Like probably any urban
rail enthusiast, I have been to London many times, so with this
post, instead of trying to give an overview, I'm just writing down a
few impressions I gained during my most recent visit a couple of
weeks ago, from 11 to 17 July 2015.
- Fares
First of all, and most
urgently, I need to discourage anybody wishing to explore London's
rail systems to use an Oyster Card! This "smart" card is
not really intelligent enough to understand rail enthusiasts' weird
travel patterns! I got one the first day because I thought that with
the daily capping it offers I might have to pay less compared to a
traditional travelcard. But although I tried to check in and out as
requested, the system gets completely confused when you do that too
often, so in the end on one single day I had accumulated five or more
"unresolved journeys"! And for each of them, they deduct
5.70 GBP. When I started wondering what had happened to all that
money I had put on the card in the morning, I went to see a young
lady who assisted passengers at North Greenwich station, and she was
also quite surprised. But as I explained things in a plausible way,
she refunded one of those misdeductions, but she said that they were
only able to do one directly, for anything else, I'd have to ring the
Oyster hotline. A local friend helped me with that in the evening, as
I feared that it would ruin me even more if I called with my foreign
phone, being kept in the waiting loop forever. We did get through
quite quickly, though, but they said, I need to call back in the
morning because they cannot deal with "unresolved journeys"
before the day is over. So I did that using my phone the next
morning, luckily no wait at all, and all pretty easy, apparently they
are used to that kind of thing, maybe not to the extreme of my
misdeductions. But to get the money back on the card, I would
actually have to use it again, and I had to specify a Tube station
where I would use it. As on the last day I was planning to take the
Piccadilly Line anyway to Heathrow, I chose Earl's Court where I was
staying. But to avoid any more trouble of that kind, on the following
days, I purchased an old-fashioned One-Day Travelcard, just as I did
15 or 20 years ago, and had no more trouble walking in and out of
stations whenever I wanted to. Theoretically, you could get the money
on the Oyster Card back, if you fancy standing in the queue at
Heathrow for half an hour. This way, I got credit for my next visit,
some 26 GBP! But the sad thing about this issue is that I'm not the
only one with this problem, in fact it seems to be very common -
funnily, the Evening Standard, which is freely distributed on trains,
had a story (I think it was on 14 July) that TfL actually makes
millions of extra money because of this problem, as many people do
not realise it or do not bother to claim the money back! So
apparently it is part of the system. A real rip-off!
In many places, the Oyster
Card system is indeed absurd and stupid. If such a system is
implemented, then it should be done properly, i.e. anywhere you cross
a fare border, you should be obliged to check your card by means of
barriers, but in London there is an excessive number of situations
where it is not really clear what you need to do, especially as not
all railway stations have ticket gates, not even all Tube stations!
Wimbledon is one of those weird stations, with tram, train and Tube
within one station complex, ticket gates for people coming from
outside, but quite unclear whether you need to check out when coming
from the tram and changing to District Line etc...
So, all in all, I would
classify the Oyster Card system as badly implemented, too complex,
and if they want an electronic system, they should simply reduce the
price of the day passes, so that you can load a travelcard for zones
1-2, for example, off-peak, for a reasonable price, say 6-7 GBP
instead of 12 for the whole 6 zones normal visitors would not really
need.
Well, London is generally
completely overpriced, but fares are too. I don't really understand
the point why very occasional Tube riders in zones 1 and 2 are
punished with having to pay 4.80 GBP, which is 6.80 EUR!!, the price
of a day pass in "normal" European cities. I think it is
o.k. to charge a slightly higher price to encourage people to use
passes, but not to that extreme! And I doubt that this policy helps
to reduce overcrowding in zone 1! It just helps to get a negative
opinion of a transport system.
- Tube Stations &
Lines
This leads us to the next
point: overcrowding! The London Underground is always a great means
of transport to explore, but more than in any other city I'm always
happy I don't have to use it on a daily basis. Sure, London invented
urban underground trains, but I still think that building those
small-profile deep level tube lines was the most erroneous decision
ever taken in the history of urban rail in the last 150 years! (Maybe
the tiny VAL trains in France are the second...) No doubt, this is
history and can't be changed much now, although I also cannot
understand why the Victoria Line was built to that same standard, and
why they didn't finally break this tradition with the Jubilee Line??
