On Apr 30, 1:44*pm, wrote:

On 30 Apr, 12:45, Mizter T wrote:

[big snip]

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.

Thanks - I thought it likely that this new service would be connected
with the peak time extra services on the WLL.


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.

There have been suggestions that LO trains will perform some
interesting positioning moves using lines in south London when the
ELLX opens up for business - I think this was based on exchanges
between the ORR and TfL with regards to track access - so I was just
thinking that, once ELLX phase 2 opens, these positioning moves might
involve trains coming from the Willesden depot down the WLL and then
straight on to the South London Line and on to the ELL (via the new
link between Queens Rd Peckham and Surrey Quays). That said, I suppose
the point of such moves might well be that of getting trains down to
West Croydon / Crystal Palace for the start of service.

Nonetheless it does seem sensible to me that LO could make use of the
direct route from Wandsworth Road to the WLL instead of having to go
to Clapham Jn and reverse (and certainly more useful for LO than for
Southern as a diversionary route).

We shall of course see what happens in due course.