Cable Fire at London Marylebone

Sunday 15th June 2014

Overnight, there has been a cable fire just outside London Marylebone. This means that the signals don't work, so there are no trains running to or from Marylebone at present.

Full guidance from Chiltern Railways is available here.

In a nutshell....

• Passengers for the High Wycombe line should travel to/from West Ruislip using the Central Line.
• Passengers for the Aylesbury via Amersham line should use the Metropolitan Line. Chiltern Railways trains will start/finish at Harrow on the Hill. 

The situation could change during the day, so check before you travel. 

Information is also available via the National Rail Enquiries website.

Edit: 1038. It appears that some trains on the High Wycombe line may be starting / finishing their journeys at Wembley Stadium station. However connections by public transport there are poor into Central London (and it won't be all trains anyway. It is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that passengers follow the official advice and travel directly to West Ruislip for travel to railway stations along the High Wycombe line. 

Edit: 1345. Most trains towards London (on the High Wycombe line) are currently stopping at South Ruislip to drop off for connections to the Central Line. Trains out of London however are still picking up at West Ruislip. It is clearly proving difficult to run all trains to time - many have extra stops, so allow plenty of time and expect delays.

Edit: 1630. The Central Line is currently suspended between Westbound between Marble Arch and a White City. Not good news for Chiltern Railways passengers trying to get to West Ruislip. 

Options seem to be:

1. Northbound Bakerloo Line to Wembley Central and then a 10 minute walk to Wembley Stadium station or
2. From Bakers Street or Edgware Road (H&C) stations take the Hammersmith & City Line to Wood Lane. White City station is a 3 minute walk from there, from where the Central Line runs to West Ruislip. Allow at least an hour from Marylebone. 

The day just got worse. 

Edit: 1715. Unsurprisingly, the Central Line suspension between Marble Arch & White City is now both ways. Expected to last until 1900 but no guarantees on this. 

Edit: 1745. It appears that a through service has now resumed on the Central Line. Severe delays are reported at present. 

Edit: 1950. Central Line has improved. Now just 'Minor Delays' reported. 

Email received at 1920 from Chiltern Railways re tomorrow morning:

"Dear Customer,

Marylebone station is closed due to a cable fire. Around 2 metres of signalling cable in the tunnel into the station has burned away meaning the signalling system is not working. Without signals we cannot safely run trains, so are not running to or from Marylebone until new cables are installed and tested. Engineers are on site however, disruption is expected and Marylebone will be closed into Monday morning and until further notice.

We strongly advise passengers to avoid travelling on Monday unless essential.

Chiltern tickets are valid on Virgin Trains, London Midland, FGW, CrossCountry & London Underground services."

Final Edit: 2320. Marylebone is not expected to open in time for the Monday morning rush hour. An emergency timetable has been published for the Amersham line. The Wycome line version will hopefully be out in the next hour or so.

Good night everyone.

Bond Street - No Central Line until 17 June 2014

From today until Tuesday 17th June 2014, the Central Line will not be calling at Bond Street.

Central Line passengers will need to use stations either side (Oxford Circus or Marble Arch). 

Jubilee Line trains will still call at Bond Street, but for entry / exit only. It will not be possible to change lines at Bond Street because Central Line trains are not stopping there.

Oh. That's different

Currently sat on a Central Line train that apparently has it's destination as Tottenham Court Road. 

Sonia seems confused.

HS2 Tunnel Recommended under Ealing and Northolt

Back in the Summer of 2010 I wrote about the impact that HS2 would have on the Northolt area of West London. In particular, there was clearly going to be a huge impact on Northolt's Central Line station.

Well, I've only just noticed that the latest recommendation is that the route be tunnelled from Old Oak Common to Northolt. Given that it has already been decided to tunnel from Northolt Junction through to West Ruslip, this means that HS2 could now have a nine mile (14km) tunnel from Old Oak Common, all the way through to the very edge of London.

I can see why this might be the most cost effective option. It would be interesting to know how deep the tunnels will be. Clearly it's not just country folk who have been getting grumpy.

A First - Along the Central Line

Despite the title of this blog, I have a confession to make. I have never actually been Along the Central Line.

I need my passport to go further East than Stratford. Venturing into Essex requires a visa.

To mark the 150th anniversary of the running of the first underground train, I thought that I ought to put things right. Yesterday saw me set out on what I expected to be a rather dull adventure.It was.

To be clear, I had a rough plan. I had not however sat for hours (or even minutes) working out a detailed timetable.

