Strange service on chiltern line amersham branch easter weekend

[jfisher21]

No trains before 12.30 Fri - Sun

No trains at all Mon

No met line Northwood - Wembley Park

Special service Northwood - Chesham and Amersham via Watford.

Good time to do the croxley - rickmansworth direct curve!

Any idea what they are doing to stop chiltern before 1230 ?

 

[CyrusWuff]

I believe London Underground are replacing a crossover at Harrow-on-the-Hill. Presumably some of the work encroaches on the Fast Lines, hence the lack of Chilterns.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

I believe London Underground are replacing a crossover at Harrow-on-the-Hill. Presumably some of the work encroaches on the Fast Lines, hence the lack of Chilterns.

Sounds like Harrow North Junction or 227 points south of the station.

 

[Lrd]

It's Harrow South Junction, they're taking away the scissors crossover (203AB and 204AB) and replacing them with two separate crossovers further South. This is taken from the latest LU Traffic Circular.

 

[NickBucks]

Chiltern did themselves no favours with travellers on Friday. The first southbound service of the day via Amersham ( Dep Stoke Mandeville at 12.22 pm ) was formed of a two car 165 unit only. This was well full by Wendover and rammed upon departure from Amersham. Passengers were left behind at subsequent stations because they could not force themselves on. I guess that many folk like to travel on Good Friday when the shops are open and given there was no through LUL service from Amersham/ Chalfont / Chorleywood / Rickmansworth I think that high load factors could have been expected. Clearly no one from Chiltern engaged brain. How much extra does it cost to make up a 4 or 5 car set ? You do not need another driver and the sidings at Aylesbury were full of spare units. Only people to be inconvenienced would be the train cleaning staff at Marylebone and even though it was Good Friday there were plenty of those around. How to win and retain customers Chiltern !

 

[PeterY]

Special service Northwood - Chesham and Amersham via Watford.

Good time to do the croxley - rickmansworth direct curve!

Although I'd done the north curve in the past, living nearby I took the chance to do it again.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Chiltern did themselves no favours with travellers on Friday. The first southbound service of the day via Amersham ( Dep Stoke Mandeville at 12.22 pm ) was formed of a two car 165 unit only.

I think that high load factors could have been expected. Clearly no one from Chiltern engaged brain. How much extra does it cost to make up a 4 or 5 car set ?

5.84p per vehicle mile for a 165 and 9.02p per vehicle mile for a 168 in additional Track Access charges (so between £4.73 and £10.96 for one trip), plus the extra fuel and other consumables.

Only people to be inconvenienced would be the train cleaning staff at Marylebone and even though it was Good Friday there were plenty of those around. How to win and retain customers Chiltern !

Which trains do you shortform on Tuesday morning because you've brought forward the next exam for that unit by having it run an extra 400+ miles on Friday?

 

[DerekC]

Which trains do you shortform on Tuesday morning because you've brought forward the next exam for that unit by having it run an extra 400+ miles on Friday?

I thought the object of the railway was to transport people in reasonable comfort - and to plan ahead for the traffic you are likely to get. Services altered for engineering works aren't an excuse to save on maintenance cost.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Which trains do you shortform on Tuesday morning because you've brought forward the next exam for that unit by having it run an extra 400+ miles on Friday?

Proper prior planning...

 

[jfisher21]

As i understand it, Chiltern dont actually get paid for the people they transport from the LUL stations, they just get free access to the track. Hence they probably dont care too much!

 

[67018]

Proper prior planning...

It's all very well to make comments like this but often 'lack of planning' is used as an uninformed criticism of people in the real world who have to live with the fact that resources aren't infinite.

Chiltern's fleet is run pretty much run to the limit as it is - I note that this morning was one of those very rare weekdays where there were no services short formed in the morning peak. Maybe that was their priority call.

 

[NickBucks]

Derek / Neil

Thank you. Glad to see that some of us treat service to the paying customer as important.

 

[rebmcr]

I was at Amersham yesterday, and waiting for a southbound Met in the evening I heard what sounded like a depot whistle from the direction of the sidings to the north -- there was no S Stock in that direction, however.

Was the Class 121 doing a special working, or was there an engineering train in a possession, or was it not railway related?

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

Which trains do you shortform on Tuesday morning because you've brought forward the next exam for that unit by having it run an extra 400+ miles on Friday?

Total rubbish. There were no services before 1230 so if anything the sets at Aylesbury are under their normal miles. Definitely a case of failing to anticipate the obvious. (No planning department would deliberately cause overcrowding if there's a viable alternative.)