Without wishing to go off-topic, one of the alleged benefits of the ELL changes is that it will "reduce congestion at London Bridge" station. I had initially interpreted this as meaning that passenger congestion will be reduced, but I suppose it could refer to train congestion. Never ceases to amaze me how many of the most crowded trains (by which subjectively I judge the ones I am on) are always routed into the most remote platforms. While this might be excused as it would allow the passengers to spread out by the time they get to the ticket barriers, the fact is that there are a couple of significant bottlenecks before the barriers which makes this impossible.

Which doesn't help you to get a nice start to the day.

In my opinion, travelling from HOP to LB in the morning is best done before 7.45 and after 8.45 - the trains in between are in the peak of peaks (anytime before 7.15 and 9.15 and you're unlikely to get a seat without some sort of killer instinct) and the slightest problem can mean they're too busy to get on at all.

I just feel sorry for people trying to board at Brockley. They must feel incredibly hard done-by.