The Victoria Line is, however, quite fascinating. The new trains are
slightly better, I mean, in respect of room inside the train, but
still not really a relief for a tall person and considering the
overcrowding it suffers most of the day on the central section. It
is, however, probably the most frequently running metro line in
Western Europe, and probably the fastest! Often, you can already see
the next train approaching while the previous is leaving the station.
The Jubilee Line is also quite swift and frequent, in fact while
"waiting" at North Greenwich in the evening, I actually
thought that it runs too often! And most trains run through to
Stanmore! Generally, I sometimes had the impression that on some
sections trains run too frequently, like to Epping, way out of the
city with the trains even travelling through open countryside, where
a train every 15 minutes or so would probably be enough. So, all in
all, I could imagine more trains on the central sections and fewer
travelling through to the ends of a line during off-peak hours.
Although the Tube generally feels safe, it feels a bit weird if
you're the only passenger on such a branch.
- Circle Line
It's a pity the Circle
Line is no longer a circular line! And what is quite surprising is
that at Edgware Road the current set-up hasn't actually eliminated
any track conflict as just west of that station, only two tracks are
available, so a Circle Line train departing from Edgware Road via
Victoria will run over the same section again after finishing a full
loop and heading towards Hammersmith. So, I'm not quite sure I
understand why the Circle Line ceased to be a ring line.... Anyway,
although I prefer the subsurface lines to the deep-level tube lines
for the extra space they offer, the interlaced service with all these
flat junctions is not really what a typical modern metro should be
like. But I guess there is not much that can be done to change the
situation, possibly east of Earl's Court there would be room enough
to rebuild the junction, which might allow trains to proceed much
faster from Earl's Court whereas now they are often held there for
several minutes queuing to pass that junction.
- Tube trains
I really enjoyed the new S
stock now in service on most subsurface lines, except on the District
where there are still some older D stock trains. The new trains are
very spacious, have pleasant air-conditioning and overall offer a
comfortable ride. So for me, they have even increased the gap in
comfort between the subsurface lines and the deep-level tube lines.
The only thing I'd dare to criticise is the type of pattern on the
seats...
- Trams
Doing preparation work for
my forthcoming Tram Atlas Britain & Ireland, I revisited, of
course, the Croydon Tramlink. Well, now officially called London
Tramlink, nothing has been achieved in creating a larger network,
which is quite surprising as the tram is really popular and quite a
good service. Using several old railway routes, it is one of the
fastest tramways in Europe, I think, even the "Downtown Croydon"
portion is travelled through at reasonable speed. Unlike some other
British tramways, the track is properly laid, both on the
street-running sections and the light-rail style routes, with no
excessively slow segments in curves or at junctions.
So it is really
a pity that no other lines have been built since, and that not even
the existing system has been extended as often proposed.
Interestingly, Tramlink is the only tram system in the U.K. to use
route numbers, but, very half-heartedly! Funnily, the number is
visible on the front display of the trams, but not on maps! See
official map here!
- Docklands Light Railway
Always fun to ride those
driverless trains, but again, typically British, a very confusing and
entangled system of routes not properly depicted anywhere. Like on
Overground and National Rail (see below) I consider the introduction
of route numbers very urgent! Here they could be prefixed with a D
(although the District Line could also do with some numbering!), e.g.
D1 Bank - Lewisham, D2 Bank - Beckton (oh, this route doesn't exist?
Well, how would one know from the current Tube map?? At least, the
DLR-only map depicts different routings with separate strokes,
altough no differentiated with line colours)
- London Overground
The London Overground is
without doubt one of the greatest achievements in London transport
history for many decades. Living in Berlin and close to the S-Bahn
ring line, I had always missed something similar in London, where you
had to make all trips via the overcrowded city centre. Although on
many sections, the implementation of Overground was just a
rebranding, I was sure from the start that this would be successful,
and the fact that they keep extending the train length is the best
sign that it has been successful. In fact, I did not really
understand why they didn't start with long trains from the beginning!
