Great Western Coffee Shop

The next Mayor of London should turn South London orange ^ by incorporating London^s local and suburban main line services into the successful Overground network. This would hugely improve London transport and boost jobs, housing and regeneration.

The Underground largely serves London north of the Thames and is managed by TfL. Most of south London, despite 227 stations serving five million people, depends on suburban services which play second fiddle to long-distance rail firms, and which are underdeveloped and poorly managed.

Much of south London suffers from skeleton services through bleak stations barely touched for a century. It^s a key part of London^s north/south divide.

The Overground network, opened over the past decade, shows how different it could be. The orbital line, extending from Islington and Hackney to Peckham and Clapham, was the result of visionary reform begun under Ken Livingstone. It took existing underused stations and services, upgrading, extending and linking them to create an integrated metro service, under TfL control, as with the Tube.

Passenger journeys on the orange network have increased by 450 per cent since Overground^s launch, compared with 50 per cent on south-eastern suburban rail lines. Passenger satisfaction ratings have risen from 57 to 92 per cent, thanks to better, more frequent trains, new routes, brighter stations and improved reliability. Capital investment made this possible but the change was as much about TfL management overcoming complex operational issues by focusing on the ^orange vision^ of a transformed metro system.

Operating subsidies on the Overground have been reduced by the passenger surge, while long-distance and freight services sharing the orange lines have not suffered. This orange vision now needs to sweep across the rest of our suburban rail network.

As a first step, management of the south London suburban lines should transfer to the Overground when the various southern rail franchises come up for renewal over the next seven years. There should be an immediate ^orange transfer^ of the south-western suburban lines through Wimbledon ^ including the major commuter stations in Kingston, Surbiton and Chessington ^ to accelerate progress on Crossrail 2.

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Don't see any gain personally. NR will maintain the track, presumably at the same cost, times etc

Whenever we hear a call for TfL to take over National Rail lines the reason seems to be that more emphasis needs to be put on the needs of commuters in Greater London. Well as a commuter on SWT living outside Greater London I would be very concerned if my service was reduced from half hourly (hourly after 7.30pm and Sundays) just so Londoners could get a train every 5 minutes or so.

So no, I am not in favour of a TfL takeover

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I agree TfL should not run lines that are largely used by long distance services.   

The man who oversees London^s tube and bus network has described national rail services running into the capital as ^shit, awful^ and ^like the wild west^.

Sir Peter Hendy, the commissioner of Transport for London, said commuters hated their suburban rail services, and singled out Southeastern ^ one of the busiest rail franchises, carrying more than 600,000 passengers every weekday ^ for particular criticism.

He also accused the train operators of putting ^Gestapo-like^ inspectors on trains to fine as many people as possible, including customers who had simply made mistakes with their tickets.

In an interview with Management Today, Hendy said: ^People hate the suburban rail service, they hate it. If you make a mistake on your oyster card on the tube, we^ll refund it. On South West Trains, they^ll fine you. That^s a big philosophical difference.^

He continued: ^On Southeastern, the trains are like the wild west. They are shit, awful. And then every now and then some people who look like the Gestapo get on and fine everyone they can. It doesn^t improve your day, does it?^

Southeastern has consistently scored lowest on national passenger-satisfaction surveys, and the number of commuters who would agree with the colourfully expressed sentiment has likely increased recently after widespread disruption largely caused by engineering works at London Bridge, where the station and track is being reconstructed.

Hendy implied that Mark Carne, the chief executive of Network Rail, risked failing in his job because of the disruption.

Transport for London chief: commuter trains into capital are 'shit'  (http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/apr/23/london-transport-chief-tfl-sir-peter-hendy-capital-trains-shit)

And of course, SWT can't fine anybody.

when he was at Oxbridge.

OTC

Leeds ..........eeeeee lad nowt as posh as Oxbridge

So was I (BSc Chem Eng, 1971)

I just wasn't the grandson of a 6th Baron.

Still its nice to see Leeds U getting a better class of students.

Let's toast him with a glass of John Smith's (or Tetley's if you must), but at Leeds prices.

OTC

John Smith's Cask is brewed in Burtonwood, Cheshire.
Tetley's Cask is brewed in Wolverhampton.