please empty your brain below

Train geek hat on for a moment - the District line's D Stock are set for a new life as diesel trains, subject to a successful pilot and subsequent order(s). More details at www.vivarail.co.uk if anyone is interested.
Love the way LUL describe the ticket office closures as ticket office transformation works - Ha Ha Ha Ha Idiots!
There was an interesting moment at Waterloo's Jubilee Line ticket hall at the beginning of December, where I found myself in a queue to use the one working ticket machine that took cards (the two that took cash were working, but everybody seemed to want to pay by card!).

As one does, I was aimlessly looking around, when I noticed that the ticket office had two open windows and no queue, and nobody waiting.

So obviously, I went over to the window to get my Oyster topup instead, being finished and through the barriers while the people at the front of the queue were still waiting to use the machine...

Of course, I'm not a Londoner, so I don't mind actually speaking to people as I go about my travelling business!
Oooh thanks.
"District line (Monday 19 January) This is the day that D Stock trains start to be removed from the District line and replaced by air-conditioned S stock trains. Expect ...........
d) confused regulars on the Wimbledon branch who, for the last 37 years, have been used to distinguishing City trains (D stock) from Edgware Road trains (S stock, and previously C stock) at a glance.
There's also a Southeastern mega-closure next weekend (10/11 Jan), and again on Sunday 18th - no Southeastern trains *at all* to London Bridge, Cannon Street or Charing Cross.

There's very little info about it at all, but a quick prod on realtimetrains.co.uk suggests...

Greenwich line replaced by a bus between Lewisham and Charlton.
Woolwich line (to Dartford) running to Blackfriars twice an hour.
Woolwich line (to Gillingham) running to Victoria twice an hour.
Bexleyheath, Sidcup, Hayes lines running to Victoria twice an hour.

Plus New Cross to Tonbridge via Orpington twice an hour.
@Darryl
Plenty of detail on SET's website here.
http://www.journeycheck.com/southeastern/engWork?from=&to=
It seems that the only "old" entrance/exit to the new Tottenham Court Road station will be the on the corner by the Dominion theatre. I wonder what will become of the unused ticket hall space.
Thanks for the info DG. I'm in London next week and am tempted to use one of the train company offers to pop out of town for the day.
@timbo, well, the new trains blare out their destination from every possible speaker and display it on every car, and all trains to go Earls Court anyway. (If boarding at Earls Court, you can't distinguish the destination by the stock.)
Note the Art Nouveau railings from the 1900s at TCR's street level entrances.
@JQ
"well, the new trains blare out their destination from every possible speaker "
Indeed, but people running down the stairs at e.g Wimbledon or Southfields are used to knowing from a glance at a distance whether to make a run for the train or let it go (or which platform to go to at Wimbledon) depending on whether they are going to Paddington or South Kensington.
At Earls Court, although a D stock could indeed be going anywhere, an S (or a C when they ran) could only be going to Wimbledon.
Yes you can look at the destination display, but it will take time for people to get into the habit after 30+ years.

(There was probably similar confusion on the north side of the Circle when S stock first started appearing on the H&C as well as the Met, and we can expect be similar confusion east of Aldgate)

People will adapt
There's a blue hoarding around Temple's ticket office already... think it's gone.
Indeed FlippyFF

In fact it appears that a few have very quietly gone and no-one seems to notice or care. Embankment hasn't had a ticket office for the past year. Vauxhall currently doesn't have one. Given that Cannon Street hasn't had one for a few years now it seems well established that at least some District/Circle line zone 1 stations can function perfectly well without one.
Will the TCR staircase outside Primark (old Virgin Megastore) remain open or will passengers have to cross over Tottenham
Court Road to the Dominion or Oxford Street to the new entrance?
Will Hayes line trains enter New Beckenham, reverse on to the spur into Beckenham Junction (platform 4) and reverse and cross on to the mainline to Victoria? Or will they do what they did last year (or perhaps 2013) when trains from Hayes ran to New Beckenham, reversed to Beckenham Junction from where passengers could catch an ex-Orpington train to Victoria? (There was also a rail replacement bus running from Beckenham Junction to New Beckenham and all stations to Lewisham or perhaps New Cross.)
@anon
"Will Hayes line trains enter New Beckenham, reverse on to the spur into Beckenham Junction (platform 4) and reverse and cross on to the mainline to Victoria?"
No, according to Journey Planner they will run as normal to Lewisham and then fast to Victoria (presumably via Nunhead)
Oh. How boring. :)
The important point about the Edgware Road v City bound District Line train differences by stock is that unlike on the rest of the District, the platform indicators at town bound Wimbledon Branch stations invariably show the wrong info. Apparantly it's because they've never been correctly installed. Thus a quick glance at the sort of train is the fastest way to identify the destination!










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