"Richard J." wrote in message
...

Is there ever a direct Edgware Road - Olympia service?

Yes, that is why Olympia appears on the C-stock route maps as well as the
D-stock ones.

From memory...

A few years ago, (C-stock) trains from Edgware Road in the morning peak
served Olympia and Wimbledon alternately. There was no D-stock service at
Olympia during these hours. This freeing up of a couple of D stock trains
and the reduced track usage to Wimbledon enabled a few extra D-stock trains
to run back and forth between Wimbledon and somewhere (Mansion House?
Barking?). Also, because Edgware Road - Olympia takes less time than Edgware
Road to Wimbledon, District C-stock requirement fell, and the C-stock trains
released could be used on the H&C, allowing every morning peak train to
reach Barking.

In the evening peak none of this happened, and consequently there was only
enough C-stock on the H&C to run half the trains to Barking and half to
Plaistow. This difference between the morning and evening H&C timetables
makes sense.

Morning H&C crowds from Barking must have an 8-minute H&C service from
Barking, or else they will get the first District train to Aldgate East and
wait up to 6 minutes on an already very busy station. This would also lead
to the H&Cs which did start at Barking running fairly empty, and
overcrowding on the Districts preventing people getting on them in Tower
Hamlets... so District passnegers would get on the empty H&Cs and then
change at Aldgate East for a District, making Aldgate East's crowding still
worse.

In the evening, however, it is okay for H&C crowds returning home towards
Barking to be dumped on Plaistow, where there is room for them to wait a
mere 2 minutes for the next District train to Barking.

So was the real reason behind the Olympia morning timetable to do with
Wimbledon commuters for the south side of the Circle, or to do with Barking
commuters to the north side of the Circle? I don't know, but I bet it had
nothing to do with Olympia passengers.

--
John Rowland - Spamtrapped
Transport Plans for the London Area, updated 2001
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acro...69/tpftla.html
A man's vehicle is a symbol of his manhood.
That's why my vehicle's the Piccadilly Line -
It's the size of a county and it comes every two and a half minutes