please empty your brain below
As well as the 148 bus you can also use the 94 from Shepherds Bush to Holland Park or Notting Hill, both routes are the identical until Marble Arch.
I noticed last Sunday, that work was being done on the station. Lots of safety helmeted men looking busy and scaffolding already in place.
Maybe TFL will speed this job along.

John | 06.02.08 - 9:05 a.m. | #

Thanks for the warning about the central line. What a bummer!!!

Casdok | Homepage | 06.02.08 - 10:04 a.m. | #

It depends how you look at it? A fifteen minute walk to Holland Park will do you good. That's 2 hours extra exercise you wouldn't have had a week, surely a good thing?
And, John, TFL? Speed this job along? Surely not in the same sentence?

Johnny Topaz | 06.02.08 - 10:07 a.m. | #

Man, eveyone should stop moaning, they've closed the ENTIRE east london line for 2.5 years with barely a murmur of dissent... are we just made of sturdier stuff than our West London counterparts? (or, more likely, there are less middle-class NIMBYs with direct lines to BBC LDN down our end)

loving the blog!

Abby | 06.02.08 - 10:23 a.m. | #

I know not everyone can do it, but this is all the more reason to get on your bikes. You always know exactly how long its going to take you (can be quicker than faffing about with buses and tubes if your commute is not too long) and it's a nice bit of exercise - honest, once you start you will love the freedom and look forward to your daily commute rather than dread it.

Zoe | 06.02.08 - 10:55 a.m. | #

Agreed, the people of Shepherds Bush are bloody well-served by transport already, and a lot can use Hammersmith as well.

I suspect the local MP's outrage has a lot to do with a certain election coming up.

Inspector Sands | Homepage | 06.02.08 - 11:44 a.m. | #

Far to much time is wasted trying to upgrade underground station's whilst they remain open for business, the contractors are usually only able to get on site for a few hours each evening and tend to spend more time unloading their equipment and getting it into place, and then clearing it all away again and cleaning up before the public are allowed in again than they ever spend doing the actual work thats needed, a prime example was refurbishment work that took place at The Borough Tube station which ended up taking two years longer than it should have done, The station was kept open throughout the work in progress despite being very close to both London Bridge and Elephant and Castle stations, a complete waste of hundreds of thousands of pounds, in the majority of cases it would be much better to close the station concerned, get in and do the work quickly and eficently and get out again.

fishislandskin | 06.02.08 - 12:00 p.m. | #

You had a a years warning about the ELL. The decision to shut She Bu happened on a whim, wasn't TFL's idea, and you had just a months warning. Not very good, is it?

Geofftech | Homepage | 06.02.08 - 12:06 p.m. | #

What difference does the length of time of the warning make? I would have thought that a month would be more than ample time to explore all the alternative routes,its not as if you have to buy in provisions or anything, all you have to do is work out which alternative route would be the best for you, personally a nice short walk would be my choice.

fishislandskin | 06.02.08 - 12:30 p.m. | #

The Good People of Crouch End have bus services verging on the incredible to make up for the lack of tube, with a fully loaded bus arriving into Finsbury Park Station every two minutes in the morning rush hour to dump another hundred commuters onto the tube, and the reverse in the evening.

Never seen a proper bus queue in London? Come to Crouch End and Muswell Hill in the mornings and be greeted with the sight of orderly lines of up to 20 people at each bus stop waiting to play sardines for the 6-7 stops to Finsbury Park. Good for rejuvenating your faith in humankind, or something.

Slightly OT, but, well, yannow. And Shepherds Bush will survive.

Nico | Homepage | 06.02.08 - 3:14 p.m. | #

I noticed earlier they even have a 2rail replacement bus" running the mile between Shepherds Bush and Whte City. Uh?!

I've never heard such a bunch of crap, I really haven't, as the pathetic complaints people are making about the closure - though last weekend when they had also closed the H&C line it was vaguely amusing! Ad if Tfl were doing their best to piss the residents of W12 off as much aspossible. But, ooh, the number 94 only took 6 minutes to get from SB to Holland Park. Hardly the end of the world??

And, having so many bus routes, all the shops that are claiming they will go bankrupt were perfectly busy (even the, um, sweetcorn stand!) this morning.

Luckily, no one I have spoken to here minds that much. I'm guessing most of the peple the press seem to be finding are the ones with the porche 4x4's and work at the BBC *L*

Fimb | Homepage | 06.02.08 - 3:28 p.m. | #

Geoff - it doesn't take a month to work out how to get to White City rather than SB.. and Holland park is a straight line.

Really, no huge biggie..

Fimb | Homepage | 06.02.08 - 3:31 p.m. | #

Like the "six month" closure of Bow Road station which ended up taking about a year. And for what? A WB train describer even less visible from most of the platform than the one it replaced, and the "advantage" of patronising hetcoring pre-recorded PA announcements every 30 seconds. Nor did we get a replacement bus service either... (I suppose the 25 counts as a "free" bus service, which is why you can't get room on one mid-route anymore).

