On Sat, 12 Jan 2008 16:08:27 -0000, "Lew 1"
wrote:


Incidentally, I was a little surprised last night to find a video on YouTube
that praised Silverlink as the country's greatest operator. Perhaps I was
alone in thinking that it always single-handed ruined any journey that
involved it and was too lazy even to collect fares for its own services!
Actually, perhaps that is why some people loved it, as under TfL they have
to pay to use it.

I think Silverlink County had a very good reputation with good match of
train capacity to demand and generally very reliable. It seems from
early reports that London Midland has not been as good.

I would agree that Silverlink Metro left much to be desired but under
the terms of their franchise they had little incentive to do anything
whereas LOROL are on very different terms. I would also imagine that TfL
are watching their performance like hawks hence your generally positive
report on how things are going so far. I look forward to it all getting
a lot better.

I've only a limited experience of LOROL since they started but
everything ran to time, the stations were tidy enough but clearly in
need of some work and the trains did seem noticeably tidier to my eyes.
The one change I find utterly bizarre is the adoption of the M-F peak
service on Saturdays for the GOBLIN. This breaks the former well timed
connections at Gospel Oak and thus means you can have up to 15 minutes
to wait - in other words a NLL train is in its platform heading west as
you arrive. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I'd rather have a 30 minute service
with a good timed connection than higher frequency and idiotic
connections.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!