What a mess. Just had a frustrating time there. I was going from Wembley
Park to Canning Town so was considering taking the Met to Baker Street then
changing at Baker Street. Unless there happened to be a train across the
platform at Finchley Road, in which case I'd change there.

To begin with, both platforms 5 and 6 are southbound Met lines. I ran down
the stairs of platform 5 and didn't make the Met train that was on the
platform. Doors closed in my face.

Looked up at the board: 8 minutes till the next one.

So I looked over at the dot matrix display on platform 6, which is up the
stairs and across and down again. There was a Jubilee Line train coming in
1 minute so I figured that I would take that, but if a Met was arriving on
platform 6 in a minute or two then I'd go and take that instead.

Nothing on the dot matrix, just something about the Metropolitan Line.

And then a Baker Street Met line train pulls into platform 6. Just as the
Jubilee line train arrives. I made a dash for it up the stairs, but slipped
and almost hurt myself. I didn't make it, and when I returned to the
Jubilee platform that one had also departed.

What a mess. How easy would it be to put a display between platforms 5 and
6 giving the times of the next trains so you could make a decision, with
time? Or to make sure the display on platform 6 is accurate. Or better
still try and find a way to get ALL trains to arrive at platform 5 (and
leave platform 6 just for those fast ones that don't stop at Wembley Park).
Grrrr.

I can just see thousands of ****ed up football fans or concert goers all
trying to get to platform 6 suddenly, like I did.

On Sun, 31 Dec 2006 01:24:09 -0000, Tristán White
wrote:

What a mess. Just had a frustrating time there. I was going from Wembley
Park to Canning Town so was considering taking the Met to Baker Street
then
changing at Baker Street. Unless there happened to be a train across the
platform at Finchley Road, in which case I'd change there.

To begin with, both platforms 5 and 6 are southbound Met lines. I ran
down
the stairs of platform 5 and didn't make the Met train that was on the
platform. Doors closed in my face.

Looked up at the board: 8 minutes till the next one.

So I looked over at the dot matrix display on platform 6, which is up the
stairs and across and down again. There was a Jubilee Line train coming
in
1 minute so I figured that I would take that, but if a Met was arriving
on
platform 6 in a minute or two then I'd go and take that instead.

Nothing on the dot matrix, just something about the Metropolitan Line.

And then a Baker Street Met line train pulls into platform 6. Just as the
Jubilee line train arrives. I made a dash for it up the stairs, but
slipped
and almost hurt myself. I didn't make it, and when I returned to the
Jubilee platform that one had also departed.

What a mess. How easy would it be to put a display between platforms 5
and
6 giving the times of the next trains so you could make a decision, with
time? Or to make sure the display on platform 6 is accurate. Or better
still try and find a way to get ALL trains to arrive at platform 5 (and
leave platform 6 just for those fast ones that don't stop at Wembley
Park).
Grrrr.

I can just see thousands of ****ed up football fans or concert goers all
trying to get to platform 6 suddenly, like I did.

It's a swine, I agree.
As one who used to commute from Willesden Green to Uxbridge daily [same
probs on plats 1&2] I'm afraid I can't offer much advice. I still use WP
quite often and the best advice is to hang about on the bridge where you
can observe all 3 platforms. Still no guarantee because you have to watch
the front of the train to make sure the one pulling into plat 6 isn't
terminating there for Neasden depot, and even then, it's quite often that
a Baker Street / Aldgate train arriving on one plat will leave after one
that arrives on the other later. [does that make sense?]

Bottom line:
Forget the Jubly. If you are going south of Finchley Road then the Met
will almost always be quicker.
Wait on the bridge and observe destination blinds of trains arriving at
plats 5&6.
Go down stairs to first Baker Street or Aldgate train and ask driver if he
is first out of Wembley. [The stairs take you to the front of the train
and the driver is usually on the platform phone by then, because he/she
never has a clue what is going on either, but at least they are talking to
the line controller.]
On arrival at Finchley Road, unless a Jubly is indicated as 1 min or less,
stay on Met and change at Baker St.

