Great Western Coffee Shop

Approval has been given for closure ... the weekly round trip bus from Ealing, and the daily train from Kensington Olympia will be withdrawn.

http://www.modern-railways.com/view_news.asp?ID=6062

Natural move, or dangerous precedent?

They (DfT) should have dealt with the closure at the time they redrew the XC route map.  Half-baked attempts to provide a local service to replace what was basically an intercity service were a waste of everyone's time.  Handing the hot potato to Southern seemed amateurish in the extreme.

As they explain in the SofS letter agreeing the closure, the lack of a passenger service doesn't mean they are about to lift the tracks either, despite the hand wringing from 'objectors'.

IIRC London Travelwatch even spuriously claimed that running trains as ECS over part of the route might confuse passengers - as though that isn't common practice all over the network already...

Paul

In this specific case, it seems to me to be a reasonable and practical approach to a situation that has arisen almost by accident.  The potential flow between these two points appears very limited and the replacement bus is as good as a closure of service anyway, so why not formalise it?  As Paul says, it's not as if they are going to rip up the tracks tomorrow and future use is therefore safeguarded.

I don't think this is a new Settle-Carlisle. There needs to be flexibility in changing the network to suit developing situations and just as we are pleased to see some expansion and new stations, it should be accepted that some reversible alterations might take place elsewhere.

Another major point I should have mentioned, that they covered in the consultation, and highly relevant in the London zonal area, is that with fully integrated ticketing there is a perfectly adequate rail route between the end points of the problem route (Shepherds Bush and Ealing Broadway) using the Central line...

Paul

Presumably the line will become like other parts of the London Network maintained to passenger standards (it carries pretty heavy freight traffic so has to be maintained to a pretty high standard)) and available for diversions excursions etc.

It joins the Triangle at Kew from Hounslow Loop to North London Line, Dudding Hill Junction line and Carlton Road Junction to the aptly named Junction Road Junction plus the link at Gospel Oak and the link from the Hackney Downs Line to North London Line (forgotten Curve name). All of which don't have a regular passenger service but are open for diversions and Excursions.

There are lot of these curves and link lines round the country those with passenger services are listed on the Branch Lines Society web site Passenger Services over unual lines.

http://www.psul4all.free-online.co.uk/intro.htm (http://www.psul4all.free-online.co.uk/intro.htm)

In fact  there was never really a stopping  service from Wandsworth Road to Ealing Broadway as XC didn't stop at either station wtih the Ramsgates.

How many of you went to Bromley South to catch the Deltic to Reading (104 at West Drayton) many years ago or caught the Dover from Slough on one of Chris Green's NSE days?

I remember taking a train midweek from West Drayton to Dover with my primary school in the late seventies for a ferry to Calais. I have a vague memory of other school children getting on at Hayes and possibly other stations further up.

I was on a press trip in the first day the Reading to Dover service operated... and it forgot to call at Slough!   ;D

Comprehensive details of InterCity passenger services that traversed the route shortly to 'close', from the late 1970s to 2008, can be read at the following website:

http://www.1s76.com/

It's a fascinating story. Well, I think so.

It is an interesting website. Made me think; apart from FGW how many other TOCs still use carriage window labels?

Fairly sure East Coast still use carriage window labels. One was sold on ebay in April for the princely sum of ^0.99!

Possibly Midland Mainline* East Midlands Trains on their HST services as well.

I'm slowly collecting all the FGW named trains ones. With permission of course. I don't just filch them when no-ones looking.



*Yes I really did type that initially.  ::)