A PILOT project aims to encourage passengers to make better use of metro-style rail services.

The Overground Network (ON) scheme promotes consistent standards for service frequency, passenger information and station security across four key south London routes.

One of the routes is Connex South Eastern’s London Bridge to Dartford via Greenwich service, which will increase its frequency on weekdays from two to four trains an hour until 10pm.

The service stops at Deptford, Greenwich, Maze Hill, Westcombe Park, Charlton, Woolwich Dockyard, Woolwich Arsenal, Plumstead, Abbey Wood, Belvedere, Erith and Slade Green.

Investment has been made to install new station signs and better information points, which include clearer route and network maps, better frequency information and details of connections to other modes of public transport.

ON, which is a partnership between the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA), Transport for London (TfL) and train operators Connex South Eastern, South Central Trains and South West Trains, says it has brought CCTV coverage and help points up to a consistent standard at all 41 stations along the four key routes.

SRA chairman Richard Bowker said: “When people see the ON sign we want them to associate it with frequent services, good standards of information and a secure station environment.” London Transport Users’ Committee chairman Suzanne May said: “For too many people, south London’s railways remain uncharted territory because they have not been presented as an integrated and easily-intelligible network, comparable with the Underground whose map is recognised as a model of information design.”