please empty your brain below
In a similar vein I recently caught a Tattenham Corner to London Bridge train only the on-train announcements at each station said it was going to Victoria. Caused total confusion. At Purley I said to a member of station staff "Why doesn't someone tell the driver he's got the wrong announcements set ?". I got one of those withering "you clearly don't understand" looks from the member of staff who carried on persuading people it was really going to London Bridge. Total chaos, which could have all be avoided, when the train arrived at East Croydon where the driver finally corrected the announcement.
the insistence on dropping you RIGHT OUTSIDE the station is the most irritating thing about replacement bus services, and the one that TFL could learn from most. it would speed up times if someone sensibly looked at where a bus has to go, and like you say - make more sense to have a stop near/close to the station to save going all round the houses.
what do you think of their suggestion of just CLOSING the WHOLE of the jubilee link for a week, and getting all the signalling work done in one go, rather than piecemeal.
This route is blessed with three 'cross' Tube lines (District/Picc, Central, Bakerloo) which mean no passenger needs to sit on the length of this service. Indeed the major traffic generator is Ladbroke Grove, where there aren't nearby alternatives. Thus the full extent of the tortuous routing affects relatively few passengers.
Jubilee line.....
As you'd already used the bus to Stonebridge Park and then the Bakerloo line, this is the fast way in to central London rather than sitting on the all stations bus to Finchley Road. From Harrow there is thr Bakerloo (3 mins away at Harrow & Wealdstone) or often additional Chiltern Railways services to Marylebone.
Nico - Broadhurst Gardens does not represent a challenge to a professional bus driver.
It felt very dangerous being on a platform filled to capacity, shuffling towards the exit, with a train driving away inches from passengers, and then an empty space. Of course, the morons at TfL could have opened the weekdays-only additional Central Line exit to improve safety, comfort, and assist passengers in getting to their main line trains quickly, but they didn't.
Your experience further confirms that many of these weekend rail works are the product of a spreadsheet in a TfL planner's office with little thought having been given to how real people actually have to use them - I can echo your frustration in finding the correct bus stops and having to rely on fellow passengers for confirmation of where the bus will go.
I just hope these articles are read carefully by someone who is involved with organising these works in TfL.
Harrow-on the Hill → Finchley Road: normally 12 min, rail replacement buses 77 min (+540%)
Should be "Wembley Park → Finchley Road" shouldn't it?
Should be "Wembley Park → Finchley Road" shouldn't it?"
Not unless it took 32 minutes to get from West Hampstead to Finchley Road!
HotH to FRd by fast Met train does indeed take about 12 minutes. If you add DG's two bus trips Harrow - Wembley Park - West Hampstead you get 65 minutes: the other 12 minutes being accounted for by the transfer at Wembley Park and the last leg from W Hampstead to Finchley Road.
I stewarded rail replacement buses once. Gargantuan overtime - a weekend of that was worth more than a week's normal pay sat behind a desk, but my back went to pieces after seven of the eight hours standing up.
1) No Northern Line on the Edgware branch, so replacement buses
2) No Jubilee Line
3) Thameslink terminating at St Pancras
4) And to cap it all, massive road works which closed the A41 Finchley Road southbound.
I was rather late...
I suspect they were from the 521 and 507 routes before they got converted, and whilst I would have loved a Routemaster, they were far useful!
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