silverlink trains

This is making me so damn nostalgic!

it's irregular, but only a little less than the bloody green line which goes from the same platform.

-EXIT STAGE LEFT

One of my very worst commuting experiences (and, post-Hatfield, I had a few) involved the day I stupidly decided to try out the H&I-Canning Town section as a way of avoiding the central zone Tube rush-hour crush. Waited something like 40 minutes only for a smoked-glass sleek shinkansen-style thing to pull up, left off some bubbly- quaffing, insultingly cheerful suits and shut its doors on us (Anglia Trains private special). Eventually squeezed onto one of the regulation meat-wagons a little later; most malevolent atmos ever on a train. Coupla hundred foax pissed off at the service, each other, themselves...

Then it terminated at Stratford.

nuff?

http://www.simsig.co.uk/html/downloads.html

(no, really, a freight train trundling through Gospel Oak really could be going anywhere in the country)

it feels like a ghost train sometimes. the stations always so quiet at night and the train goes so slowly through these shady tracks.

it's way better than silverlink county trains that goes from london to milton keynes and beyond.

ie:

London to Willesden Junction
London to Watford
London to Milton Keynes, Northampton, Birmingham New Street Coventry, via, Harrow (sometimes Queens Park), Wembley (oh err not ofen), Bushey, Watford, Kings Langley, Apsley, Hemel Hemsptead, Berkhamsted(the real deal), Tring, Cheddinton, Leighton Buzzard, er....Wolverton?, MK, Long Buckby, Northampton, and beyond (knowledge is a bit shaky after Tring)

also, the highest fare increase out of franchises in the last round of price hikes! hooray! getting shat on by Virgin! 17 peak day return London to Berko (try doing that every day - the reason i moved to Holloway)!
aw man, silverlink is fuckin shit it makes me nostalgic for the stupid old bastard

Ambrose you left out Bletchely to Bedford, Watford to St Albans Abbey, Wilsden Junction to Clapham Junction and barking to Gospel Oak and Silverlink now goes no further than Northampton

i always wanted to go on the St albans abbey line

i once shuttled between watford and some unknown place a few times asleep with will after a long night out, and emerged onto watford high st looking like zombies, will taggin bins asleep (?!) and frightening the good people of Watford and we staggered down the parade past Costa Coffee.

it is v good for getting home from camden or kilburn with the bike if it starts pissing down or i have accidentally got too drunk.

it stops running too early, though perhaps this is best given the below.

people seem pretty freaked out by it after that dude got stabbed to death near kensal green. um, understandably so. those platforms seem designed to have that sort of you-are-on-your-OWN-now-sonny vibe about them.

(um winter olympics time now though yay!)

Unless, of course, a vital part of the Olympic stadia is going to be built on the short bit of trackbed that will be freed up at Stratford (the Low Level Station to Channelsea Junction, just west of the international station)

it is grimey 4real tho, my afternoon train today got stopped for 40 minutes so's the police could come arrest some boys with knives :(

haha super true

Things have ever so slightly improved in the last couple of years at the stations. Both Caledonian Road And Barnsbury and Kentish Town West have been tidied up a bit. Still not the nicest places to being hanging around after dark tho.

Passenger is always going to play second fidlle to Frieght on the NLL west of stratford and GOB though. The infrastructure is very good as a result but it is the only east west corridor north of the Thames and South of Nuneaton Peterborough. It one of the few lines where you could see passenger services being cut at the expense of freight paths. A clear argument for reopening the closed sections of Oxford-Cambridge with a reguaging to accept 9ft6 containers (and reguaging Felixstowe-Nuneaton).

An whilst we're about it: Wrexham Shrewsbury and Marlybone Open Access Application.

Arguably if you focused on the Dalston Camden road four track section, making it proper 4 track all the way, reinstating some paltforms etc, it could be done on that section. But that is not where the pinch point is. The pinch point is between Gospel Oak and Wilsden/Acton.

http://www.wymetro.com/NR/rdonlyres/93DC5F37-5CEB-4167-A315-207B4E7CDEDD/0/333atplatform.jpg
you cant really see it here but metro in leeds have loads of newish rolling stock which they cover in their branding and i think it makes a big difference to the public perception of what network providers do (ie PTEs)....gives a clearer sense of someone actually controlling things and maintaining some order over the transport network.

Mmmm.

(have you tried the NLL Simulator at simsig.co.uk?)

As they do with buses in London but not in Leeds.

TFL hasn't really gained the status of a PTE yet. The problem is that the interface between London, Commuter and Long distance services in London is much more complex than anywhere else. It' much easier in Leeds to define a West Yorkshire PTE area. where do you draw the boundary with London. The Old Network South East map used to include Exeter via Salisbury and through Stations to Birmingham. Do you draw the the boundary at the London Region Inner suburban boundary (Broadly speaking Aylesbury, Watford, Luton, Stevenage, Standstead, Shenfield, Pitsea, Dartrford, Sevenoaks, Oxted, Gatwick, Dorking, Guildford, Woking, Slough, Princes Risborough.) Then how do you deal between the needs of the LRIS commutters, GLA voters, longer distance commutters and Inter-City travellers?

They need to bring in the London style regulated bus system to every major city in the country. Coherent branding would be key to this.

Thankfully it does run very well going home, I almost always get home about 20 minutes quicker than getting to work. I do have to fight to get off the damn train at Camden every night though.

The problem there is that the only spare paths on that route are at night.

If you get *really* really stuck, there's a "Remove train" command.

(go to the trains list - F2 - and right click on a train for all the commands)

i did it a few years ago and was sure it was about 200 pound but dunno what it is now

http://www.elipsos.com/htm/default.htm?lang=3

180 euros return in a seat 208 in a couchette. There's 30% off for couples travelling together and a further discount for travelling monday to thursday.

was that in the broadway gazette or ham & high or suchlike? going by their headlines, it's a wonder that anyone in north london escapes fatality, or at the very least maiming, when they leave the house. "CLUBBER GANG RAPED IN MINICAB" and "PC BEATEN BY SCHOOLGIRLS" are two that i remember in particular.

the atmosphere is strange, though. there's a stop next to my house, and it seems so forlorn.

this was also a headline on the front cover of Chess Weekly

The silverlink metro to be controlled by TFL from 11th November 2007, Franchising starts now. Shall we put in a bid to operate it?

itd be easier to set up a bus company tho. all you need is a bus (old routemaster?) and register your service 6 weeks ahead.

this is super good news tho - i think they should put the improved services, fares, staffing etc etc on the backburner and concentrate on covering the trains in the Roundel and Johnston type everywhere.

- More station staff esp. at night
- CLOSE the stations on days when there's no service.
- Dress up Homerton station more, it's bitterly depressing - a little tinsel would work wonders