Circles to Go

Yes, split the Paddington Stations by name!

The Circle and H&C are going to be different lines why call them the same thing?

The circle line spends more time skirting 'City' then the Hammersmith and City line does, mind...

What about Paddington (High Level) and Paddington (Low Level)? It shows the stations are separate without getting the tourists and stupid people excited about such crazy ideas as Praed Street.

If there are gaps in the service will Circlesmith trains get diverted at Edgware Road, making it possible to stay on the same train round the entire Circle?

I envisage all kinds of ad hoc extensions, diversions, curtailments etc as trains still get horrifically delayed on the flat junctions and behind the extra Mets. Regularly telling drivers to do another Circle instead of a booked Hammer and back may create one or two crew relief problems

Although it will be interesting to work the new timetable - and it does look good on paper, I just can't see it being a success. Too many tourists and stupid people about. Kings Cross westbound will be an unpleasant place to hang around in uniform!

On the plus side it will mean no more 3 Circles in the same cab. I'll enjoy that for a few weeks until they admit defeat and bring in an emergency timetable.

Another thought I've just had is about Paddington Bishop's Road.
A lot more people will be using this station if they see it is the only direct service from Paddington to Kings Cross (they wont know, or in many cases care, the interchange at Edgware Road is cross-platform). The platform and access bridge and stairs get very crowded at the moment and I'm not certain they could cope with more people.

There is also currently no ticket office here, everybody is directed to the perpetually busy one at Praed Street, and there is not a huge staff presence. I can't remember what the signage is like regarding the ticket office now the new barriers are in use, but it never used to be clear until you were at the old H&C only gateline - and trying to turn around is not always easy there.
Will these arrangements be reviewed?

Paddington East and Paddington West
or Paddington (London End) and Paddington (Country End)
or Paddington (where you want to be) and Paddington (where you're probably going to find yourself instead)

Agreed some station names are misleading - usually when the first tube line in the area has used the names of streets crossing its line of route, and a later line following that street has been added

For three-quarters of the Tottenham Court Road, the station of that name is not the closest one - I'm hoping that Crossrail will be the opportunity to change the station name to Centre Point.

Holborn station isn't even on Holborn itself - it's at the junction of High Holborn and Kingsway: as I've had to expain patiently to many visitors to my old office in Holborn, the nearest station was actually Chancery Lane.

As I have already commented on here, it will be interesting what destination blind rules will be applied to C Stock. Yes at present trains leave both Barking and Hammersmith in the morning showing "Circle Line" and regular passengers know the train will carry on eastbound at Edgware Road, or turn right at Aldgate East; but I doubt strangers do so this itself is less than ideal.

In the future at some point Outer Rail trains will have to have the blind changed from "Circle Line" to "Edgware Road", and Inner Rail trains from "Circle Line" to "Hammersmith via Shepherds Bush (sic)". Ditto the automatic DVA will have to change message to reflect the position/routing of the train.

And how will the platform DMIs cope with this? We're often told on here that the District Line TD apparatus is so archaic that extra destinations cannot be accommodated so can "Edgware Road" be added in or will it replace "Circle Line" between, say. Tower Hill and Gloucester Road?

Ditto the platform line diagrams, will all these be replaced or amended across parts of the District and Hammersmith & City Lines? At lot were changed to reflect the launch of the separate pink H&C identity in 1990, but there are still signs going back to the 1950s/60s dotted around if you know where to look. I wonder if this change will finish these off, together with the few remaining "black glass" describers?

I sort of like it in a strange kind of way (may it's the wine?) It sounds sort friendly but at the same time historical and also worthy as a line name.

Maybe we should adopt this on the forum at least. You won't believe (or maybe you know) how many people visit here, and what some of those people's statuses are in relation to LU. If we adopt it in our general speak of the project, it may just catch on, and who knows, a certain someone who I know frequents here may be influenced.... ;D

Well the only TD available to route trains from South Kensington to High Streer Kensington is a Circle [C]. I reckon that they will simply change the DMI so that a [C] code TD will say Circle to Edgware Road (or whatever they choose).

I understand that some technical questions were being asked as to whether a [C] TD could be changed to an Edgware Road [ER] one at High Street Kensington. It was established (AIUI) that it could only be done with S5 PM in Progamme mode (which isn't very reliable!). Of course it would be easier to keep it as a [C] TD, so that the Edgware Road Service Operator can more easily identify the trains!

Having said that, not many people take notice of Earl's Court service operator's techincal knowledge. Only the other day a District controller wanted to book a delay item to a service operator for delaying a train out of Ealing Common depot west end. The reason that it couldn't come out was due to a train in the eastbound platform, queued up behind a train that had a SPaD! The SO tried to tell the SC, but they didn't believe them and phoned the MRSSL SOM!

As has been pointed out on at least one email group, if eastbound passengers are guaranteed a cross-platform interchange this means that westbound passengers are guaranteed a free trip across the footbridge (or vice versa)

I wish they would just switch to clockwise and anticlockwise now to describe the destinations.

Not so helpful unless you know that the Underground (usually) drives on the left.

As I understand it, provision will be made to revert back to the previous WTT if there are major problems (as per Covered Way Work), so can one assume that there will not be changes to TDs and permanent signage to start with? (Except maybe car line diagrams and Underground poster/folder maps.) I suspect that, whatever the outcome, if senior managers decide to call the revised operation a "success", than that is what it will be, regardless of the real situation. To be fair, at least someone's realised that the SSL service pattern is not set in stone and we can at last diverge from the rules written in 1941. The S Stock might have allowed further travel options in the future but sadly this seems not to be.

The Glaswegians manage it.