I have had the above tube map mocked up, showing the South London Line as it would look if it were included on the Tube map.

There is currently a black hole in South London transport. Anyone living in Camberwell and Peckham will have had a similar experience at some point: you invite a friend over to yours and tell them where you live, only to find them looking back at you with a puzzled look on their face that says, “where?”People living all over London visualise and plan journeys based on TfL’s Tube map. The problem for us is that neither Camberwell nor Peckham currently appears on the map, making these places seem mysteriously distant and isolated. The annoying thing for campaigners trying to promote our area is that these places have decent rail links to central London – to London Bridge and Victoria. It’s just that no one looking at a Tube map will see them.

If Camberwell and Peckham are to reach their full potential as commercial and cultural centres, we have to make them easy to get to. We want to promote awareness of this line so that people from all over London can see how to get to our area. There is a burgeoning movement of local artists and musicians – we need to make sure as many people as possible get to see them. When people first move to London, the first thing they do when finding somewhere to live is to check how near it is to a Tube connection. With neither Camberwell or Peckham represented, they’ll choose to go somewhere else like Clapham or somewhere in North London.

That the South London Line isn’t run by TfL doesn’t make a difference to the people who use it. I can understand why National Rail services aren’t shown on the map, as there’d be routes snaking of in every direction. But the South London Line isn’t like other rail services – it’s more like a Tube Line – it starts and ends in central London and is completely contained in Zones 1 and 2. Oyster cards can be used at each stop. It’s crazy that the Tube map shows places as far away as Buckinghamshire, but doesn’t show some of the most central places in London.

TfL have the ability to contribute massively to the regeneration of Southwark and Lambeth – if our map was the standard map, inner South London would receive a huge boost in investment, without the Government having to pump money in.

Infuriatingly, instead of helping us and promoting the South London Line, TfL and the Department for Transport (DfT) are scrapping it. The purpose of this map to help people to understand what TfL and the DfT are planning on cutting – since many people are still unaware of the line’s existence. As well as raising awareness of the South London Line, we’re also trying to change TfL perceptions of the line and try and make them understand that it’s our Tube line. They wouldn’t get away with scrapping the Northern Line – so how can they scrap the South London Line?

Nicely, the Southwark News have promoted the map. You can read the story online here: http://www.southwarknews.co.uk/00,news,16000,185,00.htm