What I don't like, however, is this British obsession (sorry!) NOT to
use line numbering. By now, the Overground system has developed into
a large network of different services, but like on DLR, impossible to
find out which routings trains normally take, although there seem to
be more or less regular types of services which should really be
distinguished by line numbers, preferably S1, S2, etc... (ha ha) and
different colours at least on Overground exclusive maps. My
conviction is that line numbers do not hurt those who don't like line
numbers, but they help those who like them!
It is a pity, however,
that what appears to be a circular line, is split into three
different lines. So, to take a full circle, one would have to change
trains twice. As it was new to me, I spent some time at Clapham
Junction to observe the service there, but unfortunately passengers
lose a lot of time there because the Overground trains from both
direction enter and leave the station more or less simultaneously,
but then stay in the station for some 10 minutes. So anybody using
Overground to "circle" around the southwestern part of
London, e.g. from Shepherd's Bush to Clapham High Street, will need
to hang around Clapham Junction for a while. I'm aware that designing
a perfect timetable in this complex rail system (after all,
Overground mixes too much with other services, especially in South
London), a staggered timetable would be the better option here, I
mean that on a 15-minute headway, the trains should enter and leave
the station with 7 1/2 minutes between them, this would be time
enough to change trains with the necessary buffer in case of delays
and make the rest of the waiting time much shorter. Talking about the
South London service, there are really two stations missing, one at
Brixton (or do they fear the Victoria Line may get even more
overcrowded?) and one at the intersection with Thameslink at
Loughborough Junction where you can see the Thameslink station right
below the Overground route! No doubt, it would cost a lot, but the
network effect would improve significantly.
The two new routes added
to Overground in May, to Enfield/Chesthunt and Chingford have been
restyled, both trains and stations. I only rode the line to Chingford
and the train was not really busy, actually more so on the outer
section with lots of people joining at Walthamstow Central coming
from the Victoria Line. Contrary to the older Overground lines, the
Chingford train skips some stations which are only served by the
Enfield/Chesthunt trains. I think one of the characteristics of a
good urban S-Bahn system should remain that trains stop at every
station for simplicity's sake!
- TfL Rail
The rebranded service to
Shenfield is indeed very busy, and considering that large crowds join
at Stratford changing from the Central Line, taking these trains,
which already run every 10 minutes, directly into the city centre via
Crossrail was a very good decision. Not only will this provide a
direct one-seat ride for East Londoners, but also relieve the central
part of the Central Line significantly. I'm looking forward to 2019
or so, when London will finally offer the first proper RER-style
service! But they should do something about Shenfield station to
bring it into the zonal system to avoid confusion. I don't know why,
but Epping on the Central Line is in zone 6, lying beyond the M25,
and Shenfield, just a few miles further out, would be in zone 10, and
Brentford, almost the same distance from Central London as Epping is
classified as zone 9! What kind of lobbying does Epping have and
those places along TfL Rail don't?
- Thameslink
Talking of RER-style
service, certainly Thameslink has some touch of RER, too, but a bit
like Paris' line C, slow and difficult to understand. Again, very
confusing which train stops where, although on their timetable
leaflets, Thameslink actually uses line numbers!!! Hurrah! When I
wanted to travel just from St. Pancras International to Kentish Town,
however, there was no way to find out which train would stop there,
so I just had to wait until Kentish Town appeared in the list of
calling points (which is quite a good feature at British railway
stations and should be copied in other countries!). But all in all,
Thameslink feels more like a typical National Rail regional service
which may also be helpful for journeys within London. Hopefully it
will be perceived more of an urban service when some more northern
routes are linked at St. Pancras, increasing the number of trains
running across London. The new Blackfriars station looks quite nice
and spacious!
