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Post by knap on Nov 11, 2014 14:06:29 GMT
Yes you should. Off peak only. You need to make sure the railcard is still in date
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Post by knap on Jan 27, 2014 16:45:03 GMT
Is the same system used for the live departures you can view on the TFL web sight and various apps? For the northern part of the Met line I often see "check front of train" as the destination, which is not always helpfully when trying to see what trains are due. I assume this is some limitation of the system.
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Post by knap on Jan 24, 2014 23:28:03 GMT
The train describes at Baker Street. Large light boxes that showed all the stations the train would stop at. I think they went blank when the signal went green.
I think there were some too at Edgware Road which had station names on them in preparation for the new Met line connection from Kilburn which never happened. Although this could be an urban myth.
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Post by knap on Jan 22, 2014 14:08:20 GMT
Sitting on Amersham station with my grandmother watching a steam hauled freight train go through in the mid 1960s
Seeing a London Midland DMU collecting and delivering post in the early evening (I think) late 70s or early 80s. The DMU was not in passenger service.
Being fascinated by the London Transport signs you could see on the platforms of the Kings X station you passed on the way to Farringdon on a Circle train. They were the old Met station platforms which later became The Midland City station.
Sitting for over half an hour on platform 4 at Baker Street waiting for the hourly train to Ametsham while my dad read the Standard in the 70s, bought from the seller on the concourse who shouted "Standard" in a very strange way.
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Post by knap on Nov 28, 2013 8:50:48 GMT
Yesterday (27 Nov) trains to Aldgate were terminating at Harrow with those that should have reached Baker St going onto Wembley. Then at about 8:30 Harrow on the Hill was evacuated because of an emergency, as explained by PA announcements. The local paper web site later said the evacuation was caused by too many passengers on the station. I have not experienced Harrow being evacuated before, I hope nothing too serious had happened. It did make for a very long journey to work!
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Post by knap on May 14, 2013 11:19:48 GMT
The extra trains Amersham / Aylesbury to Marylebone are welcome. I have to travel Sundays and the Chiltern service has been poor. The current service on Sundays appears to be well loaded, so it will be interesting to see if the extra trains are well used as well. It would be nice to have half hourly trains all day. O and while I am at it, a later departure from Aylesbury towards Amersham in the evenings. The latest seems to be 10:35 which is no good if you want to go to the new theatre in Aylesbury and don't drive! At least the slow Met trains run a later service into London than Chiltern.
The shared Chiltern / Met services out into Herts.and Bucks brings benefits, but also problems as the passenger from London has to decide which station to go for (Baker St. Or Marylebone) and can have a long wait if they just miss a train. If both companies don't see the line as a priority (which from the service provided it could be argued) then the passenger suffers. They appear to be getting a worse service now compared to other lines which have seen improvements.
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Post by knap on Mar 27, 2013 13:32:52 GMT
I have noticed the change on some units over recent days. Yes, you can tell the difference, but as there are so many announcements on trains / stations these days, I fear people just go on auto pilot and ignore or not listen to them. Many of the automated announcements on stations, perhaps less so on trains, are just not needed are are wrong. The often repeated good service announcement is just not needed, especially when you are delays and have just heard a local announcement saying there is a delay! Perhaps by making safety related announcements (about gaps) etc a louder volume may help, the male announcement on Jubilee trains telling people to all change seems louder than the normal female voice, so you tend to notice it.
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Post by knap on Feb 18, 2013 20:13:41 GMT
Is this the new Chesham Shuttle? I saw these on Sunday (17 Feb) at Chalfont & Latimer and thought they may be related to the engineering work. They were still there Monday evening (!8 Feb)
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Post by knap on Jan 25, 2013 13:15:05 GMT
If Chiltern took over services north of Moor Park, where will they get the extra capacity into Marylebone? they only have 2 tracks going in to share with services to Wycombe / Birmingham etc.
