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Post by knap on Aug 9, 2011 9:35:06 GMT
Thanks MetControl for the details. I personally may not like my fast train now being a stopper, but you have explained why and there is nothing I can do! I also note what you say should happen, but I have to report this is not happening. There is just confusion, passengers do not know where the train is stopping and station staff and drivers do not say the same thing, nor does the display on the platform at times. Something needs to be done as my wife (and I suspect others) does not want to risk ending up at Finchley Road, things must be clear for passengers. I know problems happen, but the current situation is too confusing as not everyone is singing from the same sheet.
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Post by knap on Aug 9, 2011 8:17:51 GMT
I have to say my experience of the 07:44 from Amersham since the change has not been good. Amersham station staff announce it is a fast Aldgate, but stopping after Harrow at all stations to Finchley Road. However, after that, the driver either does or does not announce the stopping pattern, we have arrived variously in platform 5 and 6 at Harrow, from which we have then either stopped all stations (including stopping at stations after leaving platform 6), run fast (from platform 5) and today left platform 5 with the driver previously saying it was all stations, then saying it was fast and then running fast through Northwick Park and Preston Road, but having to stop at Wembley Park at a red signal, so opening the doors anyway! We have contradicting announcements from platform staff and driver at Harrow, one saying fast, the other all stations and vice versa. We have passengers at Harrow confused, not knowing to get on or off. For me I want to go to Finchley Road, so just stay on the train, but my wife wants Wembley and so does not know what to do. On several occasions she has got off and then we did stop at Wembley! All in all so far a confusing situation which really should be avoided.
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Post by knap on Aug 3, 2011 11:12:07 GMT
Depending on time of day and the Chiltern services running and the timing of Met services, sometimes Amersham & Chesham trains run north from Harrow on the slow lines fast to Moor Park to keep out of the way of a faster Chiltern service. Can then be frustrating waiting at the junction north of Moor Park for a clear track to move across the lines to get to Rickmansworth.
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Post by knap on Jul 25, 2011 15:14:01 GMT
Just to clarify, 4 car trains have not run on the Chesham branch since last December (apart from a spell in bad weather). All trains to Chesham are 8 car and go through to London, there is no branch service. The order for the new S8 trains has already been placed and contracts signed and are being made and delivered, so doubt they could change it now. Having non standard trains in the fleet (4 car) would make for higher maintenance costs, which won't be allowed to happen.
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Post by knap on Jul 21, 2011 8:42:18 GMT
Not good, just causes a longer journey - thanks. I don't have an alternative of Chiltern as I have to go to Finchley Road.
Anyway, is this wise to make these two services stop at more stations making them busier for part of August when Marylebone is closed for one week and for another the Wycombe line to Marylebone is closed meaning services from Amersham will be more heavily loaded when they arrive at Harrow?
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Post by knap on Jul 15, 2011 10:59:22 GMT
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Post by knap on Jul 14, 2011 13:04:19 GMT
I rode on an S Stock from Finchley Road to Harrow. I got a seat right at the front, with the cab bulk head on my left. I was surprised that as the train braked and I was pushed into the bulk head that it flexed and as I lent away it bounced back. This happened quite a few times. I am sure it is strong enough and I expect not structural, but I was surprised at the amount of movement in this bulk head.
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Post by knap on Jun 20, 2011 9:54:37 GMT
I have received the following from London Travel Watch on the proposed changes. This was following a meeting they had with TFL last Friday.
"Further to our emails last weeks, I have a little more information for you.
As you have pointed out there will be a slighted reduced off peak service from Watford and Amersham. However, these trains will now run through and not terminate at Baker Street.
The reasons behind this are due to swelling numbers of people at Farringdon station making the need to run an improved service. Transport for London believe this will improve reliability and have a better use of track capacity.
The trains to Amersham and Watford should see a slight improvement during peak hours.
At this time, I am unaware if these plans have been finalised."
In my opinion, having Amersham trains run through to the City all day does not make up for longer journey times between Harrow and Moor Park.
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Post by knap on Jun 20, 2011 8:35:25 GMT
Chiltern Railways have engineering work many late evenings now. Its not exactly clear from their web site what parts of the line are actually closed for the work, but services after 10/11 in the evening seem to be affected around Aylesbury / Princess Risborough and towards Banbury. I understand the previous deliveries of S stock have come down via Princess Risborough and Aylesbury, so would any further deliveries be affected by this work causing changes to delivery time (day instead of night) or dates?
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Post by knap on Jun 10, 2011 8:04:18 GMT
What are the odds of any advance information on what 5004 is doing on sunday? The ealiest I can get to London by train is 09.19 arriving at Waterloo. Is there a 'Spoons in Amersham? No 'Spoons in Amersham, in fact no real pub in Top Amersham / Amersham on the Hill. As well as the one in Watford mentioned else where, there is a 'Spoons in Rickmansworth
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Post by knap on May 18, 2011 13:45:41 GMT
Will there be any public consultation on these changes?
