On 15 Jun 2005 11:28:02 -0700, "Paul Weaver"
wrote:

If you want a 21st century railway, that's the price

What? 30 weekend closures?

Didn't they change the entire GWR's guage over a single weekend?

Not really ,only the remaining section down in the Southwest the rest
having been mixed or std gauge for some time.
And there had been a lot of forward planning and also the style
of track lent itself to a relatively easy conversion.
Probably lost in the mists of time would be the loose ends that
had to be tidied up ,odd sidings to be reconnected etc.
And I would imagine that somewhere some where else in the country
somebody was bemoaning the fact that they could not get a job
repaired, or a project built on time as the GWR had poached all the
staff for the period.

It was still a fine bit of planning and application though.
G.Harman

On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 16:23:22 +0100, Clive
wrote:

In message , daveb
writes

This weekend the Met line will be closed between Wembley Park and
Aldgate. This is despite that stretch of line closing almost every
weekend from September 2004 to may 2005 for the Wembley rebuild.

During that time Chiltern railways put on extra trains to cope with the
mass of people trying to get to/from London, but as Marylebone is now
closed most weekends in June/July there will be no direct link into
London from Amersham southwards.

Couple of questions:

Was it really not possible to do this work on the Met line during the
past 30 odd weekends?

Who is responsible for co-ordinating work between network rail and
Metronet to try and ensure this kind of thing doesn't happen?

Dave
If you want a 21st century railway, that's the price, otherwise have
four wheel coaches with gas lighting and steam hauled to boot. Your
choice.

So if they'd done the track replacement during the closures for the
rebuild of Wembley Park, it would only be a 20th century railway, but
this way it's a 21st?

If they postponed the track replacement until after the Chiltern line
is open again, it would be like a regression to the days of steam?

Hmmm...