The Dulwich and West Norwood MP Helen Hayes has written to the Department for Transport calling for them to restore train services to pre-pandemic levels.
Local commuters had raised concerns as delays have escalated due to COVID-19 in Dulwich. Southern Rail had withdrawn all services to London Victoria until January 10, causing complaints to accumulate.
Hayes posted a letter she sent to the Secretary of State for Transport on Twitter.
In it, she wrote: “We urgently need suburban rail services to be restored to pre-pandemic levels.
“This is vital for residents who are unable to work from home, vital for school children, and essential for reducing levels of traffic on local roads.
“While the pandemic has resulted in some disruption on most suburban rail routes, the level of disruption on services running through my constituency has been particularly severe, and the level of coordination between different Train Operating Companies, and between the Train Operating Companies and Transport for London (with regard to alternative public transport options) has been poor.’
Public transport in Dulwich within the last month has seen cuts to its bus service with reduced schedules and times. This is seen on the route from Lordship Lane to Trafalgar Square on bus number 29 as well as the East Dulwich Sainsbury’s to Liverpool Street bus station on bus number 42.
The Plan B measures put in place in England to stop the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 encourages individuals to work from home; however, schools are still open.
One user responded to Hayes’ post: “Thanks @Helenhayes_ really affects my kids getting to and from @KingsdaleFS school, just two trains an hour from Balham to Gipsy Hill”.
Noah Slattery, a 16-year-old student at Charter East Dulwich Sixth Form said: “The delays have been making me get to school late – it’s annoying. I’ve been getting detentions.”
Southern Rail has said: “A reduced service will continue to operate on all routes until further notice owing to the significant ongoing impact of Coronavirus, particularly in terms of staff sickness which businesses and transport operators across the country continue to see.
“By reducing the service, we aim to provide more certainty over which trains will and will not run for those that are travelling and reduce unexpected cancellations.
The times of trains on all routes will be changed and, on many routes, services will be reduced. The times of first and last trains may also have changed.”
A sharp rise has been seen in the number of cases of the Coronavirus with the new and highly transmissible variant. In the last 7 days, the rate of cases continues at a high with 1765.5 per 100,000 of the population across London according to the official UK government website.
That being the case, various rail lines have introduced reduced timetables. These timetable changes are becoming increasingly popular through the beginning of January as seen within routes such as the Southern, Great Northern and Thameslink lines.
