minimum service on the circle

There is a plan to introduce a three train per hour Circle line service in the peak hours only in the very near future (In fact mere hours after I write this).
Last night there was a train carrying out rusty rail moves in the Aldgate and Gloucester Road/High St Ken areas, the only places on the Circle line that have not seen a train since July 7th.

Or one of my recent postings - I have made plenty of mention in lots of places about the services.

In answer to most of your questions (some of which have already been answered, but I will go over them again.)

The last of the rolling stock out-stabled during the closure reached it's "home" depot of Hammersmith on Tuesday evening. The fact that all the stock is there does not necessarily mean work can crack on 24-hours a day. Some trains may require more than an exam. Don't forget that right up until the events of 7th July we were running a normal service, and with that come normal defects! Many of these will require fixing before an exam can take place. Plus there are only facilities to perform one thorough exam at any one time.

As for overall availability. Just because, for instance, 20 trains are available, does not mean we will run 20 trains. It would leave very little slack should one train become defective and is withdrawn from service. You would then have no replacement and have to suffer gaps in the service for the remainder of the day. Better to make a timetable which uses 75-80% of your fleet, running an albeit reduced but reliable service.

There are rules about running a "minimum service." However, the mathematical equations to decide it would stretch to many pages Basically, decisions are based on predicted passenger loadings and alternatives. Providing a train every half an hour to packed platforms is pointless and could be dangerous. Providing a slightly more regular service, coupled with other services will at least keep people moving, and although many will not catch a direct train, the majority will at least be able to reach other stations where alternative routes can be taken.

Currently, with the H&C and District running full services, there are alternatives for Circle Line customers. Publicity has made it clear that the Circles will run during peak hours only. The sensible conclusion is that nobody should plan their day's travel around the Circle service. Therefore, to run the "additional" peak-hour Circles will boost the service as a whole.

Passenger numbers are still slightly lower than normal, either due to summer holidays or people avoiding the network.

I do not think I would be out of line in saying that the running of just the peak-hour Circles is more of a "political" move than anything else. Four weeks to the day since the first attacks, and LU can at least stand with the rest of London and re-affirm the message that we will not be beaten. To get back to virtually normal services on the whole network in just 4 weeks is quite an achievement, when you consider the carnage that occured.

It has also shown now, with no Circle Line service, people can still get to the places they want to, allbeit on busier trains.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Proof enough that they can safely be done away with. They were only enabled in the first place in 1884 because the "Huntin' and Shootin' wallahs at Westminster wanted to have a quick way to get to the northern rail termini on friday afternoons.

The present mob of gasbags and useless mouths at that antiquated establshment also like them so that they can run back to Scotland at weekends and get away from actually working (What they call work that is. The rest of us class it as parasitism) A better reason for the abolition of Circles I have yet to hear.

That always brings a smile to my face when I remember that fact. The hatred (I think) has gone, but, how shall I put this diplomatically. There is still a lot of reluctance on the co-operation side.

Whether or not the law still exists, various schemes that have been bounced around over recent years all seem to have hit some sort of wall (a couple of those radical thinking managers also "moved on" after their plans were stopped... )

Under one management is one thing, of the same mind is something totally different. In this instance sufficiently different as to not be on the same planet. ;D

Even now the people on the Met have the idea that they are in some way superior to those on other lines. Strange but true (with a few exceptions of course).

Why be Surprised? It is no different from the total unity and mutual respect shown by GWR and SR to each other after nationalisation.
removes tongue from cheek.
GWR (north of London) always thought they were superior to all others, especially SR (south of London ) and didn't let a little thing like common management get in the way.
This was despite the fact that SR could changes engines at Salisbury in 3 minutes whilst GWR (anywhere) seldom took less than 8.

It's been running a full service since Monday!!

Tell me about it. Back to late running on the District again!!

There are still a few gaps in the Circle service but not too many. 202 and 215 were definately not running yesterday and no doubt a few others but its 80% there.

Funny you should mention late running on the District returning. When the H&C was resumed, everything ran well. Now the Circle is back, we have returned to "losing" the H&Cs east of Whitechapel. How can that be.

We have run with roughly 2 cancellations on each side - though this does change. I can tell you which outer-rails were out, but it's pure guess-work as to what was cancelled on each trip on the inner. Not too much info coming from a certain control room.

As for any junction working at our end, until the political dust settles, the Circles are getting a certain amount of priority (within reason of course.) However, I have not witnessed any District being delayed in the Aldgate area on any afternoon/evening since Monday. I did have a 5 minute delay caused by a District sitting back at OB3700 on Tuesday though.

Well like i've said before, much as we hate em - it's nice to see them back, given the circumstances. And i've been fotunate this week - when i've had one in front it's actually moved quite fast! (perhaps they're running out of service ;D ;D).