please empty your brain below

I don't know why TfL don't just give up and hand Moor Park to Amersham over to Chiltern. They just don't have the mindset to run a medium distance commuter service.

My father makes the journey from Amersham to London regularly and never takes the Metropolitan Line, plenty of comfortable seats on the diesel trains.

Surely the people in Amersham will easily get a seat on the S stock? It's the folks further down the line that will have to stand. I've been out there in rush hour once, and there were easily more than half the seats on an A-stock empty.

This is actually almost very relevant to me because I occasionally get a lift from a colleague who lives in Chesham but nearly always he picks me up and drops me off in Amersham.

I don't know how you can describe the A stock as comfortable. I will nearly always opt for a Chiltern Railways train because it is more comfortable than the horrible, bouncy, slow, calls-at-too-many-stations clapped-out A stock. Also Marylebone is a much more pleasant place to wait for a train than Baker Street. These facts makes the issue almost irrelevant for me.

The idea that Chesham will benefit from longer trains is laughable. Its not exactly standing room only when I do get on at Chesham.

The is quite a lot of evidence to suggest that a considerable number of people actually want a decent Chesham service but drive to Amersham because there isn't one. Time will tell whether the 'improvements' will be enough to change their habits and reduce traffic on the road.

Max is right that it really would make more sense if LU did not run up all the way to Buckinghamshire but due to various historical reasons that is what has happened and that is what we are stuck with. The cost of reorganising the infrastructure to correct this anomaly would be enormous and anyway there simply aren't enough platforms at Marylebone. The railway industry is aware of all this. A potential solution was found in proposing that Crossrail take over the Aylesbury line, presumably from both operators. This would have seemed like an ideal solution but the figures did not stack up when viewed from Crossrail's pespective. Never say never but the opportunity is now many decades away.

I also disagree about the A Stock being comfortable; I went on an A Stock train to Wembley the other day and it was extremely bumpy.

@Greg. Riot and revolution from Amersham Man? I think not. They're exercised enough round here with HS2.

On another of your points, it's also no secret that at Grouping ten years earlier the Metropolitan Railway stressed its urban nature in order to maintain independence and thus avoid absorption by the LNER. They couldn't have it both ways within such a short space of time...

Finally, in a similar vein to PoP, I think the direct Chesham services will lead to a noticeable redistribution of patronage from Amersham as a number of current Amersham users drive from Chesham and points north. I tend to use one or other of the two busiest southbound Chiltern trains that call at Amersham each morning, so will be watching this with some interest over the next few months.

Yeah, I have on occasion gotten the bumpy train to Watford. Why anyone would want to do a journey like that (longer to Amersham and Chesham) every day is beyond me.

The only people in Amersham this will affect is the taxi drivers who make a nice living ferrying commuters who don't want to wait for the shuttle at Chalfont. Plenty of people in Chesham drive to Amersham for the convenience - they will now not need to.

Addionally, most Amersham Met trains are all-but empty on arrival as Amersham commuters rather obviously prefer the more reliable, faster *and more comfortable* Chiltern trains.

One more comment about the consultation though -- at the time with the new trains coming in it did seem a distinct possibility that rather than divert 2 Amersham trains an hour to Chesham TfL would simply shut the Chesham branch altogether. That would have been the easier option after all.

I was rather hoping that TfL would have started a direct Chesham-Watford service over the north curve at Croxley. I understand that pathing issues at Watford prevented them from doing so.

They might do that if the Croxley Link ever gets going. Then you'd be able to change at Watford Junction for Euston.

Considering that until now Amersham have had 6 trains an hour (including the Chiltern line ones) to Cheshams 2, but we've paid the same fair due to being classed as the same zone I have to say this all sounds perfectly fair to me.

and to be fair to TfL, it does state quite clearly that the services to Amersham will be cut.

There are many in the southern suburbs of London who would be delighted to have the choice of catching 2 LUL trains as well as 2 National Rail trains into central London every hour off peak...

Thank God I don't have to commute any more!

London Transport has had a long tradition of keeping antique stock running on short shyttle rotes inn the suburbs - Epping to Ongar and the Chesham Branch itself with Great Central 4-4-2 tanks engines and round topped door carriages built for the Metropolitan Railway until electrification and the existing A stock was installed. If the S stock is too long for the bay at Chalfont and Latimer - why not continue to use the historic four car A stock trains that currently service the line - as South West trains did until recently in Lymington. After all four car A stock trains were the stock used on the East London Line before its conversion. Chesham Station has an old world charm all of its own although Chesham is notoriously one of the coldest places in the south of England. Wear warm clothing and take a supply of marmalade sandwiches next time you visit.

For the same reasons that SWT no longer uses slam door stock out to Lymington - it costs a preposterous amount of money to keep a pair of unique rolling stock running, particularly when they're 50 years old already.

@ Mwmbwls - I doubt that the A stock will be compatible with the upgraded signalling system when installed, leading to a few significant operational problems, eg:

- It could only be moved to and from the Chesham branch during engineering hours and under special protection, which would be expensive and reduce the amount of overnight work that could be undertaken.

- It would have to be the only train on the branch, ie a lock in, meaning that there could not be any through trains at Chalfont at all.

The new timetable completely screws over people (like me) who like to attempt to get round all the stations in the fastest time. The connection at Chalfont (from going from Chesham to Amersham or vice versa) is now REALLY BAD no matter what time you do it.

#sadface

I've heard that the two per hour trains to Chesham in the evening will replace 2 stopping trains to Watford therby reducing the current 10 min service to 10 - 20mins so if you time it wrong could be a longer wait for that branch too.



Living south of the river, I recently took advantage of the soon to be abolished non zone 1 travelcard fare to spend a day in and around Chesham (well only a couple of hours due to the 2+ hour travel time due to the bad connections at Willesden Junction - there should be at least a 20 minute service here all day).

It was a Wednesday, with the market in full swing - and yes - DG - real hankies for sale (I too had recently been thinking about the demise of these things - including the odd check ones - but now I use paper ones - left overs from coffee shops).

The 'museum' in Chesham really charges £2 to use the computers for the research facilities - and were disappointed that I didn't use them, after they had fired them up.

What surprised me most were that there were no walking maps available (as per your recent feature). Loads of other info for wider afield but nothing for Chesham itself - amazing.













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