Tom Anderson wrote:
On Mon, 15 May 2006, Dave Arquati wrote:

Tom Anderson wrote:
On Sun, 14 May 2006, Paul Weaver wrote:

Edward Cowling wrote

Just about every night last week the Hammersmith & ****ty line was
either delayed or not running at all.

Does anyone ever use this line (aside from the trackshare bits)?
I've always found it faster to use the District/Picc/Central. The
lack of time indicators at stations West of Paddington (inclusive)
doesn't help either. Be nice if, on Paddington station, they had a
sign in the main concourse saying "next H&C train 12 minutes"

A couple of colleagues use it regularly; both work at UCL, which is
hard by Euston Square station, and live near either Royal Oak or
Shepherd's Bush (i think - somewhere out west, anyway). The one who
lives in Shepherd's Bush could get the Central line, but it would
involve a walk or a change, so usually doesn't.

I find using the Central & Victoria lines to get from Shepherd's Bush
to UCL (via Warren St) vastly superior to the H&C - even with the
reasonably lengthy change at Oxford Circus, the C&V route is quicker,
more frequent and more reliable.

Blimey. A trip involving a rush-hour change at Oxford Circus is better?
I had no idea the H&C was *that* bad. I'll mention it - although the
colleague in question is just starting a new job near Old Street, and is
considering moving too!

The poor frequency of the H&C makes it busy, whilst the flat junctions
make it extremely slow in the central section. The run between
Hammersmith and Paddington isn't so bad. After that though, there's a
danger that any problem on the Circle, District or Met will snowball to
all the other subsurface lines. The H&C and Circle seem to get the brunt
because they share will all the others. If a full H&C train gets turfed
out at Edgware Road en route to the City, it's a complete nightmare - it
seems to take the next three Circle/H&C trains to accommodate everyone.

Automatic operation on the Central and Victoria lines seems to make a
big difference to running times, and my personal experience of both is
of quite high reliability.

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

The HamCity line is pretty disastrous: I have to go from Paddington to
Baker Street every day on my way home and change from an Ealing
Broadway FGW/HC train. Often the overground train will pull up
alongside the HamCity platforms but it is still easier to walk all the
way to the Bakerloo Line than wait for the HamCity. Even when it does
turn up (and, bizarrely, for a low freq tube service at a mainline
station, there are no time screens) it often waits at Edgware Road for
5 minutes.

My solution would be to trim the HamCity so that it only runs to
Edgware Road and turns round there. Increase the frequency to
10-15/hour.

Jase

wrote:
The HamCity line is pretty disastrous: I have to go from Paddington to
Baker Street every day on my way home and change from an Ealing
Broadway FGW/HC train. Often the overground train will pull up
alongside the HamCity platforms but it is still easier to walk all the
way to the Bakerloo Line than wait for the HamCity. Even when it does
turn up (and, bizarrely, for a low freq tube service at a mainline
station, there are no time screens) it often waits at Edgware Road for
5 minutes.

My solution would be to trim the HamCity so that it only runs to
Edgware Road and turns round there. Increase the frequency to
10-15/hour.

No, that would make it worse than useless... trainloads of people
wanting to go to the City being turfed out at Edgware Road onto the
Circle line.

Maybe it should become a Crossrail branch - then all those trains that
will be wasted by terminating them at Paddington from the east can carry
on to somewhere useful. The only problem is that in order to extend the
platforms, Goldhawk Road, Shepherd's Bush and the forthcoming White City
might just end up being the same station...


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

wrote:

My solution would be to trim the HamCity so that it only runs to
Edgware Road and turns round there. Increase the frequency to
10-15/hour.

What about traffic from the north side of the circle to east London? I
routinely travel between Euston Square and Stepney Green - how would I make
the journey under this?