Police investigation to close Woolwich Southeastern line
The Woolwich line will stop running in 15 minutes on the Woolwich line to enable police to conduct an investigation after what is only described as “an incident”.
The link block will last for one hour until 11am according to Southeastern.
Between 10am and 11am you can use your ticket on buses between Lewisham, Greenwich, Woolwich and Dartford and the DLR.
Then this evening other disruption will occur as emergency engineering work closes lines through Lewisham. That area has seen a number of problems over the past week.
I just hope another life as not been lost or a person seriously injured in this incident. Woolwich has been allowed to become a notorious crime hot spot of late. Largely related to gangs and drugs.
More station staff and British Transport Police are also required for our railway stations and public transport systems to help reduce incidents.
I remember when Woolwich went through a similar phase in the mid to late 90s, to the point that Southeastern hired private security for Woolwich Arsenal station. The introduction of town CCTV around this time also helped curb some of the unpleasantness – the dark stretch from Blockbuster to the railway station felt like a gauntlet at times. The thought of going through the maze of the old square was even worse.
A lot of the problem is indeed drugs and I’ve seen this worsen in areas that have seen a rapid influx of new builds alongside less desirable areas. Bromley-by-bow for example has seen huge growth over the last few years but the parking lot outside the new flats is like a drug dealers convention. I was picking up my goddaughter from her flat and in the time two different thugs knocked on my window and asked for some drugs. The same along parts of Hackney Wick in ‘Heart of Bow’.
The other problem is that there is a demand for drugs – not from the usual scumbags but from salaried/middle-class people. For months my own home outside Humber Road used to be a drop-off for a black BMW delivering items to locals around 1am. You’d see a chap in a hoodie emerge from one of nearby houses and wander over the idling car, sit for a minute and then scurry back.
More police are definitely needed, though at some point the Government will have to start cracking down on usage too. Whether the end user fits the narrative or not, you will undermine a good deal of a gang’s power if there is no demand for their wretched product. Too many people treat recreational drug use as harmless (in the City where I work its practically replaced smoking) and care nothing for how it reaches them nor the effect that the gangs have on the ordinary citizens who see their kids chopping each other up.
Totally agree with you Charles. With regard to the city workers and other workeers on higher middle salaries like you have mentioned. There should be more random drugs test taking place by employers.Like they do for bus drivers,train drivers etc.
Graham, that would be very funny. Canary Wharf would become a lot quieter!