tubechallenge.com

greatkingrat wrote:Looking at the live departure boards, the Olympia service does indeed seem to be operating today, although the Journey Planner still knows nothing about it.

The same is true today - still not in Journey Planner. But at the moment (although not earlier on today) the service status information on TfL's website is flagging up a special service on the District Line (i.e. an Olympia service). I've not been on the tube yet today; it will be interesting to see if this is also shown on the electronic service status board on display at each station.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/livetravelnew ... l#district

Yep - it's being classified as "minor delays" for some reason.

Depends where you are going. They cancel a couple of Wimbledon trains in the evening peak to provide the stock for the Olympia train so there are minor delays for some people.

Had a nice chat today with Howard Collins, chief operating officer of LU but an even nicer chat with the person responsible for the Olympia changes.

More info at some point but now I'm off to bed.

Tease!

OK. Olympia changes. We got talking about this as I suggested to a timetable planner that they could tweak the Met start timetable to help us tube challengers - he was well aware of what we do and continued to comment that his Olympia must have caused us more problems.....!

Rationale
- Carries 0.1% of District customers.
- Due to conflicting moves, restricts capacity through Earls Court by 10%.
- Timetable planning team gave LU board option of FULL withdrawal from Olympia however they rejected this option,
- District performance has increased remarkably since withdrawing Olympia services

Exhibition Service
- Good relationship between TfL and Olympia exhibition centre.
- Current 6,000 visitors to Olympia events is agreed trigger for TfL to run service however this will rise to 8,000 next year following review of use this year.
- TfL pay for the exhibition service when it is run.
- Could not run services during the Olympics as timetabling focused on maximum throughput across bottom of circle and up to West Ham.
- Services are planning 6 months+ in advance and should be in JourneyPlanner.

Normal Service
- AM services used to empty Lille Bridge - no other reason.
- PM services are for driver route retention - therefore during disruption may not run or may run late.
- No late evening services to Olympia (before depot) as staff are at Earls Court to help tip out. Otherwise driver would have to deal with drunk/aggressive passengers on his own at Ken O. Also passengers who are asleep and have missed their stop can resume journey quicker at Earls Court than at Ken O.

Future
- No intention to remove token services
- No intention to remove weekend services
- "Opportunity has now passed"
- Only change likely to be linked to a change in working at Lille Bridge.

As for Howard Collins, the only notable comment here was that it was slightly cramped in the A-stock cab and that cabs should be made bigger - like the DLR!

Thanks for the update Moley. That said, not particularly encouraging news as far as challenges go - no immediate prospect of full withdrawal, exhibition services will become less frequent and non-exhibition evening services may not run. Umm

What i like to know Moley is why are you not a politician if u can arrange a dinner with a head member of tfl and he agreed to see you and spend time in your company?

which answer the question is he a personal friend?

Hmmm - about the worst possible combination - thanks for the update though

palkanetoijala31 wrote:What i like to know Moley is why are you not a politician

We've got Hopeless Traveller for that ...

palkanetoijala31 wrote:What i like to know Moley is why are you not a politician if u can arrange a dinner with a head member of tfl and he agreed to see you and spend time in your company?

which answer the question is he a personal friend?

I was out at the A-stock farewell tour yesterday along with the rest of the "Geoffs team". Our carriage steward was the timetable planner and a very nice chap indeed.

Howard Collins was stood round talking to anyone who wanted to chat during the lunchbreak at Amersham and was extremely knowledgeable about how the network was run - either that or very well briefed.

palkanetoijala31 wrote:What i like to know Moley is why are you not a politician if u can arrange a dinner with a head member of tfl and he agreed to see you and spend time in your company?

which answer the question is he a personal friend?

How did you draw the conclusion between Moley posting about Olympia and them having dinner? I don't get it...!

Sam wrote:

palkanetoijala31 wrote:What i like to know Moley is why are you not a politician if u can arrange a dinner with a head member of tfl and he agreed to see you and spend time in your company?

which answer the question is he a personal friend?

How did you draw the conclusion between Moley posting about Olympia and them having dinner? I don't get it...!

it sounded better! and more polite

palkanetoijala31 wrote:

Sam wrote:

palkanetoijala31 wrote:What i like to know Moley is why are you not a politician if u can arrange a dinner with a head member of tfl and he agreed to see you and spend time in your company?

which answer the question is he a personal friend?

How did you draw the conclusion between Moley posting about Olympia and them having dinner? I don't get it...!

it sounded better! and more polite

OK, maybe in Andis messed up logic...