Bowroad | 06.02.08 - 3:47 p.m. | #

of course for all the reasons stated above - no one complains when there is a tube or bus strike or when tubes are delayed or lines shut - all because we don't really need public transport in london - right?

Anonymous | 06.02.08 - 4:42 p.m. | #

"The Good People of Crouch End have bus services verging on the incredible"

Yeah, "incredible": thats one adjective for the number 41 bus. I can think of two or three others, too.

Battersea Pig | 06.02.08 - 5:01 p.m. | #

Anonymous - an extra 5 minute walk / bus really isn't the same as the entire network striking now is it??

Fimb | Homepage | 06.02.08 - 7:19 p.m. | #

Anonymous - do Kensington Olympia, Goldhawk Road, Hammersmith, White City stations mean anything to you? Or the other Shepherds Bush?

For heaven's sake, you've even got a pointless special bus going three stops down Wood Lane so it can join the Uxbridge Road traffic jam.

Buses up to Crouch End always struck me as barely credible, myself...

Inspector Sands | Homepage | 06.02.08 - 7:41 p.m. | #

Dinnae fash yersels. We W12ers are made of sterner stuff... well, those of us that don't have to use the Central Line every day are. Ha!

THC

THC | 06.02.08 - 10:17 p.m. | #

@Battersea Schwein.. Nico meant the W7 of course.. the likes of which you've never seen or are likely to see in Batter-se-a..
One W7 carries more passengers than five 452s put together.. and all because some twit decided not to build the Northern Heights branch..

IsarSteve | Homepage | 06.02.08 - 11:59 p.m. | #

I don't usually go anywhere near Shepherd's Bush, so this shouldn't affect me. However, I always think it's a good thing to have three or four routes planned well in advance. This way you can easily use alternatives if there are delays or closures. DG should be thanked for giving us such information in this post.

I once took the Waterloo & City line into work. However, if the W&C line was closed, I simply took the Bakerloo line to and from Waterloo instead. Similarly, when Covent Garden tube station was exit only last year, I simply used Leicester Square and Holborn instead to access the Piccadilly line.

However, using this method depends of course on just how accessible your destination is from the tube in the first place.

Andrewh | 07.02.08 - 12:31 a.m. | #

"And the rest of you, even if you don't think this applies to you now, be warned. Because this sort of enforced shutdown could be happening to you next."

Erm not sure we have a tube station in Gloucestershire....

Ahhh yes forgot you are a London-centric captial-only blog. Grrrrr.

sboy2010 | Homepage | 07.02.08 - 12:32 a.m. | #

Perhaps it is the way TfL have gone about the closure that is the real issue. Not the closure itself. The closure of one’s local station can be as disruptive as a suspended line during peak hour. The journey to and from work becomes longer, not just for one day but everyday both to and from work (with no £4 refund available either).

The rail replacement bus maybe the wrong solution, but it appears to have been a knee jerk reaction to the situation by TfL without it being thought through. The additional buses towards Notting Hill does sound like the more sensible solution, as this is the direction of most travel from Shepherd’s Bush.

There are several other stations near Shepherd’s Bush, but only one is on the same line and in the same direction and therefore forms part of most people’s normal journey (which if you had read DG’s post you would know and understand). This is also the reason TfL state it doesn’t matter that the overground station isn’t open as it wouldn’t take people to where they want to go. This in itself is debatable, as it would provide an alternative to people who used to change at Notting Hill for the District Line south services.

I agree that the closure of one’s local tube station can be very disruptive and I it is easy for those not affected to think that it isn’t a big deal. I sympathise with the commuters of Shepherd’s Bush and hope that TfL doesn’t take to making too many network decisions based on the demands of big business without proper forward planning.

Bruce F | 07.02.08 - 8:36 a.m. | #

@IsarSteve: Of course I knew Nico meant the W7. Having attempted to catch one of those things in the evening rush hour innumerable times (I don't live sarf of the river, govn'r despite me avatar) I have plenty of adjectives for that route, too.

I also susepect not building the Northern Heights branch was the one thing which saved Crouch End from the negative aspects of having a tube station on your doorstep.

Battersea Pig | 07.02.08 - 12:02 p.m. | #

Bruce F - I am affected but also believe that an extra 10 minutes isn't going to kill me, or anyone else. the H&C line regularly has delays longer than that in the mornings!

Only one nearby station? Uh, Holland Park is 5 minutes on the Number 94 or 148. And even I can walk to White City from there in 10 minutes, and I am unfit and walk relatively slowly. Hardly heartbreaking.
The huge amount of roadworks around the green which slow buses and cars are more of a problem in the day to day life of most people here.

Fimb | Homepage | 07.02.08 - 12:34 p.m. | #

If you can walk the 0.8 miles from Shepherd's Bush station to White City station in 10 minutes then you'd have to be striding along at 5mph. And definitely not unfit.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 07.02.08 - 12:51 p.m. | #

OK, I've just been reminded I started at the corner of wood lane and not the station!

But my argument still stands that its no real biggie.. And once you get to the corner of wood land, theres a hole heap of buses that run down it.

Fimb | Homepage | 07.02.08 - 8:54 p.m. | #











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