On 30 Apr, 12:45, Mizter T wrote:
On Apr 30, 12:26*pm, EE507 wrote:





On Apr 30, 12:09*pm, Mizter T wrote:

I still find the whole thing rather absurd. The XC service never
provided a link between Wandsworth Road, KO and Ealing Broadway - it
only ever stopped at KO. No-one in their right mind would use this new
parliamentary service as a way of getting between any of the stations
served by the defunct XC service. That said, I know the law isn't
concerned with what services were provided over certain lines, just
that the lines were 'passenger served'. And I suppose it's perhaps a
case of better the devil you know (in the form of these rather
peculiar rules) than the devil you don't (i.e. much weaker or non-
existent closure rules).

Yes, the belated Passenger Focus campaign completely missed the point
in its determination to keep these bits of steel and concrete
technically open for passengers. They could have suggested long-term
service patterns to serve the line for the benefit of the public, or
campaigned for a mechanism by which the route could be 'mothballed' in
passenger service terms until a better use can be found for it. No
doubt they will now issue a press release crowing about their
'victory' in securing a useless service. Well done PF!

Thanks for those comments. This new train 'service', as much fun as it
will be for rail enthusiasts and lovers of the strange and the
peculiar (which does, I suppose, include myself!), won't actually
provide anything extra for the normal travelling public apart from
delivering a few inattentive passengers to Wandsworth Road or
Kensington Olympia instead of their desired destination.


There is already a train that shuttles between Clapham Junction and
Olympia at the end of the morning peak (08.33 ex Shepherds Bush
(formed from the 07.47 East Croydon arriving 08.21), then 08.48 ex CJ,
09.09 ex Olympia, 09.24 ex CJ and 09.45 ex Olympia) and . I assume
that this unit will make an extra trip to Olympia (maybe ECS) and then
work the Wandsworth Road train. The only extra cost to Southern will
be the extra crew time taken to get to whereever the unit stables,
plus the extra track access charges. I don't think that this train has
to be a dual voltage unit, as it stays South of Shepherd's Bush,
although I don't have the diagrams to hand. Southern do use 455s when
the Milton Keynes services can't run onto the WCML.

There is a similar evening peak train that starts with the 17.24 ex
Clapham Junction - Shepherd's Bush, then the 17.50 to Croydon, again
it looks like the unit will just arrive on the West London line early,
via Wandsworth Road.


I'm no expert on the details of railway closure procedures - in
particular I'm pretty hazy about the rules with regards to non-
passenger served lines - but the law with regards to closing/keeping
in service passenger served lines seems fuzzy at best.



Given that LO orbital services will terminate at CLJ in the longer
term i.e. not do a complete circuit, could we see a parliamentary
genuine Ringbahn service if they are asked to serve this section of
line? Phil Sayer will be exhausted by the time he's read all the ELL,
NLL and WLL stations twice :-)

I doubt that'll happen. The ELLX and NLL services are to be quite
separate - the ELLX will terminate at Highbury & Islington on the
southern pair of tracks (with some trains terminating at Dalston Jn),
whilst the NLL will use the northern pair of tracks (this is all to be
constructed during the 4 month closure of the NLL in early 2010).
There will be a link between the ELLX and NLL, but it's only for the
purpose of stock transfer etc - I think it's a single line, and the
signalling definitely won't be for high-throughput of passenger
services. All that said, of course the set-up doesn't necessarily
preclude a once or twice a day parliamentary 'Ringbahn' train!

As I said earlier, I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised to see
this KO to Wandsworth Road duty being performed by London Overground
in years to come once the ELLX phase 2 to Clapham Jn starts running.

Personally, I can't see LO taking over the Wandsworth Road section, as
they don't need the route knowledge for diversionary reasons. I can
forsee that they will run any Kensington - Ealing service though, as
they will have their class 172s based nearby.