Southern Mess
 

Indulge me in another rant, if you will.

Having to make a journey this morning, from Streatham Hill (or West
Norwood) to Osterley (or Syon Lane), I checked TfL's Journey Planner.

It recommended walking to West Norwood, getting the Bus Number 2 to
Brixton and changing for the Victoria Line and then on to the
Piccadilly at Green Park. I hate changing trains at Green Park, and I
work near there, so didn't want to repeat my commute. But annoyingly,
TfL's website didn't offer any alternatives, and to my mind, the
easiest way to get there was to Victoria, then District & Piccadilly
line, or to Clapham Junction for a SWTrains service. Why didn't TfL
Journey Planner offer these options? I thought at the time.

So, I took a look at Southern's website, where they showed the normal
Sunday service to Victoria - every half an hour.... great. In the
pouring rain I trudged down to West Norwood Station, where (now soaked
to the skin, rain being much heavier than I thought) I discover the
access to the platforms blocked, and a hand written notice says there
are no trains from this station today... this is odd, and I quickly
use my mobile phone to call up West Norwood departures, where it says
there is a train at 1033, then 1103. I then commence a stupidly around-
the-houses journey (partly my own fault) and my journey to Syon Lane
just under three hours.

On the return journey, I go via Clapham Junction. The electronic
display at the bottom of the subway steps at Platform 15 shows that
there are trains to Streatham Hill and West Norwood... but platform 15
is closed. All services are from Platform 13. There, an announcer
advised people that there's a rail replacement service from Balham.

When I get home, Southern and National Rail wesbites STILL show the
normal Sunday service operating from both stations. I have emailed
them for a more information, and make a mental note that Transport for
London seems to have access to more up to date rail information that
National Rail or Southern.

Southern Mess
 

Why didn't TfL
Journey Planner offer these options?

I thought that TfL Journey Planner has built-in bias towards directing
passengers to TfL's own services? (and not National Rail)

Southern Mess
 

On 6 Oct, 11:43, Alex wrote:
Why didn't TfL
Journey Planner offer these options?

I thought that TfL Journey Planner has built-in bias towards directing
passengers to TfL's own services? (and not National Rail)

Not deliberately as far as I know. It's just the much higher frequency
makes it think it'll be quicker, ignoring that scheduled rail services
tend to be more predictable and reliable in terms of journey time. It
also seems to use minimal journey times for buses.

U

Southern Mess
 

On Oct 6, 12:02*pm, Mr Thant
wrote:
On 6 Oct, 11:43, Alex wrote:

Why didn't TfL
Journey Planner offer these options?

I thought that TfL Journey Planner has built-in bias towards directing
passengers to TfL's own services? (and not National Rail)

Not deliberately as far as I know. It's just the much higher frequency
makes it think it'll be quicker, ignoring that scheduled rail services
tend to be more predictable and reliable in terms of journey time. It
also seems to use minimal journey times for buses.

U

The point of my admittedly rambling post was that TfL was more
accurate than the operator of the rail services.
Southern & National Rail were showing train services, when there
weren't any.