We know it already, but it is really useful to have the data.
Forest Hill station is already just outside the top 100 busiest rail stations in the country! But more importantly, if you combine Sydenham, Forest Hill, Honor Oak Park & Brockley (never mind also New Cross Gate) then the combined daily usage just for this short section of rail is 38,337 entries per day - or double to volume of the whole of Lewisham station.
It is good to know that the new Windrush operator is planning on introducing more trains by the end of the year, but I do hope it might also mean more incentive to increase our train services (not Overground) to places like East Croydon in the near future as well
That’s a bit unfair, comparing four stations to one!
Lewisham has 7m entries and exits per year, Forest Hill is 4.2m, New Cross Gate is 4.6m, Brockley is 3.7m, Sydenham is 3.5m, New Cross is 3.2m (which is a bit surprising to me).
ha! yes, I did say “stations”. While the individual stations are large, but not as large as Lewisham, the point is that this corridor is a very busy and highly concentrated. My focus was on how we might leverage the collective traffic to lobby for greater services for this corridor, with Forest Hill at the centre.
Indeed, the numbers for New Cross were much higher than expected, but I’m guessing it includes a substantial number of the unfortunates who jumped on the wrong train and got stranded
I was getting off the train at FH station the other day, and a fellow passenger said to their travelling companion “everyone gets off at Forest Hill”. It was true there were many people departing that day - more than the other stations I’d passed through - and I definitely feel as though that is the case, anecdotally, whenever I’ve got off a train in FH since.
Yep, the direct East Croydon train was useful – it would be great to see it make a comeback. I also remember the halcyon days when there were direct trains from Charing Cross to Forest Hill, from about 8pm.
