Bank Holiday service

Because the engineering works between Plaistow and Dagenham the C Stock from Barking sidings were unavailable, therefore the Circle Line reverted to it's pre-December 2009 full-circle working, this also reduced the stock available to the District.

I thought things were a little tight on Bank Holiday Monday on the Met with the closure south of Harrow...

outstabling 13 trains from Barking is an extremely difficult task, possibly the largest example of outstabling from a single site in recent times? (anyone think of similar examples, the last Uxbridge outstabling counted for 11 I seem to remember, plus that was an easier operation as about 5 trains got stashed in Ruilsip Depot) ?

Also, people often fail to realise that a reduction in train service isn't always down to the availabilty of train sets. Train operator availability on a truncated line can play a big part. Upminster and Barking train ops would need to travel by bus and taxi to get themeselves into position to work trains (other than the 6 tph UPM-DAG shuttle)

This means that such rosters become less efficient due to travelling time and ultimately you don't have as many T/OPS available, therefore you are forced to reduce service levels

LU could have built 4 shiny new 'C' stocks and a new stabling point at Wimbledon for this weekend, but without T/OP resource they wouldn't be much use!!!

A few additional points to this particular closure and following on from Colin's post:-

This closure was 'Wheels Free' Barking Sidings, therefore all 13 trains HAD to be outstabled elsewhere

Special timetables did in fact operate on both Fri pm and Tues am for this closure (approx post 1900 and pre 0900 respectively)

Listing consequential alterations for 13 outstabled trains would be a lengthy task, plus a timetable galley displaying service cuts (largely to/from Barking Fri pm/Tues am) is a far better way to portray these alterations and highlight the gaps in the service

But as Colin says, you still have to work largely around the normal Fri and Tues rosters so the outstabling arrangements have to fit in with these

When looking to work up outstabling arrangements emphasis is always put towards maintaing first and last passengar facilities over sections and also minimising overly large intervals where possible

If you look at the Friday night service from this closure, you will see that timetables have effectively cut the entire service eastbound to Barking post 2300 (as there is no point in the trains ending up there, as they can't stable and will never get back to a stabling location within T/OPS normal day turn rostering parameters)

What they appear to have done is operate at least a 20 minute service to Whitechapel on the H&C with onward connections to Barking on a normal District service

All the other trains pull out at Hammersmith (ie don't go east at all) or pull out to stable at other locations, ie Moorgate/Aldgate, so at least a 10 minute service operates from Hammersmith across to the Kings X/Farringdon area.

From memory the last Hammersmith to Barking did operate as normal and this train was one of the 'C' stocks chosen to stable at Upminster, therefore maintaining all normal last connections across the H&C

Colin's point about train prep also rings true in terms of service reductions

The trains stabling additionally at Aldgate, Moorgate and Hammersmith platform throughout this weekend would need to be changed over at Hammersmith Depot for a fresh set each night, again taking up train sets that ordinarily could have been used in service

I hope those of you unfamiliar with the nitty gritty of the ops side of LU can now see how complicated an excerise it all is and reducing the Wimblewares to 3 tph is not in fact an excuse, it is (was) a requirement

And where is the passenger in all this?

I don't remember seeing any announcement relating to a reduced service on the TfL website. (Which doesn't mean there wasn't one.)

An option would surely have been to short-work the service to HSK and/or Putney Bridge, which I would imagine with the available drivers/trains would have given 4tph over the rest of the line. When Herbert Walker electrified the Southern he decided that 4tph was what was necessary for a "turn up and go" service and I hope you will agree he was a good railwayman.

I'm sorry, but from the passenger PoV "it all becomes a bit too complicated" isn't good enough.

There is a simple test you guys can apply. It's this: "if I was an elected politician, would I be happy defending this state of affairs to a constituent"?

All I am suggesting is that the next time there is a Bank Holiday you draw the lessons from what happened last May, rather than adopting a defensive attitude, which never impresses.

Fair enough.

I was going to let this go, but actually I do think you're being a little defensive, shedcompnodosh.

What I would expect is that LUL would first establish the demand. I am less than convinced that it is particularly good at this (a comment that applies to the buses as well) where week-ends and bank holidays are concerned. However as you are all operating guys I don't particularly expect a comment on that.

Let's look forward. When you come to run the S stock (in other words AIUI any train can run to any destination) would you still recommend the same service pattern in the same circumstances, as opposed to, say, 4tph on both branches? Clearly the answer ought to depend on passenger loadings first and operational convenience second.

That is the principle that leads me to bang on, hopefully not too discourteously, and when people accept it I will be more than happy to withdraw the charge of defensiveness.

As I see it, you can't put trains into a place they aren't at! You can't supply trains that don't exist. And you can't get trains from A to B via C if C isn't available.

Looking from a bus drivers side, the depot is nowhere near the bus station, it's on the other side of a level crossing for starters. If that level crossing fails, the bus can't get to the bus station, therefore the journey can't start.

It's not the drivers fault, yet we'll get all the blame for it.

Somewhere along the line, something has to give, so a reduced service will operate whether the customers like it or not, there simply isn't an alternative, unless someone can teach us how to fly the things.