"Edward Cowling London UK" wrote in message
news
Is it any better since Dross Link went and Ken took it over ?

It depends how you class "better". The service frequency and reliability is
much the same as before, however as others have said this is, and was, never
going to change overnight - I remain postivie that in the coming couple of
years we will see this improve. There are some later trains in the evening
however.

With regards as to the stations, in my opinion this has already seen a
marked improvment, and it has been quicker coming than I would have
expected. Quite a few stations have had their dingy ticket halls ripped out
and started again, the most extreme improvements that I have seen being West
Hampstead and Acton Central, and many have had ticket gates added.

All Overground stations are now staffed from the very first train to the
very last train, though bear in mind this doesn't mean that they are selling
tickets. This has really helped several of the stations, and some of the
more unfriendly stations on the route do now have staff meeting every train
at the platform - the Goblin seems to have benefited the most from this.
Having said all that, my experience is that some stations still go
completely unstaffed at times. Kensal Rise had nobody there yesterday
afternoon for example, so whether this is teething troubles as they build up
staff members I don't know. I mentioend on this newgroup a week or so ago my
delight that a member of staff was tidying the platform up of the *single*
newspaper on the floor and told someone to stop smoking in the shelter at a
station where I used to be cowering next to the help point late at night.

Most of the stations on the North London Line have started repainting
everything cream, brown and orange and oblitering Silverlink's ghastly blue
and flourescent green. They have also added some rather nice retro looking
wooden benches, how long these will last is another matter. London
Overground have fixed anything that wasn't working, for example all the PA's
have been turned up, speakers fixed, and any information screens and heated
waiting rooms seem to be all in working order, when they were not some weeks
before under Silverlink.

The station improvements will be great when they are completed, so its
really now all eyes on the trains. For now, its the same old 313's albeit
slightly tidier and with ticket checks - I have had more tickets checked on
the NLL in the last month then I had in the previous two years.

Incidentally, I was a little surprised last night to find a video on YouTube
that praised Silverlink as the country's greatest operator. Perhaps I was
alone in thinking that it always single-handed ruined any journey that
involved it and was too lazy even to collect fares for its own services!
Actually, perhaps that is why some people loved it, as under TfL they have
to pay to use it.

Phew, that turned into rather an essay, but I hope it helped!

Best Wishes,
LEWIS