On Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:52:03 -0000, "Basil Jet"
wrote:

The road network of the area is a solid jam when Westfield closes. IMO the
jam should be kept inside the car parks so it doesn't bother anyone else.
Since the capacity of the road network is known, allowing cars out of
Westfield too quickly seems pointless and avoidable.


I understand where you are coming from, but the carbon monoxide levels
in the Westfield car park would not be at all pleasant.

;-)

On 25 Oct, 19:40, TheOneKEA wrote:

Keep in mind that Kensington Olympia's former up loop can easily be
restored to add additional passing/recess capabilities on the up side
of the WLL. If trains to and from Shepherd's Bush begin to non-stop
Kenny O in favour of West Brompton, this may be very useful when
pathing the service.

Possible maybe, but it doesn't look easy to me. You'd have to
demolish the new platform and re-build the old one. What would you do
with the Southbound service while you were doing that? The present
service couldn't be handled in both directions on just one platform as
it used to be. I'm not certain, but I don't think the full width of
the old platform is still available at the North end (can anybody
confirm this, or otherwise?), so the length of the platform might be
limited.

Given that regular inter-city services, and empty stock Eurostars, are
no more I doubt that you'd want to non-stop Kensington Olympia; there
are still a fair number of events held there, and during some of them
the station gets quite busy.

On Oct 25, 7:06*pm, Stephen Furley wrote:
Possible maybe, but it doesn't look easy to me. *You'd have to
demolish the new platform and re-build the old one. *What would you do
with the Southbound service while you were doing that? *The present
service couldn't be handled in both directions on just one platform as
it used to be. *I'm not certain, but I don't think the full width of
the old platform is still available at the North end (can anybody
confirm this, or otherwise?), so the length of the platform might be
limited.

The full platform length is still available, and all three lines
through Kenny O are bidirectional, with crossovers to match. IMHO it
should be relatively simple to use the single down platform for
services that call at Kenny O, with the remainder calling at West
Brompton for onward travel via District Line or buses.


Given that regular inter-city services, and empty stock Eurostars, are
no more I doubt that you'd want to non-stop Kensington Olympia; there
are still a fair number of events held there, and during some of them
the station gets quite busy.

True, but that traffic is cyclic and predictable - patronage at
Westfield is less predictable, and the interchange with LU is much
better at West Brompton than it is at Kenny O.

Bruce writes:
The road network of the area is a solid jam when Westfield closes. IMO the
jam should be kept inside the car parks so it doesn't bother anyone else.
Since the capacity of the road network is known, allowing cars out of
Westfield too quickly seems pointless and avoidable.

I understand where you are coming from, but the carbon monoxide levels
in the Westfield car park would not be at all pleasant.

So the problem would be self-correcting!

-Miles

--
Acquaintance, n. A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not
well enough to lend to.

Paul Corfield wrote:

If you want to see the horror effect of IKEA on public transport try to
get on the 192 bus from Tottenham Hale. It can only use little midibuses
and must rank as one of the most overcrowded routes I know. If only
Angel Road Station was to the south of the North Circular road and
actually had trains stop at it - it would provide very easy access to
IKEA and the huge Tescos at Edmonton. I suspect similar IKEA horrors are
inflicted on Tramlink in south London.

Many moons ago, the entrance to Angel Road *was* on the south side of
the viaduct, and even had a Ticket Office, and it had a half hourly
service between Liverpool Street and Hertford East.

Then they widened the North Circular Road (which, to be fair, was
needed), relocated the entrance to the arse end of nowhere (well beyond
the country end of the platforms) and reduced the service to one train
per hour.

And now it's even worse, with the station being served by just a handful
of trains a day to and from Stratford at peak times.

And they call that progress...I expect the official excuse is that there
isn't enough capacity for a half hourly stopping service plus the outer
suburban services as it's a two track railway.

Cheers,

Barry

Stephen Furley wrote:
On 25 Oct, 19:40, TheOneKEA wrote:

Keep in mind that Kensington Olympia's former up loop can easily be
restored to add additional passing/recess capabilities on the up
side of the WLL. If trains to and from Shepherd's Bush begin to
non-stop Kenny O in favour of West Brompton, this may be very
useful when pathing the service.

Possible maybe, but it doesn't look easy to me. You'd have to
demolish the new platform and re-build the old one. What would you
do with the Southbound service while you were doing that?

Use the current platform while rebuilding the old platform to modern
standards over the necessary length, say 8 coaches?
A temporary, moveable flat bridge would be needed to access the currently
in use platform. Demolish half the current platform (you'd to retain a four
coach lengh for the current service) and provide the new running line in
front of the renewed old platform, as a short platform loop off the through
line. Then demolish the remaining current platform and extend the loop to
whatever length you want to allow for increase line speeds on entry/exit.

