On Dec 4, 8:24*pm, "Peter Masson" wrote:
"Roland Perry" wrote



Maybe - but when I lived there a significant number of long distance
trains had their penultimate stop at Shenfield. And then there were a
whole bunch more that stopped every station to Harold Wood then fast to
Stratford.

With the increase in longer distance commuting there's no longer room on the
Fast Lines for Harold Wood and Brentwood commuters, so peak trains on the
Fast Lines are non-stop from Liverpool Street or Stratford to Shenfield or
beyond. This means that Brentwood and Harold Wood commuters have to take a
stopping train on the Slow Lines (some run fast Ilford to Stratford), but it
also eliminates peak trains crossing between Fast and Slow Lines west of
Shenfield.

The main change I seem to remember is in the off-peak, when the
stoppers got extended from Gidea Park to Shenfield all day instead of
just the peaks, so Brentwood and Harold Wood got more frequent
services but longer journey times.

They used to be served by trains from Southend (or Southminster) which
then did Romford and Stratford or Romford, Ilford and Stratford. I am
pretty sure that they used the slow lines though.

The peak services from Brentwood and Harold Wood were more stopping
than the off-peak, but I think generally non-stop from Ilford to
Stratford and quite similar to now, when the peak is the only time
that the all stations start from Gidea Park.



In operational terms running Crossrail exclusively on the Slow
Lines as far as Shenfield * makes sense. Some should probably turn back at
Gidea Park, and there's a case for running more trains on this branch in the
high peak, at the expense of Abbey Wood trains, so that non-Crossrail
stopping trains between Shenfield and Liverpool Street (Main) can be
eliminated.

Peter