The plan was simple:

1. West Ruislip to Epping (34 miles 6 chains)
2. Epping to Woodford (7 miles 41 chains)
3. Woodford to Hainault (3 miles 65 chains)
4. Hainault to Ealing Broadway via Newbury Park (23 miles 27 chains)

• 11.31 West Ruislip. I seem to recall that West Ruislip to Epping is the longest journey that it is possible to complete, on a single train, on the London Underground. The platform poster at West Ruislip says that the journey should take 81 minutes, so at 11.31 my train set off. Would I be in Epping at 12.52?
• 12.01 Queensway. Half an hour in. 13 stops into the journey and with a little service regulation at White City. Hopefully that slight wait implied that we had been running slightly ahead of schedule.

• 1205. Marble Arch. A really rubbish busker gets on the train and gets off at Bond Street. His accomplice collects precisely £0.00.
• 1209 Tottenham Court Road. All seats occupied for the first time.
• 1211 Holborn. Man with loud hat gets on train. It is remarkably mild in London at present.
• 1223 Mile End. Man with loud hat gets off as do lots of other people. Plenty of vacant seats. I suspect the train will now gradually get quieter.
• 1231 Leytonstone. 60 minutes and 28 stops in. We wait for a couple of minutes again. Possibly a driver switch over. Not a cloud in the sky. A lovely day.
• 1237 South Woodford. In brackets 'George Lane'.
• 1249. We've left Debden. Now in proper countryside. I can see the M11 off to the right. Theydon Bois - very rural tube station.
• 1252 Passing under the M25.
• 1253 Epping. 82 minutes from West Ruislip.

A very quick walk down the hill and back up again. Epping station car park is full and the entrance is coned off.

• 1316 Epping. Less people heading back in than there were coming out. Loud hat day strikes again.
• 1331 Woodford. Cross the footbridge.

• 1335 Woodford. Platform indicator says Hainault. Train comes out of the siding, the front says Hainault. Driver announces that train calls all stations to Hainault and then on to Ealing Broadway. That was my hope.
• 1340 Chigwell. There is a lot of paint peeling off the walls. Still more countryside than suburbia.
• 1342 Grange Hill. Sonia now says that the train is going to Ealing Broadway. Is there anything at Hainault? Past the big train depot. I think I'll take a look. I'll have 20 minutes.
• 1344 Hainault.

True suburbia. A long straight road. A small parade of shops.

• 1401 Hainault. Via Newbury Park and on to Ealing Broadway. 65 minutes?
• 1418 Leyton. Lots more peeling paintwork. Whitewash doesn't seem to work in East London.
• 1452 Holland park. This Westbound train has been noticeably quieter than the earlier train going in the opposite direction.
• 1507 Ealing Broadway

 While I was outside Ealing Broadway station a reasonably well dressed man came along, rummaged in a litter bin, pulled out a half-eaten sausage roll, put it in his pocked and walked off.

So that was it. 68 miles 59 chains Along the Central Line! It is fair to say that yesterday's escapade has reinforced in my mind just how large London is.

Happy 150th Birthday London Underground.

What a load of tosh!

The Transport for London Press Office has just put out a press release saying how well TfL coped with last night's snow.

I have copied the text at the foot of this note for posterity.

• Please note that late yesterday evening. the Central and Jubilee lines were totally suspended.
• Thousands of of people struggled to get home from an Olly Murs concert at the O2 Arena last night. Roads in the area were log- jammed and, as I say, there was no Jubilee Line.
• A Chiltern Railways train was stuck behind a Metropolitan Line train for over an hour, I think out in the Chorleywood area. The Metropolitan Line was stated as being suspended North of Wembley Park, late in the evening.
• Annie Mole has captured the status of the London Underground as a whole, as at 11.30 pm yesterday evening. It was not good.

Personally I think that a piece of PR puff should include an acknowledgment of what real people actually experienced, rather than just stressing the the things that didn't break. If you read TfL's version of the truth, one might gain the impression that everything went swimmingly well with transport in London last night. Hmmmm.

---

**********************************

TfL works to keep London moving through snow
05 February 2012

Leon Daniels, Managing Director of Surface Transport, said:

• "We have worked tirelessly from Saturday afternoon and throughout the night, gritting the Capital's main roads every few hours and running de-icing trains along the London Underground network"
• "Around 2,000 tonnes of grit has been spread by TfL and boroughs and all main roads and the vast majority of local roads are open and traffic running smoothly."
• "Bus routes are all operating this morning and there were only a few curtailments on night bus routes overnight."
• "Tube services have started well this morning, but with some issues on the outer reaches of the Central and Jubilee lines. We are woking hard to get these sections running as soon as possible."
• "So London is open for business today, but clearly people should take care on the roads and allow plenty of time for their journeys."