- National Rail
So while Crossrail was an
excellent idea, not only Crossrail 2 should be built soon, but also
Crossrail 3 and 4 and maybe 5! Well, Paris has 5 RER routes now
(though line E is missing its western part, and lines B and D have to
share their tracks between Châtelet and Gare du Nord) and London's
major problem with overcrowding on the Tube lines certainly lies in
the excessive number of passengers those National Rail services,
whatever fancy colours their trains may currently be carrying,
virtually spill into the Underground stations, most notably at
Victoria and Waterloo, but at all the other termini, too. At
Waterloo, a potential tunnel ramp with a low-level platform could
actually be built where the International trains used to stop as this
area has been lying idle for many years now! Trains could dive under
the River Thames, provide interchange with Thameslink and several
Tube lines at Blackfriars and St. Paul's before being connected, for
example, at Moorgate and Liverpool Street to existing routes, at the
latter ideally linking up with the new Overground services to
Enfield/Chesthunt and Chingford. But given the extensive suburban and
regional services in and around London, I guess there would be plenty
of different options those consulting companies would be happy to
study in detail. In the meantime, I would be happy if the existing
services radiating from those termini were presented in a more
structured way, again, introducing some sort of line numbering and
proper maps, at least for each of those subnetworks. Starting with
local services, all the "lines" departing from Waterloo,
for example, could be labelled W1, W2, etc. with W1, for example,
serving the Hounslow loop. And there should be a clear difference
between trains serving Greater London and stopping at all stations,
and trains going all the way down to the coast, which only serve
major stations in Greater London. These stopping patterns may be
quite clear for those passengers using the trains every day, but are
completely confusing for anybody else. The most confusing are
actually those shown in green and blue in the Southeast, well, those
trains operated by Southeastern and Southern, an area also invaded by
some Thameslink services. For the official London all-rail map click
here!
- Buses
As I labelled this post "Transport in London", I need to say a few words about the bus service too: without doubt the best in the U.K.! I know, many people in other British cities have tried to explain their bad bus services with deregulation etc., which luckily has not affected London (so wasn't it about time to discuss whether deregulation in the rest of Britain should be maintained?). Anyway, in London I always find it easy to catch a bus as there is sufficient information at the stops, and especially when exiting a Tube station, you will always find a map with all bus options, so I did use a few to ride between outer rail branches.
Also, the new 'Boris' buses are quite nice, modern and at the same time iconic. And what also distinguishes London buses from the rest of the country is their second (or even third) door - I never really understood the concept of having just a single door next to the driver! Sure, a few more seats, better control of who's getting on, etc. But on busy lines, the change of passengers simply takes too long. What is a bit confusing in London, though, is to know on which buses you have to get on at the front and on which you can jump on at the rear, too. Also, the fact that you cannot buy a ticket on the bus makes it difficult for ocasional riders. I assume that they assume that by now every Londoner carries a pay-as-you-go Oyster Card with some credit on.
- Buses
As I labelled this post "Transport in London", I need to say a few words about the bus service too: without doubt the best in the U.K.! I know, many people in other British cities have tried to explain their bad bus services with deregulation etc., which luckily has not affected London (so wasn't it about time to discuss whether deregulation in the rest of Britain should be maintained?). Anyway, in London I always find it easy to catch a bus as there is sufficient information at the stops, and especially when exiting a Tube station, you will always find a map with all bus options, so I did use a few to ride between outer rail branches.
Also, the new 'Boris' buses are quite nice, modern and at the same time iconic. And what also distinguishes London buses from the rest of the country is their second (or even third) door - I never really understood the concept of having just a single door next to the driver! Sure, a few more seats, better control of who's getting on, etc. But on busy lines, the change of passengers simply takes too long. What is a bit confusing in London, though, is to know on which buses you have to get on at the front and on which you can jump on at the rear, too. Also, the fact that you cannot buy a ticket on the bus makes it difficult for ocasional riders. I assume that they assume that by now every Londoner carries a pay-as-you-go Oyster Card with some credit on.
- Other fun rides
Besides the proper urban
rail systems, I also got a chance to ride two more transport
vehicles:
1) the Emirates Air Line,
an aerial cable car in the Docklands area, special fare applies, but
worth the fun as it offers a great view, including the DLR!
2) Ruislip Lido Railway:
Andrew, a friend involved in the operation of this miniature railway,
took me there and showed me around, located about 2 km north of
Ruislip station on the Metropolitan Line. Find out more here!
So these were just a few
thoughts that crossed my mind during my last visit. Feel free to
clarify, contradict or confirm my statements, that's what the comment
field below is for!
LINKS
London at UrbanRail.Net
As a Londoner this posting leaves me bemused...
