Basil Jet wrote:
On 2015\08\06 02:36, Recliner wrote:
wrote:
In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:
In message , at 18:24:12 on Wed, 5
Aug 2015, Robin9 remarked:
Not being a major rail enthusiast, I didn't know about this service. You
describe it as "Chiltern to Paddington" but from where does it start?
Surely further afield than West Ruislip?
No.
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/sear.../0000-2359?stp
=WVS&show=all&order=wtt&toc=CH
Looks pretty parliamentary to me.
It does, but runs five days a week, unlike most parlys. It's there to
maintain driver route knowledge, for whenever Chiltern has to divert to
Paddington if Marylebone can't be used.
The current version is Oyster-friendly, so it's used more than when it
started from outside the London zones. So, by running a shorter service,
Chiltern probably collects a bit more revenue from the Oyster pot.
I can't help thinking that giving the Greenford Branch over to Chiltern,
extending all of the Greenford Trains to South or West Ruislip and half
of them to Aylesbury via Princes Risborough to replace the current hourly
service on that line, would achieve similar results in a better way. It
would need a new platform to be built at Greenford though, and I'm not
sure if the Greenford Branch still has chronic speed restrictions.
The Greenford branch is certainly very slow, but that may just be because
of the closely-spaced stops and relaxed timings. Of course, the service
will soon start at West Ealing rather than Paddington, as Crossrail will be
taking its Relief line paths into Paddington.
It would be a pity to lose the convenient cross-platform interchange at
Greenford, from which there are already frequent Central Line connections
through to West Ruislip. So it's hard to see who would benefit from
Chiltern running to West Ealing rather than Paddington.
But as the GWR moves away from DMU services in the area, it could still
make sense for Chiltern to take over the 2 tph West Ealing to Greenford
shuttle, perhaps also running additional 1 tph West Ealing to Aylesbury
services.