Colin Rosenstiel wrote:
In article , (Dave Arquati)
wrote:


Well, according to the London Transport Strategy, in the morning peak,
the Victoria line is currently "very crowded" (i.e. operating in excess
of or near to planned capacity) northbound between Victoria and Green
Park, and southbound between Finsbury Park and King's Cross, and Euston
and Warren Street. Between Stockwell and Victoria it's just "busy"
northbound. The Northern line is "very crowded" northbound from Clapham
Common to Stockwell, after which it becomes "crowded" from there to
Kennington, suggesting a significant number of passengers transfer from
the Northern to the Victoria at Stockwell.

As I'd expect, the "very crowded" section north from Victoria indicates
that the line picks up an extremely high number of passengers from the
rail terminus, and it's on this Victoria - Green Park section that
capacity has been reached. Adding any stations further south would mean
those rail transfer passengers being left behind on the platform.
Unfortunately the diagrams in the Transport Strategy don't go beyond
Finsbury Park - but the Piccadilly southbound is at capacity already at
least between Finsbury Park and KXSP.


IME a very large proportion of every Victoria Line train get on and off at
Oxford Circus.

The diagram agrees, indicating that northbound trains are "crowded"
(i.e. approaching full) before Oxford Circus but "uncrowded" after it.
Southbound trains are "crowded" before Oxford Circus and "busy" after it
(as far as Victoria).

If anyone's interesting in looking at the diagrams, they're available as
part of this 382K PDF ("real" p91, Adobe Acrobat p6):
http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/strat...inal_ch04c.pdf

--
Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London

In article ,
(Tim Roll-Pickering) wrote:

Tom Anderson wrote:

The Victoria line is essentially full at the moment.

Next question, then - how come? It has a pretty decent 28.5 tph, it's
the shortest proper line in the whole network, and all but one of its
stations are on other lines as well!

For northbound trais to be be full at Victoria, Brixton, Stockwell,
Vauxhall and Pimlico would have to be generating as many passengers
as all the Northern line stations from Morden to Kennington put
together, or the Piccadilly line stations from Cockfosters to
Caledonian Road. I don't know those areas terribly well, and i
realise that at least some of them are very densely populated areas,
but that seems quite surprising. Is it because there are few people
getting off the line before central London? I guess a lot of Picc
passengers switch to the Vic at Finsbury Park, and perhaps Northern
passengers to the Vic at Stockwell! Or is the Victoria line picking
up a lot of passengers from the suburban railway network?

I guess it could be a factor. If I were commuting up through Brixton to
Victoria and then needed the tube, I'd be inclined to get off at
Brixton and join the Victoria Line there rather than go through the
squeeze at Victoria. I'm not sure how fast the Balham - Stockwell route
is but there could be passengers using that as an alternative. Commuter
trains at Vauxhaul have often shed quite a few there at peak hours.

If I take the tube from King's Cross to the office in Westminster I take
the Victoria Line to Green Park and the Jubilee from there to Westminster
but I come back via St James Park and Victoria so I'm more likely to get a
seat. For preference I cycle as it's quicker and more predictable.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Colin Rosenstiel wrote to uk.transport.london on Sun, 22 May 2005:

If I take the tube from King's Cross to the office in Westminster I take
the Victoria Line to Green Park and the Jubilee from there to Westminster
but I come back via St James Park and Victoria so I'm more likely to get a
seat. For preference I cycle as it's quicker and more predictable.

When I worked in Westminster I normally walked to Victoria. Actually, I
usually caught a bus home - where I live, I have the option of two
trains, a tube or a bus from Victoria.
--
"Mrs Redboots"
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/
Website updated 23 May 2005

Tom Anderson wrote:

For northbound trais to be be full at Victoria, Brixton, Stockwell,
Vauxhall and Pimlico would have to be generating as many passengers
as all
the Northern line stations from Morden to Kennington put together, or
the
Piccadilly line stations from Cockfosters to Caledonian Road. I don't
know
those areas terribly well, and i realise that at least some of them
are
very densely populated areas, but that seems quite surprising. Is it
because there are few people getting off the line before central
London? I
guess a lot of Picc passengers switch to the Vic at Finsbury Park,
and
perhaps Northern passengers to the Vic at Stockwell! Or is the
Victoria
line picking up a lot of passengers from the suburban railway
network?

Since Brixton's NR service is pretty feeble, IME far more people
(myself included) join the Victoria Line at Brixton from buses. It acts
as a (pretty unpleasant) parkway station for a huge area of tubeless
London, and I think is the busiest station outside Zone 1. If only it
had a decent bus interchange (like Hammersmith)!

As Annabel and others have already pointed out, it also takes a large
amount of the Northern Line's central London passengers at Stockwell!

Rupert Candy wrote to uk.transport.london on Mon, 23 May 2005:

Since Brixton's NR service is pretty feeble, IME far more people
(myself included) join the Victoria Line at Brixton from buses. It acts
as a (pretty unpleasant) parkway station for a huge area of tubeless
London, and I think is the busiest station outside Zone 1. If only it
had a decent bus interchange (like Hammersmith)!

If the CRT ever becomes a reality, they are going to HAVE to make a
decent bus interchange, or it will be even more impossible than it
already is. I would rather get the NR service if possible to Victoria,
but the NR station is considerably more unpleasant than the Victoria
Line one, so you have to time it right!

I have to admit that one thing Ken Livingstone has done is to increase
the number of buses southbound from Brixton in the rush hour. Time was,
if I wanted to go to Streatham for 18.45 (which I do about once or twice
a week), I had to leave the house at 17.45 if I were to have any hope of
getting on a bus, and usually walk up to the stops by Brixton Police
station to have any hope of getting on a southbound bus. These days I
normally can get on the first bus that comes, and failing that, the
second.
--
"Mrs Redboots"
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/
Website updated 23 May 2005

I know it would only save a brief amount of journey time (and walking),
if they extended the Waterloo & City towards Princes Street to move it
closer to the rest of the station, but aren't they planning on a huge
reconstruction of bank station anyway?

West Ruislip is very close to the metropolitan/piccadilly line, which
is why I have never understood why the other lines don't have an
interchange station here, since it makes journeys between the lines
particularly awkward.

I thought that Thameslink ran on the east side of the river Fleet,
making a connection to St. Pauls/new station for the central line
unobstructed in this sense.

Ive walked from Temple to Aldwych - it really isnt very far (walking to
the WEST end of the box housing Temple station from the Strand Lane
entrance to Aldwych (which is where the lifts, i.e. the NORTH end of
the platforms are)). I should imagine it is even closer from the south
end of the platforms.

Maybe the WLL will just take over the Olympia branch, and use the track
to increase its own capacity.