Watford Junction to London Liverpool Street trains

[Busaholic]

The route , and the areas served are vastly different now , compared to the late 1980's and early 1990's. Revival started with a very modest 4 tph between Stratford and Richmond (partly done by reducing the traffic desert to North Woolwich to 2 tph in the peak , then by further incremental improvements when substantial extra funding was put in under LOROL. To be fair , the vision of the then GLC in a bargain basement 3d rail electrification and the beefing up of stations Dalston Kingsland to Stratford Low Level - after Broad Street went - was a very wise move.

It could be said that a bit more bargain basement, but achievable without huge fuss, thinking would not come amiss in today's railway, and not purely for financial reasons.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

It could be said that a bit more bargain basement, but achievable without huge fuss, thinking would not come amiss in today's railway, and not purely for financial reasons.

The GLC planners slipped nicely into LT after Thatcher killed the former off, and they continued to do good work on other London area schemes till their retirement. Of course , in those days you could go to BR saying that we have "x" to spend , can we have this please. No consultants , "Project Boards" (for very ordinary ideas) , no Grip Stages to surmount etc. In many cases , accelerated delivery too.

"Crosstown Linkline" was the marketing slogan - 66p off peak rover , and a stunning 99p off peak rover for the whole of the North London line.

Innovative low cost marketing for a low cost railway enhancement. What is not to like !

 

[frodshamfella]

I actually used this service a few times, as i worked near Liverpool Street Station at the time and took the train to Primrose Hill to meet a friend. It was a lot simpler and less packed than the tube !!

 

[ChiefPlanner]

There was some consideration in my time for a 30 min Harrow and Wealdstone - Stratford via Camden Road. Quite a popular routing when it was done for engineering ops and of course the Market was a huge weekend attraction. No daytime paths in the turnback , but could still (I think) be an option.

 

[transmanche]

"Crosstown Linkline" was the marketing slogan

That was the brand name used for the pre-electrification Camden Road-North Woolwich service.[*] When the Richmond-North Woolwich service started, they branded it North London Link.

However, some publicity for the Richmond-Broad Street service did include the slogan "Your crosstown link."


BR - Crosstown Link Line - Hackney Central & Hackney Wick stations open May 1980 by mikeyashworth, on Flickr

[*] The brand name was also used for the Barking-Gospel Oak line.

 

[simple simon]

I sometimes travelled on these. The power changeover was definitely at Dalston Kingsland, as seen in the film below.

When 313's started travelling to Stratford they sometimes stayed in dc mode all the way from Canonbury and sometimes switched to ac at Dalston Kingsland and changed back to dc at the last station before Stratford. In sunny weather the shadow from the pantograph made it easy to see if in ac mode!

The service to Liverpool St was horribly unreliable and the trains were often inconveniently timed - the last train to London arrived too late for people going to work and the first evening train left too early for people leaving work.

I remember one morning when there was disruption to the service and the train I was on entered the next station (Wembley Central) whilst the train in front was still there. This was permitted under the 1930's LMS signalling!

As an aside, I also filmed one of these trains at Primrose Hill - when the latter was still open!

Simon