Is it any better since Dross Link went and Ken took it over ?

--
Edward Cowling "Must go - Got to rub lard on the Cat's boil !"

Is it any better since Dross Link went and Ken took it over ?

1. support for Oyster PAYG
2. more staff
3. some station signs were changed to a new font with white or orange
background
4. all silverlink logos were covered with brand new "London
Overground" stickers

It's only 2 months - so a bit early to expect major improvements.
However I must say that "London got new train set" advertising was
horribly misleading - new trains are still 2 years away.

"Edward Cowling London UK" wrote in message
news
Is it any better since Dross Link went and Ken took it over ?

It depends how you class "better". The service frequency and reliability is
much the same as before, however as others have said this is, and was, never
going to change overnight - I remain postivie that in the coming couple of
years we will see this improve. There are some later trains in the evening
however.

With regards as to the stations, in my opinion this has already seen a
marked improvment, and it has been quicker coming than I would have
expected. Quite a few stations have had their dingy ticket halls ripped out
and started again, the most extreme improvements that I have seen being West
Hampstead and Acton Central, and many have had ticket gates added.

All Overground stations are now staffed from the very first train to the
very last train, though bear in mind this doesn't mean that they are selling
tickets. This has really helped several of the stations, and some of the
more unfriendly stations on the route do now have staff meeting every train
at the platform - the Goblin seems to have benefited the most from this.
Having said all that, my experience is that some stations still go
completely unstaffed at times. Kensal Rise had nobody there yesterday
afternoon for example, so whether this is teething troubles as they build up
staff members I don't know. I mentioend on this newgroup a week or so ago my
delight that a member of staff was tidying the platform up of the *single*
newspaper on the floor and told someone to stop smoking in the shelter at a
station where I used to be cowering next to the help point late at night.

Most of the stations on the North London Line have started repainting
everything cream, brown and orange and oblitering Silverlink's ghastly blue
and flourescent green. They have also added some rather nice retro looking
wooden benches, how long these will last is another matter. London
Overground have fixed anything that wasn't working, for example all the PA's
have been turned up, speakers fixed, and any information screens and heated
waiting rooms seem to be all in working order, when they were not some weeks
before under Silverlink.

The station improvements will be great when they are completed, so its
really now all eyes on the trains. For now, its the same old 313's albeit
slightly tidier and with ticket checks - I have had more tickets checked on
the NLL in the last month then I had in the previous two years.

Incidentally, I was a little surprised last night to find a video on YouTube
that praised Silverlink as the country's greatest operator. Perhaps I was
alone in thinking that it always single-handed ruined any journey that
involved it and was too lazy even to collect fares for its own services!
Actually, perhaps that is why some people loved it, as under TfL they have
to pay to use it.

Phew, that turned into rather an essay, but I hope it helped!

Best Wishes,
LEWIS

Lew 1 wrote:

Incidentally, I was a little surprised last night to find a video on
YouTube that praised Silverlink as the country's greatest operator.
Perhaps I was alone in thinking that it always single-handed ruined
any journey that involved it and was too lazy even to collect fares
for its own services!

There was a marked difference between Silverlink Metro (and the attitude of
its staff) and Silverlink County. ;-)

On Sat, 12 Jan 2008 16:08:27 -0000, "Lew 1"
wrote:


Incidentally, I was a little surprised last night to find a video on YouTube
that praised Silverlink as the country's greatest operator. Perhaps I was
alone in thinking that it always single-handed ruined any journey that
involved it and was too lazy even to collect fares for its own services!
Actually, perhaps that is why some people loved it, as under TfL they have
to pay to use it.

I think Silverlink County had a very good reputation with good match of
train capacity to demand and generally very reliable. It seems from
early reports that London Midland has not been as good.

I would agree that Silverlink Metro left much to be desired but under
the terms of their franchise they had little incentive to do anything
whereas LOROL are on very different terms. I would also imagine that TfL
are watching their performance like hawks hence your generally positive
report on how things are going so far. I look forward to it all getting
a lot better.

I've only a limited experience of LOROL since they started but
everything ran to time, the stations were tidy enough but clearly in
need of some work and the trains did seem noticeably tidier to my eyes.
The one change I find utterly bizarre is the adoption of the M-F peak
service on Saturdays for the GOBLIN. This breaks the former well timed
connections at Gospel Oak and thus means you can have up to 15 minutes
to wait - in other words a NLL train is in its platform heading west as
you arrive. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I'd rather have a 30 minute service
with a good timed connection than higher frequency and idiotic
connections.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

On Sat, 12 Jan 2008 07:30:37 -0800 (PST), alex_t
wrote:

It's only 2 months - so a bit early to expect major improvements.
However I must say that "London got new train set" advertising was
horribly misleading - new trains are still 2 years away.

And they won't be universally popular. Far fewer people will get a
seat, for instance, due to the Tube-style side-facing seating.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

On Sat, 12 Jan 2008 16:08:27 -0000, "Lew 1"
wrote:

Incidentally, I was a little surprised last night to find a video on YouTube
that praised Silverlink as the country's greatest operator. Perhaps I was
alone in thinking that it always single-handed ruined any journey that
involved it and was too lazy even to collect fares for its own services!

Did you ever use the County mainline services? They were very
professionally-run, though the last few weeks were marred by the
strikes.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

And they won't be universally popular. Far fewer people will get a
seat, for instance, due to the Tube-style side-facing seating.

My experience on the NLL was that passengers very rarely filled up all the
seats anyway and most were quite content to stand, generally speaking
passengesr don't spend too long on the train. My objection was that the
313's obviously were not designed with metro services in mind and thus
didn't have as many grab rails and general design tit-bits as they really
needed.

Compare and contrast to longer distance TOC's such as FCC, where every seat
will always get filled up.

Best Wishes,
LEWIS

Did you ever use the County mainline services? They were very
professionally-run, though the last few weeks were marred by the
strikes.

Only once or twice, not enough to really form an opinion. I hadn't thought
that the difference between County and Metro would have been so huge, though
it certainly looks like it was County that was getting the praise. (What was
the Abbey Flyer, County or Metro?)

I find it strangely amusing that one set of passengers would have related
the brand "Silverlink" with the height of railway filth, whilst another set
saw Silverlink as the railway's Knight in Shining Armour. What difference
one word makes!

Best Wishes,
LEWIS

On Sat, 12 Jan 2008 17:57:33 -0000, "Lew 1"
wrote:

Only once or twice, not enough to really form an opinion. I hadn't thought
that the difference between County and Metro would have been so huge, though
it certainly looks like it was County that was getting the praise. (What was
the Abbey Flyer, County or Metro?)

County, as were the erstwhile London-Brum locals and the
London-Northampton commuter services that I use daily.

I find it strangely amusing that one set of passengers would have related
the brand "Silverlink" with the height of railway filth, whilst another set
saw Silverlink as the railway's Knight in Shining Armour. What difference
one word makes!

It is interesting - I personally have very positive views of the old
Silverlink County, but I agree the old Metro services were disgusting.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.