This weekends engineering works...

"btr"?

BTR - Ballasted Track Replacement.

Regards,

Dan

Well, no problems Moor Park - Northwood.

Neasden, however, has over-run. Met susp HOH-ALD. Est res. 0800...

so will the service resume back to normal today?

Terrible this morning. Train was over 20 mins late leaving Chesham, only to go 1 stop to Chalfont, then another 20 minutes wait for the train to Marylebone as met line was only going to Harrow. Finally got to Farringdon just before 09.30 - a delay of 50 minutes. Yet another refund request submitted. Was also terrible on Friday morning. A famous phrase involving a brewery springs to mind...

Met stopping at West Hampstead ;D do you mean Willesden Green ?

Yes sorry meant Willesden Green! I should have known spent most of the day shouting "Willesden Green" from the front of a bus.

Trains now running.

And Causton - Yes - It was a nice little job - would have been far harder to do if the Kids were still in. However after a weekend like the last one I could do with a rest.

Well that article's the first time I've seen or heard an apology. Whilst there were numerous announcements at Chesham & Chalfont about the fact trains weren't running properly due late engineering work (including the rather galling, smug and totally unhelpful "there is a good service on all other London Underground Lines") there was not ONE apology from the station announcers this morning.

I thought I had a plan this morning...

Leave early... Vic to Oxford circus as normal, Bakerloo one stop further than my normal Baker street, to Marylebone, Chiltern (07:57) out of town... Simples!...

As we pulled into Oxford Circus, an announcement that now the Bakerloo has severe delays... Great , but luckily got a train quickly... .

Then at Baker street the Bakerloo line driver announced the Marylebone was closed due to staff shortage and he would not stop there . Jump off train... What now?

Station staff reveal that Marylebone UNDERGROUND only is closed... Mainline OK but just about ten minutes until my target train..

Sprint to Marylebone (against a river of people moving in the opposite direction) and get there with a minute or so to spare. Sorted? not quite...

Board train (Platform describer reckons its the correct one). Internal DVA screens not set up (destination Marylebone, next station Wendover). Ask passenger A - he confirms that this is the Aylesbury train, but as I move away, I see I've set the seeds of doubt in His mind!... Walk through to next car. Ask passenger B - who also says he thinks it this the Aylesbury train. At the correct time, we set off with no announcement from the driver. DVA still not set, and wondering where we'd end up..

We did end up in the right place (if a little out of breath) at the end of it all...

Last night a poster was put up at Met stations apologising and saying there would be automatic refunds to Oyster cards. I have never seen this done before. It throws up all sorts of anomalies.
a) If one was not actually delayed but travelled on the Met yesterday, one would get the refund automatically? Or if the journey started before a certain time? And from all Met stations or only those not directly connected to other lines?
c) If one saw there were delays and went by a different route altogether, taking much longer than normal, will they get a refund? The refund could be based on looking at actual travel over the last month or two
d) If one has a prepaid season ticket and abandoned the journey before starting it, presumably they must make a charter claim? Or is that not possible given that they were technically not delayed on the journey itself? Even though they were unable to travel at all.

Having said all that, I now have a freedom pass so my extra 20 minutes of journey to work, plus back ache all day (thanks to the seats on the Picc designed for very short people) doesn't get compensated anyway, so my question is purely out of curiosity.

And finally (as they say), if automatic refunds are now possible, why do they still send out vouchers by post when you make a charter claim?

I've no idea how they work it all out, all I know is that I put my claims in ASAP whilst the times are still fresh in my head, so yesterday's has already been submitted. I'm averaging 2-4 claims a week at the moment...