Someone showed me this evening TfL's press release of 18 July on the
Piccadilly Line extension to T5, which I had missed when it was issued.
On that day BAA handed over the extension to LU. The press release is at
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/medi...ntre/5507.aspx

Ken Livingstone is quoted as saying "This is a major milestone in the
delivery of the new Piccadilly Line extension to Heathrow Terminal 5.
From March 2008, passengers will benefit from faster, more frequent
services on the line along with increased capacity."
I assume that by "faster" he means that they will absorb some of the
generous recovery allowances in the current timetable.

But I wonder how he justifies the "more frequent" tag? According to the
press release, trains will run to Heathrow every 5 minutes, as at
present, with alternate trains serving T4 and T5. The T4 trains will
have a layover of 7 minutes at T4, so passengers for T123 should wait
and catch the next T5 train in order to reach T123 more quickly. So
T123 and T5 will effectively have a 6 tph service (every 10 minutes)
westbound, T5 will have 6 tph eastbound, and T123 will have 12 tph
eastbound.

I'm amazed that they think 6 tph will satisfy the demand for journeys to
T123 and T5, compared with 12 tph to T123 today. How on earth is this
"more frequent"? And if it's not more frequent, how can it produce
"increased capacity"?
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)