East London Line Reopening

North Pole could be made available for reversing, but not sure of the feasibility for a single train. Otherwise Willesden, Wembley or loop at Olympia are options, none seem immediately ideal though.

A Weekend service will start this weekend
0700 - 2000 on Saturday and 0800 - 2000 on Sunday

Forest Hill station this morning:





Thanks to NewForester of the SE23.com forum.

Having read much on here about the new East London Line, or the Overground Line, or whatever it’s called this week, and having some spare time on Friday afternoon, it seemed like an opportunity to give a short trial to the new route, and see what travel in London 2010 style is really like. And I promise, no rants. Well, maybe just one or two little ones.

What I worked out was an escape after lunch from a business meeting near Waterloo, normal train to New Cross, the new line up to Dalston, then on the other Overground line to Stratford, Jubilee Line to Canning Town, and DLR home. All on the Oyster. Now the enthusiasts among you may have detected a slight flaw in those plans – more of that later. Me, I am just going by that brand new map that is all over the place.

Incidentally, what do those enthusiasts among you prefer to be called? What is the equivalent of Petrolheads? Ballastheads maybe? When I used to live in the USA there was a hobby shop in the city with the marvellous name of “Choo Choo Chums”, which always made me smile when I passed (never went in), but maybe I’ll keep that soubriquet for another occasion.

As ever (so I am told by Mr Diana) I digress. So, fortified by lunch, a nice walk across the Thames in the afternoon sun to Waterloo ensues. Now if I have ever complained about information on the Underground, that is nothing compared to trying to find the next train to New Cross from Waterloo. You certainly need to be a ballasthead here to know which train to take. Don’t blame the wine at lunch, by the way – you try it. Eventually I work out that I will go to London Bridge and look around there, where I finally find an indicator up on the footbridge with stations shown alphabetically. But if I hadn’t chanced upon that, I’d probably still be there.

So on I go. What a huge number of trains on the railway from London Bridge to New Cross. We get there, but apart from the fact that I saw one of the new Overground trains as we arrived, there is no indication on the platform where the new line is. I follow the exit signs (and everybody else) through a dark subway, and come up right alongside the train. I did wonder if there is anything to do first, like one of those Pink Oyster machines, but there was none to be seen.

So, press the button and into the train. First reactions? Well, there’s a very spacious feel to it, principally caused by a notable lack of seats, they are only along the sidewalls. Quite why trains are designed nowadays for the convenience of those standing as opposed to those sitting quite eludes me, as it does for the rest of the London travelling public. But the low proportion of seats to space available is ridiculous. Fortunately, despite it being early rush hour, there are enough for all at the moment.

The connections between carriages, being the full width of the train, are a notable improvement. I’ve seen them on overseas systems over the years, good they have now come to London. They seem draught-tight, which must be a technical issue for them. Let us hope they are still so after 20 years of use.

So I sit down. Wow! These seats are like iron. How is it that when so much is spent on a new train the seats can be so terrible? If you are the person who specified these seats, I would send them back to the supplier with a strong Must Do Better note. They are narrow, too, and even I am constrained by the fixed armrests to sit upright, just like the old days in junior school. Auntie Overground seemingly knows best for your posture. One or two of you boys, by the way, would probably have difficulty getting your ample girth in between the armrests at all, and would end up standing.

Did you know, by the way, that John Betjeman, the great man himself, wrote in exactly the same terms about the North London Line in the 1950s, when the old generation trains, apparently most comfortable, were replaced.

One further thing about the seats is the slightly differently coloured material used for the “priority” seats, so subtle a difference that probably nobody apart from the keenest members here would ever notice. They just look a bit faded compared to the rest, but there was no doubt a cost for having a different material. Come on, all, if there are people on board who need a seat more than you do, then every seat is one to be offered.

Anyway, we are off. A surprising pleasantness is the scale of the PA announcements. Not too loud and not too many of them. Quite nicely done, and a rarity in modern times. No “Please check your shoelaces are tied at ALL times” type messages you get elsewhere.

The quality of the track is notably good, and the trains ride very well, in fact I can’t recall it being better in Britain. Nearly up to the standards of what has been achieved universally in Switzerland for as long as I’ve known them.

Every station has staff on every platform, all kitted out with a bullhorn and standing there just wondering what to do with their lives. At a couple of stops they outnumber the passengers. What an expense. How do we manage without them on the DLR then? Notably at Canada Water the staff on the East London have bullhorns, whereas their colleagues one level down on the Jubilee have those table-tennis bats with the long handle instead. Why the difference? In some Asian countries the table-tennis bats would come in handy for hitting passengers on the head as they try to squeeze in to impossibly crowded trains, but I don’t think that 55 Broadway have yet realised that potential for them - not even on the Central Line westbound at Liverpool Street in the morning rush hour.

