"Paul Scott" wrote in message

Recliner wrote:
"Tom Barry" wrote in message


You could possibly have a pair of reversing sidings usable by trains
terminating eastbound at Farringdon or westbound at Barbican, which
might give useful delay/perturbation recovery options. Put them
between the main running lines and there would be no conflictions.

The problem would be that it's basically all tunnel along there, so
it might be hard/expensive to slew the Inner Rail into the southern
alignment, depending on how Smithfield Market and the Barbican are
held up.

There seems to be plenty of space near Farringdon, but I've no idea
how feasible it would be at the Barbican end.

A number of previous discussions seem to have concluded that
rejigging the tracks between Farringdon and Barbican is theoretically
possible, but immediately east of Barbican and towards Moorgate is
pretty much a non starter, due to the supports for buildings above.
It would be interesting to see some plans though.

If I were a betting man I reckon the likeliest use of the various
spare tracks and platforms around that part of the route is for S
stock stabling...

Yes, I agree, but it would be nice if one or two of those parked trains
could be used to substitute for disrupted services on the main line.

In article ,
(Paul Scott) wrote:

Recliner wrote:
wrote in message


I was specifically referring to journeys between East Putney and
King's Cross! Baron's Court is no use there.

Ah, I'd lost track of that.

I'm surprised. Colin's East Putney to King's Cross journey is one
of the most discussed journeys on this newsgroup, Google records
showed...

:-)

:-))

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In article
,
(Mr Thant) wrote:

On 26 June, 09:11, wrote:
So, as I thought, there is no remotely direct route from Piccadilly
to District platforms, then?

In the next few years you'll gain the option of step-free changes onto
Thameslink at Blackfriars and possibly one day changing onto the
Victoria Line at Victoria.

Still a long way round. Lifts at Vauxhall would help a lot more.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Paul Scott wrote:

A number of previous discussions seem to have concluded that rejigging the
tracks between Farringdon and Barbican is theoretically possible, but
immediately east of Barbican and towards Moorgate is pretty much a non
starter, due to the supports for buildings above. It would be interesting
to see some plans though.

If I were a betting man I reckon the likeliest use of the various spare
tracks and platforms around that part of the route is for S stock
stabling...

The other day I saw a FCC train parked at Moorgate - what was it doing there
so long after the route closed?

In article ,
(Tim Roll-Pickering) wrote:

Paul Scott wrote:

A number of previous discussions seem to have concluded that
rejigging the tracks between Farringdon and Barbican is
theoretically possible, but immediately east of Barbican and
towards Moorgate is pretty much a non starter, due to the
supports for buildings above. It would be interesting to see some
plans though.

If I were a betting man I reckon the likeliest use of the various
spare tracks and platforms around that part of the route is for S
stock stabling...

The other day I saw a FCC train parked at Moorgate - what was it
doing there so long after the route closed?

Aren't they still using Moorgate for reversing AC trains from the Bedford
line?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On Jun 26, 11:35*pm, "Tim Roll-Pickering" T.C.Roll-
wrote:

Paul Scott wrote:

A number of previous discussions seem to have concluded that rejigging the
tracks between Farringdon and Barbican is theoretically possible, but
immediately east of Barbican and towards Moorgate is pretty much a non
starter, due to the supports for buildings above. It would be interesting
to see some plans though.
If I were a betting man I reckon the likeliest use of the various spare
tracks and platforms around that part of the route is for S stock
stabling...

The other day I saw a FCC train parked at Moorgate - what was it doing there
so long after the route closed?

But the route hasn't closed... it's just closed to passengers. Full
closure and severing of the junction at Farringdon comes a bit later.

On Jun 26, 11:45*pm, wrote:

In article ,
(Tim Roll-Pickering) wrote:

[snip]

The other day I saw a FCC train parked at Moorgate - what was it
doing there so long after the route closed?

Aren't they still using Moorgate for reversing AC trains from the Bedford
line?

