Residents hope for improvements to station only ‘six people’ use at rush hour

By Joe Coughlan, Local Democracy Reporter

Residents are hoping to see improvements to their local railway station, which they say is currently used by as few as six people during rush hour.

Sundridge Park station sits just a 15-minute walk north of Bromley town centre.

James Darvell, 33, owns the Larder café and butcher in Plaistow Lane. He said businesses may benefit if people were able to travel directly from the station into central London, without the need to change trains at Bromley North or Grove Park.

Mr Darvell said: “The rush hour’s about six people.

“But it’s a direct link into Grove Park and on towards central London, so the area does need it, it definitely needs the station to be there.”

Earlier this month, Southeastern Railway announced plans to close ticket offices at 40 of its stations across its South London network, including Sundridge Park.

The scheme is reportedly aimed to bring staff out of ticket offices to help assist customers in face-to-face interactions and help speed up the process of self-service technology.

A Southeastern spokeswoman previously said that out of the 40 stations at risk, 16 had sold an average of 10 or fewer tickets a day at their windows.

At the bottom of this list was Sundridge Park station, which reportedly sold no tickets at all from its ticket office window in May this year.

Constance Leech, 40, said she would be more likely to use Sundridge Park station if the services became more regular.

Ms Leech said: “I call it the choo choo train because it’s literally one stop. You’re not going to get that train to go into town, are you?

“It’s off at the weekends and if you miss your connection, it doesn’t align with the trains going into London, and I think that’s the biggest thing.

“It would be great if you could just go straight from here all the way into London.”

Consultations on the proposed ticket office closures across the country were due to end this week, but were extended by another five weeks on July 26.

Labour councillors Alisa Igoe and Tony McPartlan, who represent the Plaistow ward for Bromley council, said the Bromley Labour Group was strongly against the proposed ticket office closures.

They said the Bromley North to Grove Park line has served the community well for many years and hoped to see it continue.

They said in a joint statement: “Residents have told us that the ticket office is often closed when it should be open.

“This is one of the reasons why recorded usage is as low as it is. How can they record usage if it is rarely open?

“The closures make train travel for disabled and elderly passengers harder and more stressful than it already is.”

David Wornham, Southeastern’s Passenger Services Director, said: “We want to bring staff who previously worked in ticket offices out into stations where they can directly provide customer support while also helping people with accessibility needs and keeping everyone safe.

“While we don’t have plans to introduce direct trains to or from central London on the Grove Park-Bromley North line, we’re constantly reviewing the numbers of customers using this service to inform future timetable changes.”

Pictured top: Constance Leech (Picture: Joe Coughlan)