On 19/05/2015 00:39, Paul Corfield wrote:

On Mon, 18 May 2015 21:38:47 +0100, Mizter T
wrote:

Picked up a copy of the new "London's Rail & Tube services" map- the one
with London & the South East rail services on the reverse - dunno why
they ditched the nifty 'London Connections' name but whatever, I suppose
the newer name is more descriptive and perhaps less cryptic.

Where did you pick it up from?

Erm, I think it may have been Beckenham Junction but I wouldn't swear to
that. It's not under some sort of embargo is it, so I'm not about to get
someone fired by saying that?! For al I know it's elsewhere as well, I
haven't really been looking.

Distribution and availability of the (printed) map certainly seem rather
better these days than they once were, though still somewhat sporadic.


Anyway, it's valid from 31 May 2015, and features the solid orange of
London Overground on the West Anglia Metro services - Enfield Town,
Cheshunt (via S.S.) and Chingford (I wonder how they're going to
name/brand them), and the new solid blue of Crossra... easy, not quite
yet(!)... the new solid blue of 'TfL Rail', the interim brand being used
on the Shenfield Metro services that are transferring to TfL control (to
be operated by MTR) and will in future head into the new tunnel under
London heading west.

I was at St James Street station (Walthamstow) recently around dusk, and
it wasn't doing a very good job of being an attractive proposition of a
railway station. I think I shall take that as my measure of comparison
for the improvements that LO shall bring.

Well St James St has never been a byword for an attractive station. It
was the first suburban rail station I used in Greater London. It's
even worse now given the alterations to remove the need to pass
through the ticket hall to reach the street from platform level. I
suspect TfL will end up reversing whatever it is that WAGN / National
Express / Abellio have done (I've no idea when the changes were made).
You certainly can't put ticket gates in the place at the moment and I
understand TfL want all the stations gated. That's something of a
challenge in itself given the limited space at some stations.

I imagine that fares revenue will see a bit of a jump then! I recall
some TfL press blurb talking of the jump in passenger numbers on the NLL
in something like the first year after the LO takeover - without a doubt
'Overgroundisation' started making the whole service more attractive
even a short while after taking control (with small things like, y'know,
actually cleaning the trains!) - but the fact there was actually started
being a significant attempt to ensure people had tickets (gating
stations and RPI checks) might have just had something to do with it,
compared to Silverlink's attitude which was essentially that of defeat
(apart from passengers interchanging at Willesden Junction, which
courtesy of privatisation had been illogically placed in zone 3).

I know things are squeezed purse-strings wise (seems like it'll be the
case forever more), but I assume there is at least some funding for
improvements to the new parts of LO and also the to-be-Crossrail
stations on the GEML?

They will at least have a custodian who's in it for the long haul. I
recall in 2007 there was a memorandum of understanding between the DfT
and TfL which basically said that the handover to them of the LO routes
was a long term thing - has there been similar in the case of the Wesn
Anglia metro routes (it's kinda implicit in terms of the Shenfield line
in the context of Crossrail).