On Fri, 4 Mar 2005 22:36:42 -0000, "Colin"
wrote:

It is a logical decision to me.

1) The number of people who want to travel late on a Friday & Saturday night
is *much* greater than those who want to travel early on Saturday and Sunday
morning, so it's for the greater good. The number of people cramming on to
last trains out of the West End at the moment, compared to those using first
trains on Saturday & Sunday, is evidence enough.

I assume you've not travelled on early morning trains on those days or
attempted to get across London to or from Heathrow airport with luggage.
There are a lot of people who rely on early morning trains at the
weekend. I accept it will be less than those who would use a later
finishing tube service but I'm not convinced by the run the tubes later
argument.

2) Road traffic before 7.30am on Saturday, and before 8.30am on Sunday is
about as light as it gets, so the difference in journey time between bus and
tube is minimised (particularly if some express buses are laid on to
compensate for the lack of tube).

But there has been no mention of any compensatory bus services being
provided. As TfL have no money to improve normal bus services beyond
current standards, even where there is a proven need, then I fail to see
where extra express buses are going to come from. Anyway if there is a
big enough demand to sustain express buses surely it's better to run the
Tube ?

3) The tube will still be working in good time for the majority of Saturday
& Sunday users. Shop workers in stores with regular weekend opening hours
(9am start Saturday, 10 or 11am start Sunday) will not be affected. Some
jobs where shift changes are based around tube times could move the shift
change by an hour if necessary.

People work in lots of other parts of commerce / public sector than
shops. The whole city has a level of activity that requires people to
be able to get to their places of employment - often hours before any
public opening times. I take it that hospitals, police stations and a
whole range of essential service personnel will be given their own
personal transport to get them to work?
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!