please empty your brain below

Another day out sorted, thanks DG!

Time was when Olympia had services to Manchester and Ramsgate - indeed this "parliamentary" service is a relic of those services, operated to keep the lines they traversed officially open.
In fact there is another section between Shepherds Bush and Ealing Broadway which is supposed to be covered but isn't, because it's not elctrified so Southern's trains can't use it.

Since last year the return working now starts at the slightly more useful station of Clapham High Street (dep 1611), one stop east of Wandsworth Road and with a Tube connection (Clapham North)

The coming of the Overground to Clapham Junction will not remove the need for this service, as it will only cover the Factory Junction to Longhedge Junction section. The section onwards to Latchmere Junction will not be used by the Overground service

I caught this back on 2nd December last year .. wanted to do it before the timetable, changed. Back then it did just only stop at Wandsworth Road and not the intermediate stations, and they just haven't updated the in-train information yet. At one time also, it used to start from Shepherds Bush only, and not Ken O.

(And the train officially 'starts' from a siding up my Willesden Junction, but how does it get there??)

I asked the (friendly) guard at Wandsworth where he & the train was going next. The train was going to East Croydon, and he himself was booked onto a service down to Hastings/Eastbourne i seem to recall.

Ah Olympia... what I want to know is how the buses from Earl's Court will cope with major exhibitions at Olympia now the underground doesn't run there any more.

I guess BETT next week will test it out.

And I suspect that BETT in 2013 will be held elsewhere (along with many other major shows).

I had to look up what a parliamentary train was on Wikipedia. ;-D


@Blue Witch

The underground trains will run to Olympia during major exhibitions.

Frankly, it's only a 10 minute walk to High-St Ken anyway, which is often faster than the train.

For Olympia, most people who would have used the shuttle just need to change at West Brompton instead of Earls Court, (or get a bus from Hammersmith if coming from the west).

There is one very good reason why a certain group of individuals go to Wandsworth Road Station. They are called Trainspotters.
Wandsworth Road is a mecca for them. With both the Waterloo and Victoria main lines coming through and excellent views from the footbridge this place is thermos and anorak heaven.
I went there once on business and could not believe how many spotters there were in attendance. I counted more than forty which I thought a lot. All armed with video cameras, still cameras and sound recorders. Quite a sight to see.
So I missed my train and wanted to see what they were waiting for. Sure enough, the Royal Train appeared, without Liz on board, and the driver waved and hooted his horn. All great fun!
Type in Wandsworth Road railway on YouTube. Loads of videos to watch.

"The underground trains will run to Olympia during major exhibitions."

Will they? Definitely? Someone should tell the TfL route planner then... for the dates in question it says to use the overground, following an eight-minute walk between underground and overground stations.

A ten minute walk is all very well if you are young and fit, and it's not raining, and you know where you are going (it's not signed), and you don't then have to walk around a show all day. Most people going to major shows like BETT are strangers to the area/London and are going to be very very confused.

If (as I picked up from your link to IanVisits account of his opposite journey) the service has to be "revenue-earning", why all the petty discouragements to travel ? Is the journey recognised by Oyster ? or did you buy a souvenir ticket like Ian ?

Services both ways show up on NRE, TFL and Southern website journey planners

One day I'll get round to doing this route instead of reading about it.

I may even do the daily South West Trains service that goes down the District Line from Wimbledon to East Putney too. But as that goes at 5am or something stupid, I probably won't.

According to the Olympia Exhibition Hall site the tube will be running for the Toy Fair but not for BETT

http://www.btha.co.uk/dynamic/documents/ToyFair2012/District%20line%20special%20service%20timetable0.pdf


It was a far funner service when it didn't stop at West Brompton or Imperial Wharf.

After terminating at Kensington Olympia, the return service runs wrong-direction out of platform 2 to head back towards Clapham Junction (as a normal-ish service)

Strict railway regulations can cause funny things, but also annoying ones.

In Hungary, even if the whole track is lifted (or stolen), the signals and level crossing lights will still be fully operational, including the speed limit for cars, as officially closing the line would be more complicated.

I wonder if a surge in usage this year (thanks to DG readers all trying it out) will be noticed by TfL?!
I for one am going to do it at my first opportunity! I'd feel positively criminal! :D

"District Dave's" site says the District Line will serve Olympia on the wednesday to Friaday of BETT

http://www.districtdavesforum.co.uk/index.cgi?action=display&board=district&thread=18443&page=1

Strange experience.

When I was very small we lived in a flat opposite Kensington Olympia (in Russell Road), and the station was used for delivery of military supplies - there were usually soldiers milling around. The Germans tried to bomb it but hit part of Russell Road instead. Luckily we'd moved from one of the houses which was razed to the ground!

I think "overtakes" has a rather different meaning to "takes over".

And, no, the parly train won't be made redundant by the new SLL, because that terminates at Clapham Junction, still leaving the section from north of Wandsworth Road to south of Imperial Wharf - avoiding Clapham - without a proper service.

I really must do this one some day...

I think you're being a little unfair referring to a 'pantomime of lies' - the service is included in the Southern timetable leaflet for the Milton Keynes service, and as has been already pointed out, it shows up on the NRE website.

