You'll have seen the posters that went up over the weekend,
announcing
the plan to close the whole Victoria Line at 10pm every Mon-Thurs til
late November. Possibly, there won't even be a rail replacement bus!
(Not that hanging around at Finsbury Park late at night is very
appealing). The guards in my local station (Blackhorse Rd) are not
happy. The weekend works will still be happening just as frequently.
It seems clear it's due to Metronet's over-runs. Why can't they just
catch up by employing more staff, paying people and managing them
properly, and continuing doing the works during the nighttime closed
period, even if it takes longer? What about the people who are
working
in town til late, to say nothing of those who sometimes just like to
stay out past 10pm on a school night?!

According to Saturday's FT, the 'arbiter' who is reviewing Metronet's
demand for an extra £2bn taxpayers money over the next year, "is
likely to award less for work that is behind schedule", so I suspect
they are trying to catch up now to maximise their returns, regardless
of the massive inconvenience it will cause to those who live in
Walthamstow and are reliant on the tube. It would be great if we
could force
London Underground / Metronet to overturn this stupid,
precedent-setting plan. Check out www.tubenightmare.com (my own little
website-
comments welcome) for contact details of who to write to - and please
add your own ideas!

Funny, this information about service cuts is buried near the bottom of
a press release titled "Mayor announces acceleration of Tube Investment
Programme."

http://www.london.gov.uk/view_press_...eleaseid=11710
--
Michael Hoffman

On Jul 9, 4:32 pm, "
wrote:
You'll have seen the posters that went up over the weekend,
announcing
the plan to close the whole Victoria Line at 10pm every Mon-Thurs til
late November. Possibly, there won't even be a rail replacement bus!
(Not that hanging around at Finsbury Park late at night is very
appealing). The guards in my local station (Blackhorse Rd) are not
happy. The weekend works will still be happening just as frequently.
It seems clear it's due to Metronet's over-runs. Why can't they just
catch up by employing more staff, paying people and managing them
properly, and continuing doing the works during the nighttime closed
period, even if it takes longer? What about the people who are
working
in town til late, to say nothing of those who sometimes just like to
stay out past 10pm on a school night?!

According to Saturday's FT, the 'arbiter' who is reviewing Metronet's
demand for an extra £2bn taxpayers money over the next year, "is
likely to award less for work that is behind schedule", so I suspect
they are trying to catch up now to maximise their returns, regardless
of the massive inconvenience it will cause to those who live in
Walthamstow and are reliant on the tube. It would be great if we
could force
London Underground / Metronet to overturn this stupid,
precedent-setting plan. Check outwww.tubenightmare.com(my own little
website-
comments welcome) for contact details of who to write to - and please
add your own ideas!

LUL would have agreed the early closures.
The early shutdowns are due to testing the new trains, which can only
be down when the current trains arent running.
They will get an extra 3 hours out of this shutdown, which means that
things should come along a lot quicker in the end, under the line's
PPP Upgrade.

There will also be some weekends when the whole line is closed
(presumably to install the new signalling equipment or carry out tests
on the whole line)

Any yes this will annoy me as that is my route home after having a few
beers after work!

Also regarding Metromess asking for more cash, they are still owed a
lot of money after the Chancery Lane derailment (which was an LUL/
InfraCo BCV ie pre Metronet) cock up. They are probably owed a fair
bit of money from the July 2005 Bombings and other out of scope work.
They do get somethings right, such as improvements in fleet
reliability, but others wrong! And sometimes LUL can make a cock up
that costs Metronet time when they could be improving things or
carrying out maintenance. Such as a when a LUL Train Operator hit the
stops in a depot and derailed, Metronet had cancellations for weeks,
as they couldnt shunt their trains round and do all the usual work!

Funny, this information about service cuts is buried near the bottom of
a press release titled "Mayor announces acceleration of Tube Investment
Programme."

http://www.london.gov.uk/view_press_...eleaseid=11710
--

and it says that it will shut at 23.00 not reported by the OP.

Looks like the train from Liverpool Street are going to be full when the
pubs shut...

"chunky munky" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Jul 9, 4:32 pm, "

LUL would have agreed the early closures.
The early shutdowns are due to testing the new trains, which can only
be down when the current trains arent running.
They will get an extra 3 hours out of this shutdown, which means that
things should come along a lot quicker in the end, under the line's
PPP Upgrade.

LUL should have kept Epping-Ongar, they could have tested to their hearts
content. I thought Metronet were building a test track somewhere anyway.

Kevin

"zen83237" wrote in message
...

"chunky munky" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Jul 9, 4:32 pm, "

LUL would have agreed the early closures.
The early shutdowns are due to testing the new trains, which can only
be down when the current trains arent running.
They will get an extra 3 hours out of this shutdown, which means that
things should come along a lot quicker in the end, under the line's
PPP Upgrade.

LUL should have kept Epping-Ongar, they could have tested to their hearts
content. I thought Metronet were building a test track somewhere anyway.


Er.. the test track is to test the stock when it goes into series
production. The new train they already have at Northumberland Park will
allow the changes to the Victoria Line itself, such as the new signalling
system, to be tested, ITYF.

