Southeastern to improve Woolwich Arsenal, Blackheath and Lewisham stations
Railway operator Southeastern have announced £2 million will be spent across the network cleaning 116 stations including some of their busiest in London.
By March 2025 a total of 116 stations will be deep cleaned including repair and improvement works at 20 stations including Woolwich Arsenal, Blackheath, Lewisham and Greenwich.
Work will comprise painting areas in stations plus a number of customer facilities repaired or replaced.
Unfortunately substantive plans in stations such as Woolwich Arsenal and Lewisham are now apparent – yet.
In the past year calls to open a new northern entrance to Lewisham given the station is in the midst of a housing boom were rebuffed. A previous entrance and exit was closed in the latter half of the 2010s.
Network Rail would be the main source of funding if that does ever happen and stated a £2m figure in 2023.
Delays
Whilst £2 million station improvements are welcome it comes against a backdrop of delays and uncertainty elsewhere on bigger projects, with plans to refurbishment 20 year old Class 376 trains in 2023 slipping to 2024 and now 2025.
In addition, Class 465 networkers are now well over 30 years old still have no confirmed replacement. It’s two years since a tender was announced.
We may hear news in 2025 unless government blocks the move. Southeastern is now entirely owned by the Department for Transport. The department saw cuts in the recent budget.
In addition, staffing issues across the network remain. A look today reveals 35 stations with issues, of which most are a lack of available staff.
Better than triple-digit figures seen previously, but far from ideal.
As for this £2 million package, 20 stations seeing painting and other work includes:
Ashford International
Blackheath
Bromley South
Canterbury West
Chatham
Dartford
Gillingham
Gravesend
Greenwich
Grove Park
Hither Green
Lewisham
London Waterloo East
New Cross
Orpington
Sevenoaks
Sidcup
Tonbridge
Tunbridge Wells
Woolwich Arsenal
Deep cleaning will be undertaken at these stations
Albany Park
Aylesham
Barming
Barnehurst
Battle
Bearsted
Beckenham Junction
Belvedere
Bexley
Bexleyheath
Bickley
Birchington
Borough Green
Brixton
Broadstairs
Bromley North
Canterbury East
Catford Bridge
Charing
Charlton
Chelsfield
Chislehurst
Clockhouse
Crayford
Crowhurst
Deal
Deptford
Dover Priory
Eden Park
Elmers End
Elmstead Woods
Eltham
Erith
Etchingham
Eynsford
Falconwood
Farningham Road
Faversham
Folkestone Central
Folkestone West
Frant
Greenhithe
Harrietsham
Hastings
Hayes (Kent)
Headcorn
Herne Bay
Herne Hill
High Brooms
Higham
Hildenborough
Kearsney
Kent House
Kidbrooke
Knockholt
Ladywell
Lee (London)
Lenham
Longfield
Lower Sydenham
Maidstone East
Maidstone West
Marden
Margate
Maze Hill
Meopham
Mottingham
New Beckenham
New Eltham
Newington
Northfleet
Otford
Paddock Wood
Penge East
Petts Wood
Pluckley
Plumstead
Queenborough
Rainham (Kent)
Ramsgate
Robertsbridge
Rochester
Sandling
Sandwich
Sheerness On Sea
Shepherds Well
Shortlands
Sittingbourne
Slade Green
Snodland
St Johns
St Leonards Warrior Square
St Mary Cray
Staplehurst
Stone Crossing
Stonegate
Strood
Sturry
Sundridge Park
Swanley
Swanscombe
Sydenham Hill
Teynham
Thanet Parkway
Wadhurst
Walmer
Welling
West Dulwich
West Malling
West St Leonards
David Wornham, Passenger Services Director at Southeastern, said:
“Our stations are the first and last impression our customers receive and that is why we are continually working to ensure they’re at the highest possible standard.
“This £2million investment will see 116 stations deep cleaned alongside improvement and repair work at 20 stations – all to be delivered before the end of March next year.
“We run a growing railway, with over 400,000 journeys in and out of London on our busiest days and this further investment in our stations, alongside our expanded timetable, will help to further increase customer numbers and support our wider communities.”
Seems like a bit of PR spin. Spreading a small fund very widely rather than smaller, transformative projects such as Lewisham as mentioned. Stations aren’t generally the problem as a lick of paint has been the solution to little long-term investment or planning on South Eastern suburban routes since the 2000s under Connex and then GoVia.
In Lewisham that tower and adjacent blocks are all now complete and an estate rebuild nearby is pretty much finished. Lots of people that side of the tracks. Also have you heard any more news on proposed Tesco redevelopment beside the station? I’d estimate 500-1000 homes there alone
Havn’t heard much about Lewisham Tesco plans since last year. I’ve just checked developer Astir’s website and no new news.
The most recent news stated: “a multi-use scheme including a new Tesco store, rental housing, a hotel, student accommodation, alongside co-working and community uses”.
Little seen in any council reports. Will check the planning page to see if anything popped up on there.
If Lewisham are on the ball they’d secure some S106 and CIL from it to improve Lewisham station with NR and SE pushing too. A shame they launched consultation into revised CIL rates in 2018, paused and still havn’t enacted it six years later. Cost a fair few quid that move.
I’m not convinced a deep clean is particularly needed. I’ve just boarded a train at Sydenham Hill and cleanliness wasn’t an issue at all. Can’t help thinking that the money could better be spent elsewhere rather than this window dressing and dumb ideas like departure boards detailing what kind of train it is.
Two million pounds on 116 stations is not nearly enough, nor is a ‘one off’ deep clean going to last very long. As usual, the franchisees are just tinkering around the edges as passengers pay ever more to use poor facilities.
Basically this announcement boils down to… We’re doing business as usual upkeep of our stations, but have fallen so far behind that we’ve spun it as a PR £2m spend in improvements. It’s ridiculous that cleaning stations is an announcement.
Southeastern should still consider on refurbishing the 36 Class 376 Electrostar units and to repaint them in Southeastern blue livery and to rename them as “Metrostar”. Just like they inherited the 30 Class 707 Desiro City from South Western Railway and renamed them as “City Beam”. Or if Siemens were to manufacture more Class 707s for Southeastern then the Class 376s would have been cascaded to Southern.
@ Andrew Gwilt: the Class 376 is a decent train and still looks quite good all these years later. A repaint and light refreshment are all that’s needed. However, there are still quite a few of the clapped out Class 465 on the network. They are beyond help, in my opinion, and should be scrapped.
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The stations need more staff on duty from first to last trains to provide help and advice to passengers and to improve passenger safety.
As well as a deep clean stations need new. brighter lighting.