Olympia - Wandsworth Road service

Thanks for the interesting reply, andypurk. (Note to admins: if it's thought that this belongs in the general area, please feel free to do so. I wasn't quite sure where this ought to go but it seemed to have a 'west london line flavour' to it, hence why I posted it here).

I'm intrigued as to how it could go on to Selhurst from Wandsworth Road. Isn't it facing in the wrong direction once it moves off from WR? Or is there some route via Herne Hill that it takes?

I wonder how many passengers use this service, on average?

Why?!

Isn't it up to you - as a paying passenger with a valid ticket - where you choose to sit?

I did the afternoon train, the 1612 Wandsworth Road - Kensington Olympia on my last visit in May to London along with a friend. We were the only two people on the train.

After arriving at Kensington Olympia the train then formed a (very busy) service back to Clapham Junction.

I see in the current timetable the train now leaves at 1048 to Shepherds Bush, returning to Wandsworth Road at 1229. Of course as already noted these were supposed to go through to Ealing Broadway.

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According to National Rail's journey planner it still runs at 1612 although the paper timetable would have you believe it goes at 1048.

Grr. That is not a 'Parliamentary' train. Parlys were run at a penny per mile - the abject misuse of this term has grown out of an exceptionally badly edited wikipedia article. I suggest that the modern usage of a 'Parliamentary' train has only come about as a fairly blatant misuse of the term.

Look at this (sorry for the off-UndergrounD example):



That's not for a 'Parliamentary' train in your sense. Can someone edit the erroneous wikipedia entry?

When did this awful misnomer begin? It's like calling bellringers 'campanologists'! *sizzle* *bit more sizzle* ;D

;D ;D I think I shall wander to my local stress medicine shop: 'The Bell and Crown'.

Anyway - parly trains were run to fulfill the obligations of the 1844 Regulation of Railways Act (before the train ran down the hill at Armargh), not to avoid abandonment orders. I suspect the ticket above dates from early 1880; printed by the same printers that did UndergrounD WTTs - Waterlows of London Wall.

Intrigued by the above comment re. coupling compatability. I'm surprised anyone on the Western takes any notice as the three main fleets of trains that run into Paddington through Ealing Broadway can't couple to each other anyway! I doubt that the two different types of Heathrow Express units are compatible. It is a problem throughout the country. When Virgin and Cross Country 'Voyagers' can't even couple to Midland Main Line 'Voyagers' then it is clear that there is something wrong with the system.

Personally I believe that the reason that the service didn't go to Ealing is more to do with the cost and logistics of crew training for the route (the route via Willesden South-West sidings is a *** to learn because of the lack of trains and the refusal of some TOCs to allow Drivers from other TOCs 'up front') and Southern having more important things to do with its 171s! That and the Western having no available slot at Ealing Broadway for a terminating service.

The term “parliamentary train” stems from the Railway Regulation Act of 1844, which set minimum standards and a maximum fare of a penny a mile in third class. Private companies were able to protect their profits while fulfilling the letter of the law by running only one compliant service a day at an awkward time

— Current parliamentary trains include: Stockport to Stalybridge 11.28 (Saturdays only); Ellesmere Port to Warrington 00.00 (daily); Chester to Runcorn 08.25 (summer, Saturdays only); Lancaster to Windermere, via Morecambe 05.38 (Mondays to Saturdays); Sheffield to Cleethorpes (six trains, Saturdays only)

The only problem seems to be is that third class no longer exists.

(Below is a Sunday Times article from January 2009)

Every Tuesday, at 9.45am precisely, a 50-seat executive coach draws up at a bus stop outside Ealing Broadway station in West London. No one ever gets on and, a moment later, it departs - empty - on a 70-minute trip to Wandsworth Road in South London.

Once there, it waits for two hours and 15 minutes before returning, again carrying no passengers. Welcome to Britain's most luxurious bus service, paid for by the taxpayer, immaculately clean, punctual to the second and which the Government is trying desperately to keep secret.

This service, funded by the Department for Transport, is not advertised on any timetables or departures screens, and staff at the stations it serves are not even aware it exists.

The “ghost bus” runs simply to allow the Government to escape the embarrassment of admitting that it has closed several sections of railway in West London to passenger trains.

