Jimmie76

So with today being the last day of operation of this service I made it onto the PM trip. Together with a serious number of trainspotters and one other genuine passenger we did the last ever parliamentary train service from CLP to KPA. Pictures will follow at some point.

GregWTravels

I took the train round from London Victoria to London Bridge today, last day of service before it is discontinued. Figured that I would take the opportunity to ride it around (never had before) on the last day, and ride the new Clapham Junction to Surrey Quays tomorrow.

I inadvertently ended up on the same train as the Southwark Rail Users group, who were riding the trip a couple time around. They had signs and were taking pictures, and talking to people on the train. The woman I talked to said they weren't protesting, just communicating, though the information they were handing out was titled "South London's Loss".

They were handing out maps they felt better represented the new layout of the train services than the TFL tube maps, which they said don't show how Southwark is connected to central London. I didn't bother pointing out that the TFL tube map doesn't show any rail service other than the Overground, and that most of the new stops weren't on the old London maps.

Jimmie76

These services actually are going to continue for a short while, this is due to the franchising foul up, where as the new franchise hasn't come into effect they can't legally stop the service yet. So you still have time to do this trip if you want to but the timings have changed so do check before doing it.

Herman ze German

How do you check train times for a train that isn't advertised and not showing up on the boards? I would like to take a ride on it

Jimmie76

National Rail Enquiries using KPA to WWR for the morning service (departs 10:02) and CLP to KPA (departs 16:09) for the afternoon service.

pogopossum

What a fascinating thing. Most of the destinations listed in the Wikipedia article I have never heard of. With the odd destinations that appear to be all over the map, could one make a holiday of riding the ghost trains? Or would the timings and location make it impractical? It certainly would make an interesting tour, although I guess, by design, the destinations are nothing special for tourists (apologies to those who live there).

Cheers,
Pogopossum

Jimmie76

No the destinations are not chosen by design it's normally by accident when they close a service, but when closing the service don't run a consultation on closing any bits of the line that this service and only this service uses. They then have to go through a closure consultation before they can close these sections of line. Hence why there are only two tiny bits of track that are being closed here after public consultation to satisfy the legal requirements. They are only doing the consultation now because the franchise was due to be reawarded and it made financial sense to do the consultation at the same time thus allowing the service to be dropped from the new franchise. There will after the franchise ends be no through service from CLP or WWR to KPA (or intermediate stations (or KPA to WWR for that matter) and all regular passenger trains will have to go to CLJ and then people change trains to continue onwards to KPA. The actual line itself will still be used for freight and charter services but no through passenger trains or regular timetabled trains will use it.