On Feb 12, 5:36*pm, "Peter Masson" wrote:
"Mizter T" wrote



Any idea when the Lewisham to Victoria via P. Rye services last ran in
the evenings and on Sundays?

I've only looked at Summer timetables, so dates are a bit approximate, but
the history seems to be:
1935 Dartford -Lewisham - Peckham Rye -Blackfriars peak hours service
started. (The LCDR had run trains to Greenwich Park via Nunhead until 1917,
but these did not give a good interchange with any SER station).
Service withdrawn during WW2
1946 service reinstated and extended to Holborn Viaduct, but remained peak
hours only. To reach Victoria a change to the SLL at Denmark Hill was
needed.
1986 peak services to both Holborn Viaduct and Victoria
1990 timetable shows the Blackfriars trains running to St Pauls Thameslink,
but this never actually happened.
1991 service was via Bexleyheath to Victoria and via Sidcup to Blackfriars,
both services remaining Monday to Friday peak hours only.
1993 Sidcup route service to Blackfriars withdrawn; Bexleyheath route
service to Victoria remained, but still peak hours only.

All sorts of interesting things ran while Charing Cross was closed for
the London Bridge extensions that year though.

1994 All day Monday - Saturday service started Dartford - Victoria via
Bexleyheath, and for this timetable only included klate evenings.
1995 Evening service withdrawn

I must have misremembered then. Maybe I was annoyed the whole time I
was working near Victoria but assumed the change to have been while I
was (1999).

In fact, now I remember why I was annoyed, and you are right about the
period. When the services were introduced, they weren't publicised at
all but those of us who noticed them found them useful.

Then finally a poster campaign announcing the Victoria services
coincided with the withdrawal of the evening services (the only ones I
used at the time) before any chance to see if they would then be
popular.

Trains never seem to have used the route on Sundays (apart from engineering
diversions - at one time if the Sole Street route was closed Victoria -
Ramsgate trains would call at Nunhead, for rail connections, and Lee, for a
bus connection from Bromley South. More recently there have been occasions
when no trains have run via Bromley South, and a Victoria - Bromley North
service has run - the Bromley North branch normally having branch trains to
Grove Park only, and no trains at all on Sundays).

But don't forget the Dome trains that I mentioned in my other reply.
They ran for about three timetables I think.