Central Line improvement programme

Any chance they could give the trains a thorough clean - inside and out?

If I read this correctly (and it's so full of acronyms and jargon I may not have) - there will be an end during the works to any through running at either end of the Loop. This at a time when large housing development is likely at Roding Valley and Chigwell (and perhaps Grange Hill as well). I assume to save the necessary stock this will also involve reductions in frequency on the Hainault Branch and through the centre.....
As far as max 62mph running is concerned, strikes me that just reinstating the traget of 25 years ago is a bit tame. Is there some reason why 70mph could not be aimed at with the remotored, strengthened stock?

What was the peak frequency years ago?

It looks to me, reading between the lines, that TfL are hoping for / expecting a short term fall in patronage on the Central Line as a result of Crossrail opening. They've made a judgement as to how much resource they can practically take out of the fleet in the short term to facilitate a major piece of work to try to "rescue" the 92 stock. The other imperative is that there are obvious concerns about excessive maintenance costs given there's no prospect of fleet replacement until the 2030s (if they're lucky). The train service planners have clearly developed a short term strategy to get round trip times down to allow a smaller fleet to broadly maintain existing service levels during the modification programme.

I don't see the loss of through services on the Woodford - Hainault section as any great crisis. The intermediate stations are very lightly used and in another universe they'd have gone long ago. If a lot more housing is built and there is an increase in commuter demand then that might give the imperative to restore through services but we are in an era where marginal services are going to be trimmed. We are seeing this on the bus network where marginal school routes are being axed and cross boundary services will inevitably go / be cut back. The same will have to happen to some bits of the tube where there isn't the day round demand. I can easily see some off peak frequency trimming at the outer reaches of the District and Central Lines although the central area frequencies will be retained.

Fairlop has got a lot busier in recent years. It was so quiet back in the day, that it was closed at weekends.
Now, Its up there with Barkingside for traffic.

And to think at one time Fairlop Aerodrome was considered as a site for the post war London Airport.

And that's before you include the trains cancelled every day (usually at least 7/10) due to them being faulty, taken out of service or unable to enter service. On most days the Central line doesn't manage to meet its peak service frequency targets with usually 2/3 trains an hour missed in at least one direction in the peaks.