ReplyDelete- Oyster Cards: what is so difficult to understand about the system? You touch in as you start your journey, you touch out when you end it. And touch in and out at ticket barriers along the way. If you are trying to do circular journeys the system will penalise you for making an overly long journey. Simple. The objective of transport authorities is not to cater to whims of a bunch of trainspotters, but to transport people from one place to another.
- Had you researched the history of the Jubilee line (I thought you are a webmaster of a website dedicated to metros...) you would have known that the portion of the route from Baker Street to Finchley Road was built originally for the Bakerloo Line in 1939 to the same loading gauge as the rest of the Bakerloo. That is what defines the gauge on the entire line, of which the extension is built to far more generous dimensions.
- If you cared to study the working timetables (freely available on the TfL website) you would know that the Central Line and Victoria Line both operate 34 trains per hour (tph) in the peak, the Jubilee Line manages 30tph, the Northern 28tph per branch. Not many metro networks in Europe can boast similar frequencies.
- Any circular line will suffer reliability problems due to a lack of a location where it could pause to recover from delays. This is especially true of the Circle Line which shares its tracks with other lines. Thus the decision taken to change its routeing. The same is true of the Overground, where a circular route would (a) suffer from performance issues; (b) would omit the rather important destination/interchange that is Clapham Junction; (c) would not be significantly more convenient than the current arrangement.
- Any fare system crossing local authority boundaries is dependent on financial settlements between the authorities and the operator of the services. Essex County Council had long ago agreed to fund the inclusion of the north-eastern end of the Central line within zones 4-6. It apparently had no funding or appetite to do so with Brentford. Fares for Watford Junction and Shenfield are outside the control of TfL, and are therefore not integrated into the zonal system. TfL appears to have different priorities with regard to spending money than to subsidise these fares and include them into the zonal structure.
Dear Anonymous, (may I call you Boris?), thanks for reading the post, but generally, as you can imagine, we don't like sentences starting with "had you researched" or "if you cared to study"... because it takes me into the same defensive position you are taking and urges me to fight back...
Delete- Having said that, if you cared to read (sorry, I used your phrasing now...) the part about my Oyster Card experience properly, then you'd see that the problems exist, not just with me, so there is no point saying it is all that simple. It probably works fine in 90% of all cases, but apparently has many flaws!
- Don't worry, I know the history of the London Underground pretty well, yes, did a book about it 10 years ago, so I will need to remind you that it was London who probably for the first time in history expanded the profile of the very first tube line because they realised it was too tiny. Madrid made a similar effort in the late 1990s and expanded the old section of line 10 and now they got a wonderful large-profile diameter line. So, yes, the Finchley Road - Green Park section should have been widened to large profile on the ocasion of the Jubilee Line extension, and that's my opinion and will be, although this is pretty irrelevant as now it is too late!
- Had you looked a bit beyond the situation in London (sorry, got caught in your language again!), then you'd know that other cities have circular lines, too. Some have real ones, like Madrid or Moscow with endlessly running trains, but without interfering branches, but there are also other cities, like Seoul or Shanghai, where the ring line has branches. When the Berlin S-Bahn ring was finally rebuilt in 2002, they also had similar doubts and a very weird service was introduced, until they realised that noone likes it, and now it is a proper circular line with several branches, very much like the London Circle Line, and it works fine. A Circle Line should run in a circle, quite simple. As for the Overground circle, trains could still run via Clapham Junction, I wouldn't object to that, with a short overlay there and a change of drivers they could carry on immediately
Me again!
Delete- Regarding Oyster: as others have noted there are a few issues with it in, but the majority of 'problems' come down to people forgetting to touch in or out. For regular users, the system actually has an autocomplete function, matching incomplete journeys with ones made in the past as best as it can. Yes, I agree with you that it is a pain that you can only get refunds over the phone, but other than that it really is a properly SMART card.
- Both the Jubilee and Victoria line were built to a more restrictive gauge to save money. In the UK the Treasury has a much tighter grip on transport spending than elsewhere - we can of course argue whether it is a good thing or not. Personally, I prefer slightly smaller tunnels than spending billions of DMarks on tunnels with trams running every 20-30 minutes on weekends as in certain cities in West Germany.
