Paul Corfield wrote:
On Tue, 27 Feb 2007 19:01:20 +0000, Edward Cowling London UK
wrote:

I used the North London Line to get from Highbury and Islington the last
two days there were enough people to fill 8 carriages, but only 3 on the
train.

It must be common, because there was no hesitancy getting on board,
everyone runs and crams into every available inch of space.

Is this cattle truck scenario the norm ??

Apparently it is awful M-F peaks.

I've not used it then but I have used it on Saturdays - standing room
only west from Gospel Oak and the same back from Willesden Junction. I
was genuinely surprised (but pleased) as to how busy it was.

Even on a Sunday when it's only every 30 mins it's pretty busy with
almost all seats taken - it was a pleasant day so a lot of people seemed
to be heading for Kew and Richmond. Thinking back there were LU
engineering works on the District and Picc that day so that might have
skewed the numbers.

I'm pretty convinced that once orbital rail improvements start to
materialise that there will be a surge in demand that is currently
suppressed by relatively poor service levels and / or concerns about
station facilities and security. I've slightly lost track as to what
improvements are due when - as TfL and Network Rail have different views
as to what is needed - but I think TfL will be exercising its option for
new trains and asking for signal and platform enhancements within 18-24
months of Overground starting this November.

I think the publication time of the Cross London RUS and TfL's plans
were badly timed against each other, and the situation now is
progressing much better. I've had some dealings with this recently -
plans for the stations are advancing at quite a pace and Network Rail
will be doing some batches of large-scale infrastructure works on the
NLL and GOBLIN over three summers from 2009. The idea is to be ready to
run the high-frequency service before 2012, and those infrastructure
works will allow that. I'm not privy to the details of what exactly is
planned, but that's how I understand it.

--
Dave Arquati
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London