Southern are to run a once a (week)day each way service on this route
- via the Latchmere Jn to Factory Jn route (along the Ludgate / City
Lines) - which is a partial replacement of sorts for the now defunct
Crosscountry service that ran from Manchester via Reading along the
WLL to East Croydon and on to Brighton. This is mentioned in new
Southern publicity.

This service will fulfil the requirement to keep this route served by
passenger trains - in other words it'll be a parliamentary train, in
the modern meaning of the phrase. Thus it will replace the so called
'Ghost Bus' rail-replacement bus service between Wandsworth Road and
Kensington Olympia, though the aforementioned bus will have to
continue serving the remainder of the route from Kensington Olympia to
Ealing Broadway so as to (supposedly) 'cover' the other two stretches
of line that the XC service used to traverse.

AIUI under the new south central franchise (i.e. what is currently
Southern), the franchisee will be required to operate a service or
services that cover all the relevant lines between Wandsworth Road,
Kensington Olympia and Ealing Broadway - so they'll either need to
send a class 171 Turbostar up to do this or come to some arrangement
with FGW to provide a service/ unit for this (as parts of the route
from Kenny O to Ealing Broadway lack not only juice rails, but juice
wires too).

Presumably this KO to Wandsworth Rd service is being done at the
instigation of the DfT - it's hard to imagine that Southern would do
it off their own back (unless it was a ploy to butter up the DfT to
ensure Govia/NSR retain the south central franchise - but even then I
somewhat doubt it). It does also mean that all the route knowledge
acquired by Southern crews for the Christmas-time diversion of the WLL
service via this route won't be lost (the trains ran fast from West
Brompton to Streatham Common because the lines at Clapham Jn were
blocked). Perhaps Southern knew about this longer term plan back then,
hence they were happy to sort out the route knowledge for the Xmas
diversions in the knowledge that it wouldn't be wasted?

Anyway, the timings of this service are as follows (note that it is
weekdays only) - it's non-stop so they don't call at West Brompton:

-----
Kensington Olympia d. 10:12
Wandsworth Road a. 10.29

Wandsworth Road d. 16:35
Kensington Olympia a. 16:53
-----

I guess it'll be worked by class 377 units that have just come off or
are heading to peak time duties on WLL services.

The services themselves appear to be fairly useless. If they were
running the other way - from Wandsworth Road to KO in the morning with
a return working in the afternoon, then one could argue that they
might be of some use to people heading to and from the Olympia
exhibition centre from start points along the South London Line (aka
the SLL, which is the London Bridge to Victoria via Peckham Rye
service) with a change at Wandsworth Road.

At a stretch one could say it might be useful way for patients to get
to and from King's College Hospital next to Denmark Hill station
(again via a change onto the SLL at Wandsworth Road) - but most
patients from west London will be served by west London hospitals.

So the service will basically be a daily trackbashers special! FWIW,
you do get a slightly difference perspective on Stewart's Lane depot
from this line.

I wouldn't be surprised that - when the ELLX phase 2 (to Clapham Jn)
opens - this duty will be performed by London Overground trains which
would otherwise be performing positioning moves early in the morning
or late at night (i.e. from Willesden depot down onto the ELLX).

The immediate surrounds of Wandsworth Road station are somewhat less
than salubrious, however in the rather unlikely event that anyone
wanted to 'make a day of it' then I'd advise they head south up into
Clapham which is but a mile away, perhaps to one of the many pleasant
watering holes there (I might recommend the Tim Bobbin or the Bread
and Roses), or to the Common if it's a nice day (again, if you get
thirsty there's the Windmill pub!). The Museum of British Transport on
the High Street is unfortunately,however, long gone!

I still find the whole thing rather absurd. The XC service never
provided a link between Wandsworth Road, KO and Ealing Broadway - it
only ever stopped at KO. No-one in their right mind would use this new
parliamentary service as a way of getting between any of the stations
served by the defunct XC service. That said, I know the law isn't
concerned with what services were provided over certain lines, just
that the lines were 'passenger served'. And I suppose it's perhaps a
case of better the devil you know (in the form of these rather
peculiar rules) than the devil you don't (i.e. much weaker or non-
existent closure rules).