please empty your brain below
(not including this one).
Each morning clumps of people form on Platform 3 in very specific places. A Victoria train will come in, but they ignore it. They will hold their position until the next Overground train appears, for they know that they will be precisely aligned with the doors. Into the empty train pour the passengers. Those in the lead head for the most-favoured seats (furthest from the doors, next to the flexi-joint). All the seats fill. Only when the train reaches Canada Water (interchange with the Jubilee line) will seats reappear. Such is the popularity of this line.
A SPAR is a Signal Passed At Red and is normally only allowed under special circumstances. At West Croydon a SPAR occurs four times an hour. Overground trains are allowed to leave Platform 4 against the red signal at the platform end to take their place on the reversing siding. Is there a driver reading this who can explain it?
For shunting movements I think there are small ground level signals. Maybe these are giving the permission to move at West Croydon.
So the parliamentary service is standard with some infrequent diversions.
Such as why the Underground manages to run trains every 1-3 minutes, but every time I've used the Overground I've had a 20 minute wait, at least!
Because they're part of the national rail network, because they share tracks with freight service, because not being self-contained means, they are much more susceptible to delay, because Overground trains are larger and have much higher capacity than tube trains they needn't run as often, because despite the huge increase in passenger numbers since 2007 they are still far less frequented than the tube (with the notable exception of the East London line core, which is why that bit *does* get a train every 4 minutes). Or because you were just unlucky.
Many Overground services have to share tracks with other services (for example between Liverpool Street and Clapton, or more particularly the freight trains on the West and South London lines.
You must have been very unlucky (or very selective) to have had to wait as much as twenty minutes for an Overground service, let alone more. Only the Emerson Park shuttle and the outer reaches of the Enfield/ Cheshunt routes (beyond their divergence at Edmonton) have a service less frequent than 3 trains per hour. Even then, with 2 tph the average time you would wait would be 15 minutes (maximum 30 minutes).
The busiest section is between Dalston Junction and Surrey Quays (up to 16 trains per hour, or better than every four minutes).
TridentScan | Privacy Policy