New train services for Forest Hill and Honor Oak Park

There will be 5 new Southern trains running at peak hours though Forest Hill and Honor Oak Park station from 15th December 2024.

The new trains are scheduled as follows:

MORNING (Norwood Junction to London Bridge)

Forest Hill 07:43 08:13 09:13

Honor Oak Park 07:45 08:15 09:15

London Bridge 08:01 08:31 09:31

EVENING (from London Bridge to Norwood Junction then West Croydon & Sutton)

London Bridge 17:10 17:40

Honor Oak Park 17:23 17:53

Forest Hill 17:26 17:56

PLEASE USE THESE TRAINS!

We want to show that there is a demand for even more services on this line to/from London Bridge, but also to East Croydon as we used to have. If we can demonstrate that if Southern put the trains on, more of us will switch back from the Overground trains via an overcrowded Canada Water interchange, then we can push for even better and more frequent services in future.

Please note that these services are NOT all-day additions, so we will continue to only have two trains per hour outside these rush hour services, but it is a start.

These trains are, at least in part, thanks to the continuous lobbying of Southern by the Forest Hill Society and others, including the Sydenham Society and with support from Lewisham councillors. We should also mention the ongoing efforts and support of Ellie Reeves MP. In our constructive discussions with them we also mentioned the short length of trains, particularly at weekends, the lack of services to East Croydon and most importantly, the difficulty of changing trains at Norwood Junction which is not an accessible station.

However, season ticket usage on Southern remains just a fraction of the level it was pre-Covid and we need to recognise that this was revenue that they relied on to provide more frequent non-peak services to stations like ours. The Society believes that more of us might consider using Southern trains more often to and from London if we could rely on a more regular service and not risk waiting for half an hour for a train, so we would very much hope that these additional trains will help you travel more efficiently and comfortably, and be the first of many future improvements to our schedule and connections.

If you do start taking these trains, leave us a comment, or share your thoughts with us on social media so we know what it is like, and how busy it gets. We'd love to hear your stories about how and why you take these trains.