Endless Met closures

Track replacement I think, saw a tonne of battery locos and Schomas at Neasden station on saturday

Actually the Met closures seem a lot less recently, especially up the north end. It has been quite good

The Senior Project manager for Neasden Depot tells us what is happening

Very interesting, thanks Juliang.

Also there's lots of Aldgate-Baker Street Closures due to upgrading work at Farringdon although most of the work is done for the moment

Last weekends (21st/22nd Jan) was for track replacement on the n/b Jubilee through the platform at Wembley Park and towards the fly under from what I saw.

Maybe we should have a dedicated thread on here of more detailed information of what is going on during possessions? The public information available is usually scant.

Even better, if TfL were to provide links to a fuller technical description of each weekends work, I think the Metronet website had some stuff about track replacement around Amersham. Might help the more technical commuters have more understanding (and sympathy) of what is happening.

Neasden used to house C stock years ago but you only see the odd one now for wheel turning. In days gone by Neasden used to house a variety of stocks. Up to the early 70s Neasden even stabled CO/CP stock for the Circle Line that would operate early morning trains to Rayners Lane and/or call at the Bakerloo (now Jubilee) Stations.

The aim is to stable some S7s at Neasden I understand.

Agreed. The ride on the S stock is better, but I feel it is not good enough - is that what you are hinting at?

S Stocks cannot use the carriage wash as the profile of the train is different from the A Stocks. But at the moment S Stocks are washed manually.

Sorry guys, I don't agree. If you disregard the clunking from the A Stock bogies, and the bounce from their seats, I find the ride quality to be very much on a par. For a design 50 years younger, the S Stock should be infinitely smoother, just try the new Heathrow Connect trains.

and their tiny wheels...... ;D

Wow, MC, this is a brave statement; perhaps the inclusion of the word "always" will be your get out of jail card, particularly with the need to close the Finchley Road tunnel

I say again, "The re-signalling won't always mean hefty closures."

Now, does he who questions whether I am in a position to make such "bold" statements also want to put his money where his mouth is.
Just read my statement carefully, then decide whether you wish to challenge me.
There will be weekend closures, but it will not be week after week of shutdowns in the way track replacement and the Jubilee Line project thwarted us.

Shall we re-visit this thread in, say, a few years. (I'll add it to my ever growing list). Set your alarm...

The new signalling - for whenever it is planned - will be a bonus to the Met, but until then I would not view our current signalling as our achilles heal. The S-stock, when fully introduced, will allow us to speed up the timetable with the current signalling still in place, before a full "speed up" once the new kit arrives.

Weekend closures have been pretty much the norm on my NR line for the last 23 years that I have been trying to get to work on a weekend. However, we have the same old trains, more or less the same old track. But renewals are not always evident, don't always improve reliability, but are essential - and can only be done at certain times. This year (owing to the Olympics) block closures are not so much of an option as they were last year or will be next year...

The signal failures are not getting "worse." They still occur, yes I'll agree with you. You do also find there are "spates" of delays - the week before last, every shift I worked tended to have some sort of delay, yet the week prior to that I sat twiddling my thumbs.

Finchley Road to Baker Street experiences problems during prolonged wet weather. It is well known where the problems occur, and the track is monitored to prevent delays. It is not always 100% successful, but the work that has been carried out means the reliability is more than it was.

The kit needs a "Bayswater Blockade" style shutdown, and it will get it, but as you rightly point out, not this year for obvious reasons. But then, hopefully we are due for a better summer than last year, and it will not rain as much. In any case, prolonged rain of the sort you get in winter is worse than the quick showers you tend to get in summer. Yes, yes, let's beat the Standard to it: "Wrong kind of rain..."

Not sitting in the seat I sit in, you will not appreciate the level of planning that is going on behind the scenes to prevent your predicted failure being "catastrophic." I do hope that the planning we're doing now, and the lessons we're learning, continue long after the Olympics. If we have to occasionally rely on Chiltern to move people during disruption - as they rely on us on occasions - then what really is the problem? We don't like making a habit of it, but if it's a question of getting you home then so be it. They haven't commented yet, so why not knock on their door and see if they will be running more than 2-car trains as a contingency for over-crowding...

Management can bury their heads as you suggest, but it is down to those on the ground to pull this summer off. So, if all does not go to plan, I sincerely hope you factor our efforts in before you kick us in the teeth.

Finally, I am bored of commenting on the new timetable (given it has a multi-page thread here, with plenty of my views). But just to say (again) we have to move forward. The new timetable has the interests of Chesham (through services) and the local line stations between Northwood and North Harrow included. It has fast services in the peaks. It also has - as you rightly say - a built in level of recovery. So are we not to have timetables which can be recovered now? You intend us to run a service that cannot be recovered? Interesting...

Bengley have your costs risen a significant amount as a result or are you happy to pay the extra due to the time saved?

I must agree when you look at how much time you would save daily I wouldnt mind paying the extra few quid like yourself.

In regard to the topic title,

I have to say as a met line "leisure" traveller who usually travels at the weekend I think the closures have got a lot better as of late. The problem is people will always complain when a certain section of the line is closed.

In the ideal world the line could be shut for 2 weeks to allow engineers to do everything they need to do and get all those engineering projects done in one go - but as we live in or near to a capital city of millions of people this simply wont happen.

I think people who complain about weekend closures have to remember we have the oldest underground railway system in the world - that means unfortunately for us a very old, creaking railway which needs a LOT of attention. And in this day and age without the funding things can only be done as and when time and more importantly, the budget allows.