Two east London lines closed all weekend

Taunton · 3 Nov 2018

The TfL local service from Liverpool Street to Shenfield is closed all weekend for works. Oh well, these things have to be done, at least the District Line runs parallel, to the south.

Except that's closed all weekend as well for separate works.

Yes, it's a double inconvenience to us today. Given that most weekends both run, you would have expected a bit of co-ordination from TfL.

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londonteacher · 3 Nov 2018

Although, the works on the Liverpool Street to Shenfield will be Network Rail, and the District line closures are by LU. The District, H&M, Circle and Met all have closures to test the new signalling.

Yes it's an inconvenience, but there are good alternatives for most of the line such as local buses and rail replacement buses to connect to the Central line or to Stratford and Walthamstow.

matt_world2004 · 3 Nov 2018

londonteacher said:
Although, the works on the Liverpool Street to Shenfield will be Network Rail, and the District line closures are by LU. The District, H&M, Circle and Met all have closures to test the new signalling.

Yes it's an inconvenience, but there are good alternatives for most of the line such as local buses and rail replacement buses to connect to the Central line or to Stratford and Walthamstow.

Tfl are supposed to syncronise their closures with nr so that they are not to disruptive to passengers. On the internal document it actually specifies what needs to be opened for closures to go ahead.

Shunter_69 · 3 Nov 2018

C2C are still running so assume this was taken into account when planning the District Line closure.

t0ffeeman · 3 Nov 2018

Many use the GOB line to Blackhorse Rd and then Victoria line when this happens

ijmad · 3 Nov 2018

londonteacher said:
The District, H&M, Circle and Met all have closures to test the new signalling..

Does this mean they've actually made some progress with the new signalling? Sound the trumpets! The end days have come!

cle · 3 Nov 2018

londonteacher said:
Although, the works on the Liverpool Street to Shenfield will be Network Rail, and the District line closures are by LU. The District, H&M, Circle and Met all have closures to test the new signalling.

Yes it's an inconvenience, but there are good alternatives for most of the line such as local buses and rail replacement buses to connect to the Central line or to Stratford and Walthamstow.

Always one contrarian/apologist lol - it's shoddy however you dress it up.

700007 · 3 Nov 2018

londonteacher said:
Although, the works on the Liverpool Street to Shenfield will be Network Rail, and the District line closures are by LU. The District, H&M, Circle and Met all have closures to test the new signalling.

Yes it's an inconvenience, but there are good alternatives for most of the line such as local buses and rail replacement buses to connect to the Central line or to Stratford and Walthamstow.

A bit harder if you live further out. My alternative to and from the far ends of East London is yes the c2c or DLR to Beckton and local bus connections from there.

3141 · 3 Nov 2018

Taunton said:
The TfL local service from Liverpool Street to Shenfield is closed all weekend for works. Oh well, these things have to be done, at least the District Line runs parallel, to the south.

Except that's closed all weekend as well for separate works.

Yes, it's a double inconvenience to us today. Given that most weekends both run, you would have expected a bit of co-ordination from TfL.

But the District is hardly "parallel". For many people it's either London - Shenfield or the District, but one isn't an obvious alternative to the other. c2c which is open is very close to the District, so it will provide an alternative for some District Line users. Otherwise it's a replacement bus.

bluegoblin7 · 3 Nov 2018

ijmad said:
Does this mean they've actually made some progress with the new signalling? Sound the trumpets! The end days have come!

No.

The east end testing is the initial phase and is the first time trains have operated within SMA3.

The closure at the west end, for operational proving, was cancelled due to ongoing software issues; commissioning will not now happen until the new year. A shuttle service between Hammersmith and Baker Street has been implemented instead.

londonteacher · 4 Nov 2018

cle said:
Always one contrarian/apologist lol - it's shoddy however you dress it up.

Not an apologist at all but as has been said C2C are running and the District/Met are not actually an alternative for the Shenfield route anyway.

306024 · 4 Nov 2018

Just catch the rail replacement or normal service bus instead if you have too. Sure it may be slower but you’re not exactly stranded, East London is hardly bereft of transport. Not sure why a bus is seen as the Devil’s transport by some.

Taunton · 4 Nov 2018

306024 said:
Just catch the rail replacement or normal service bus instead if you have too..

I guess you don't travel here and have "experience" of these.

We were travelling from Mile End to Upney. In the end we drove. Traffic was way heavier than normal; seems the same today. What a surprise when TfL dress up that driving is no longer necessary in their area, and then cancel both their two parallel (and they are; look at a map) local all-stations lines across East London on the same weekend. When Westfield Stratford is right into their pre-Christmas peak weekends.

