leaf fall concerns for chesham branch lurking

Does the tube not have its own Rail Head Treatment Trains for the autumn season?

The RHTT trains generally operate over tracks that network rail trains use, so I doubt they'd divert it for one line.

It does a trip down the branch before start of traffic from memory

The shuttle platform at Chalfont has been decommissioned, besides which, it's too short for an S8 - There's been updates about the shuttle (or lack thereof) in the relevant thread.

My take is that the RAT will still run as it did, just from the through platform rather than the bay, however one of our more learned people are bound to be able to confirm/deny this.

the a stock adhesion car was said to be out of use by wheel problems' i remember reading.there were s stock replacements but its unclear where these are now or if they would have arrived for this season.given the distance from the depot they would need to be ready it would be thought.

its also worrying that tfl have shown no real commitment to this stretch in terms of shuttle stock or alterations to the platform,or any contingency plans mentioned at least not here. there was also the incident of the last official train being in a filthy state showing a lack of care and when the cameras' were out too.

while it does state that the passengers preferred a though service were they given enough information as to that practicality of this over a twelve month period without the real possibility of major disruption occurring at certain points?.

redsetter; for a start there are to be two RATs soon. The practicality or lack thereof of providing unique S4 units has previously been discussed elsewhere, as have the problems associated with platform lengthening. Its not a question of commitment, its one of finance and of cost-benefit.

At times when the RAT replaced the shuttle during the day the first car was sometimes used for passengers, with an extra member of staff carried onboard to stop people wondering through. The doors on the first car being opperated by butterfly cock. In a drastic situation (assuming its up there already, the bay platform hasn't been erradicated, and the other carriages of the A stock units being kept pax-worthy), a case might be able to be drummed up for running it locked in there. However, given the amount of people using the station at all but peak times, a taxi/mini van seems to suffice.

They will ALMOST definitely put a shuttle on during leaf fall. They've proven that they can't run a through service of only 8 trains a day to Chesham during the leaf fall, so they definitely won't be able to sustain it all day. Certain high-up people may say otherwise, but as someone who uses the service very regularly and talks to front line people all the time I can say with almost complete certainty that something other than the normal Chesham service will return in the leaf fall.

There are no plans in the leaf fall timetable to operate any form of shuttle this year, but of course with 4 car double ended A stock still about for this LF season it is an option that 'could' be put in place at short should the conditions dictate!

That's interesting; will they keep to similar point to point times from Harrow to Chalfont as they will do via the slow lines during the normal timetable? In other words is the extra leaf fall time being taken up by running on the fast lines rather than on the slow lines?

All Amersham trains run fast and most Chesham trains run fast (except after 2100ish) and this has been the case since December last year.

As shedcompnodosh has said, there are no plans to run the shuttle during the leaf-fall season.

The S-stock still has to prove itself during that period, and plans seem to lean towards having a few of them on Chesham/Amersham paths - there will of course be over a third of the service formed of S-stock by the start of the leaf-fall season.

It could be that we have a rough year - like last year - and if we cannot get enough S-stock onto those services (or if they don't perform as expected) then who knows, we may resort to shuttles.

The operation of our own RAT in the past has normally seen passengers carried in the front car only, with additional staff accompanying the return trip.