- I am well aware that the Circle line was not the only metro line of that nature. The thing is, though, that no other line had the same operational complexity AND run such an intensive frequency of service at the same time - the S-Bahn ring has a train every 5 minutes or so, whereas Shanghai only has two lines sharing tracks (3 and 4). The de-coupling of the Circle line allowed for frequency increases, and the service now runs more reliably than before. The Overground, on the other hand, has no dedicated track for the most part, and shares tracks with other local and fast passenger services as well as freight trains.
It would be good if you could research the reasons behind things being the way they are a bit more. Although I have to say I do agree with some of your conclusions - e.g. the lack of numbering of services is indeed annoying.
>>>spending billions of DMarks on tunnels with trams running every 20-30 minutes on weekends as in certain cities in West Germany.<<<
DeleteI do agree with you that some of these would deserve a place in the Top 5 of wrong decisions in transport history! And some of them are in serious trouble now as they can't afford maintenance!
I really appreciate your insights into urban rail in London and elsewhere. One big issue in London is that transport options on the South bank of the Thames have failed completely to keep up with the very rapid redevelopment. Many areas have Overground or regular rail viaducts overhead but no convenient stations. Buses are frequent but snarled in increasingly gridlocked traffic. Unfortunately there don't seem to be any plans to address the situation even though adding station platforms to viaduct would seem to be a cost effective option, if less convenient than a new tube line.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment appeared twice that's why I deleted it, no censorship...
DeleteSorry, glitch with browser.
DeleteSorry, glitch with browser.
DeleteWhile London certainly needs more Crossrail routes, it has, for 150 years, been serving the RER function (as well as the Metro function) with the Underground. It's not playing catch up to Paris (which is playing catch up to London), but to it's own population growth.
ReplyDeleteParis' Metro was designed to serve the core area very well, though is useless for journeys from the suburbs, and across the centre it is slow (the DLR and Tramlink, have fewer stops per kilometre than Paris' line 4, for instance). The Underground, from day 1 (not to mention the 1868 Alexandra Palace (at the Palace) - Kings Cross - Blackfriars - Crystal Palace High Level rail service), had the thoughts of suburban commuters and cross-centre speed. Then you have things in the 20s like the Met line to Verney Junction, District services to Windsor and Southend. The New Works plan of the 30s removed a lot of inner suburban rail services from termini and put them onto tube lines. Paris, in the RER, was aiming to duplicate the New Works plan of 40 years before, but needed new tunnels in the centre for speed.
And the Circle line was an anachronism that needed cutting a long time ago. Yes, I know, the name is confusing now it doesn't do a circle, but at least now it is the quickest way from Liverpool Street to Tower Hill - not having to wait nearly 10 minutes at Aldgate for recovery purposes (and often another 5 between High Street Ken and Gloucester Rd)! The unique segments now have utility beyond "I don't want to change", the service is more reliable, and the frequency from Edgware Road to Hammersmith is nearly double. It might annoy the purists, and the few people who now need to change trains, but it was something that the Underground has wanted and needed for decades.
The Clapham Junction change is bad because it is, as you would like it, roughly 7.5 minutes wait (7 minutes anti-clockwise, though somehow 24 minutes clockwise - something must be up at the moment). It's a level interchange where you just walk along the platform (touching the pink reader on your Oyster), so you twiddle thumbs for 5 minutes because it takes just 2 minutes to change, if that.
Circular lines work best with overlapping tangents, unless fully segregated. You need to remove the change penalty for it to be worth it if you are going to suffer the lower-frequency and (often) longer distance penalties of avoiding the centre. The Overground Circle gets it right, save, perhaps, in that SW corner (though journey times are much improved there). Routes that go round and round, as London has known for over 130 years, are irritating and serve no traffic purpose.
The lack of station on the South London Line at Brixton is to do with the elevated nature of the line, the buildings around it, the low potential for interchange traffic, and cost. There used to be East Brixton which was decently close enough to both Brixton and Loughborough Junction for a walking 'outerchange', in about the only place where you can physically build a cheap station on the SLL, but it closed due to disuse really early on. There's plans to look into it.
Oyster has issues (especially if doing rail-fanning routes - you have to remember to leave the system every two hours to avoid the penalty. As well as always touching out), but the queue at Heathrow is long because it is full of tourists handing back their Oyster card and getting the money on it back (and, of course, lots of tourists who ignore the cardinal rules of touching in and out and wonder what has gone wrong). Wimbledon is a well known mess.