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Post by knap on May 9, 2011 8:31:41 GMT
From my memories of the 70s, a ride on an A Stock into Baker Street at times felt very fast. Rattling through Neasden at speed was quite bumpy. I was quite young at the time, so the ride to a young small person would feel different to my rather larger person today! I think the top speed of a A Stock would have been higher in the 1970s, I don't think the reduction to 50mph had happened. Another difference was off peak often the A stock ran as 4 cars. if it helps judge times compared to today, I have a number of extracts from time tables on my site at www.metroland.org.uk/amersham/metro/timetables.htm and one is from the 1970s
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Post by knap on Apr 5, 2011 9:33:43 GMT
I can state that with confidence since I was the 'guy' in the suit and Hi Vi. Ah good to put a face to someone you "see" on the internet. I am sure you can appreciate there is a worry when dooors don't open and there is no immediate re assurance!
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Post by knap on Apr 4, 2011 17:34:10 GMT
Last Sunday (3/4/11) I was on platform 2 at Baker Street at roughly 1:45 and an S Stock came in from the City with destination Harrow. I caught it hoping to connect with the Chiltern service at Harrow. Quite a pleasant ride in the sun shine, let down by the front coach doors not opening at Harrow! Loads of announcements on route, no announcements about doors not opening, although there was some sort of red indication above the door (not much good when you are registered blind!), so another passenger suggested we go down the train, where a guy in a hi vis and suit was standing, could he have not said something, or arranged for a P A announcement? I heard plenty of announcements on the train afterwards when they were trying (I assume) to fix the doors after everyone had got off. Teething problems are annoying for every one, staff and passengers alike!
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Post by knap on Mar 24, 2011 11:04:49 GMT
At one point the Metroline twitter feed was reporting
"metroline Metropolitan Line I have severe delays between Chalfont & Latimer and Chesham only, due to the derailment of an empty train near Wembley Park."
Not sure if this is an official tweet by TFL, but I suspect it puzzled many that Chalfont / Chesham only was delayed by a train at Wembley
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Post by knap on Mar 24, 2011 9:32:45 GMT
Our driver reported our fast service from Amersham (07:44) would travel down slow lines from harrow to Wembley owing to a derailment in Wembley park sidings. Train was packed and I was on wrong side, but caught a glimpse of an A60/60 train in the sidings
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Post by knap on Feb 4, 2011 10:02:06 GMT
My point was that the S stock may be gaining a reputation of being unreliable. I was annoyed at being delayed, but I have also been annoyed at being delayed over my 25 years commuting life by signal failures, A stock failures and Chiltern failures and more.
I posted about a LU driver saying "the new train has broken down again" this will not be lost on normal passengers and passengers around me were making negative comments about the train.
I appreciate the LU staff did not want this failure (or any failure) and (I believe) work very hard to sort things out (even if at times us passengers don't see this as much, I assume a lot is done in the back ground).
Perhaps some publicity apologising for delays would help the situation.
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Post by knap on Feb 3, 2011 22:31:18 GMT
Took me 90 minutes to get from West Hamspstead to Amersham via Finchley Road.
When I got to Finchley Road the S stock was on platform 1, don't know how long it had been there, this was about 6:15. I have no idea of the defect, but one set of doors was partly open, all the others seemed either open or closed. Passengers were eventually de trained. The Jubilee was thus packed and I had to let several go through. An Uxbridge train pulled in shortly after the S stock left and then set off with passengers. the next train was an Uxbridge, but this had passengers taken off as the driver said "being taken out of service as the new train has broken down again and needed to go into the depot, so they needed a clear line". Sadly, the new trains may be getting a reputation.
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Post by knap on Jan 11, 2011 9:46:50 GMT
Frustratingly, my usual 07:44 from Amersham is terminating at Harrow. Really annoying as I miss a connection. I can't use the alternative Chiltern services as they don't stop at Finchley Road. So (selfish mode) why cancel an Amersham service and run more Watford services who have more trains to chose from?
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Post by knap on Jan 10, 2011 10:17:32 GMT
There were some delays this morning (10/01/11) and my train from Amersham was terminated at Harrow (the driver said something about timetable probems). We all got onto a train on platform 5, which was delayed owing to a failed train at Preston Road (advised the driver). The platform announcer then said platform 6 was fast Aldgate - the train we had just got off, so a mad dash back onto the train, only to be told by the driver it was not a fast Aldgate, but was still terminating, so back to Platform 5, where after a short delay we set off. But on route to Wembley, the driver announced that this train was terminating at Webley owing to a failed train at Finchley Road, so we all pile out onto the Jubliee, but that was at a standstill owing to police action. So what has all this to do with S stock? Well, as you can imagine many passengers were rather annoyed at the delays and confusion. Two peopl next to me were blaming "the new trains" claiming every day last week the new train they were on failed. Now I know problems can happen and today might have had nothing to do with a failed S stock, but if problems persist (on the Met, not just S stock) and these passengers start to get negative vibes about the new trains and spread rumours, it won't be helpful. As it was, as the Jubilee was not moving, an S stock arrived at Wembley and took us to Finchley Road. There did seem to be some problem with it setting off from Wembley though.