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Post by knap on Jan 21, 2013 12:38:15 GMT
It did not seem to be much better this morning. At 7:20 there was an S stock stuck in platform 1 at Amersham and there were announcements at Chalfont saying a train was stuck at Chesham. Thus not Met service fir quite some time. Luckily the line was clear and Chiltern could run trains but they did not appear to make any extra stops to pick up Met passengers, but some of their services may have been too long to allow a stock at Ricky
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Post by knap on Dec 6, 2012 16:29:32 GMT
Indeed I know about the 336. It leaves Ricky at 18:27 and last bus at about 19:24. We arrived at the stop at 18:15 and by 18:50 it had still not arrived! It was too cold to stand any longer plus a whole crowd were waiting so we may not have got on, hence I had to find a tax, and find somewhere my wife and I could stand so the taxi would find us and us actually spot the taxi!
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Post by knap on Dec 6, 2012 13:23:12 GMT
I got badly caught up in the suspension north of Rickmansworth on Dec 5. Ironically, I left work early as we had a power cut and could not see to work after 4:30, so hearing the suspension was caused by another power failure was interesting! However, listening to the PA announcements, reading on twitter feeds and looking at the TFL web site, although they all agreed the line was suspended north of Rickmansworth, there were quite a few reasons given - Local power failure Chorleywood Signal Failure Chalfont Main signal mains power failure Amersham.
Was the long problems caused by one event or a bad combination?
In case anyone is interested, after waiting about 2 hours at Rickmansworth, I eventually found a taxi and took it home to Amersham, costing me £20! There were quite a large number of people stuck!
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Post by knap on Dec 2, 2012 17:09:40 GMT
I have received tickets for next week. I thought I read somewhere the tickets give you tube travel on the day, is that correct or am I dreaming? If it does give travel, I assume you just show the ticket at the gate line?
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Post by knap on Oct 18, 2012 7:52:21 GMT
For trains that are designed for lots of standing there is not a lot to easily hang on to in many places. This seems more of a problem at the end of the cars where the floor is wider but there are no rails to easily grab onto and they have not put straps at the car ends. The straps and high grab rail are only one side of the car. I think they should have put something more central to allow two rows of standing passengers to easily grab onto something.
Still good to hear they are responding to customer feedback. Now what about responding to the feedback wanting more seats and fast trains back to Ricky and beyond (I will now run and hide!)
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Post by knap on Aug 29, 2012 12:32:05 GMT
Sheets and scaffolding have recently been taken down at Amersham Signal cabin to reveal it has a new room and has perhaps doubled in size. Anyone know what the new addition is? I thought with the new signalling to be introduced in the coming years Amersham would lose its signal cabin, so was surprised to see it grow now, unless they had to do something to keep it going.
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Post by knap on Jun 9, 2012 12:47:25 GMT
I registered and logged on at Kingx X St P Met platforms yesterday eveneing. I am not a VM customer. Process seems fast. When I returned to the station later in the evening, my Iphone logged on automatically. When an S stcok came in, the connection held and I was able to complete my search for a train time at Marylehone as the train started to move out with me on it! I could not find any other stations on my journey that were live.
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Post by knap on May 16, 2012 19:32:41 GMT
At Finchley Road
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Post by knap on May 14, 2012 8:14:03 GMT
Have just seen at Finchley Road (8:36 going south) a Jubilee line train wrapped in a Jubilee livery, red white and blue, I think sponsored by O2, I only got a brief look. What I did notice was that the doors are not marked in any different colour, which I thought they had to be.
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Post by knap on Mar 7, 2012 9:53:21 GMT
I am fortunate to read this forum and get the background on why things happen. As a passenger I can also see the frustration, but not always. The railway will not be able to win.
Many times I have come into Finchley Road (both directions, both lines) and been annoyed to see my train doors open just as the doors on the train on the connecting platform close. Waiting for another Jubilee is not usually a problem (even if I have a brief moment of annoyance) but waiting for another Met train going to the destination I need can be very annoying if I miss it, especially if I have been held up elsewhere. Yes, I try to allow time for my journey and not do things last minute, but as a normal passenger the failure to hold another train is annoying and gives the impression the railway does not care. I know that holding a train will cause other delays, but your typical passenger won't appreciate that. But then this is where the railway can't win as many times I am on a train calling at Harrow and or Finchley Road and I am willing my driver to shut the doors before any train on the next line arrives, so we don't get invaded by other passengers, but it seems more often this time my train waits! So the railway can't win!
