A website about the Bromley North Branch Line
 
Picture
No snow this year so I have used this seasonal shot of a Postman on the Footbridge North of Bromley North taken last year.
Looking Back on 2011
Today ends the year of 2011, which has been on the whole a year of progress. First we had the installation of Driver Only Operation which although sent the friendly assortment of guards packing did pretty much half the cost of running the 'Popper.' I don't know if the service does make a profit on the whole but I am sure it does in the peaks and this 'improvement' helps this. Congratulations go to Southeastern for allowing 4 Carriages to use the installment although this does mean that the 2 Car Stopboard is exactly 2 Carriages north of Bromley North station building!

Then came the Bromley North Station Improvements, in actual fact this had nothing to do with platform, tracks or even the Grade II listed station building but was instead focused on replacing the 'patio' in front of the latter. This began by removing the two or three trees which were ripping up the patio bricks, then a lengthy wait was followed by the removal of the ruined patio. In it's place a new redder brick patio was installed along with 20 odd bollards around the perimeter and two neatly contained trees (see photos in gallery). The end result allowed photographers and the general public to see and appreciate the grand building without having to peer through foliage and branches, I was very pleased.

The end of 2011 was marked by a service increase in the December timetable change, perhaps as a result of the cost cutting measures of the Driver Only Operation Facility installed earlier in the year. 'The Bromley North Branch line will be fully 3tph (trains per hour)', this website's news report proclaimed and indeed it is now, barring the 0thp statistic on Sundays and late night and early morning (6 O'clock) figures which remain 2 tph.

Looking Forward to 2012
Tomorrow we start the year of 2012 and there are wide amount of posts already planned for the ‘latest news’ section. Perhaps a more appropriate title for ‘latest news’ would be ‘blog’ as I will be examining options and potential throughout the year as well as faithfully reporting latest developments on the branch.

As in 2011 we saw three improvements which have been discussed earlier, perhaps and appropriate thing to  do would be to list three ‘desired’ improvements for 2012.
Full restoration of the waiting room at Sundridge Park. (already underway)

And a more ambitious but achievable (it has good arguments)-
Reinstatement of the Sunday Service. (especially during the Olympics)

It seems this website has almost turned into a sort of Passenger Lobbying Group for the Branch and so I will be writing letters to various contacts
Much much more ambitious (and some times ridiculous) schemes will be brought forward in various ‘blog’ posts along the course of the year so watch this space!
In the meantime I wish you and your families a happy new year!



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Website about the Bromley North Branch Line which runs between Bromley North and Grove Park with a intermediate stop at Sundridge Park