Paul Corfield wrote:


The problem with August closures is that while the peak is quieter the
off peak most certainly is not. Having chunks of the Tube shut down for
weeks during the peak holiday season is perhaps not the best idea. There
isn't an ideal time to do it but Christmas and New Year is probably
better although weather can play havoc with the best laid plans. Given
my experience this morning it is quite evident that whoever is "in
charge" (hah) of rail replacements can't quite anticipate (despite
months of practice) that roundly 60-70 people can turn up to travel in
the space of 5-10 minutes around 0850 in the morning in Walthamstow.
Sending one partly filled double decker bus to shift that sort of crowd
doesn't work. If they can't get that right how the heck would they cope
with a typical AM or PM peak loading?


I'm sure 100+ people could, due to freak circumstances, turn up within
5-10 minutes at Walthamstow, but LU can't (unfortunately) afford to have
an endless supply of buses ready and waiting just in case this happens.
A lot of effort goes into planning rail replacement services and I
think, most of the time, they get it right, or not far off.

While there are sometimes occasions where National Express East Anglia
and the Victoria Line are closed at the same time, in the majority of
cases they are not. Ticket acceptance is always arranged on NXEA, so the
quickest route for most from Walthamstow into Central London is on the
Chingford - Liverpool Street service. The overall *strategy* takes this
into account and bus frequencies are planned with this in mind. Even so,
I believe the replacement bus is scheduled to run at least every 5
minutes from Walthamstow (and probably more often) even early in the
morning, so if gaps are occuring, please get in touch with the relevant
team and they can investigate.

Cheers

Steve M