At Wapping someone has put up some very nicely done historic artwork showing Victorian scenes. I really liked them, and next time through I will take a photograph.

Out into the sunshine at Shoreditch, and some interesting views across the chimneypots. You don’t really realise how close you are here to The City. A couple more stops and we make a very slow approach to our grand finale. Hail Dalston Junction, where we creep up the length of the platform.

Goodness, this is a spacious and cavernous new destination for the 20 or so passengers who disembark. One of the first things to notice is that it is not a junction at all, and will not be when the line is extended. It is down a side road rather than being on the main Kingsland Road, which the line passes under shortly afterwards. I see no signs for Dalston Kingsland, and the Stratford line, but work it out from a map. For a large station behind the scenes it has been finished off with a trivial street entrance. Out past the Social Workers Party stand outside (it’s been a long time since I’ve seen one of those), and up Kingsland Road, crossing the bridge over the future East London extension which would have made a much better location for a new station.

Here’s Dalston Kingsland. Oyster card out. What’s that stripy tape all across the entrance. Service “part suspended”. And apparently has been for ages. “Opening on 1 June”. Well I’ll be .....and a word quite inappropriate for your elegant reporter comes close to being voiced. It’s all well and good being open again on 1 June; I’m here on 21 May.

So. What to do now. Diana returns back down Kingsland Road with a different facial expression to the one that went the other way, disgruntled, disappointed, dismayed, and all the other words beginning with D that you can imagine. Back past the Socialist Workers, back down the stairs. When’s the next train back. This simple question is seemingly beyond either the departure indicators or the PA announcer. All they can handle is “Next Train to New Cross”, and “Next Train to New Cross Gate”, and it’s up to you (and 99% of the other passengers here) to work out, after listening to/looking at both of these, and hearing the relative times of both departures, which is the next train out.

Back into the train, throw bags down on seat, sit down all cheesed off – Ouch, oh these seats are hard. Back off the way we have come. Huh! Couple of passengers board at Hoxton and speak about “this new Underground”. Which is what, I suppose, the general public want to call it. Back down past Wapping, to Canada Water and the Jubilee.

When getting off I discover that the doors have both open and closed buttons. You’ve got to look quite closely to see which is which, the stylish artwork has rendered them very similar, and unless you are a dwarf they are well below normal line of sight. Have the words Open and Closed now been banned from usage?

I escape being hit on the head by the table-tennis bat, and roll on home by Jubilee and DLR. On leaving the DLR I decide to look at the Oyster usage for the excursion on the new ticket machines the DLR has this year so expensively installed which can now do Oyster tickets, only 8 years after they became valid on the DLR. Yes, you’ve guessed it, the new machines can only sell them, not give you the history like the ones at Underground stations can. Talk about a joined-up system.

Lots of unexplained late-running on Sunday, plus several (test?) trains running empty. Air-con on units varied from excellent to non-existent it seemes with people trying to force the hopper windows open. Glad I managed to avoid the 'characters' in fancy dress complete with musical instruments that were supposed to 'entertain' passengers I presume. Bizarrely, saw two passengers cross all four electrified lines at Honor Oak Park at track level and then try to get out up the embankment without using the (staffed/barriered) exit. South London, eh!?

www.flickr.com/photos/24772733@N05/4632932564/

www.flickr.com/photos/24772733@N05/4632286303/

www.flickr.com/photos/24772733@N05/4632464387/

Just how intensive a service is this line going to operate when it is completed? The BBC website news.bbc.co.uk/local/london/hi/things_to_do/newsid_8604000/8604842.stm suggests that it has a fleet of rolling stock that is larger than any other railway in the world.
Photograph number 3 on that page bears the caption, "Just outside of the control room is the depot, where each of the 23m new trains park up each night."

the '24m' train fleet is expressed in the French 'mille' which means it only has 24 thousand trains.

It didn't help that some people were not aware of the new timetable which has seen a slight reduction in morning peak services to London Bridge.

All trains on the ELL/LB mainline were delayed from around 8.40 due to a signal fault, which led to delays which affected the Southern side more than LO.

I'm sure once TfL take over responsibility for the DOI's and station announcements from Southern, the annoying loud hailer guys will be replaced with the pre-recorded annoucements we currently hear at LUL stations.

The video I took on Friday.

On the first day the southern section of the ELL is closed for enginerring works. It's Southern, not LOROL who are providing the replacement bus services.

One is from London Bridge to Sutton caling at all stations except Penge West, the other is a filler service calling at Sydenham, Penge West and Anerley which is also under contract to Southern, despite the stations being LOROL.

Incidentally, there is a 2tph Southern service on the southbound line via East Croydon.

Any news on this now the new TT is in operation? Has anyone actually seen a 171 at Ealing Bdy at about 12:00?