The problem with the new timetable is it attempts to put more trains on in the morning by moving the Laindon starters to start from Leigh. That extra 30 min round trip means more stock is required, but there isn't any, so some 8s were cut to 4. To mitigate that a couple of starters were moved back to Laindon; meanwhile they monitored the loadings to decide where use of 4s caused least overcrowding. To give Laindon and West Horndon boarders more hope of a seat they also made some of the semi-fasts all stoppers, adding 6 mins to the journey.
The other issue was initially that all trains stopped at both Barking and West Ham, with the inevitable result that no one uses the District between there anymore and the mainline trains are chokka between those points. This has also been slightly mitigated by cutting one or other stop off a few trains.
Personally, I've had to change my journey in to get an earlier train because of the extra 6 mins. Arriving before 9am now means a train which is seriously popular - I can just get a seat at Basildon, no one after gets one.
Going home my usual train now takes 8 mins longer as an all-stopper but I can get a new one 2 mins earlier - that is absolutely chokka too, full and standing on leaving Fen St with loads more piling in at Limehouse and West Ham.
Basically many 100s of 1000s more people now live along the catchment area of the line compared to even 10 years ago, with the crush in London also forcing more to live out in eastern Essex, plus there is the new attraction of Stratford and the ever-expanding Canary Wharf. The railway can't keep up.
