On Sat, 26 Jan 2008 15:37:30 -0000, "Paul Scott"
wrote:

IIRC the DfT are insisting on GPS controlled individual carriages as the way
ahead, as is done by Southern, with their annoying 'this is carriage number
n of m' type announcements.

I always thought they were mainly for the portion-worked services.
Nonetheless I don't consider it a bad idea.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
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On Jan 26, 3:14*pm, (Neil Williams)
wrote:
On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 02:53:24 -0800 (PST), Andy
wrote:

I certainly agree about the lengths of trains on Sundays. I thought
(although I'm not absolutely sure) that PIXC (Passengers In eXcess of
Capacity) standards were supposed to be met all the time. I.E. on
Sundays as well as during the week. Sunday afternoon / evening seem to
be far more crowded than most of the peak trains (except the 19.04!!)
and like you say, it is not difficult to make all the trains 8 cars.

I can't help but wonder if Sundays is a case of "take whatever is next
in the line on the depot when you get there" for the drivers, with no
coupling or uncoupling taking place, as it isn't unknown for one of
the 4 diagrams (usually the wrong one) to be 8-car. *Really, with only
4 diagrams, even if (as I suspect due to the lack of Desiros) Sundays
are Bletchley only, with Northampton depot not in use, 8 car on
everything is both practical and necessary.


There are more than 4 diagrams on a Sunday. Trains are every 30 mins
most of the day and take 1 hour and 26-28 mins from Euston -
Northampton, which makes at least 6 duties (and more diagrams). I
don't have weekend diagrams but there is definately some uncoupling /
coupling at Euston as there is usually an extra unit in the platforms
later on in the day waiting for coupling.

Why they don't just run 8 coaches on everything I don't know. Today,
on my way into Euston (from Harrow), the guard apologised for there
only being 4 coaches (train was more crowded than a weekday peak
one!!), but said that the train will be lengthened next week. Maybe da
management have actually looked and seen that the trains are getting
overcrowded at weekends.

Neil Williams wrote:

It would need to be made obvious to start with, but that could be done
by having, say, a green reader on the ticket machine for touch-in and
a red one on the left hand side of the doors for touch-out. Indeed,
it'd be simpler and more consistent than the London "remember to
always touch in and out, unless it's a bus in which case only touch
in, and unless it's a bendy bus and you have a season ticket then you
don't need to at all", which is unnecessarily complicated.

You've left out what a 15 year old who lives outside Greater London
needs to do to exit Wimbledon station having arrived by tram ;-)

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

On Sat, 26 Jan 2008, Neil Williams wrote:

On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 14:29:24 +0000, Tom Anderson
wrote:

You could make 12-car trains, and lock the rear 4 cars OOU on the
southbound leg. You could even unlock them once you were past Bletchley
and into 12-car land (if that's possible, and if it is indeed all
12-car-clear south of there).

Is there a feasible way of locking 4 cars out of use on 321
formations, without having to open the above-door panels and lock each
door out manually? The reason I ask is that there is an element of
that takes place on the 0735ish which starts from Bletchley (with the
rear 4 off the platform but unlocked, such that you can't get to
them), and it seems surprising that they wouldn't think of it. That
said, you don't see 12 cars on any of the Tring slows, and they
probably load the heaviest

Well, if hanging unlocked cars off the platform does the trick, then that
would be a way of doing it all along the route, perhaps.

- is there another short platform, e.g. Apsley/Kings Langley?

According to Quail, Apsley's 10 cars long; King's Langley is 10 on the
fasts, but 12 on the slows! Everywhere else has platforms suitable for 12
cars on the slows, apart from stations that don't matter, like Wembley
Central (7 cars) and Queen's Park (8 cars). Apsley would surely be a
doddle to extend, although obviously this rules out doing this right now.

Also, Quail says Bletchley has a 9-car platform on the down slow too.

tom

--
made up languages, delusions, skin diseases and unaided human flight

On Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:34:58 +0000, Tom Anderson
wrote:

According to Quail, Apsley's 10 cars long; King's Langley is 10 on the
fasts, but 12 on the slows!

The fasts at Apsley and Kings Langley are only ever used during late
evening/weekend engineering works, when 8 cars might be necessary but
not 12.

