chesham shuttle in operation

...and we're back on the (IMHO) bloody-minded stupidity of not spending the relatively small amount of money to extend the bay for 8 cars. IIRC, the points are being moved westward to largely remove the stretch of 3 tracking anyway, so that largely removes the arguments for savings on trackwork changes. A concrete platform extension really doesn't cost that much at all.

It's very easy: move the points westwards and extend the platform.

::)Yawn

For goodness knows how many times now...

The bay is not going to be extended. The shuttle as a timetabled service is history. There will be S7s and S8s - the latter on the Met. To retain any heritage stock or to have dedicated buses/trains/pushbikes to be used during the odd occasion when a through service is not possible, costs far more to maintain than the cost of providing special one-off transport. If there is a shutdown on, say, the Watford Branch we suspend the service. If there are no alternative transport means, we provide them - just as we will do for Chesham.

The 4-car was used because it was available. Yes that in itself may seem to the outsider to justify keeping a 4-car fully serviceable. But it is nowhere near the sort of justification needed.

The movement of the pointwork is not anywhere near being carried out. It is on the cards to be done at some point, along with the movement of Harrow North Junction - both projects are now much less "urgent" given the timetable we operate.

People, we have to move on. Whatever the future holds for the branch, we are in the transport business, and as such have to make transport business decisions.

If LU/TfL were to maintain a bus or two, employ a team of drivers and make arrangements for the storage and maintenance to provide 18 hours of cover specifically for problems arising on the Chesham branch, then they might as well tear up the rails and run a bus service from amersham all day every day.

If you open it up and say they should have a small fleet to cover each area of London (e.g. n, s, e and w), then the investment is more spread, but it would take so long to get buses to some sections the problems might be fixed, or you would get so few buses to a busy section it makes no difference.

TfL are a public service business, they have an obligation to get you to your destination, but also to do so in the most cost-effective way that resources allow. This weekend this meant taking a 4 car A-stock out of the depot and running a shuttle. Looking forward, not only will there be costs in maintaining stock for this to be an option, but also in maintaining a pool of drivers signed off to drive it in public service.

Or Chesham to Watford! The track is there and looking at the WTT for the christmas period, there will be a couple of days where this will 'sort of' be the case (Chesham/Amersham - Baker Street via Watford)

0830-Close on 26th December (Amersham and Chesham)
0400-1000 on 1st January (Amersham and Chesham)

Why would someone need to go from Chesham to Watford? Remember, it's mostly a commuter town with people who need to go to London, not to Watford.

Why would someone need to go from Chesham to Watford? Similarly, Why would anyone want to go to Northolt, Greenford or Perivale from Hillingdon or Uxbridge? Well, the truth is they do, and that is why the local roads are saturated. Often because people who live at one end work at the other. However, Hillingdon Council are on the case. The ridiculous decision to terminate Central Line services at W Ruislip instead of diverting them south to where they are needed will one day have people asking a different question, "Why did it take so long??" and "Why did some people go out of their ways to prevent it happening"? Answer: No politician or (so called) manager ever lost his job (unfortunately) for NOT spending money.

I know a lot of people who work in Watford and live in Chesham.

The point is, is it will be largely immune from problems in the city. Not entirely but largely.

And now, thanks to the new timetable, this change is via an island platform and not via the subway ;D

However if the timetable were written well, you'd make connections with fast/Chiltern trains at Chalfont or Rickmansworth thus making the journey faster and still serve more of a purpose than a Chesham-Chalfont shuttle.

The train only takes 26 mins for Chesham to Watford for the train which does this at the start of the weekday timetable. Google maps (which generally gives a good estimate in my experience) gives a driving time of ~30mins for town center - town center for the same journey.

The walk from Watford Met to the town center is a problem, until the Croxley link opens, but for people using public transport there is a good bus service from Croxley LU station into Watford.

You know what a Watford-Chesham service would have been very useful to me... on about 8 occasions in my life... although in fairness it would also stop at chalfont which would have saved me a change at Moor Park on many many more occasions...
However I recognise that I was not following a typical commuter route so was happy I could get to within 5 miles of my workplace of the time at all by public transport...

If a regular Watford - Chesham service was ever to run (after the Croxley link was finished), I would say the main flow of passengers would not be to/from Chesham but to/from Ricky instead. As Bengley has said above, the main benefit for Chesham passengers would be reliability, as it is less exposed to any problems occurring in the city.

Seems legit Thanks MetControl.