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Post by knap on Dec 21, 2010 13:22:06 GMT
I hope I am not tempting fate, but just wanted to say well done to the Met line in this cold weather. There may be delays, but I have got to and from work thanks to the Met. No use relying on Chiltern. I know Chiltern are having trouble with the weather further north, but they appear to have perhaps given up serving Met passengers with shorter trains (according to their web site / twitter feed, I've not seen many) and trains not stopping at Met stations (again according to their web site / twitter feed, I have not seen many of their trains).
However, the situation I think does show up the difficulty of communicating with the far ends of the Met line. I got the impression the other morning that the staff at Amersham had little information and difficulty knowing what Chiltern were actually doing, or not doing.
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Post by knap on Dec 15, 2010 18:34:32 GMT
I travelled on an S stock today from Northwood to Baker Street then back to Wembley Park. The doors still suck, that horrible unnecessary door opening siren needs to go. I did notice they have fixed the patchy announcements, they're much more fluid now. I had a ride on an S from Baker St to Harrow today, all stations. I had to press the button to open the doors and the speed they opened at and the noise they made made me jump! Other than that, the doors were fine. The announcements and displays were not right. When stopped they correctly announced / showed the correct next station. However, after starting off, they then announced and showed the next station to be the one they were last at! At 4:45 ish, there were few seats left. I was able to walk to the front to find a seat though. However, the wide "entrance / exit" between the cars did not provide a meaningful visual barrier, so after a while it seemed like walking down an endless passage way and being a VIP person, I could not easily work out how many cars I had walked through! When sitting and looking down the train, it just looked like a long corridor, not actually a comforting view. Some young lads were excited about the ability to walk through and were discussing what fun it is going to be to run through the train when they are "trolleyed" - great! The seat was OK, not sure I will say the same on the full journey to Amersham. The ride was OK, the train seemed fast, but it bounced and swayed when at speed north of Finchley Road. The smaller and open seats made me feel not as secure as on an A stock, even though the ride was better. In the end, I suspect the ride is dependant to a great extent on the track. I enjoyed the ride, but it was special being a new train. I will need to give them a few more journeys, especially a long journey at peak time to form a real opinion.
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Post by knap on Dec 15, 2010 13:26:37 GMT
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Post by knap on Dec 2, 2010 23:31:28 GMT
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Post by knap on Nov 11, 2010 16:15:55 GMT
At present it appears the peak hour Chesham through trains are running to and from Amersham because of rail conditions, this set to last until December. I think this is what the poster says at Amersham. When there is an all day through service and later this service provided by S stock, will anything change to improve rail conditions in the leaf fall season to enable through trains and not have to divert them to Amersham?
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Post by knap on Oct 28, 2010 18:08:36 GMT
The 17:27 ex Marylebone got through to Amersham, as did the previous service. At Amersham there were a croud of people and a coach outside with destination Chalfont on it. I did not hear any announcements (did not hear any at stations on route) so don't know what alternatives were being offered for Met users, I thought it best not to hang around but get clear to help with the congestion. The Chiltern driver announced signal problems when he got to Chalfont and was held. My wife had told me about the problems as she was on the train ahead of me, picking it up at Harrow. My Iphone app told me the line was susepnded Rickmansworth to Amersham, yet Chiltern seemed to be getting through. I assume it was best to let them through on some sort of emergancy signal arrangement and hold met trains out of the way.
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Post by knap on Sept 23, 2010 12:09:43 GMT
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Post by knap on Aug 20, 2010 11:23:00 GMT
I assume Jubilee open on 28th owing to Rugby League cup final at Wembley
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Post by knap on Aug 18, 2010 11:06:33 GMT
According to the Chiltern web site, this Sunday (and possibly Saturday, have not checked) they are running extra trains, to and from harrow / Marylebone. Good news for passengers, if a bit confusing the non consistency from weekend to weekend
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Post by knap on Aug 16, 2010 9:26:59 GMT
I am curious to know how alternative services are decided upon when part of the Met line is closed.
Obviously, if part of the line is physically shut, then this will determine the section say a bus will run, e.g. Amersham to Northwood.
But perhaps there are alternatives when work is south of Harrow.
For example, yesterday (15/08) no trains ran south of Harrow, instead a bus took you to Kenton to pick up the Bakerloo. What did surprise me was there were no extra Chiltern services, as there had been the previously, but Chiltern were running an hourly service to Marylebone on the Sunday. This meant for a very much longer journey to London, so I wondered how the decisions were made about extra Chiltern services or different bus services. Is any consideration of events at Wembley taken into account? On Bank holiday Saturday, the Rugby league final is at Wembley and where as the Met is open through Wembley, it is shut north of Northwood, which is frustrating!
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