East London Line Reopening

Went down this evening after work, was very impressed with the new line, though I did find the train rather uncomfortable, I'm not sure I'd want to travel all the way from Highbury to Clapham Junction on one.

There were a few 'normals' trying the new service out, including one old chap who managed to get on a train going the wrong way! When I boarded a New Cross service at Surrey Quays around 6pm, there was about 1 person for every four seats.

I'm not sure how the narrow platforms are going to cope in a full-on rush hour, especially at Whitechapel where passengers from the EB District have to walk along the Northbound ELL platform and over the bridge to get to the Southbound ELL. (I'm guessing this is a temporary arrangement while the station is being remodelled).

There does seem to be an overuse of automated announcements: The auto-announcer at the station advises of expected trains 5mins before, 2mins before and as they arrive. It also gives a long spiel about 'standing behind the yellow line and using the full length of the train' when the train arrives.
The on-train announcer also goes on about keeping your luggage with you.

Can't wait to get back on the ELL, although it won't quite be the same without the A stock!!
Looking forward to riding along the Kingsland Viaduct, tried it 20 years but the line had closed, so walked it* 10 years later!

*along the Kingsland Road!!

Did a search and found this : ..

That link isn't working - this one should:

Had a ride on the reopened ELL (classic and new parts of the line) and generally ... very nice. The "classic" bit of the line is easily the part of the LO network that most feels like a TfL line.

The northwards extension to Dalston Junction feels much more like the DLR, though. Not saying that's a bad thing, just an observation.

I do think they're perhaps going a bit over the top with the "stand behind the yellow line" malarky and I can see that having staff on the platforms physically walking up to passengers to say this - however well-intentioned it may be - is going to lead to people getting rubbed up the wrong way (doing it at terminal stations to stop people walking alongside a stationary train is just plain silly, imo) and tensions rising as a result; something nobody wants to happen.

It's not done on the LU and the yellow line on the LO stations seems way further back than on the undeground. Presumably this is becuase it conforms to mainline standards where a bigger space was needed due to the danger of slam-doors opening and whacking passengers who were too close. What are the chances of a slam-door train ever passing through the ELL?

tried it today, Whitechapel to Dalston. On the boards (about 1230) it had no departures, "Speak to Staff" basically. Then finally the '1230' train & the two following appeared on the board, and the 1230 arrived at 1233. The train pulled in, and it seemed like (due to the amount of time standing still with the doors closed) the driver was having issues opening the doors. Possibly a 'reboot' took place then the doors opened, boarded & proceeded on its way. No issues after that. Anything to do with Bombardier Quality?

(I'm from Sydney, and always laughed at the builder's plate inside the Tangara Double Deck Trains. 'Goninan Quality'. They had major bogie problems about 2 years after introduction.)

Normally on LU non-stopping trains are required to pass the station starting signal at 5mph, however there are exceptions listed in the rules where trains can pass through at various higher speeds.

Hmm, I'm looking forward to checking this out at some point!

Good pics there 21146...

I took a similar picture on Wednesday. I didn't have any problems with photography anywhere, so perhaps your experience was a one off?

I didn't have a bad experience, I just felt that the LO staff understood I was taking an interest in their railway, but that the LU equivelant were sort of assessing as to whether "suspicious activity" was about to occur.

Interesting to see that LU were staffing the LO-served platforms off-peak at Canada Water and Whitechapel (with SRT staff?) whereas even peak hour attendance has been withdrawn at many LU stations. Maybe LO are funding this?

Out of interest, anyone know when NR will publish their summer timetable? Currently I can only find Dec 09 - May 10. Will be interesting to see the mix/timings of Southern and ELLX services south of NKG.

Replete with errors.

The introduction says that the long layovers at Kettering on the Corby route have been eliminated, but according to Table 53 this has been done by cancelling the Corby service altogether.

Similarly the introduction says Grand Central's new service to Bradford via Pontefract, Brighouse and Halifax is to be found on Table 26 - which only shows the service as far as Doncaster: and there is no mention of it on any other timetable.

Closer to home, the West London Line timetable (176) has an entry for Wandsworth Road, but not for Ealing Broadway, so the new "Parliamentary" service is shown as running WWR to Shepherds Bush only

Funny - it's still shown on Journey Planner:

10:48 Wandsworth Road [WWR]
Ealing Broadway [EAL] 11:30 0h 42m

This train has Standard Class seating only

This train has a cycle policy.
Calling points Arrives Departs
Kensington Olympia [KPA] 11:11 11:11
Shepherds Bush [SPB] 11:13 11:13

The problem, presumably, is that Southern uses non-standard couplers. But has that stopped 165s penetrating deep into Southern territory at Gatwick? or 171s at Ashford , on SE territory?

Southern has announced it's not running the train, and basically passed the ball back to DafT to deal with.

As far as couplers go, on the Ashford route it's not a problem - Southern trains are the only ones normally using the line, and if a train fails it doesn't block anything else (apart from possibly a platform at Ashford) and they can wait for the next 171 to arrive an hour later and rescue it.

On the North Downs route most of the trains are FGW 165 or 166, and again the nearest one could couple up - and as these are BR standard couplings there's plenty of other stock available to couple with it as well.

If the coupling reason that's been put forward is correct (I've only heard on the grapevine), then it's a legitimate worry - unlike Ashford or North Downs, there won't be any similar stock anywhere nearby. The very closest you could find stock that could rescue a failed 171 from the WR main line would possibly be at Selhurst. It would take at least an hour to get there, and it would probably result in a number of cancellations to the services they should be running.

If I were the DfT I would put forward a closure case based on the Central line from Ealing to Shepherds Bush and Overground from Shepherds Bush to Clapham being a reasonable substitute.

The proposed Southern service is a nonsense anyway - the passenger flow on the original trains that used the route that is now without services was from the North of Reading to Gatwick Airport and Brighton. That service was emaciated from when the Voyager introduction problems caused a big cutback in the non-core Cross Country routes ten years ago.