst station and our train, which comes from Charing Cross, was either delayed by 30mins+ or cancelled. This led us to leaving the house earlier than we usually do and having to divert our route to school.
This chaotic disruption not only affected the train service but it had an impact on the tube and bus services as well. Buses for Blackheath, Eltham, Greenwich, Lewisham, Sidcup and Woolwich were reported “jam packed” by commuters as people piled on to the buses to avoid the Southeastern Railway Network turmoil. Southeastern Railway said tickets were being accepted on all London bus routes, the Tube, Thameslink, Tramlink and Docklands Light Railway. The rail company has also put on a shuttle service between Hayes and New Beckenham and Dartford to Sidcup.
Now that the track has reopened, both South Eastern trains and Network Rail have questions to answer as to why the scene took so long to clear and what can be done to ensure minimal impact on the passengers in the future. Passengers are seeing fares increase year after year with no evident benefits. The question must be asked, what does the future for the railway if it is left in private hands?
Shoaib Salim, Farringtons School