You should see this site if you haven't:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.londonreconnections.com/
It has VERY detailed and interesting discussions of the technical aspects of London rail transport.
My preferred London transit improvement would be to extend the Metropolitan Line through a new tunnel under the Thames, between Liverpool St and South Bermondsey (with a Tower Hill transfer), and then take over a National Rail track pair to continue southward. This would improve access to south London, make the Metropolitan Line useful for passengers in both directions, make the Circle Line unnecessary, and significantly simplify the network (removing interlining).
I read your blog with interest and would agree there are many ways in which the London network could be improved – not least by getting on with Crossrail 2 etc. etc.
ReplyDeleteRe the Circle Line – my understanding is that the change was made for the following reasons:
- to improve the poor reliability of Circle Line services by converting the circle into an out-and-back operation with layover time at each end.
- to increase (almost double) the service frequency between the Hammersmith branch and the northern side of the Circle Line. Due to capacity constraints this had to be done without increasing the number of trains running between Baker Street and the City, thus the decision to divert the existing Circle Line trains to Hammersmith.
- to concentrate all City-bound services at Paddington H&C Station to provide a single high frequency service from one rather than two stations.
The downside is that some passengers travelling around the western side of the Circle now have to change trains but, from my observations at Baker Street before the change, Circle Line trains were usually noticeably less crowded than H&C trains and thus I assume the change has been introduced for the greater good. I imagine the Westfield shopping centre at Wood Lane will have been one of the factors increasing demand on the Hammersmith branch.
I have the impression that you are not a regular user of Berlin circle line. The line is not performing very good in service quality. If there is any problem in the morning which leads to a delay of let's say 10 minutes it worsens over the day and S-Bahn doesn't get it fixed for hours. Together with alle the incoming and outgoing lines this is a really vicious system that does not perform good for years now.
ReplyDeleteHaving used extensively the Tube I agree with most of what has been said here. What I disliked the most about it was its horrendous cost. This is something I never understood in the UK: why does something that is being used as massively as the Tube have to cost such a fortune (even with the oyster cards or monthly passes) ? It's supposed to be mass-transit, not selective transit ! Public transportation nearly everywhere in the world is supposed to be as cheap as possible, but in the UK it's the exact opposite. NYC's subway and Paris metro are a bargain compared to the Tube. Add to that the frequent cancellations (especially for the overground, nearly every time I go there it doesn't work). In the UK public transit (especially outside London) is all about making the most profit, and not giving a damn about regular users who will pay a fortune to use crappy services (Stagecoach is an expert in that matter).
ReplyDeleteHello, I like the post also, since I visited London in 2009, I may say you are over critical, man. :) That was not an affront. I just say. It is, indeed, expensive, but transport in London is quite decent if you compare to subway, tram and buses in other EU capitals. And you are right about the buses. I have never waited for more than 4 minutes sharp for a bus. That was, indeed, something amazing for me since in Bucharest one might wait for a bus more than 15 minutes especially in winter. Thanx for tips and best regards. J.L.
ReplyDeletewith regards to the comment about oyster cards: "the fact that you cannot buy a ticket on the bus makes it difficult for occasional riders. I assume that they assume that by now every Londoner carries a pay-as-you-go Oyster Card with some credit on."
ReplyDeleteoyster cards are not the only form of payment: any contactless credit/debit card will work as if it was an oyster card and also mobile devices like apple pay, android pay. So there's not actually any reason to get an oyster card when visiting london. It's not limited to UK issued cards either,foreign contactless cards will work.
Thanks Richard for your comment, but here in Germany we are very reluctant in using all these plastic cards. I think our banks don't even issue contactless cards yet. People don't like the idea of using such cards for such services as it would be too easy to trace where they have been going. People would only accept an anonymous electronic means of payment, but we actually prefer paper tickets, at least you have some proof of payment, as with those rechargeable cards you never know what has been deducted or whether it's working fine. Too much mistrust in technology... Younger people, of course, use smartphone tickets on Deutsche Bahn now a lot, as I could only recently observe on the train back from Prague.
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