As far as I'm aware the reason the 'next train' indicator on the platform shows it as being 'not in service' is that as the train approaches Kensington it is technically ECS (Empty Coaching Stock, a class 5 train). It runs empty from the turnback siding at North Pole Jct, by the former Eurostar depot, having run shuttles between Clapham Jct and Shepherd's Bush during the morning peak (there's your question answered, Geofftech). It's only as it activates the track circuit at the station that the automated system - which is linked to the signalling - will change the train's description to a class 2 ('ordinary passenger train') and update the platform indicators accordingly. By which time most passengers will probably already be on board.

The same thing happens at Norwood Jct when a train arrives on platform 1 from Selhurst Depot to run in passenger service to London Bridge - until it hits the track circuit at the platform the system still sees it as ECS so the screens show 'not in service', then the system updates them to show the stops to London Bridge. Which, admittedly, is a bit confusing for those who are not regular commuters.

And I can hazard a guess that the reason that the on-board announcements miss out West Brompton and Imperial Wharf is because these are new stops on this service from the December timetable and the PIS (Passenger Information System) database hasn't been updated yet.

'The driver's not rushing' because for a lot of this journey, the linespeed is only 20-30 mph. The railway is very strict when it comes to overspeeding. Everything the driver does is recorded and can be downloaded at any time. Any incidence of speeding (even by a few mph) is likely to be picked up and this will go on the driver's safety record as a big black mark.

I should admit that I'm a driver for Southern - I actually drove this service quite a few times when I was in training with my Driver Instructor. There was no suggestion that we should try and 'hide' or prevent people using the train - it's just another service to us.

Having said that, it was quite amusing that most of the few passengers on board were rail enthusiasts - one of whom was delighted one day when we couldn't terminate at Wandsworth Road due to points failure so he got a free ride to West Norwood instead (on terminating at Wandsworth Road the empty stock goes back to Selhurst Depot via Brixton/Herne Hill/Tulse Hill/West Norwood/Crystal Palace, or it did when I drove it, it may be different now). He was pleasantly surprised, but not as surprised as the conductor, my DI and I were that there was actually a passenger on board.

This would be a great venue for an orderly flashmob - see if we can get it full and standing!

Here here ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
DG *please* fulfil Alan's request!

In case anyone else is still reading and interested in the travel arrangements for BETT - I've today contacted the organisers and been told that they're not sure (!!!).

However, the show is moving to ExCeL centre from next year (good premonition in my first comment...).

TfL will kill Olympia as a venue...

Blue Witch: the BETT website "getting there" tab [at http://bettshow.com/bett/website/travel.aspx?refer=14&id1=sub1Lnk7&id=mainLnk5]
displays a "DISTRICT LINE SPECIAL EVENT SERVICE TIMETABLE" - which presumably is valid for the BETT show ? or isn't this your planned route ?

Thanks JohnHB; yes I'd seen that and lots of other conflicting info on various other sites. Also lots of confusion on the various education forums I read. Hence why I rang the organisers, who said they too were waiting to see, as it was such a new development.

But, even if the exhibition schedule does run, what use is a tube service whose first train leaves from Earls court at 10.15am when the show opens at 10? How are the exhibitors meant to get there? And just two trains an hour? But, I note that the tube has now appeared on the TfL journey planner as an option *if* you happen to put in a departure time near one of the two tube trains an hour.

BETT has a footfall of about 15,000 a day over four days. Not providing a usable public transport service is crazy. Buses will never cope with those numbers, and most people won't want to walk (even if they knew the way - which isn't signed or obvious). It's going to be chaos!

Hence why BETT is relocating next year. Other shows are bound to follow suit. Olympia will soon be flats. Well done TfL.

Err... there IS usable public transport to Olympia. It's called London Overground and it has very good tube connections at West Brompton. It's far more useful than an infrequent, barely used shuttle service.

Maybe Andrew, but to those of us who live outside London (particularly to the East) it's not easy, it's not obvious (eg TfL journey planner doesn't mention it: try putting in Liverpool Street to Kensington Olympia and see what I mean), and it involves walking (which not everyone can do, or wants to do). Plus, who (who lives outside London) knows how overground and underground interact? Not me (and I've lived within 50 miles of London for most of the last 50 years). Usable? Not to most Olympia show visitors, I'd posit.

I just put in Liverpool Street to Olympia for today and got given four options. All four involved the Overground. In this case it suggests going to Shepherds Bush as this will be easier from Liverpool street.

As for walking, yes it does.

At West Brompton you have to walk from one platform to the other.

At Shepherds Bush you have to walk out of the Central Line station, across the road and in to the adjacent Overground station. Each takes a handful of minutes. The journey planner is is misleading as it says an eight minute walk at Shepherds Bush. This will be platform to platform - although I do it in about five. The actual walk between stations is done in a minute. Unless there's a bus coming in which case you'll have to wait to cross.

Given the Overground is on the tube map, I don't think the current situation is particularly confusing for visitors. No more so than having to learn the difference between the tube and the DLR to Excel frankly.

For a little re-learning of things you get a good frequent service on modern trains with good connections. All the conference organisers have to do is make sure their "How to get here" instructions are correct and everyone is happy and fine.

TfL destroy Olympia? No way. And far far far better than running mostly empty tube trains all day on a pointless shuttle that few ever used.











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