The Victoria to Orpington Service - A Tale of Woe and Misery
The story goes something like this. At Victoria, off chugs the Orpington stopping service, calling at places such as Brixton and Penge East. It gets a 12 minute head start on the Kent Coast / Ashford express services, which call first at Bromley South (the 9th stop for the Orpington stopping service). Off sets the Kent Coast / Ashford service. It gains speed along the line (mainly a paltry 2 tracks in either direction as far as just before Bromley South). The Orpington service starts to run late. Often, it's already 2 minutes late leaving Herne Hill (just its 2nd stop) - possibly due to congestion at Herne HIll itself, a busy (and awkward, jumbled) junction that Southeastern shares with Thameslink trains. So, let's give the Orpington service the benefit of the doubt - signalmen at Network Rail have so far caused the 2 minute delay. But then the train develops more lateness down the line. Why?? The most plausible reason is due to the fact that the trains that run the O