A bad start to two weeks of travel carnage

This week Marylebone station is shut, to enable the points and track layout at Neadsden Junction to be remodelled. Next week the track layouts at Princes Risborough and South Ruislip / Northolt Junction are getting similar treatment.

This means that all Chiltern railways trains from Aylesbury are terminating at either Harrow-on-the-Hill or Amersham. Trains on the High Wycombe Line are either diverted to Paddington (or Didcot), or terminate at West Ruislip, for the Central Line.

Tonight the 1645 departure from Paddington was cancelled, due to a member of staff being unavailable.

I saw no Chiltern Staff at Paddington (I am not saying that there were none, I just didn't see any).

The next train, the 1718, was formed of 7 carriages and was completely rammed.

My journey home took over two hours.

Next week will be worse, with no trains at all on the High Wycombe line.

I do hope that Chiltern Railways get their act together. The occasional cancellation is understood, but to cancel a peak time train when there are only two an hour smacks of a lack of contingency planning.

Many passengers tonight have reason to be grumpy.

A history lesson

This blog started at the beginning of 2006.

At the time I lived in West London, Along the Central Line.

I adopted the name centraluser simply because I didn't know any different - I didn't really know a lot about blogging, or (as with most people) have any idea how much Social Media would take off in the years that were to follow.

The main theme of the blog has always been about public transport. However I do occasionally meander off to witter on about anything else that takes my fancy. That is the prerogative of a personal blogger.

For the first 17 months of its life, most posts were about the Central Line - that's the long red line (well, red on maps) the crosses broadly from East to West, or from West to East, across London. My journey to and from work consisted of walking and traveling Along the Central Line.

Four years ago I moved to Rural Buckinghamshire, but continue to commute in to Central London. Rarely on the Central Line.

This means that I now rarely blog about the Central Line. Also the train company I use (Chiltern Railways) is generally pretty good, so blogging material is sometimes a little sparse. That means my blogging is also pretty sparse.

I shall however continue to post occasionally (at least once or twice a month) - Slightly more frequent ramblings may be found on Twitter.

If you wonder why I've posted this, you'll never know. If you know why I've posted this, there you are - I hope that is clear!

Pip pip!

West Ruislip Depot Full

I noticed just now, while whizzing past on my Chiltern Clubman, that the Central Line's Ruislip depot is extremely full

All the trains are neatly lined up - I have never seen the depot with so many trains.
Ah! That'll explain it. Just checked - no trains West of Marble Arch

Have now just gone past chiltern's Wembley depot. That has just one 2 car Turbo (165) train and lots of Mk 3 stock. Ah! And that could be because for the first time in yonks, Chiltern are playing with a full train set this weekend.

For the avoidance of doubt, Chiltern Railways have no engineering work this weekend.

The same again (but not quite)

I hope that you had an enjoyable Christmas.
Back to the grindstone this morning, although I do hope to be able to bunk off early today to attend a family celebration in Hampshire.
In one way, this morning's journey to work has been remarkably similar to last year's return from the Christmas break. I was the only person to board the train at my station.
The principal difference to last year is that the train was already a third full. That is unusual for a normal day. A check of the timetable shows that the train has come from Banbury - that explains why everybody looks half asleep.
It seems that we are following a First Great Western service (on diversion from Oxford) and a train that started from High Wycombe. The result - only a handful more people have got on since I did and we are now running fast to Marylebone.
I've just noticed that, according to Live Departure Boards, the first two FGW trains from Oxford are due to stop at West Ruislip (interchange with the Central Line). I cannot say that this is a first, but it is certainly highly unusual.

Evocative Excuse

Early this morning I had to wait well over 20 minutes for a Central Line train from West Ruislip.

When it eventually came, the explanatory apology over the station tannoy advised us that the delay was due to "A couple of engineering trains floating around". Hmmm.

Monday Morning (Strike) Blues

Just whizzed past the Ruislip Central Line depot, currently rammed full of trains.
Some people need to get a grip.
Have already had one call from a colleague who would rather take holiday than face a three hour journey due to tube strike.
I don't understand why we should be constantly facing tube strikes. It's been the same for the 24 years that I have been commuting.
My Chiltern Railways train is much quieter than usual, so many seem to have chosen not to travel in today. I wonder if there will be any Boris Bikes left at Marylebone?

HS2 at Northolt

On Saturday I travelled Along the Central Line for a short while, from West Ruislip to Northolt. It was fine.

This picture is taken from the Eastbound platform at Northolt. It is possible to make out the over-bridge station building, which is also where the main A412 crosses the railway.