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Post by knap on Feb 22, 2012 11:02:04 GMT
The Chesham your wife missed ended up being reversed at Rickmansworth, and was never going to stop at Wembley. This information was sent out from our room but clearly failed to be passed on. We did indeed have minor problems in the Harrow area at that time, which didn't help us recover the already delayed service (after the Aldgate problems). I'm sorry that we couldn't do much more. Having said that, there never were any significant gaps in any of our services except if you were stood on, say, Moorgate platform and were waiting for a direct Chesham. At no point, that we were aware of, did any train take much more than the scheduled time between Finchley Road/Wembley to Harrow. Your journey time at the time of the problems sounds feasible. However, did your wife remain on Platform 1 at Wembley and was not advised to cross to platform 2? Or was the majority of her journey time spent waiting for - rather than being on a train? I don't know if she crossed to platform 2, one has to make a decision to either dash up and down the stairs or wait for the next train. Being registered blind make such decisions interesting! Thanks or all the information, I think it boils down to what the definition of a delay is. Certainly her journey was delayed by enough to enable a charter refund claim, but in the general scheme of things the over all delays for the line may not be seen as too bad. I know my train crawled and stopped and started between Wembley and Harrow and was much slower than usual.
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Post by knap on Feb 21, 2012 13:52:22 GMT
I was caught in the delays as was my wife. TFL web site continued to say good service, despite message at Finchley Road saying there was / had been a signal failure in the City and some trains were thus starting at Harrow. It took me about 30 minutes to get from Finchley Road to Harrow, our driver said there was a signal problem at Harrow and we stopped started all the way from Wembley to Harrow. My wife also seemed to take 30 minutes from Wembley to Harrow, both journeys between 5:30 and 6 ish. The Oyster web site has not got our journey times yet, but the delays were long enough for us both to want to claim a refund. My wife tried to catch a Chesham service at Wembley which despite being announced did not stop there. I was on a following Chesham service that left Finchley Road at about 5:35
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Post by knap on Feb 7, 2012 12:48:33 GMT
Like martyboy the new timetable is not as good for me traveling from Amersham. My previous fast train has been put back. There is a new semi fast which should get me to Finchley Road for me to catch a Jubilee train back to West Hampstead where I connect to the north London Line. However, this new semi fast train I think has only been on time 3 times since the start of the time table. This means I mis my connections, which adds to my journey and makes me late. If the service was able to run to its timetable, I could live with it, but 5 minutes late has a knock on effect to the rest of my journey.
Traveling off peak on a Sunday is just so frustratingly slow!
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Post by knap on Nov 4, 2011 9:39:08 GMT
The railway was there before the houses and in fact if the railway had not been built, then Little Chalfont would not exist (probably!).
From my memory, trees have grown quite large over fairly recent years, so removing some is only like making it as it used to be.
I think I read somewhere that the embankments in the area have different angle of slopes (sure that is not a correct technical description) which means they can be more unstable than other embankments, hence the need to make them stable.
Yes, the work around Black Horse Bridge does tend to stick out a lot now, but its a railway, you can't really hide it. I am sure some vegetation will grow back to soften the view in time.
This type of work has been done in many places along the line. The good people of Moor Park could not stop it!
I also live in Amersham and accept this work has to happen. If I had a house right by the railway I expect I would be annoyed, BUT I would have known the railway was there and thus would expect the consequences of living by the railway.
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Post by knap on Oct 24, 2011 8:08:02 GMT
Chiltern are saying the 172s have very good acceleration which is what they wanted for the metro services on the Wycombe line so as not to delay other non stopping services. So no point getting 170s or similar if the acceleration is not good on those.
