Went to the Transport Liaison Meeting at Lewisham Council on Tuesday evening. This is a regular meeting where councillors and residents' groups get to question the local transport operators with various complaints and suggestions for improvement. Unfortunately, not many councillors attend this, which is a shame as you can learn quite a bit about the trials, tribulations and occasional triumphs of our public transport system.

I won't report the whole meeting, just the issues which particularly affected Lewisham Central ward.

We began with bus issues, and the 181 was on the agenda again. This time because of an annoying habit which drivers have recently developed when they travel southbound from Lewisham Station when there is congestion, of avoiding the High Street and going straight to Molesworth Street. Which is really irritating when you can see your 181 bus disappear before your eyes when you are waiting for it at the stop near the Mega Police Station. Metrobus said is shouldn't happen. But I told them it does.

We also discussed whether the bus stops on the east side of Lewisham High Street for southbound services were appropriately placed and adequate for passenger needs. Hard to win on this one. Sure, the stops get really crowded sometimes. But so we actually want more stops if that makes it even more difficult to get a pedestrian crossing at this accident hot spot?

We had a long discussion of the incident on 23 May when a trackside fire closed London Bridge and Charing Cross stations. I suppose it was a good opportunity to vent my frustration at being caught in that chaos, and in particular the lack of staff on the dangerously overcrowded DLR platforms. Southeaster trains (unlike Southern trains) didn't attend the meeting, but gave the following written statement:

"More could always have been done, although by mid afternoon an emergency timetable was in place, our website had been updated, posters were up at stations and additional staff were deployed. After all such incidents a post mortem is held to assess that went well and what did not. With hindsight, we should have deployed more staff at Victoria. Although there were complaints, many stakeholders including rail user groups have complimented Southeastern on its response to the incident."

I commented that I thought that response was inadequate, and that surely more lessons than that should have been learned. Or was I just being hyper-critical?

We moved onto other rail matters. Apparently, there is no early prospect of pay as you go Oyster cards being accepted on Southeastern. The target date is January 2009.

One question was was it possible to provide stair or lift access from the Sundermead estate directly onto the London bound platform? The answer was No, unless the Council paid for it.

Thence to the other side of Lewisham station where we discussed the fact that the entrance at Platform 4 had now been permanently closed, and was not going to be rescinded. This decision will undoubtedly please my constituents on Silk Mills Path who had been campaigning for the closure for some time, but it will inconvenience many people who alight at Platform 4 (me included sometimes) and have to use the crowded stairs into the subway to get out at the main entrance. There are genuine health and safety concern about the Platform 4 entrance, but many would argue that it would be better to address these rather than just close the entrance. I understand that this was the decision of the station master, who never liked the entrance being opened in the first place!

Then down the track to Hither Green where I questioned the blanket ban imposed on leaving cycles at the Springbank Road entrance to Platform 1. Southeastern it was because cycles chained at the entrance were causing an obstruction. I said this simply wasn't true, and it we really should be encouraging rather than discouraging cycling to stations.

We then discussed the motion passed unanimously at a Full Council meeting calling for the restoration of litter bins at stations in the Borough to be investigated. Southeastern had replied saying they were obeying orders from the Department of Transport's Security Division. They were permitted to have litter bins at all but the largest stations but only provided they are able to manage the litter bins with a "rigorous emptying and searching regime". Southeastern are clearly not interested in doing that.

In short, a useful meeting with helpful contributions from the bus operators and Southern rail. Shame though that Southeastern trains didn't turn up, and their written answers were generally unhelpful. Perhaps they'll be at the next meeting, on 11 September.