There were no Metropolitan Lines running south of Harrow on the Hill again this
weekend, due to pre-planned engineering work. Ok, fair enough. The Chiltern
Line into Marylebone offers a nice fast one-stop service.
But once again, there seemed to be no extra carriage to take the extra
passengers on this. Last time this happened was just at the start of the sales,
Wednesday 29 December, the platform was packed, and hearing the announcement
that the Chiltern train was already too crowded before it reached Harrow, I
made a quick change of plans and hopped on the empty Amersham train (leaving
from the same platform) just as its doors closed. I'm OK, I've got my Freedom
Pass, but obviously one can't always be so flexible , and for elderly or
disabled people and those travelling with youngsters, standing in a packed
carriage all the way is quite a hardship, even if they manage to get on, and
even though it is a mercifully short journey, being one-stop.
Would it be beyond the resources of TfL and Chiltern between them to arrange to
have a longer train on these days when the extra capacity is needed? There is
plenty of platform length to spare.