please empty your brain below |
When the Earls Court halls get demolished perhaps more events will be held at the Olympia halls, so in the longer term the service may be needed.
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This week information provision about the Olympia District Line Exhibition service (which did run on 13 - 16 August for the Beer Festival)was even worse than you have described.
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). |
The C1 bus runs every 10 - 12 minutes from outside Earl's Court station to Olympia (3-min walk from stop to door).
If that doesn't feature on the 'big signs at Earl's Court', it should. |
If the drivers know when the service is running, why doesn't the rest of TfL?
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The last time I used that service was in 2012 for the London Film and Comic Convention, it was pretty easy to if there was a service, you just followed the many Dr Who's and various Hobbits to the train.
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I don't see how Olympia can say it is a 9 minute walk from Hammersmith station for the Piccadilly line. I'm a pretty fast walker, and yesterday it took me probably 15 minutes from the corner of Shepherd's Bush Road and Hammersmith Road, and that didn't include the time to get out of the station (if I had come that way).
dg writes: I've timed it previously, and it took me 12 minutes from 'outside the exhibition hall' to Hammersmith station. Definitely not 9. |
I think Olympia have hit the nail on the head with their recommendation of Central then Overground timewise - it's efficient and simple. What puts people off is the "8 minute walk" or whatever it is for "changing between stations" at Shepherds Bush when, in reality, the Overground's simply across the road from the Underground.
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. |
Yes, TfL have a very strange attitude to the Olympia shuttle, I didn't need to use it this week, but it took AGES to find correct information to give to a friend who was thinking of using it.
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? |
West Brompton station where you can get the overground to Olympia is near Earls Court Hall 2, still a fair walk from Earls Court station which is nearer to Earls Court Hall 1.
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. |
At the risk of having egg on my face at some point in the future ...
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. |
Interesting thoughts there Pedantic, though if there is no plan to end the shuttle one wonders why there is all this misinformation. If it's not part of a conspiracy to close the station by stealth, can it really all be just a cock-up.
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OK.
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. |
Main reason not to hand it entirely over to Overground is that Underground wanted to reduce complexity and delays at Earls Court by simplifying the track configuration. Cutting out the Olympia line does that - merely running Overground trains on the same track doesn't.
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@Andrew Bowden: OK, if the plan is to simply to the service into a West Brompton-High Street Ken and a West Ken-Gloucester Road service though Earl's Court then it would seem the Overground isn't going to connect up here.
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! |
Only solution:
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. |
Here's how it looks on the map.. http://twitter.com/Briantist/status/369412477089357824/photo/1
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The current daily service on the Olympia line is curiously reminiscent of the pattern of the Kenny Belle (Clapham Junction-Olympia) service back in the late '60s: see
http://www.londonreconnections.com/2013/a-beeching-epilogue-the-curious-case-of-the-clapham-junction-ghost-train/ Kind regards, John |
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