Everywhere else has platforms suitable for 12
cars on the slows, apart from stations that don't matter, like Wembley
Central (7 cars) and Queen's Park (8 cars). Apsley would surely be a
doddle to extend, although obviously this rules out doing this right now.

I wonder why it wasn't extended when all the others were?

Also, Quail says Bletchley has a 9-car platform on the down slow too.

It does on the up slow and on the "down depot" (platform 5), because
there is a crossover at both ends. It's possible that if Bletchley
depot and sidings close completely in the future (as I believe is
intended) it could be extended at the north end as the crossover will
cease to be necessary. The down slow (platform 3) is 12-car.

Neil

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

On Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:55:17 -0000, Mizter T wrote:

One question - has anyone bought a Railcard discounted Day Travelcard
from an LU ticket office yet this year - and if so, does it include
zones 7-9 as a 'free' extra? (i.e. Is the situation similar to how
zones A-D used to be included for 'free'.)

Yes.
Bought one last week valid Zones 1-9 for £4.80 or whatever it is, forget
now. Interestingly, it is cheaper than a daily cap on oyster with railcard
which is £5.00 and has less validity. (i.e not valid on NR journeys that
don't allow PAYG wich is the reason I had to buy one in the first place)

--
Fig

On Jan 26, 3:21 pm, (Neil Williams)
wrote:
No. The fasts leave Euston on the fast lines and don't cross to the
slows until Ledburn (I think) while the slows leave on the slow lines

How fast is fast? Do fast LM trains that don't stop at LBZ (e.g.
london-milton keynes-wolverton or london-bletchley-milton keynes)
cross over there?

The crossing for LBZ fasts is certainly between LBZ and Cheddington.

[1] The 1824 does not stop at Leighton Buzzard or Berkhamsted, which I
always suspected to be a crowd control measure given that the xx24 and
xx54 of other hours does.

The 1823 departure is fast to LBZ (then MKC, Wolverton and
Northampton). The 1824 stops at Harrow, Watford and a few other
places. I was on it once, having arrived at HRW to see a "northampton"
train arriving at the platform, jumped on, then realised as we sped
through LBZ that I was on the wrong train.

Got to Bletchley and waited for a train back to LBZ, I guess
technically I should have been Penalty fared. Twice.

Between the 1824 and 1834 the big stations are covered.

On Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:13:17 -0800 (PST), Paul Weaver
wrote:

How fast is fast? Do fast LM trains that don't stop at LBZ (e.g.
london-milton keynes-wolverton or london-bletchley-milton keynes)
cross over there?

Those are the slow ones. The fasts are
Euston-Leighton-MKC-(Wolverton)-Northampton. The one that doesn't
stop (the 1824 only, I think, for capacity reasons) is on the slows
all the way.

Neil

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

On Jan 28, 10:13 pm, Paul Weaver wrote:

The 1823 departure is fast to LBZ (then MKC, Wolverton and
Northampton). The 1824 stops at Harrow, Watford and a few other
places. I was on it once, having arrived at HRW to see a "northampton"
train arriving at the platform, jumped on, then realised as we sped
through LBZ that I was on the wrong train.

Got to Bletchley and waited for a train back to LBZ, I guess
technically I should have been Penalty fared. Twice.



Ha! I've done that too although I had to go all the way to MKC.
Looking at the current timetable I think it must have been the 19:52.

I got caught out because the train that didn't stop at WJ always went
from platform 11 and the one that did went from platform 8. They seem
to have reversed these four platforms (the DC line now comes in on the
other platform too)

The guard did check my ticket, before we'd even completely left Euston
- he just smiled and said I'd got a long detour and that I should talk
to the guard on the return train. When I did get on the return train
the guard there said, "no problem, but thanks for being honest" and
offered to remind me when we got back to Watford.

Tim.

On Tue, 29 Jan 2008 05:58:56 -0800 (PST), "
wrote:

The guard did check my ticket, before we'd even completely left Euston
- he just smiled and said I'd got a long detour and that I should talk
to the guard on the return train. When I did get on the return train
the guard there said, "no problem, but thanks for being honest" and
offered to remind me when we got back to Watford.

While ex-Silverlink does have penalty fares, I don't think I've ever
seen one issued, and I don't know if the guards are PF trained.

That said, commuter fare dodging does not appear to be rife on these
services.

Neil

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