please empty your brain below
1. Despite TfL suggesting that you should use Journey Planner to check if it was running, this week's Exhibition service was never shown in Journey Planner.
2. A few weeks before the Beer festival if you put certain routes to Olympia into JP, there was a message attached to the route via West Brompton saying that there may be a direct District line service and you should check nearer the time. This message had disappeared by the time the service actually was running.
3. I e-mailed TfL in advance and was told to check back a week before. When I did so, I didn't get a reply until this Wednesday saying (i.e the second day the service was running):
"Thank you for your follow-up email of 6 August regarding District line services to Kensington (Olympia).
I can confirm that there will not be a special District line service during the Great British Beer Festival. London Overground services do stop at Kensignton Olympia regularly and is the best way to travel to the venue." This was untrue, as I had travelled on it the day before!
4. On Monday this week, i.e the day before the service started I phoned the TfL enquiry number. The conversation went as follows:
- Is there an Exhibition service running for the British Beer Festival tomorrow?
- Yes - there is an Exhibition service for all Olympia exhibitions.
- No there isn't, only a few get them nowadays, can you check please?
- OK - yes there is one running tomorrow.
- When will it run?
- Every 15 minutes.
- Are you sure, it's normally every 30 minutes for an exhibition service?
- I'll check - you're right trains will leave Earls Court at 25 & 45 minutes past the hour.
- Are you sure that's a 20 & 40 minute frequency?
- I agree it's not every 30 minutes, but that's what it says here.
In fact the trains were due to leave Earls Court at 14 & 44 past the hour. (That said when I tried using the Exhibition service on one occasion last year it actually left Earls Court at 59, i.e. either 15 minutes late or 15 minutes early).
If that doesn't feature on the 'big signs at Earl's Court', it should.
dg writes: I've timed it previously, and it took me 12 minutes from 'outside the exhibition hall' to Hammersmith station. Definitely not 9.
The few times I've been on the Olympia shuttle (before these changes) it was slow and cumbersome. Frankly I think we'd be far better off without it full stop.
The 30 minute service frequency is pretty pathetic too, especially in the late evening when there's less congestion at Earls Court, and people tend to be travelling at the same time. The Beer Festival stopped serving at 10:30pm, thus most people would be leaving between then and 11pm. Surely a 15 minute frequency between 10 and 11:30 wouldn't be unreasonable?
You can get a bus to Olympia from Hammersmith station.
The District line shuttle has been a part time service before in the past, but it survived then so possibly will now, although back then there was no frequent Overground alternative service, and that might be enough to warrant its closure.
I think the Olympia service is unlikely to disappear. It is proposed that some of the future District line stock (S7 stock) will be stabled at Lillie Bridge Depot. It will be able to leave the depot via Olympia. That may even have operational operational advantages as it enables trains to enter into service in an eastbound direction. So no extra stock is required - just a slightly earlier departure from the stabling sidings.
Exhibitions at weekends are generally busier so there is more justification for the service and so long as the District weekend timetable has the capacity to slot in the trains I see very little benefit in removing them.
But yes they do need to sort out the ridiculous situation where no-one knows if they are runnng. Hopefully when the Sub Surface Lines are resignalled the signalling computers will know (because they will have the day's timetable loaded) and that can at least drive all the relevant displays on the underground.
Why not hand this section of line to the London Overground?
You could then have services that go:
Clapham Junction - Imperial Wharf - West Brompton - Earl's Court - High Street Kensington -
[then serve]
High Street Kensington - Earl's Court - Olympia - Shepherds Bush - White City - Willesden Junction.
Whilst also running "fast" trains Clapham Junction - Imperial Wharf - West Brompton Olympia - Shepherds Bush - White City - Willesden Junction.
With the possible remaining suggestion that you could possibly have "travelators" from West Brompton to Earl's Court, using one of the track spaces.
Looking at
http://carto.metro.free.fr/cartes/metro-tram-london/ it seems like the most obvious thing in the world to do is to remove the Kensington (olympia) district line service.
It seems like the Overground needs more trains. Every time I have used it they have been packed!
Remove the District Line platforms at West Brompton and rename the station as "Earl's Court (South Entrance)".
Add in super-fast travelators from there to Earl's Court, right up to the escalators (the underground's first ever, right?) to the Piccadilly line.
Make sure you can get on and off the new travelator at the Warwick Road entrance.
Result: Overground has "Earl's Court" and interchange with the piccadilly line.
http://www.londonreconnections.com/2013/a-beeching-epilogue-the-curious-case-of-the-clapham-junction-ghost-train/
Kind regards,
John
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