9 replies to this topic

[Char83]

Hi,

Does anyone know why London Underground have decided to provide a new 'Winter' timetable for the Met Line? I was perfectly happy with the previous service which was working reasonably well. The new one is dreadful as it means that my usual tube is late and overcrowded as the previous Chiltern line train does not stop until Marylebone.

Methinks we are not getting the service we pay for.

[Weezer]

Hi,

Does anyone know why London Underground have decided to provide a new 'Winter' timetable for the Met Line? I was perfectly happy with the previous service which was working reasonably well. The new one is dreadful as it means that my usual tube is late and overcrowded as the previous Chiltern line train does not stop until Marylebone.

Methinks we are not getting the service we pay for.

The Chiltern service has been changed, the Met is still virtually the same as before. The second Sunday in December is the new date that has been chosen to introduce new National Rail timetables (annually rather than six monthly now), so the Met timetable has had to be updated in consequence.

But as for your delays, I believe LU have little say in what service Chiltern provides, as long as Chiltern meet their franchise commitments. In any case, the new timetable has only been operational on one day and a bit so far (apart from Sunday when it was introduced) so maybe you have just been unlucky and tomorrow etc, will be better?

[Matthew (Admin/MPJ)]

The timetable changes every 6 months, usually there is little difference. This time Chiltern have had a major change on their service (there was a thread about this earlier in the year). There is the added complication that the leaf fall timetable has been extended this year which may not be helping things this week

[Weezer]

The timetable changes every 6 months, usually there is little difference. This time Chiltern have had a major change on their service (there was a thread about this earlier in the year). There is the added complication that the leaf fall timetable has been extended this year which may not be helping things this week

The main timetable changes once per year now, annually, in December, Matthew. This changed a year or two ago to bring National Rail timetables into line with other European countries who had long effected a change to their timetables in December. Previously timetables changed in late May/early June and late September.

Page 2 of this link:

http://www.atoc-comm...ent/c572036.pdf

confirms this.

To confuse this issue, minor alterations are still made to timetables in late May (mainly for the start of holiday traffic during summer), which is why Chiltern's current timetable is shown as being operational until May 19th 2007. But being mostly a commuter railway operation, Chiltern rarely need to make any major changes for the summer period.

As you say Matthew, due to the late arrival of autumn, continued leaf fall train operation may indeed not be helping the delays that have been experienced this week so far!

[147]

The met line timetable has not changed, the leaf fall TT has been extended by one week and as of next week the TT that was in opperation in september will return. Chiltern have just reverted to non stopping some trains missenden to marylebone as they did pre 2000, with the addition of stopping at Amersham & Chalfont after pressure from Amersham commuters as detailed on here in another thread and local press.

[MetMainMan]

The new Met Line Timetable (No 322) started along with the Chiltern on Sunday/Monday.

The original plan was to run the Chilterns "as booked" to their times and Met Line trains would have an extended "leaf-fall" timetable leaving 3 minutes early. This happened on Monday, but has now been cancelled.

The Rail Adhesion trains and the Chiltern Water Jetting trains are still available to operate.

Only one Chiltern train has had changed to its stopping pattern - The 07.14 Aylesbury - Marylebone now leaves Aylesbury at at 07.17 and runs non-stop from Ammersham to Harrow-on-the-Hill.

Hope this helps ;-)

[Fran]

The original plan was to run the Chilterns "as booked" to their times and Met Line trains would have an extended "leaf-fall" timetable leaving 3 minutes early.

Aside from the fact that I don't see why having some trains leave early solves the problem of Autumn, on Friday we were nearly caught out because a Chiltern train was scheduled (on live web info) to leave 3 minutes earlier than on the timetable we printed out earlier in the year..?

And where is the best place to get a timetable that shows Chiltern and Met trains to/from Amersham on the same page? We got last year's from a website - but can't find anything like it for the new one. It's easy enough to look up a specific journey on Trainline, TfL etc, but to get a complete timetable is oddly difficult. (We tried the station on Friday, but they didn't have any.)

[Matthew (MPJ/Admin)]

And where is the best place to get a timetable that shows Chiltern and Met trains to/from Amersham on the same page? We got last year's from a website - but can't find anything like it for the new one. It's easy enough to look up a specific journey on Trainline, TfL etc, but to get a complete timetable is oddly difficult. (We tried the station on Friday, but they didn't have any.)

Welcome to the world of integrated transport!

Try

www.tfl.gov.uk/tube/travelinfo/firstandlast/?line=metropolitan

apart from the Met line north to Amersham, there are no timetables available for underground lines as the lines closer to London operate a frequent service which means turn up and go, well that's the theory

[MetMainMan]

Aside from the fact that I don't see why having some trains leave early solves the problem of Autumn, on Friday we were nearly caught out because a Chiltern train was scheduled (on live web info) to leave 3 minutes earlier than on the timetable we printed out earlier in the year..?

And where is the best place to get a timetable that shows Chiltern and Met trains to/from Amersham on the same page? We got last year's from a website - but can't find anything like it for the new one. It's easy enough to look up a specific journey on Trainline, TfL etc, but to get a complete timetable is oddly difficult. (We tried the station on Friday, but they didn't have any.)

The extra journey time is so that trains can run at a slower speed as leaves on the rails can reduce braking and acceleration.
During the "Leaf Fall Timetable" the Met Line trains leave Amersham 3 minutes earlier so that the arrival time at Harrow is about the same all year round, reducing further timetable changes to the other branches and lines.

The TfL website has a copy of the Amersham to London times - Southbound at http://www.tfl.gov.u...und-10Dec06.pdf
Northbound at - http://www.tfl.gov.u...und-10Dec06.pdf

[Fran]

The TfL website has a copy of the Amersham to London times

Brilliant - that's exactly the version I was looking for - everything together so you can decide whether to get off the Bakerloo Line at Baker Street or Marylebone when coming home!
I don't know why I failed to find it, but thanks very much.

If anyone has trouble printing these long continuous "single" pages in a useable format: max your PDF window, adjust the zoom so it shows exactly three of the tables and from the Print menu, select Print Range = Current View. Then slide down to view tables 4 to 6 and do the same.