Stop-skipping between Willesden and Clapham Junctions

Obviously they are

That is appalling - passengers should be able to claim delay repay, although the funds they receive will be paltry / insufficient to adequately recompense them for their irrecoverable lost time.

Passengers paying PAYG fares are very likely to have been financially penalised because of the extended journey time. A clever lawyer could possibly work out a way of explaining this in a court of law as theft. Especially for passengers who have already made 3+ claims for Oystercard financial woes so are now deemed ineligible for a refund of the two 'maximum fares'.

re: the passengers ending up catching a Southern service to East Croydon, this reminds me of the era when Silverlink was running the North London Line and how there were days when evening passengers at Highbury & Islington were thankful for the Anglia Trains Crosstown LinkLine service which ran non-stop to Stratford.

In a roundabout way this also benefitted passengers who wanted the intermediate stations that the Anglia service did not call at - I say this because it meant that when a Silverlink train finally and at long last arrived there was a greater chance of them being able to board it.

I only reported a fraction of the delays on the ‘Mildmay’ service last Friday evening, 8 Nov. ‘My’ train was due into Clapham Junction (CLJ) at 17h05 but by dint of skipping every station between Willesden Junction (WIJ), where it left 13 late and CLJ, it arrived at 17h08. It departed for Stratford (SFA) at 17h11. I mentioned that the train following ‘mine’ was cancelled (actually at Kensal Green KNL) leaving the 42-minute gap referred to above. That unit was meant to provide the 17h22 CLJ – SFA, which was inevitably cancelled. The next scheduled service was 17h34 and it left 17 minutes late (a 43 minute service gap in the middle of the rush-hour) and never made it to SFA, as it was cancelled beyond WIJ! I’m retired. My heart goes out to the workers trying to get home at that time or to quite likely to second jobs in kitchen and delivery services, care facilities etc. A solution? If a rush-hour rostering and the remaining road of the Kensington Sidings at CLJ permitted a ‘back-stop’ unit, it could have been used to provide the 17h08 CLJ – WIJ service and ‘my’ southbound service turned to provide the 17h22 service which was cancelled.


(Incidentally, I have noticed that during rush-hour the Tonbridge Engineers’ leaf cleaning special, e.g. 3S79, dodges back and forth reversing on available mainline crossovers. So, a reverse move over Latchmere 2 Junction should be eminently possible).


I’m probably totally wrong in thinking that the TOC’s, when cancelling services, would ever cynically calculate that many of the above categories of passengers simply do not have the time to claim and follow up on the small amounts of compensation due to them. As to causes: Incidents do happen. Freight trains take longer to clear a block, dogs get their paws trapped in doors, people slip on leaves and into out of trains (try alighting from g a 710 unit at Wembley Central!!), frustrated passengers sometimes come to blows, people fall ill. The rate of occurrence of such service-delaying incidents, which will always happen, must be known to the TOCs and that should be factored into the service level agreements with TfL so that back-up can be readily provided. I’ll stand correction, but doubt that it is

It looks to me as if you are trying to run too many trains.

Space them out a bit. That will give you more flexibility.