Who plans the timetables?

The Timetables Section.

The worst thing that happened during the 90's for the east end (Elm Park- Upminster) of the the District Line was the introduction of the monday -friday 5 minute off peak service. This resulted in a greatly reduced layover time at Upminster and as all the peak hour trains ran late the controller would turn the trains short mainly by putting the trains into Barking sidings or use the eastbound main and bay platform at Dagenham East to reverse two trains in a row.

The only trains getting through to Upminster were the depot to depot trains and they never went back west so you could have a half hour gap just as the off peak tickets began and staff never knowing when the next train would arrive westbound.

I do not know if the situation has improved but the train indicators still do not seem to be working Elm Park to Upminster Bridge giving the customer a clue as to when a train might be expected. Still they have waited nearl 80 years for a train indicator.

The new dot matrix signs are a long way from being comissioned they were only put up for when they did the station refurb. They have no other equipment to interface it to the TD system as yet and I dont see that happening until the re-signalling. In the 90's a certain member of higher management in operational side of the business quoted to myself " No one gives a **** past Barking" well I was shocked as I did live past Barking and I hired my views back which he was a bit stunned. I dont remember too much Dag East reversers but plenty of Barking Sidings running and waiting on a packed eastbound platform at Barking for a train. But I have to say for people past Barking in the last few timetable change, services are improved which is good for everybody ;D ;D ;D

There is a lot of pressure from various areas has been for a long time the first draft JLE TT had trains running down to Charing Cross at some funny times both in service and empty.

Much of the planning was always the result of annual travel surveys.

Oyster data would be more comprehensive but I don't think it can be used.

There are two broad elements to the timetable planning process. One stage is done by the Strategy and Planning section and they will look at the demand for services and any known issues e.g reliability, overcrowding, delays. They will also look at whether planned upgrades works require revised timetables. There is a good deal of consultation at this stage to look at how crewing, maintenance and other related train services (e.g power supply) would be affected by alternative train service levels.

There is no doubt that stakeholder also exert pressure on LU but that is inevitable given the historical context of London's transport being linked to / influenced by politics.

Once viable options have been developed the business case would be put together for each with a view to finding the best option for approval by the relevant LU committee and confirmation that any budgetary changes (capital works, staff budgets, maintenance budgets) are also approved.

Once formal approval has been granted then the detailed timetable and schedules development will happen. If the upgraded timetables need more drivers and train crew accommodation then there might be a much longer lead time involved or possibly an earlier "decision in principle" to allow the works to expand train crew accommodation to run ahead of the detailed timetable and schedule development. The Ops people may also need to recruit and train extra staff so again this is a longer lead time task.

That's my understanding from a relatively small level of involvement on the train side of things before I left LU. I suspect things may have moved on somewhat but I read and signed off enough "Timetable Change Specifications" to know the broad outline. Feel free to provide any corrections if there any errors.

I believe the last Christmas Services leaflet was for the ill-fated Christmas 2010 -which didn't happen, services.