Running parallel to the Central Line is a little used single track railway line. It runs from Northolt Junction, has a triangular junction at Greenford and then continues on to the Paddington main lines just East of North Acton station. The line used to be double tracked - I think there is a passing loop somewhere just East of Greenford.

The current plans for High Speed 2 involve the entire stretch of parallel line being part of the route from Euston to Birmingham.

There are all sorts of contentious aspects to the HS2 plans - tunneling underneath grumpy people on the route from Euston and carving up parts of the Chiltern Hills, never mind burning truckloads of money that we don't have.

To give some idea of the work involved, never mind the impact on those living nearby, imagine what will be needed to upgrade this single bridge (and probably the entire underground station building) to allow two high speed (up to 400 kph / 250 mph) tracks to pass through the area highlighted. Simply mind boggling.

For the avoidance of doubt

Last night I was was clearly bored. There will be no repetition. I am not suddenly going to appear at an airport near you with a notepad and pair of binoculars.

Normal service will be resumed.

Very early this morning, the Central Line was suspended between North Acton and West Ruislip, due to over-running engineering work at Perivale.

All appears to be back to normal now as tfl are currently reporting a good service. A random check of the Live Departure Boards concurs with this message. Good thing really as the closure would have knocked out one of the three main train depots for the line.

Escalator Work at Oxford Circus

London Underground have announced that from next Monday, 19 April 2010, until summer 2011 Oxford Circus station will be exit and interchange only before 10.30 am on weekdays.

That means that before 10.30 am on weekdays it will not be possible to enter the station at street level to join the Central Line, the Victoria Line or the Bakerloo Line. The restrictions may also be implemented at other times if the station gets too busy.

It sounds bad, but the reality is that these restrictions shouldn't affect the majority of passengers. The access arrangements are being implemented to allow engineers to replace a bank of three escalators.

Doom Monger

One of my work colleagues, who is of the 'the glass is half empty' type, said to me on Thursday that the London Underground was 'virtually shut' this weekend due to Engineering Work.

I sort of poo-pooed him and, as if to make a point, travelled along a bit of the Central Line yesterday morning - it was working fine.

Today is different.

At present, only the Northern, Victoria and Piccadilly Lines are operating a normal service. All other London Underground Lines are either (i) totally closed, (ii) partially closed or (iii) partially suspended.

This image above is here to mark the position for posterity, though the clickable widget to the right should show the live position.

Happy Easter!

Back to my roots

Crikey - I have actually been back Along the Central Line.

An emergency appointment at the dentist saw me heading back towards Northolt. So it was one stop Eastbound from South Ruislip, an un-enjoyable* 30 minutes in Northolt and then 30 minutes into the West End from Along the Central Line.

I waited no longer than 30 seconds for either train, the journey times were quick and each train was quiet. If only I could always travel to work at lunchtime!

The only problem with quiet trains is that they can't last for ever. If trains are consistently quiet, due to less people traveling, then eventually the operator will cut services. One should think before wishing too much for quiet trains - regularly quiet = uneconomic.

* I don't like going to the dentist, but do try to go regularly. Upon explaining the problem, my dentist looked in my mouth and said "Oh, that's not too bad. I can fix that". In and out in 10 minutes. Fortunately, not back to my roots. Result!

Luck lucky

On a couple of evenings this week, the Central Line has had 'issues'.

Somewhat unusually for me, I have made various return journeys on the Central Line on three different days, this week.

On every occasion, the line has behaved itself, so I really mustn't grumble!

West Ruislip in the Snow and Ice

West Ruislip is at the western end of the Central Line and is also served by Chiltern Railways.

The published plans for today, (Emergency Timetable due to weather, 7 January 2010) state that Chiltern Railways will not stop at the station (on the way to London ONLY) but that additional trains will stop at South Ruislip.

This will be a bit of a nuisance for a relatively small number of passengers. However further research makes it a sensible course of action.

The London bound platform at West Ruislip is built in the manner of a passing loop - only trains due to stop there actually use the line - all through trains whizz down the fast middle line.

By removing the need to use the points, a significant risk of mechanical failure is eradicated. Quite sensible really.

Q & As

Q: Can I get the Central Line from Baker Street?
A: No. There are many possibilities, but the easiest ways to get to the Central Line from Baker Street are to catch either the Southbound Bakerloo Line to Oxford Circus or the Southbound Jubilee Line to Bond Street.

Q: Is the Central Line running on Sunday 3rd January 2010?
A: According to the tfl website, the Central Line is running a normal service this weekend.

Sourced from an analysis of the Google searches used to find this blog today.