306024 · 4 Nov 2018

Taunton said:
I guess you don't travel here and have "experience" of these.

You couldn’t be more wrong I’m afraid. Been using the 86 bus for years. Traffic through Barking is never good, it wasn’t when I took my driving test there.

I agree both routes shouldn’t be closed at the same time, but do we know the circumstances that have led to this? What is the bigger picture?

700007 · 4 Nov 2018

306024 said:
You couldn’t be more wrong I’m afraid. Been using the 86 bus for years. Traffic through Barking is never good, it wasn’t when I took my driving test there.

I agree both routes shouldn’t be closed at the same time, but do we know the circumstances that have led to this? What is the bigger picture?

Why get the 86 when you can get the X86 (TfL Rail Replacement Bus) which is free and an express variant of the local bus service!

Interestingly and this has gone on for ages, Abellio does TfL Rail's replacement service between Stratford and Romford yet hire third parties such as Stephenson's of Essex to do their own Greater Anglia replacement bus - would it not be cheaper for Abellio to keep the RRs in house and do it themselves? Or is the rate TfL are paying Abellio justifying the cost?

hassaanhc · 4 Nov 2018

Yesterday there was football at Stratford, which was "fun" when there was no GEML or District/H&C in the area. West Ham ended up closed to Jubilee line trains for a while due to overcrowding on the c2c platforms. Another local event was the Newham fireworks by Pontoon Dock station (on the DLR near Canning Town), which added more local passengers both on the trains and the buses; I'd never ever seen the 474 that busy and leaving people behind on a weekend outside DLR engineering work! Luckily the DLR had extra trains between West Ham and King George V).

There was also overcrowding in Z1 caused by the Circle/District closure, and both combined to cause congestion and delays on the Jubilee line. My journey between Baker Street and Stratford took about 31 minutes instead of the timetabled 23, and the section between Bond Street and London Bridge was one of the busiest trains I'd ever been on

hassaanhc · 4 Nov 2018

700007 said:
Why get the 86 when you can get the X86 (TfL Rail Replacement Bus) which is free and an express variant of the local bus service!

And that's something the locals have been taking advantage of for years!

It was worse when the main District line replacement between Tower Hill and Barking went via Stratford (all stations Tower Hill to Bow Road, then Stratford, Upton Park, East Ham and Barking), which made it into an X25 and X238. The latter section especially was taken full advantage of by passengers between Stratford and Upton Park or East Ham, most of whom almost certainly had no intention of going by train in the first place! Also with traffic in Stratford, Upton Park and East Ham that section decimated reliability for the whole route. So last year TfL changed it to run two services: Tower Hill to Canning Town (all stations to Bromley-by-Bow, then Canning Town) and Canning Town to Barking (calling at Plaistow then all stations to Barking)

Class 170101 · 4 Nov 2018

The Central Line was crowded from Central London out to Newbury Park today due to said closure between Shenfield and Liverpool Street.

causton · 4 Nov 2018

Same on the WCML/WLL/Overground/Bakerloo. No Overground EUS - WFJ, no Southern WFJ - CLJ, no Bakerloo. Rail replacement buses that got quite full up, or ticket acceptance via London except Northampton is shut today so no LNR trains can get out the depot, so short formed trains on the mainline into Euston. Lovely :lol:

Islineclear3_1 · 4 Nov 2018

Class 170101 said:
The Central Line was crowded from Central London out to Newbury Park today due to said closure between Shenfield and Liverpool Street.

Yup, I chose to drive into deepest Essex due to closure up to Colchester. Compared to a few weeks ago when I took the rail replacement coach from Ingatestone, I hardly saw any rail replacement buses on the A12 today...

87015 · 4 Nov 2018

causton said:
Same on the WCML/WLL/Overground/Bakerloo. No Overground EUS - WFJ, no Southern WFJ - CLJ, no Bakerloo. Rail replacement buses that got quite full up, or ticket acceptance via London except Northampton is shut today so no LNR trains can get out the depot, so short formed trains on the mainline into Euston. Lovely

Plenty of alternative stabling if they’d bothered, so they could have run with 8s if they were interestedrather than leaving people behind as Euston. The guard on this doesn’t seem to share your anti-passenger attitude given his complete rant aimed at LM control. Given he had his 8 split at Euston and lots of people left on the platform don’t blame him.

Jimini · 4 Nov 2018

The Central Line was also busy this evening due to the fireworks at Viccy Park.

causton · 5 Nov 2018

87015 said:
The guard on this doesn’t seem to share your anti-passenger attitude

As someone who has to travel by train to and from work and put up with these conditions, and then spend all day helping passengers, please don't put words in my mouth.

Two east London lines closed all weekend

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