Mizter T wrote:

This service will fulfil the requirement to keep this route served by
passenger trains - in other words it'll be a parliamentary train, in
the modern meaning of the phrase. Thus it will replace the so called
'Ghost Bus' rail-replacement bus service between Wandsworth Road and
Kensington Olympia, though the aforementioned bus will have to
continue serving the remainder of the route from Kensington Olympia to
Ealing Broadway so as to (supposedly) 'cover' the other two stretches
of line that the XC service used to traverse.

AIUI under the new south central franchise (i.e. what is currently
Southern), the franchisee will be required to operate a service or
services that cover all the relevant lines between Wandsworth Road,
Kensington Olympia and Ealing Broadway - so they'll either need to
send a class 171 Turbostar up to do this or come to some arrangement
with FGW to provide a service/ unit for this (as parts of the route
from Kenny O to Ealing Broadway lack not only juice rails, but juice
wires too).


As I noted in the last discussions about this, there seems little reason why
the Shepherds Bush to Ealing Broadway stretch cannot just be delegated to
the LU Central line. It is basically what they've just done with Farringdon
to Moorgate after all, so is a sure sign they just can't be bothered to go
through the closure procedures.

As you rightly say, the trains that are missing ran Reading - Kenny O -
Gatwick. This half baked palliative is fairly pointless on its own - I hope
when the full timetable becomes clear they aren't actually running ECS in
the opposite direction, but that the opposite moves are part of the
bigger WLL picture, ie peak extras...

Paul S