Charlton Sinkhole

Charlton Sinkhole

 

 Charlton Sinkhole

A small sinkhole suddenly appeared at the junction of Delafield Road and Swallowfield Road in Charlton. You can just about with difficulty turn the corner if you have a small car but you can forget it if you have aA lorry or van.

To make things worse, there are no warning signs at the entry to either of these roads to say the road is blocked at the junction.

Some bollards are laid down by the side of the sink hole which I presume is for the equipment to be used to repair the hole and allow some traffic flow along Delafield Road..

As I said with a struggle you can get around the corner in a small car from a certain direction but surely with a sinkhole the hole could open up even further if the area around the hole is disturbed such as driving around the edge of the hole.

Greenwich is no stranger to sinkhole and in the past it has taken months to fix them.

Last year in Dunvegan Road, Eltham a sinkhole the size of a car appeared.

In 2016 a large hole appeared outside  Benefice of Charlton St Thomas’ Church, in Charlton which swallowed a parked people carrier.

In December last year a burst water mains in St Marys Street in Woolwich caused a sinkhole seven meters deep and resulted in the evacuation of a number of properties  nearby.

Who could forget the big one on Blackheath Hill that appeared in April 2002 and took 8 months to repair.

It looks like this latest small sinkhole has been caught in time and is being sorted out alright, but I would still criticise the road management layout.

At the end of my working day, I walked past the hole. The hole has been filled in but there is a square patch with no top surface of tar mac covering it. Hopefully this will be rectified tomorrow. Personally, I am impressed with the speed in which the council is rectifying this small sink hole problem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blackheath Tunnel closure

Blackheath Tunnel closure.

 More Greenwich train line frustration which will affect anyone going to Blackheath, Lewisham, St Johns and New Cross station.

according to the Greenwich Wire website: Homepage – The Greenwich Wire

From the 1st June until 11th August the 175 year old Blackheath tunnel will be closed for repairs and maintenance due to major tunnel leakage.

Anyone wishing to get to Lewisham or Blackheath will have to go to Greenwich and change onto the DLR to Lewisham and travel onwards to St Johns and New Cross or travel back from Lewisham to Blackheath.

A better way to Lewisham or Blackheath would be to get the 380 bus service from Charlton to Blackheath and Lewisham.

Luckily the work is being carried out during the Summer holidays when the kids will not be at school so the buses should not be packed with screaming kids making your journey a living nightmare, and the traffic shouldn’t so bad then.

Lost train services

Lost train services

Charing CrossLosing our Train services.

Here we go again, Transport for London (TfL) have decided that they need to give the commuter a better service by cutting a service that has worked perfectly fine for decades.

On the 11th of December we lose the direct Greenwich line trains to Charing Cross. Despite attempts by Greenwich council to reconsider the proposed plans TfL are going ahead and cutting the service anyway.

I personally have taken the service from Charlton to Charing Cross almost every workday for the last 4 years and the service was ideal for both me and my wife.

From the 11th December all trains on the Greenwich line will terminate at Cannon Street so If you want to get to Charing Cross you have to either change trains at London Bridge or take the Circle or District underground line from Cannon Street to the Embankment.

TfL tried to cut the Charing Cross Greenwich line service back in 2014 but was stopped after a big public backlash.

Many years ago, we even had a service on the Greenwich line to Victoria. A very slow service but a service none the less.

All this comes less than a year after they improved our very convenient bus service to Lewisham by redirecting the 180 bus route at Charlton to go to North Greenwich instead of Lewisham.

This is Charing Cross service cut is not only happening on the Greenwich line, but also on the Bexleyheath and Eltham line.

All I can say to TfL is please, please, please stop giving us a better service and leave our transport services alone. Stop patronising us by claiming it will give us a better service when it obviously will not.