On Sat, 9 Dec 2006, asdf wrote:

On Fri, 08 Dec 2006 22:57:22 +0000, Paul Corfield wrote:

But why don't they do some similar bribery to get more trains running
on the overground ? I come in from Palmers Green to Moorgate every
morning and there are huge gaps in the service.

TfL have limited rights with respect to main line rail and can offer to
fund extra services. However if there is no capacity available to run
them it is a somewhat academic exercise surely?

That may be an issue at peak times, but it certainly isn't off-peak. The
off-peak service is only 3tph (weekday daytimes) or 2tph (evenings and
all weekend). This is very poor for a suburban "metro" service - if it
were run by TfL I'm sure there would be at least 6tph on each branch
(which they manage to run in the peaks, so there must be capacity for
it). The Piccadilly Line runs through similar areas, and manages to
justify something like 18tph.

I tend to think the existence of the Piccadilly is precisely the reason
the off-peak services are so poor: everyone near a GN station is near
enough a Piccadilly (or Northern) station that they don't actually need a
strong off-peak service.

I would like to see a proper off-peak service myself, though,
specifically, one that goes to Moorgate at the weekends and later at night
during the week. It's a hugely useful link from north London to the City,
which lets you avoid the detour via King's Cross you otherwise have to
make if you're going to or from anywhere vaguely eastish.

tom

--
Argumentative and pedantic, oh, yes. Although it's properly called
"correct" -- Huge