I think the intention is that eventually all Metropolitan stopping trains
at WP will use plat 5. Not sure if I'm correct in that assumption, or when
it will ever happen. Till then, wait on the bridge in the warm & dry.

Happy travels,

--
Fig

Tristán White wrote:
What a mess. How easy would it be to put a display between platforms 5 and
6 giving the times of the next trains so you could make a decision, with
time? Or to make sure the display on platform 6 is accurate. Or better
still try and find a way to get ALL trains to arrive at platform 5 (and
leave platform 6 just for those fast ones that don't stop at Wembley Park).
Grrrr.

Platform 6 isn't meant to be used that often by the Met Line; under
normal circumstances, you're almost always better off sticking with
Platform 5. A former Met driver once said that in the old days when the
fast Amersham services non-stopped Wembley Park, they would run through
platforms 1 and 6 at line speed; the stopping services would always use
platforms 2 and 5.

That said, a display at the top of the stairs to the platforms
themselves would be nice, but I think there are displays elsewhere in
the station that show the same thing. There is also the fact that train
information from the Harrow SB train describer is a bit thin; if/when a
new TD is built for trains exiting the Harrow area to the south, the
displays will have something more useful to show.

On Sun, 31 Dec 2006 03:00:31 -0000, Fig wrote:

On Sun, 31 Dec 2006 01:24:09 -0000, Tristán White
wrote:

So I looked over at the dot matrix display on platform 6, which is up the
stairs and across and down again. There was a Jubilee Line train coming
in
1 minute so I figured that I would take that, but if a Met was arriving
on
platform 6 in a minute or two then I'd go and take that instead.

Nothing on the dot matrix, just something about the Metropolitan Line.

From my limited experience, the dot matrix displays on the fast
platforms (1 and 6) never seem to announce anything at all. Same goes
for the indicator in the ticket hall - it never announces anything on
1 & 6.

It's a swine, I agree.
As one who used to commute from Willesden Green to Uxbridge daily [same
probs on plats 1&2] I'm afraid I can't offer much advice. I still use WP
quite often and the best advice is to hang about on the bridge where you
can observe all 3 platforms. Still no guarantee because you have to watch
the front of the train to make sure the one pulling into plat 6 isn't
terminating there for Neasden depot, and even then, it's quite often that
a Baker Street / Aldgate train arriving on one plat will leave after one
that arrives on the other later. [does that make sense?]

AFAIK, if there are trains simultaneously on platforms 5 and 6, the
one on 6 will *always* leave first. This is due to platform 6 being
signalled to allow trains not to stop (so they don't have to slow to
5mph for the starter signal at the end of the platform), so the
convergence of the lines just after the station is within the overlap
of the starter signal on 6, but not the one on 5. So it's impossible
for a train to depart from platform 5 when there's one signalled into
platform 6.

This is all more or less amateur guesswork, so if anyone knows better,
please say so.

I think the intention is that eventually all Metropolitan stopping trains
at WP will use plat 5. Not sure if I'm correct in that assumption, or when
it will ever happen. Till then, wait on the bridge in the warm & dry.

All off-peak fast trains currently stop at Wembley Park, and I don't
know of any plans for that to change.

Tristán White wrote:
What a mess. Just had a frustrating time there.

snip

Sounds about as fun as my last couple of attempts to get a westbound
Metropolitan from Whitechapel. (No announcements, rarely any displays,
after standing on the Westbound platform for ten minutes and realising
that WB Met were departing from the other island which is ONLY marked
Eastbound, finally crossing over and waiting there, no indication as to
which of the two there will leave first, eventually the empty Met train
departs with no announcement, leaving a full train of passengers (who
had been there before the second train arrived) sitting there while an
empty train went off the way we all wanted to go. And when ours left 10
mins later, the same happened to a new set of people on the third train
which had by then also arrived.)

I'm glad I don't have to change there too often.

