Empty Overground Train This Morning

See that's what i thought, then I realised that in an astonishing act of efficiency, I'd actually got to the station 10 minutes early for once and nothing had come through during that time.

It was a very strange experience. There was a definite moment where everyone looked at each other and wondered whether the apocalypse had dawned over Stratford and the driver had burst through the fires, grittily determined to complete his final shift before the world exploded.

The 313 could have had a fault, went out of service at Stratford, returned West, a little bit behind the preceding service, and the fault could then have cleared at Homerton....and control told the driver to enter service.

Ah - I think Dave A has cracked it!

And it's a Friday......

I think it sounds like the whole world threw a sicky!

Having had the "pleasure" of a journey from Hampstead Heath to Stratford this evening, there was no shortage of people making the reverse trip!
Despite the driver at every stop telling people to move down to let more people, at least in the first carriage it wasn't physically possible and intending travellers were left behind at every station from Gospel Oak to Camden Road (I don't know about at Cally Road as I couldn't see the platform). At Highbury about half the people in the carriage wanted to alight, but because a few people near the door didn't and couldn't move further into the train (against the tide of people wanting to get off) or step onto the platform (filled with people wanting to get on) those exiting could do so only in single file. This took so long that by the time the guard was wanting to depart, only a couple of people had got on. The doors were held against the chimes three times before we managed to get under way and still people were left behind.
Again it was crush loaded at least as far as Homerton, and sufficiently busy that detraining all the passengers at Stratford was not quick. The announcements were saying that the westbound train would be approximately 5 minutes late.

It was clear that longer trains and/or increased frequencies can't come soon enough, and also that the 313s are not suitable for the task. Hook a C stock up to some compatible motive power and even with the current service level you'd have a fraction of the dwell time.

I meant the seating and door arrangements. I don't know about the technical speed/acceleration profile of the stock but my infrequent trips on the Overground haven't led me to think they have significant problems in this area.


Looking at the Wikipedia article, it appears that they will have longitudinal seating throughout, which will obviously be a big help, but only two double doors per carriage could let it down.

There's an art to travelling in the morning/evening on the Overground.

The 8 O'Clock train from Hackney, for example, is the last one westbound you can board with a realistic expectation of getting a seat unless you're going to Camden (or a station before it). If so, there's actually a sneaky Camden service which doesn't show up on the departure boards that turns up at about 8:12 and is always empty.

You also need to be brutal with moving down the carriage - if other people won't (even after I've asked them) then I will. If that means pushing past them with a barely-polite "excuse me" then so be it - they should have moved down. If that happens then I have no qualms about grabbing any seats that vacate at Dalston/Highbury/Camden either even if they were on first - again, they should have bloody moved down!

On the way back in the evenings the train to aim for is the service that hits Kensal Rise at 5:49. Its normally relatively empty and you can get a seat almost immediately. This is because there's another service about five minutes before it (which is generally pretty busy). After that time you're hitting sardine style travel - not least because there's a goods train that comes through at about 5:55 which screws with the service timings.

If you are travelling from Camden Road and miss that service, then the best bet is to wait another 15 minutes - not for the one straight after, but for the sneaky Camden - Stratford service that normally magically appears behind it (which the drivers always tell passengers about, but the station staff rarely do apparently).

Also, bizarrely, wherever you get on (in both directions) you're generally better off aiming for the middle carriage. I suspect that the majority of the NLL have entrances/exists at one or other end of the platform, because the middle carriage is often the least busy (I guess its the exception that proves the rule!).

If there are delays in the morning, then you might as well go back to bed for an hour and come back later - because you'll only be standing on the platform that long anyway. Similarly, in the evening you might as well disappear down the pub until 7pm for the same reason.

You're right in that the new trains can't come soon enough - the North London Line is definitely running above and beyond capacity (something even TfL admits - if I remember right, they reckon that there are already 25% more people using it now than used to before they took it over) . As a temporary measure, they've cunningly refitted a whole bunch of carriages to take more passengers by swopping out all the 3-seat banks and putting in 2-seat banks in their place. This makes the central aisle wider and its far easier to get on/off (as well as getting a few more bodies on the train) which helps a lot, but the whole line swiftly decends into madness with even a two or three minute delay.

Worst day i've seen on there was the morning after the bridge collapse outside Liverpool Street. A lot of suburban trains that would have run to Ol' Bedlam were therefore either terminating, or telling passengers to get off at, Hackney Downs and then transfer onto the Overground.

That would have pushed the service to breaking point anyway, but to make matters even worse (and unbeknownst to the suburban liners) the Overground service that should have hit Hackney Central at about 7:45 broke down just short of the station.

Suddenly, in under a minute, Hackney became the biggest transport blackspot in London.

I remember getting to the station as normal at about five to eight, seeing the overwhelming mass of people in and around the station and thinking "sod that for a game of soldiers." I ended up calling up work and just taking the day off. When i wandered past it later at about 1pm on the way to the pub for lunch, they were still trying to get the service back to normal.

Although it will make for rather boring journeys as a passenger. I like being able to sit by the window and watch the scenery go by - these will feel like being on a tube train.

I realise it's down to cots that it probably won't happen, but I think what the NLL needs is a tube-level frequency of service rather than ripping seats out or trains with (sparse) longitudinal ones.

Agreed. This has long irritated me on the NLL (and other lines). The NLL seems perticualerly bad for it - with almost every set of doors blocked by a bike at times. Highly dangerous in the event of an emergency where a quick evacuation were needed, imo.

As bikes are not allowed on the tube, the casual cyclist will go via the NLL to avoid the hills

I often wonder what the reaction would be if I decided to take something of similar dimensions to a non folding bike, but not actually a bike on to the Cambridge express. I suspect that I'd be lynched.

Have you seen this map? Overground needs to be added

Interesting is why no bikes between Hendon and Colindale

those 313's or cattletrucks as i prefer to call them have to be one of the worst and most uncomfortable trains ever ,i thought those crates that travel from gospel oak to barking were bad but these do take the biscuit ,
i commute daily into town from essex on the 321's . i suppose they are halfway decent . at least one can fall asleep on them :-)

You say they are past their sell by date, but there is little which goes wrong, or to go wrong with them. A complete overhaul and they would keep going for a lot longer. But that is not going to happen, unless FCC do theirs.

By the way, as they are the oldest stock on the NR (aren't HSTs older?), does that make me a Heritage train driver?

The 313's were OK when the NLL was less busy, but they are no longer up to the task. Let's face it, Silverlink let everything get run down for many years.