Does Boris Johnson really hate SE London? He's making it damn difficult for people to get here, or to get away.
First we have the whole Blackwall Tunnel nonsense. You can escape SE London and return to the happy North without any trouble. But woe betide any SE Londoner who dares to visit or worse still work in the North to try to get home.
Then bang out goes the Gateway bridge. Now I hear the Greens are happy about this...get on your bikes they say, forget the car. Well sorry dear eco friendly bods...with tot and her paraphernalia, there is no bleeding way I'm getting on a bike. And if I did, there is a bloody good chance some Neanderthal in a white van would take me out in one corner move. Plus as Mr Plummy Mummy pointed out, with less ways to get moving, more cars will spend longer in traffic and pollute the SE even more. Thank god for Kent where we can escape to if we could afford the mortgages. Oh damn :S
NOW, I hear the Abbey Wood line of the Cross Rail may not happen. So no easy access for SE Londoners to the City or west like Slough and Maidenhead. The latter would have been tres useful for me as many telecoms companies are based in Maidenhead and Slough and I could have got a job and not have to travel for what would seem like most of my fucking life.
So Boris, old bumbling buddy, what's your beef with the SE and why are you trying to segregate us from the rest of shiny London?
7 comments:
hi plummy - the best way to desegregate this area is through public transport links such as the extremely popular new DLR river crossing at Woolwich... do you really want a traffic bypass through your back garden?
Actually yes I would like a traffic bypass through my backgarden if it meant I could get anywhere. The more that traffic sits still in jams the more poluttion and congestion is caused. Sadly it doesnt make the traffic go away. The only ways to cross the river East of Central London by road are Rotherhithe, Blackwall and Dartford - all of which at any given time are busy. I travel a lot by car with work to the "North" and Essex and it doesnt'a matter what time of the day I travel I have rarely gone plain sailing through these roads. We also use it as all our family are North London. Given the amount of river crossings West of London it is a disgrace. the Gateway bridge would have been perfect. That stretch of road in Thamesmead is rarely busy, never congested, plenty of lanes and not many houses for people to moan about.
Yes it means cutting down some parkland and yes one of the reasons we moved to SE London (about from house prices) was the abundance of greenness, BUT there is plenty of it and SE London is now getting beyond a joke. The area is never going to grow in popularity or regeneration until transport links are improved.
Hilly - I'm in favour of public transport hence my dismay that the Abbey Wood segment may be cancelled. That's really what the post is about.
But yes, I agree with PB too...if it meant I could visit the north where my family also live (and where I can't afford to) then a bridge would be welcome. I believe some people bought property in Abbey Wood/Thamesmead on the understanding that a bridge would be built which would give them access to more jobs etc and now that has been cruelly taken away from them.
Do not forget that Mayor Boris also cancelled the Greenwich Waterfront Transit, although it was not much more than a bus route by that stage, but still found millions to blow on his new "routemaster". I moved to West Thamesmead on the hope and expectation that the GWT and Gateway Bridge would come and better transport links would bring a boost to the area. Foolish me! Trapped in negative equity in a scummy area surrounded by scummy mummies!
Damn, there go my Abbey Wood house profits, then.
Actually I didn't buy on the basis that the rail link would come, or that the bridge would be built for that matter, it still was going to be when I move in.
I was quite pleased when they cancelled the gateway bridge as the traffic would have come up the hill at the end of my road, and there is still plenty enough pollution from speeding cars.
I guess nothing is safe in our current straightened financial situation, but it would be really really nice to be able to get to other parts of London/the country reasonably easily via public transport. Let's hope Boris comes to his senses (cue the sound of cynical laughter)
it's very sad about crossrail; having defeated the road lobby three times since the 1960's (RINGWAY2/ELRC/TGB), south east londoners do need better public transport.
Absolutely back up the opinion of PlumBun and Anonymous . We have a desperate need of Thames Gateway Bridge and local transport- even as original plan from 1965s Jubilee line has been proposed to come to Thamesmead. It should have been done by now. I can not understand why we are the only town without proper transport links like elsewhere in London. To get to Belsize Park, where I work, I have to travel 2 hours in one direction ,which makes 4 hours per day , every day on my feet, because there are no seats from Abbey Wood available, neither in the Northern Line during peak time. So much of my life is going on travelling It is just ridiculous. Nobody deserves that quality of life. And the government did agree for the biggest incinerator in Europe to be built in our back yards, they didn't think about the pollution caused by it , less than a mile away from our homes , but the Bridge is going to pollute according to them. Actually the incenerator is throwing in the air much dangerous substances, which cause birth deffects, respiratory problems and cancer, than the cars. That area(where the bridge is suppose to be) has got hardly any traffic and is almost industrial area, with not many people living there..
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