On Feb 15, 3:59*pm, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:42:44 -0000, "Tim Roll-Pickering"





wrote:
PASSENGERS URGED TO CHECK THE CUTS IN NEW 20TH FEBRUARY TIMETABLE

The Barking-Gospel Oak Line User Group (BGOLUG) has criticised Transport for
London (TfL) for making a late decision to cancel extra trains from a new
timetable that would have eased the line's chronic overcrowding. BGOLUG is
angry that the worsening overcrowding which passengers have been suffering
for the last two years will now continue for the rest of this year.

When Network Rail published the December 2009-May 2010 National Timetable,
trains on the Barking-Gospel Oak Line were shown as being stepped up from
the current 20-minute frequency to every 15 minutes during the busiest times
from Monday 22nd February. But TfL Rail's recently published timetable,
effective from 20th February, make no mention of the more frequent peak
service and even reveals that some trains in the current timetable will be
axed. London Overground has yet to respond to a BGOLUG request for an
explanation.

[snip]

BGOLUG have been told of passengers at Leyton Midland Road travelling to
Gospel Oak in the morning being unable to board trains and having to travel
in the opposite direction to Barking to get a seat. Evening eastbound trains
are now so full passengers are being left behind at Blackhorse Road and some
are travelling back to South Tottenham in order to be able to get on a
train.

I have to say that this is a serious concern. The timetable that was
published in the national timetable in December did provide a slight
improvement. It did create some odd headways on the edges of the peak
period but I assume that was necessary to cope with freight paths. Now
we get a cutback.

What is not at all clear is who is responsible for the change to the
timetable. There is nothing at all in any of the recent TfL board or
panel papers that gives even a hint that there are problems with the
GOBLIN timetable. I sometimes see the trains at Blackhorse Road in the
afternoon peak. You can see people really struggling to board trains so
I imagine it is as bad as the user group are stating. I am really
beginning to wonder if we are ever going to get the timetable
improvements. Thankfully my scepticism about the trains is partly put to
rest by there being photos of the trains under test / construction on
the London Reconnections blog.

Is it possible that the improved timetable from later this month was
reliant on having some of the extra units in place. The fleet will be
growing from 6 x 2 car class 150s to 8 x 2 car class 172s. Even simple
replacement of class 150s with class 172s may give an increase in
capacity due to the longer vehicles (although there will be less
seating due to the 2+2 arrangement). Running more than a twenty minute
frequency looks difficult with the existing fleet size.