Recliner wrote:

For anyone who would like to ride the Watford North curve on a normal
service train, TfL has an Easter present for you.

Most of the Met will be closed for track work over the four day
weekend, but TfL says a "special Metropolitan line train service
operates between Northwood and Chesham/Amersham via Watford".

There will be replacement bus services covering the closed parts of
the line not covered by other LU lines.

I took a ride on this today and whilst it was great to use it the wider
experience suggests TfL needs to drastically overhaul its information
strategies.

Firstly most of the Met was down but rather than basing rail replacement
buses on the Met's own route they instead ran to connect to a variety of
other lines. However getting information about these buses at non-Met tube
stations was almost impossible.

Secondly a lot of stations did little to properly direct people to the RRBs.
Watford was one of the worst with no signage at all and just a staffer
giving vague directions to a bus stop that has no indication whatsoever that
it's where RRBs will stop en route to Watford Junction. Worse still it's
accessed via the carpark rather than the main approach.

Thirdly it was very hard to get consistent information as to what the
service was. The engineering works map shows the services disrupted and not
as running. Knowledge of the curve is rare and it doesn't appear on any map
so many people couldn't understand that a train would serve both Watford and
Chesham/Amersham.

It didn't help with the service using a mix of special and automatic notices
that confuse the hell out of people. So at Northwick the platform indicators
explained it would be a combined service every fifteen minutes with
alternating destinations and a c5 minute stopover at Watford. However the
train that arrived had onboard indicators saying it was for Watford and only
switching to the alternate service at Watford itself.

Announncements both on the train and platform at Moor Park and were telling
passengers to switch here for Chesham/Amersham despite that side of the
triangle
being closed. Similarly some announcements around Rickmansworth seem to have
assumed through running to Moor Park.

Many passengers were utterly confused and onboard train announcements did
little to help. One woman called a helpline that seemed to assume the normal
service rather than explain the special one.

The biggies for future engineering specials must be:

* Information posters must show the route as it is not as it isn't
* Electronic displays must use a single way to display the service.
* Automatic announcements must be turned off.
* RRBs should go to the stations themselves in all but exceptional
circumstances and clear maps and signs must show where the RRB stop is.


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