In reply to news post, which asdf wrote on
Sun, 31 Dec 2006 -
On Sun, 31 Dec 2006 03:00:31 -0000, Fig wrote:

I think the intention is that eventually all Metropolitan stopping trains
at WP will use plat 5. Not sure if I'm correct in that assumption, or when
it will ever happen. Till then, wait on the bridge in the warm & dry.

All off-peak fast trains currently stop at Wembley Park, and I don't
know of any plans for that to change.

I think the fast to and from Amersham trains now stop at Wembley Park
for possible crew changes. They never used to and as a long distance
commuter, I wish they would not! This would mean all trains would stop
at platform 2 and 5 and keep 1 and 6 for non scheduled stops. For a
while, trains from Amersham to London were routed by the slow lines
south of Harrow, not stopping at Northwick Park and Preston Road, but
sopping at platform 5 at Wembley. However, this often meant the train
caught up a previous ex Watford or ex Uxbridge service and crawled south
of Harrow which was just so frustrating. If they have to change crew at
Wembley, then why not just stop for this, not a passenger stop. This
would make it easier for people at Wembley to always know the platform
and the loss of 2 trains an hour can't be that much of a hardship.
--
Matthew P Jones
www.ThisIsAmersham.com www.amersham.org.uk www.metroland.org.uk
Don't reply directly it will not be read. You can reply to knap AT Nildram then dot co then dot uk

On Sun, 31 Dec 2006, Dave Newt wrote:

Sounds about as fun as my last couple of attempts to get a westbound
Metropolitan from Whitechapel.

ISTM that trying to catch a Metropolitan of any sort at Whitechapel is
something that's going to involve quite a bit of frustration!

tom

--
Don't ask me man, i didn't do it.

Tom Anderson wrote:
On Sun, 31 Dec 2006, Dave Newt wrote:

Sounds about as fun as my last couple of attempts to get a westbound
Metropolitan from Whitechapel.

ISTM that trying to catch a Metropolitan of any sort at Whitechapel is
something that's going to involve quite a bit of frustration!


Make that Hammersmith & City - sorry :-)

Matthew P Jones wrote:
I think the fast to and from Amersham trains now stop at Wembley Park
for possible crew changes.

They do.

They never used to and as a long distance commuter, I wish they would not!

I believe that a secondary reason why the fast Amershams started to stop
at Wembley Park in the off-peak was because they were mostly empty,
leading people to complain about half-empty trains zooming through the
station and full trains stopping. Crew changes are of course the primary
reason, but stopping a half-empty train to allow people to get to Harrow
or Baker Street for onward connections probably doesn't hurt in the
off-peak.

This would make it easier for people at Wembley to always know the platform
and the loss of 2 trains an hour can't be that much of a hardship.

This is true, but a decent provision of DMIs would lessen this
particular drawback.

TheOneKEA wrote:

I believe that a secondary reason why the fast Amershams started to stop
at Wembley Park in the off-peak was because they were mostly empty,
leading people to complain about half-empty trains zooming through the
station and full trains stopping. Crew changes are of course the primary
reason, but stopping a half-empty train to allow people to get to Harrow
or Baker Street for onward connections probably doesn't hurt in the
off-peak.

London Underground can hardly be blamed for the fast Amershams being
virtually empty most of the time, as people choose to use Chiltern
services instead, even opting to wait half an hour at Marylebone for the
next train if they've just missed one!

It remains to be seen if that remains the case when the new "S" stock is
introduced, mind you.

Classic example occurred on Thursday just gone. 16:57 from Marylebone
(booked as 4 coaches) had "issues" coupling, so they used the 2 car unit
that should have formed the rear portion of the 17:57 instead. As a
result, it was full and standing and cleared down well before departure,
given there's no point advertising a train that you physically can't get
any more passengers on.

I wouldn't be surprised to find that the 16:30, 16:40, 17:00 and 17:10
departures from Baker Street were all virtually empty though.

Cheers,

Barry