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Post by knap on Oct 21, 2011 11:42:20 GMT
I think the biggest limitation that will put a stop to the Met handing over west of Moor Park will always be the platform capacity at Marylebone. Never mind lack of platforms at Marylebone, there must be a limit to how many trains you can get into and out of Marylebone as it only has two tracks in and out. One of the reasons Marylebone did not close in the 1980s was because Baker Street could not take the extra services required, so I assume now Chiltern could not run many more services from the Aylesbury line owing to the 2 track limit, so I doubt they would want to take on more services north of Ricky
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Post by knap on Oct 21, 2011 9:35:11 GMT
This change will impact on me. Yes, I am selfish, but I want a decent train service like everyone else, so have complained to TFL and my MP and have been fobbed off with spin. An extra 7 minutes (as quoted by TFL) is an extra 7 minutes on an already long journey. The benefit of not needing to change at Baker Street may help on occasions, but what percentage of passengers off peak actually want to go to and from the West End as opposed to the City, particularly at week ends when The City is usually dead? The people traveling to the West End off peak will have longer journeys, they are being provided with a poorer service.
I suspect people will avoid using Met services off peak and go to Marylebone for the West end. This could mean fewer people using the Met trains, so will TFL then say there is less demand and cut the poor service back to one train an hour? The service will just then spiral further down hill. Grumpy mode off!
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Post by knap on Oct 5, 2011 8:40:07 GMT
The platform 5 & 6 run around at Harrow OTH has happened all the time I have traveled by the Met into London (since 1985). I personally don't do it, if I am on a train, then I stay on it as luckily a few minutes saved / extra is not usually a problem. But how to educate the passenger who in this madly rushing world always wants to get to their destination as fast as they can? I think the phrase "fast" implies a much speedier train which means people will dash for that service. I note the comments about there being no description for the particular train I was on (0741 ex Amersham), so confusion can happen. It should not be forgotten that a number of people get off at Wembley (I know from December this issue will go away) so the confusion between driver and station staff giving what appears to be conflicting information does cause people to have to jump on and off quickly, so the runaround is not just people wanting a fast train, some want a slow one! Tell my wife not to worry, she is anxious every day about whether her train will stop at Wembley and the confusing announcements really annoy her!
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Post by knap on Oct 4, 2011 8:29:44 GMT
Getting information to staff and passengers must be a real challenge, especially perhaps at Harrow on the Hill! Still we have announcements by platform staff at Harrow that the ex 0744(41) Amersham to Aldgate is fast from Harrow, yet Amersham staff correctly announced the stopping pattern as did the driver. So, again today confusion for passengers dashing between platform 5 & 6 at Harrow owing to the platform staff saying one thing and the driver saying something different!
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Post by knap on Aug 17, 2011 12:33:25 GMT
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Post by knap on Aug 10, 2011 8:23:45 GMT
As for the other stuff, it is a shame that you're still seeing that sort of thing. We do I strive to get the message across from the control room out to the stations, and try to make sure everyone is singing from the same hymn book so to speak. Please issue new hymn sheets. This morning after a wait at Harrow with no announcements, the driver announced he was going to have to check with the signaler as he thought we were stopping, but he had a fast route. So many people got off, others got on. The platform staff then announced it was a fast train. At the same time an all stations to Baker Street arrived on platform 5. We then went fast, but stopped at Wembley platform 6 -where there was no one waiting and no one appeared to get off, apart from a rail worker! I know changes to trains can / have to be made if services are late / delayed etc., but this situation is not creating a good impression and only makes the feeling of a poor service that passengers already have increase. The number of negative comments from passengers is constant. My wife has decided to now always get off at Harrow as she cannot rely on the train doing what it is supposed to do. This is not a good situation for any passenger not being able to rely on an advertised service. Instead of being able to sit all the way, she has to get up and try and guess what ill happen at Harrow. I am grateful for the knowledge of others on this forum explaining things, but to the normal passenger, this is all a mystery. If the service does not settle down, I will be raising the issue with TFL as they should know of the concerns of passengers, but based on past experience, they will probably fob me off! The Harrow shuffle mentioned above is a regular thing and happens as people think all trains from platform 5 are stoppers and fast from 6, this has been the norm. This timetable change appears to have changed this, which creates confusion.
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