Great Western Coffee Shop

I knew that making a journey to London today would be challenging due to the first day of the tube strike but sadly I had no choice but to attempt it.

As expected the tube services were disrupted but I think the TFL staff trying to help passengers at Paddington did a Stirling job given the circumstances

I did find it ironic that some passengers were hostile to these staff even though (a) they were trying to help and (b) they were not the ones on strike

I'm doubt anyone from TFL will see this but I just wanted to air my appreciation.

Thanks BB. I am up to town tomorrow, and had wondered how bad it would be.  Methinks a healthy walk to the office from PAD will be the solution (weather depending!) ;D

Obviously there is no guarantee that tomorrow's pattern will follow today's but when I arrived at Paddington at about 700 today (Tuesday) there were no tube trains from either tube station at either end of Paddington (if that makes sense)

My journey to the bank area involved a walk to Edgeware road and then catching the metropolitan service to Moorgate. Note that this service didn't stop at all stations so just be wary of that.

The tfl web site has been very useful as it takes into account  the "special" services that are - and -are not running.

I was going to use the No 23 bus at 07:00 to St Pauls and the a walk over the Millennium bridge to the South bank but queue was too long so shanks pony to Waterloo, go home on a mix of Jubilee Line to Baker St and the Circle Line to Padd.

Tomorrow I think it will go to Waterloo via Slough and Windsor

Oh dear.. I was aiming to get to Paddington at 7.30 tomorrow in the hope the buses would not be too bad.. last time there  was a tube strike they did really well with the buses and were dropping off passengers a bit before the bus stop so that people getting on had priority... Mind you if I need to it's only 45 minutes from Paddington to my desk..

I would also have been in London today but my heating/hot water helped me out by giving up and needing sorting out  ;D

Thanks for posting that very valid observation, BerkshireBugsy.  :)

Perhaps those staff should wear large badges, with an "I am not on strike - I am trying to help you" message, for those less perceptive passengers ...  ::)

On Tuesday I had to travel from Worcester to an address near Canary Wharf.

Typed this into my copy of RailPlanner, with 'Tube' switched off, and got two potential routes. First was up to Birmingham, into Euston, walk to St Pancras, Southeastern high-speed to Stratford and then the DLR.

Second was FGW to Reading, SWT to Clapham Junction, London Overground to Shadwell and the the DLR.

The second sounded entertaining - I've never been on that bit of the London Overground.

All went well (OK, SWT from Reading is pretty mind-numbing) until we get to Clapham Junction. Where there's an almighty scrum to get off the platform and over the bridge. But there's lots of hi-vis jackets, some with loudhailers,  and an awful lot of crash barriers (plus BTP). The West London side of the Overground is heavily over-subscribed and the passengers are being penned on the bridge for safety, already sorted into train-loads. There's separate loads waiting for what looks like the next three trains. Dunno why there should be such a big flow here.

Fortunately, the South London side isn't so over-subscribed, so we're being allowed down onto our end of the platform. A one-way system is channelling the arriving passengers via a different route. All very organised, and the passengers apparently content to follow instructions.

At Shadwell, same comment applies. Lots of hi-vis jackets. We're being shepherded (another one-way system) from the platform up the emergency stairs. At the DLR station we're being send to the far end of the station for another one-way system.

Long-winded, but well-organised. Praise to those involved.

I'm in Brentwood at the moment, all hotels in East London being full of overnighters. But I have a late-morning meeting near Euston, for which the Railplanner suggests the North London side of the Overground. Can I complete the whole circuit? Amusing as that might be, the idea of enduring SWT from Clapham Junction back to Reading puts me off.

You could always try the other NLL branch to Richmond and pick up an SWT there - likely to be just as busy though...

Going back to your earlier point about the WLL being incredibly busy, I believe that it normally runs at near capacity anyway in the morning peak, (irrespective of any strikes), and as a result SN were supposed to be putting on longer trains on their WLL services from the next timetable, some 5 car and a couple of targeted 8 car trains in the peak flow directions.

Possibly too late now, but were there massive queues to get onto the SN WLL services from platform 16 as well?

Paul

There were long queues reported for London Overground at Clapham Junction during the last strikes. The Southern services on the West London Line are heavily oversubscribed. It's quite common to see trains turning passengers away at Clapham Junction, and that's without the added pressure of the tube strike.

Goodness - is that the old "Kenny Belle" that was - as I recall - down to a vestige of two poorly promoted services each way at one point?

http://www.londonreconnections.com/2013/a-beeching-epilogue-the-curious-case-of-the-clapham-junction-ghost-train/

Yes it is. Clapham Junction-Kensington Olympia is now served by 5 trains an hour all day. New stations at Imperial Wharf and beyond Kensington Olympia at Shepherd's Bush certainly will have helped, as will the reopening of West Brompton for interchange with the District and Hammersmith & City lines. There are through trains to South Croydon in one direction and Willesden Junction, Stratford and Milton Keynes Central in the other. All the stations have seen quite phenomenonal rises in passenger numbers over the last couple of years since the beginning of the London Overground franchise and the increase in service frequency and quality.

Wednesdays journey to bank in was (in contrast to Tuesdays ) a pleasure. Managed to catch a Bakerloo line service to Waterloo and then a  tube to bank. I think a lot of commuters stayed at home because they thought it would be too much trouble because there were plenty of seats

 It would be nice if my journey home tonight was so good :)

I got to Brentwood on the Tuesday by going back to Shadwell and completing the east side of the Overground 'box' to Canonbury, then by Overground to Stratford.

Retraced my steps on the Wednesday, taking the Overground from Stratford to Camden Road and a bus from there to Euston. Alas the one I caught was an ordinary service bus - when I got off I found that the one that was behind was a hired-in Routemaster.

By the time the meeting finished, the idea of doing the whole circuit seemed entertaining. I'd hit the gap in the Cotswold line departures, so I'd have time to catch the 14:15 from Camden Road to Richmond as Paul suggested (and as the RailPlanner proposed) and get to Reading in time to catch the 15:52 from Paddington.

But ... the Overground was suspended between Willesden and Richmond on account of a point failure at Acton. So I end up having to do the Clapham Junction link after all - but this means that the connections don't work, so I was on the halts train out of Oxford instead.

The West London side of the Overground was full-and-standing but there wasn't anything obvious in the way of marshalling of passengers. Homeward journeys in the afternoon are probably more spread out in terms of time, so easier to manage.

So, there we are - a full circumnavigation of the Overground in response to the LUL strike.