New Met Line Timetable

Yes, that's correct. They are essentially the extension of the current, and little used, amersham shuttles, with an extra return journey. This service is on trial at least till the
December timetable change.

I'm curious to know how the revenues from pax boarding at the outer LU stations are split. I would imagine the percentage using Chiltern from the outer stations is greater than before the new improved (!) slow Met timetable was introduced. Do Chiltern just have to carry more pax without compensation, or are the numbers of pax on Chiltern vs Met calculated somehow and the revenue divied up accordingly?

Basically, the deal struck between BR and LT (which I suspect is still fossilised today because of the difficulty of unpicking old contracts) was that LT took 60% of Travelcard revenue in zones 1-3, and BR took 60% outside of that. Between the BR TOCs, the revenue was split based on periodic surveys; these surveys always have winners and losers - it's inevitably a zero sum game. ["Own" TOC revenue and "National Rail only" revenue are split on a different basis but I musn't digress off thread.] The consequence of this approach is that there is little incentive on individual operators to earn more money, as they can't in the short termn - they merely increase a pool in which they have a part share.

BTW, unamusingly, the Travelcard split was the basis of one of the very first privatisation frauds. The prospective LTS management buyout team had set up an operation called (would you believe?) "Lots of money for LTS" in which passengers buying, say, a Fenchurch-Romford season at Fenchurch, were sold one that was actually run through the books at Romford, thus giving LTS a bigger share. This came to light two days before LTS - the first privatisation - was due to be sold to its management. We at BR had a rather fraught weekend, with No 10 breathing down our necks to sort it out. The incumbent management was sacked - in tears - on the spot, and LTS went to the back of the queue while I filled vanloads (1x Transit and 1x 15 ton Luton) of ticket office data for ORR's bedtime reading. Happy days!

GH

@ metliner

Possibly no longer inept but appearing to look deliberate.

I am beginning suspect one of them (TfL, LU or Chiltern) has a hidden agenda. I see no other logical explanation. I was trained to look for 'motives' in my past career, and with such a cynical eye on things, I will watch this situation as it develops as I feel sure it will.

I remember years ago when I saw similar suspect manoeuvres over the attempted closure by stealth of the Horsham-Dorking line. Deliberate (or impossible), bad connections with Arun Valley services at Horsham and one year, it was "inadvertently" left off the national rail map. I'm not saying that is the motive in this case, but I "sniff" something's going on in someone's mind, somewhere.

I'm afraid you're right. If your train was on time, you would be subjected to a 4/5 min wait at Harrow, whilst the previous train leaves as your doors open. The best you can hope for is a 10 min delay to your train which means it leaves Harrow asap and runs semi-fast to Finchley Road!

The New T/T as from 19/05/2013 shows evidence that some common sense has prevailed . From 0600 to 0930 N/B from Baker ST they have indeed swapped the Amersham Service with the Chesham Service with in that Window.Further more the majority of Chesham Trains from there are Semi Fast at that time. God news for me, being a Night Shift worker, not so good for me as TFL have taken over the Carpark . For years it has always been free from 1830 to 0700. It costs just £1.20p (because i leave at 1800 to catch the Train ) , as from the beginning of last week its £7 for over night parking.Oh well can't have it all your own way.

Under CDC you could park at their normal short stay prices. Now, judging by a letter in the local paper there is only a daily rate.

Though as its the station car park why should it provide short stay parking? CDC has 2 town centre short stay parks anyway. At least it is cheaper than Amersham or Chalfont and Latimer station car parks run by NCP

Why indeed? Except that for as long as I have lived near Chesham it has just been another town centre car park not a dedicated station car park. I wasn't even aware that LUL still owned it until the recent change.

Location - yes
Function - no

The clue was the use of Chiltern District Council standard car park signage.

That may be a trainspotter's view but to a "normal" if it has local council signs and local council shoppers car park prices then its a local council shoppers car park with some of those funny trains that their dads used to use to go to the City nearby. Incidentally most meeting and greeting traffic uses the station forecourt or the parking spaces in Station Road.

I suspect that a lot of commuters will decide that the extra £10 for a season ticket in the council car park at Amersham is worth it for the extra trains.

If only all the other arguments on the Forum were settled like this. Thank you both!

60mph!!!! My goodness. Might have to bring a crash helmet. Never been that fast in a good old A stock

When I was commuting daily in the 1970s, some trains used to hurtle between Neasden and Wembley Park, swaying so hard things would fall off one's lap. Once or twice I was genuinely concerned that the train might derail. I guess they were going at the max of the speed limit or maybe a little over. Pleased to say that nothing ever went wrong.