Yes. I can't remember how this all meshes together, but the Moorgate
branch was always going to remain open for stabling and reversing
trains for a while. Critically, FCC need to get their hands on enough
dual-voltage Electrostars so they can start running services all the
way through the Thameslink core route - but I don't think this is
delaying the start of work at Farringdon (not yet at least), as I
think the works timetable contained a good period when the Moorgate
branch was to remain open albeit not for passenger services.

In article
,
(Mizter T) wrote:

On Jun 26, 11:45*pm, wrote:

In article ,
(Tim Roll-Pickering) wrote:

[snip]

The other day I saw a FCC train parked at Moorgate - what was it
doing there so long after the route closed?

Aren't they still using Moorgate for reversing AC trains from the
Bedford line?

Yes. I can't remember how this all meshes together, but the Moorgate
branch was always going to remain open for stabling and reversing
trains for a while. Critically, FCC need to get their hands on enough
dual-voltage Electrostars so they can start running services all the
way through the Thameslink core route - but I don't think this is
delaying the start of work at Farringdon (not yet at least), as I
think the works timetable contained a good period when the Moorgate
branch was to remain open albeit not for passenger services.

They also need to wire up to City Thameslink so they can reverse trains
that fail the AC to DC switchover at Farringdon. The other Moorgate
reversers were only ever a couple of crowd busting 317s in the evening
peak.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On 24 June, 18:55, Paul Scott wrote:
Noticed on TfL weekend travel a hint that a trial run of the Circle to
Hammersmith 'Teacup' service is happening this weekend.

I suppose understandably the online Live Departure Boards still
"think" that the Circle trains are following their usual erm Circular
route pattern. This means that at a given station the next Circle
train is expected in 28 minutes whereas in reality a "quasi-circle/
pseudo-circle" starting empty from Edgware Road or Hammersmith is
portrayed as an Unknown (even though we on here would know it as a
known known rather than an unknown unknown). I still fear for the
Hiram T. Pipesuckers (and family) of this world from New Dworkin
trying to unravel all this. The Circle Line in its traditional form
was the one element of the underground map that Hiram and his ilk
could grasp even if it meant a lengthy non crow-fly trip and huge gaps
in service followed by a convoy of trains. Radical change is fine in
its place but replacing a shambolic service but which has the virtue
of a very easily understood service pattern with something that might
be operationally achievable but which no bugger can make head nor tail
of is hardly progress.

--
gordon

On 26 June, 23:35, "Tim Roll-Pickering" T.C.Roll-
wrote:
The other day I saw a FCC train parked at Moorgate - what was it doing there
so long after the route closed?

As others have said, the route hasn't closed. It's the bay platforms
at Blackfriars that have.

That means Southeastern trains that used to terminate at Blackfriars
have to run through to at least Kentish Town to reverse, which eats
most of the capacity between Farringdon and Kentish Town that the
Moorgate trains used to use. Therefore the plan was to run the
Moorgate trains into Southeastern territory, meaning service levels on
both routes were unaffected, though service to Moorgate would be
prematurely curtailed.

But since during the peaks there were more trains terminating at
Moorgate than trains terminating at Blackfriars, some of the trains
from the north were planned to terminate at Elephant and/or Herne
Hill*. It wouldn't have been impossible for these extra trains to have
continued to provide some service to Moorgate for the rest of this
year, when the branch actually closes.

And in fact, due to the shortage of dual voltage rolling stock, an
emergency timetable is in place which sees many Southeastern services
continuing to be provided by DC stock, reversing in Smithfield
sidings, and their paths north of Farringdon filled by trains starting
at Moorgate (not in passenger service until Farringdon), some of which
use AC-only stock (317s).

I think that covers everything.

U

(* Conversely, during the off-peak, there are more trains from the
south than the north, so all former Southeastern services reverse at
Kentish Town rather than going anywhere exotic further north)