On 9 July, 22:27, Tony Polson wrote:
"Recliner" wrote:
"Jamie Thompson" wrote in message

Shame they're missing the opportunity to add the sorely-missing
flyover/under to link the DC lines with the St. Albans Abbey branch.
Handing that line over to LO would do wonders for the service, which
would then get more people actually using it.

But it's well outside London.

It's typical uk.railway: *if a service is sparsely used, costing the
taxpayer a lot of money per passenger-journey or passenger-km (take your
pick!) the trainspotters' answer is always the same:

"Let's throw good money after bad, build a hugely expensive
flyover/flyunder, lease some more very expensive rolling stock and pay
even more in track access charges and staff costs!" *


I agree that linking the line to the DC is a complete waste of money.
Linking into the WCML is more favourable, especially with the Watford
Junction - Euston service planned (only one train morning peak at the
moment)

All this for a very small number of passengers. *The result? *A marginal
increase in ridership (at best) and a further huge increase in the
already very high subsidy. *As usual, a complete and utter waste of
taxpayers' money.


The line is certainly not empty during the peak, the 4 car trains are
full upon arrival / departure at Watford Junction. If you need the
resources to run the peak hour service, then the extra cost of running
off-peak is minimal.

The reason the line is very little used is that the vast majority of
demand for rail services from St Albans is to/from London. *That demand
is already being satisfied by Thameslink, and Thameslink capacity is
getting a huge boost for the future because that is where people
actually want to travel.


There is actually a sizeable band of commuters into Watford on the
line and you are falling into the classic trap of thinking of the line
from only the end-to-end journeys. From the station usage stats at
http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/xls/station_usage_0708.xls, St.
Albans Abbey had 222,482 entries and exits with the other stations on
the line between 32,000 and 98,000, not huge numbers, but certainly
comparable is many stations with more frequent services in the
commuter belt.

The St Albans Abbey to Watford Junction branch could more usefully be
replaced by a bus service which would better serve intermediate
communities between St Albans and Watford Town Centre and also serve
Watford town centre rather than Watford Junction, which is very poorly
situated relative to the centre of Watford. *Yes, you can change trains
to the DC lines at Watford Junction and go to Watford High Street
instead, but that makes for a significant increase in average journey
time.

But there are already several bus routes serving areas on the line,
and the timings are slow. For example the 321 bus takes about 30 mins
Watford Junction - St. Alban's Abbey station and runs along a road
between 5 and 10 minutes walk from the stations. How many buses are
you going to run to take the peak load on the branch? Or are you
comtemplating conversion to a busway which will not come cheap.

I do agree that it is a waste of time changing to the DC lines , as it
is only a ten minute walk / 2 min bus ride from Watford Junction to
the main shopping areas.