Why westbound trains held for many minutes at Earls Court?

[sealingmark]

For the last month or so, ever westbound District I've travelled on has been held at Earls Court for many minutes. Much. much longer that the normal dwell time.

Generally 3-5 minutes (it was a full 5++ minutes today).

Sometimes there is an 'evening out gaps in the service announcment', but a look at the real-time shows that to be not plausible.

I'm sure there's a good reason, but... what?

In future, I will always switch to the Pic, so no big deal; just interested to know what's behind it.

Thanks.

Mark

[Chris L]

Probably down to driver changeovers.

Often made worse at times of service disruption.

[Dstock7080]

The last change of District timetable from 22 May 2023 didn’t, as expected, reduce the running time as gained from CBTC introduction in January and March.
So, trains have 3-4mins stand time at Earl’s Court.

[sealingmark]

Many thanks - that explains it. I should have thought to look at the WTT. That confirms what I've experienced (seems I exagerated a tad!), and also that Westbould holds are longer than Eastbound.

Makes it the logical place to switch to the the Pic, rather then the more convenient Barons Court.

[greenkitten]

Runtime reductions couldn’t be implemented for the May WTT, due to the risk that the commissioning of SMA7 in March (and SMA6 in January) did not go to plan.

[class411]

Odd, as I haven't noticed particularly long delays at EC. (Although I've only made about ~10 such journeys.)

There was around delay of about a minute on my last trip.

Does this apply to all W/B trains?

[Dstock7080]

Most trains do have a scheduled stand at Earl's Court in both directions, but if running late this time will be absorbed and the train will continue with no delay.
The hold allows connection to/from City and Edgware Road trains to be made and even westbound Ealing trains into the following Wimbledon train, both from the City.

off-peak westbound is usually 2¾mins stand
the maximum stand i can find is: 4¼mins eastbound at the extremes of the day.