Paul

and it says that it will shut at 23.00 not reported by the OP

I called London Transport Info Line and they told me that last train
from Oxford Circus will leave for Brixton at 10.17pm, for Walthamstow
at 10.23pm. The posters are vague. No information about a rail
replacement bus (!) either.

On Jul 9, 7:24 pm, "
wrote:
and it says that it will shut at 23.00 not reported by the OP

I called London Transport Info Line and they told me that last train
from Oxford Circus will leave for Brixton at 10.17pm, for Walthamstow
at 10.23pm. The posters are vague. No information about a rail
replacement bus (!) either.

Information about Engineering Works is appallingly vague and causes a
lot of frustration for staff.

"Paul Scott" wrote in message
...

"zen83237" wrote in message
...

"chunky munky" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Jul 9, 4:32 pm, "

LUL would have agreed the early closures.
The early shutdowns are due to testing the new trains, which can only
be down when the current trains arent running.
They will get an extra 3 hours out of this shutdown, which means that
things should come along a lot quicker in the end, under the line's
PPP Upgrade.

LUL should have kept Epping-Ongar, they could have tested to their hearts
content. I thought Metronet were building a test track somewhere anyway.


Er.. the test track is to test the stock when it goes into series
production. The new train they already have at Northumberland Park will
allow the changes to the Victoria Line itself, such as the new signalling
system, to be tested, ITYF.

Paul
So the closures aren't for testing the trains at all, they are for testing
the signalling system. Can that not be done in engineering hours. Better
look forward to long night closures on the Jubilee, Northern, Picadilly and
Met/District then.

Kevin

On Mon, 09 Jul 2007 08:32:43 -0700, "
wrote:

You'll have seen the posters that went up over the weekend,
announcing
the plan to close the whole Victoria Line at 10pm every Mon-Thurs til
late November. Possibly, there won't even be a rail replacement bus!
(Not that hanging around at Finsbury Park late at night is very
appealing). The guards in my local station (Blackhorse Rd) are not
happy. The weekend works will still be happening just as frequently.
It seems clear it's due to Metronet's over-runs. Why can't they just
catch up by employing more staff, paying people and managing them
properly, and continuing doing the works during the nighttime closed
period, even if it takes longer? What about the people who are
working
in town til late, to say nothing of those who sometimes just like to
stay out past 10pm on a school night?!

The more people you chuck on to a site the less likely you are to get
anything substantive done as people will be falling all over themselves
given that tube tunnels are a constrained site. The problem here is
that this is a massive job and you simply cannot get everything done in
what can end up being less than 3 hours a night by the time the power is
off and people get on to the tracks. The most valuable commodity on a
project is productive working time and night time possessions don't
provide enough of it.

You might have noticed in the track area at Blackhorse Road that there
are two sensors mounted in the southbound platform towards the front of
the train. I believe these are for the new signalling system so progress
is being made and the first new train has run at night under controlled
conditions between Walthamstow and Seven Sisters.

I am not very happy about this as I may be affected as a regular Vic
Line user. I don't travel late very often but there will be rail
replacement buses from Victoria - Brixton and also Finsbury Park -
Walthamstow. I feel sorry for the poor folks of Highbury who will be
left to use local bus routes - most of which are pretty damn busy all
the time. Much more detailed information on these services will be
available shortly.

I also don't like having no weekend services but I do recognise that to
upgrade a line like the Victoria Line is no small task and if we have to
endure a bit of short term pain for a timely delivery of the upgrade
then it would be worth it. I'd rather have that than have the line
closed completely for say 2 months solid as it would be intolerable to
get anywhere no matter how often the rail replacement buses ran.

The one area which I will be watching is whether Metronet hand the
railway back on time every morning because if they do not then it will
be murderous. The line's reliability is already suffering now with
frequent train breakdowns and signal problems - again this has to be
controlled and reliability restored as another 4 years of declining
performance will just not be acceptable. I have an E Mail already
drafted to be sent to Andrew Lezala of Metronet if there is any repeat
of the ludicrous fiasco after the first weekend possession where the
work overran for about 5 hours into a Monday morning.

According to Saturday's FT, the 'arbiter' who is reviewing Metronet's
demand for an extra £2bn taxpayers money over the next year, "is
likely to award less for work that is behind schedule", so I suspect
they are trying to catch up now to maximise their returns, regardless
of the massive inconvenience it will cause to those who live in
Walthamstow and are reliant on the tube. It would be great if we
could force
London Underground / Metronet to overturn this stupid,
precedent-setting plan. Check out www.tubenightmare.com (my own little
website-
comments welcome) for contact details of who to write to - and please
add your own ideas!

To be completely honest I don't see that the FT report is particularly
correct. There are specified tests and criteria as to how the assessment
is made and trying to stop already agreed plans for closures will cost
Metronet even more money and thus increase the volume of the claim
against LU. While I don't like the line being closed earlier in the
evening I would much prefer that the line upgrade happens on time rather
than dragging on for year after year after year with the resultant
appalling performance that the Central Line suffered during its £750m LU
controlled upgrade. Do you really want to see the Victoria Line sink
through the floor in terms of service performance because there is only
so much time left for the trains, track and signalling / control
systems?

--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!