Cross River Tram is dead. Crossrail might die. Long live the tube?

I made reference, yesterday, to the fact that Lambeth Council had mentioned the Cross River Tram in their Local Development Framework. I think, perhaps, that they forgot to remove it from the document because I doubt (sadly) that the scheme will ever come to fruition.

Today though, I spotted a rather interesting article article in the Evening Standard. The writer, Simon Jenkins, suggests that Boris should kill off Crossrail. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the "limited pot" (now "empty pot") of public money, one always knows that some Londoners will benefit through certain initiatives whilst others won't benefit at all (or will even become worse off). The Crossrail project is one example of a piece of transport that doesn't benefit South London at all. Due to my love of all things public transport, I'm not in a position to oppose it, but Simon's article has made me wonder... Apparently, TfL are close to bankruptcy, and unlikely to stump up their share of cash for Crossrail. If Boris were to eradicate the Crossrail project to plug the hole in his transport budget, Simon wonders whether he'd choose to plough that money into the tube.

The spare money in the pot from ditching Crossrail would be £5.6 billion.

And it was only the other day, (reported in Southwark News here) in early March at the London Assembly that Boris suggested "the potential of extending the Bakerloo Line for instance... is something we should drag onto the agenda". Do we think that any of the spare £5.6 billion could be channelled towards improving the tube connections in South London? It would be great to connect Camberwell, Peckham, Lewisham, Croydon and Brixton. How much does it cost to add tube stations and extend the lines? It certainly wouldn't cost that much to re-open Camberwell tube since the infrastructure is in already.

That would be a project which would mean South Londoners could stop asking "What has Boris ever done for us?"

Merry Christmas

I wish a Merry Christmas to all readers of the Lurking about SE11 blog. We have the following local good news stories in honour of Christmas:

Here's a great story from the Telegraph about a one 100 year old lady, originally born in Kennington.

There's an alarming story here of a Pest Control officer who discovered a 2 ft crocodile in a house in Peckham!

There's a bright story about the father in Walworth who has decorated his estate with Christmas lights to celebrate his son's recovery from leukaemia.

Peckham Boys Gang - arrests

This is London have just published an article publicising the fact that there have been arrests of suspected members of the Peckham Boys gang.

Some of the arrests have been made in the SE11 area in Kennington. Others are furthur afield. The arrests are mostly for crimes such as violent robberies on pubs and bookmakers using knives and other implements.

I often wonder what happens if one is suspected of this sort of very serious crime, but actually has not done anything. Who pays to have the reinforced door that the police have smashed down in Kennington replaced? How does your reputation (or your family's reputation) survive?

Anyhow, they've arrested seven men. I'll update furthur as I hear more.

Cross River Tram - we have a date

My "Cross River Tram" alert popped up a BBC article today to reveal the date crucial for whether the tram project goes ahead: September 9th.

The article contains a fabulous quote from Caroline Pidgeon who is upset that it takes longer to get to central London from Peckham than it does from Reading. I wonder whether that's because the people in Reading have more money... :-)

"It can take longer to get from places like Peckham to the centre of town than it does to get to places like Reading, and that is just ridiculous,"

she said.

Unfortunately, some councillors north of the river aren't so excited about our trammy ambitions :) But that's because they're all lucky enough to own and drive cars.

Anyhow, 9th September is when the tram review is to be undertaken by Boris Johnson. Here's keeping our fingers and toes crossed.

Cross River Tram

We seem to have heard very little of the Cross River Tram since Ken Livingstone's departure. It has come up at several Mayoral question times with Boris, but he has been rather non-commital on the matter. London Connections blog appear to think that a decision will be due in July. I'm not sure where that information has come from. We've had consultations that have been going on for aaaages. Lots of talk about whether the depot might be in Peckham or the Old Kent Road. Endless route discussions about which roads should be taken in Kennington, Brixton, Peckham, Camberwell, Elephant, Waterloo etc. And yet, we've still no tram, no tram tracks, no happy people travelling around south London marvelling at the environmental goodness of no longer needing cars...

The tram isn't particularly set to benefit the SE11 area. It will run through Kennington if its built, but Kennington and Oval are already well connected by virtue of their tube stations, the walkable Vauxhall or E&C overground / tube stations, and lots of buses. What it would do in actuality, would be to open up South London. Everybody knows that regeneration is not possible without good transport infrastructure. In the meantime, regeneration has just come to mean making the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre derelict without giving its tenants any new options or building lots of buy-to-let properties (not always accessible for locals) in Peckham, on vague promises of a "yet to arrive tram" and then not delivering. (The cynic in me thinks that regeneration is just a glossy word for "removal of existing people who are not considered capable of generating capital and therefore are not assets"). But I do love South London, and I think everybody who lives south of the Thames should have the opportunities available to the rest of London. And those opportunities are made possible because it's possible for people to travel in and out of their London disticts. If Boris is serious about cutting knife crime, he'll back the tram and ensure that funding is forthcoming. If he is not serious about knife crime, he will just do a lot of fund-raising for local youth that will benefit this generation and he'll put lots of police people on the streets. And then the next incumbant mayor will arrive and decide to scrap those projects. At least if the tram is built, it would leave a very tangible legacy, accessible for all.

I have hopeful dreams that the already existing Croydon tram could be connected to the Brixton or Peckham branch of the Cross River Tram. But maybe it's because I'm a secret public transport geek. I like travelling on buses on the top deck in the window seat. And I like zooming along on the (only just affordable) tube to arrive somewhere different when emerging from underground. And I like the Thameslink line that will drop you from London to Brighton. And I also like cycling because it's free and good for you.

And anyway, how come they managed to get funding for the Cross Rail Project? It's not fair. *enters foot-stomping mode* You know, the Three Wheeled Pleb doesn't even care if the Cross River Tram doesn't cross the River. But please please, just get it built. Only, umm, preferably not in time for the Olympics :) :)