Alternatively, having completely rebuilt the old platform, demolish the
current platform and provide the full length loop in a 'big bang' closure of
a few weeks.

I also suspect that if they were to do it now, the weekday timetable could
be worked with one platform. Once the LO service frequency is doubled that
will probably no longer be possible.

Paul S

"The Gardener" wrote in message

On Oct 25, 7:40 pm, E27002 wrote:

It is a pity IMHO that the West London lines
has to carry such a mix of local, transit, intercity, and freight
traffic. From what I have read, there is little room for more
traffic.

In its present form, yes, although increasing linespeed, replacing the
three-aspect signals with 4-aspect, reinstating the southbound loop at
Olympia (as has already been mentioned), relaying the points at
Olympia to allow higher-speed entry and exit to the loop (and ensuring
any new loop is also so fitted) and extending the AC electrification
to Shepherd's Bush (so that time need not be wasted stopped at North
Pole to do the changeover) could all help to increase capacity.

BTW, there are now no InterCity (or similar) trains on the line
following the December 2008 timetable change when the Cross Country
services to Brighton were withdrawn.

And Eurostars no longer use the line to access their former (North Pole)
depot.

On Sun, Oct 25, 2009 at 02:08:47PM -0000, Chris Read wrote:

I imagine, as Christmas shopping ramps up, there will be people unable to
board at Shepherds Bush. Does this happen already?

Yes.

--
David Cantrell | top google result for "topless karaoke murders"

Planckton: n, the smallest possible living thing

"Paul Scott" wrote

Use the current platform while rebuilding the old platform to modern
standards over the necessary length, say 8 coaches?
A temporary, moveable flat bridge would be needed to access the currently
in use platform. Demolish half the current platform (you'd to retain a
four
coach lengh for the current service) and provide the new running line in
front of the renewed old platform, as a short platform loop off the
through
line. Then demolish the remaining current platform and extend the loop to
whatever length you want to allow for increase line speeds on entry/exit.

Alternatively, having completely rebuilt the old platform, demolish the
current platform and provide the full length loop in a 'big bang' closure
of
a few weeks.

I also suspect that if they were to do it now, the weekday timetable could
be worked with one platform. Once the LO service frequency is doubled that
will probably no longer be possible.

It could be done, but sounds disruptive and/or expensive. But what's the
point? There's no need for passenger trains to be able to overtake each
other on the WLL. There is occasionally a need to recess a freight to match
a path on the next stage of its journey. In many cases this can be done at
Willesden/Wembley, or between Culvert Road and Latchmere Junctions (even
when ELLX gets to Clapham Junction). The existing through line at Kensington
Olympia can be used in both directions. If more flexibility is needed the
pointwork at each end of Kensington Olympia could be relaid to reduce
conflicts between up and down train (at present a southbound train using the
through line conflicts with a northbound train at, IIRC, both ends of the
station). Or a new goods loop could be provided south of the station.

Peter

On Oct 26, 8:07*am, "Peter Masson" wrote:
It could be done, but sounds disruptive and/or expensive. But what's the
point? There's no need for passenger trains to be able to overtake each
other on the WLL. There is occasionally a need to recess a freight to match
a path on the next stage of its journey. In many cases this can be done at
Willesden/Wembley, or between Culvert Road and Latchmere Junctions (even
when ELLX gets to Clapham Junction). The existing through line at Kensington
Olympia can be used in both directions.

True, but keep in mind that the narrow platforms at Shepherd's Bush
will eventually become a problem if the Westfield development
eventually reaches full utilization. IMHO there will eventually be a
need to substantially increase the local service on the WLL to better
serve Shepherd's Bush, and the restoration of the up loop at Kenny O
will make it substantially easier to path a frequent local passenger
service. Also keep in mind the clientele at Imperial Wharf station -
the people living near that station are likely to have an interest in
the higher-end shops at Westfield, and that will add a lot of local
traffic too.

There is also the fact that the WLL is still a good cross-London link
between the former Southern Region and the former Western and London
Midland (:P) Regions. Just because there's no XC link right now
doesn't mean that a new service, serving Shepherd's Bush, won't be
eventually restored.

If more flexibility is needed the pointwork at each end of Kensington Olympia
could be relaid to reduce conflicts between up and down train (at present a
southbound train using the through line conflicts with a northbound train at,
IIRC, both ends of the station). Or a new goods loop could be provided south
of the station.

You would need to add two additional crossovers on the inside of the
platform loop turnouts to accomplish that, and IMHO that would be
almost as good as restoring the up loop.