After a spell on the NLL sampling a 378 yesterday, I headed towards home via
Willesden Junction and the West London Line.

(Incidentally, I was very impressed with the Gospel Oak - where I boarded -
'Overground effect'. Bright, well staffed, clean, felt safe etc. A far cry
from the Gospel Oak I remember of yore - closed booking office, dirty,
broken down Bubble Cars on the GOBLIN etc).

Willesden - Clapham was a 313, being the 'new trains' we are expecting
shortly in Brighton. 3-NOL? Having started pretty well loaded, we were
overwhelmed by the Westfield crowd at Shepherds Bush. Predominantly
well-heeled looking young couples, returning with lots of boutique-style
bags to Battersea, Wandsworth and the nicer bits of Surrey, I imagine. Not
sure what to make of this, really. On the one hand, it's clear Westfield
must have a significant public transport penetration. Much better than the
public transport disaster which is Lakeside. On the other hand, you can't
shop in two places at the same time, so somewhere else must be hurting
badly. Oxford Street, perhaps - and *yet again* much of central London
surface transport was seriously disrupted by a march. But the tourists
should keep zone 1 shopping in good health, so it must be the high streets
feeling the pain.

Real crush loading on leaving Olympia. The real surprise, for me, was
Imperial Wharf. I expected very little patronage, the parallel being some of
the stations on the DLR extensions in the early days. In fact, in my
carriage alone, I reckon about 30 alighted. As we pulled into Clapham, a
sizeable throng were waiting to board, albeit swelled by the Chelsea
football crowd. Not the quiet backwater I remember from a decade or more
ago.

I imagine, as Christmas shopping ramps up, there will be people unable to
board at Shepherds Bush. Does this happen already? God forbid that IKEA open
a place at/near Westfield, and pax try to struggle on with self-assembly
wardrobes etc........

Chris