"Gary Jenkins" wrote in message
om...



Anybody know why the North Kent line was chosen as the ON pilot,
rather than the Bexleyheath or Sidcup lines.

Seems perverse on the face of it that the areas which already benefit
from the Jubilee Line extension to North Greenwich get extra services.

Yes, I share your puzzlement.

I guess it could be down to Greenwich and Bexley councils lobbying for this
particular line (Greenwich obviously because of Greenwich and Woolwich
Arsenal, and Bexley would no doubt choose the North Kent to help promote the
relatively poor northern part of the borough). What was particularly
irritating though, was a removal of a Sidcup line service (the approx 19.19
Cannon Street to Crayford/Dartford) when the ON timetable revision was
announced! Outrageous - that was a 10 carriage train with plenty of
capacity and was very useful to catch at London Bridge when the 19.12 to
Dartford was delayed (which happens far too often).

In general, I don't think increasing frequency should be the priority for
the Dartford lines. I would far rather they concentrate on reliability AND
the station and train environments. Most of the Networkers are in a pretty
disgusting state and some of the stations look virtually abandoned. There
is so much more that needs to be done that doesn't depend on the rail
infrastrucure and it's very frustrating to see it not happening!

Nick