By running a weekly bus, ministers can claim that a service still operates and avoid the legal requirement to hold a public consultation. Rail passenger groups fear that the Ealing “ghost bus” sets a dangerous precedent for more closures by stealth.

The Department for Transport is using a loophole in the law governing rail closures that allows ministers “to secure the provision of substitute bus services if a passenger rail service is temporarily interrupted or has been discontinued”.

Until December 14 Crosscountry ran two trains a day in each direction between Birmingham and Brighton, via Kensington Olympia, using the sections of track in West London. About 80 passengers used each train but the DfT decided that the carriages were needed to relieve overcrowding between Birmingham and Leeds. Delays in ordering new trains have left the network struggling to cope.

Yesterday The Times decided to try to catch the ghost bus. At Ealing Broadway station, a ticket inspector denied that any such bus existed. When asked to check, he went into his office and returned three minutes later with a piece of paper headed: “Rail replacement bus. Internal document not for display or distribution.”

It stated that the bus would depart from stop “F”. At exactly 9.45am it duly arrived there. The driver regarded us suspiciously as we flagged him down. Once aboard Simon Houlton explained to us that he had been told not to expect any passengers.

During the journey Mr Houlton said that he had been “told off” last week for not continuing to the final station, even though he had departed empty from the final pick-up point.

“They said it's got to run the whole route, empty or not,” the driver said. “It may seem daft but I'm just doing my job and getting my pay, though I would prefer a few passengers because it makes the job more interesting.”

The coach costs the DfT about £500 a day. A photographer and I paid £5.10 each for our tickets, so the taxpayer funded £489.80 of the cost of our trip.

A passenger complained to the DfT last month that it was withdrawing a service without going through the legal closure process, which includes a public consultation and an investigation by the Office of Rail Regulation. He received a reply in classic Whitehall-speak from Debbie Brent, a civil servant in the DfT's rail division. She wrote: “A rail replacement bus service is currently operating between stations located close to these sections of track. Because the department is not proposing to discontinue train services over those sections of track, the provisions of section 24 of the Railways Act 2005 do not apply in this case.”

However, the DfT has no plans to resume services and intends to leave services “suspended” indefinitely.

Anthony Smith, chief executive of Passenger Focus, the rail watchdog, said: “There may be situations where the wider passenger benefit justifies changing services to the detriment of some. This should be done with an open, honest, transparent consultation process.”

To travel with 48 vacant seats felt strange but our driver confided that sometimes it gets worse. When the coach is not available, its replacement is a split-level 100-seat “megadecker”. But it still travels empty.

From ghost buses to parliamentary trains

But that use of 'Parliamentary' to describe the trains in the 1844 act is as much shorthand as using the term to describe modern trains run purely to 'get around' the rules on closure of lines to passengers.

Do you have a copy of the act itself? Does it say that such tickets must be marked Parliamentary or was this just the railways making them easy to understand by borrowing the word and such tickets could have equally have been marked 'workman (1844 act)' or something similar.

I do have a copy of the Act, but it is in the 'country' library.

Workmen trains are another beast altogether from Parlys; different fare structure on the majority of railways.

I can't recall exactly but didn't the ECS learner units reverse at West Ealing?

Oooops! Sorry that should read early SATURDAY morning Liverpool Street-Enfield service via South Tottenham.

Quite. It is no more 'wrong' now than it was 'right' then. The original, and subsequent, acts referred to such services as 'Cheap Trains'. 'Parliamentary' was a slang term to mean they were run to fulfill the requirements of parliament. Such a label has no legal definition or weight. Such a label is just as appropriate now, despite it resulting from a different obligation. There is no merit or benefit in making the term which has otherwise been long obsolete specific to a single context.

As I said over in the best map ever made thread:



Though admitedly I didn't include the capitalisation. To me, "Parliamentary" is a train running at a penny a mile {MRFS, see me, Kings Station (Tywyn) on Saturday, and I will issue you with a ticket at a penny a mile}, and 'parliamentary' is a train running to satisfy an Act of Parliament (i.e. avoiding having an abandonment order etc...). I remember travelling from Stockport to Stalybridge, though I don't think I have the APTIS ticket anymore