From Dec, Change at West Brompton for Kensington (Olympia)

[JamieLei]

We all knew it would happen eventually and it was a logical step. The shuttle from Kensington High Street to Olympia is to be axed on weekdays to reduce congestion. Full report from TfL is here: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/project ... 20357.aspx

It's a really interesting report, but here's the most interesting bits if you don't have time to skim through the PDF:

(I've left out the quote marks so it's easier to read)

----

London Underground (LU) is proposing changes to the District line timetable designed both to improve overall reliability, particularly through the removal of bottlenecks at Earl‟s Court where trains are frequently held up, and to provide the maximum possible capacity where it is most needed, particularly on the crowded Wimbledon branch where demand (and crowding) is greatest.

This would be achieved through the introduction of a new timetable that makes better use of the available resources. This would include withdrawal of the generally lightly used weekday District line service between High St Kensington and Kensington (Olympia). As well as freeing up some resources to be deployed elsewhere this would ease the congestion of trains through Earl‟s Court where heavily loaded trains to and from other branches are frequently held up by often lightly loaded trains to/ from Kensington (Olympia).

----

Currently, around a half of one per cent of District line passengers through Earls Court use the weekday service to/ from Kensington (Olympia) Tube station, but the service accounts for almost 10% of the trains passing through Earl‟s Court, meaning there are roughly twenty times more trains than demand, relative to other branches, would justify.

Analysis shows that the Kensington (Olympia) service delays each District line train operating to other destinations by an average of 36 seconds, directly delaying tens of thousands of passengers every weekday and causing knock-on delays to all the other daily users of the District line. This is because, with the complex track layout at Earl‟s Court junction, the Olympia service adds to train congestion with a very high number of conflicting train movements, which also then has a negative effect on the reliability of the rest of the District line (as all District line trains run through Earl‟s Court).

----

Removing the weekday service to Kensington (Olympia) would also enable LU to improve peak services on the most overcrowded section of the line, the Wimbledon branch, the most crowded route through Earl‟s Court, which accounts for more passenger journeys than all the other three western branches - Richmond, Ealing Broadway and Kensington (Olympia) - combined.

Specifically, in total five more trains would operate from Wimbledon during the morning peak period (07:00-10:00). Currently there are 41 trains arriving at Earl's Court from Wimbledon between 07:00 and 10:00. Under the proposal there would be 46, a 12% increase, adding capacity for around 4,000 additional passengers. There would be 16 trains (up by 2) in the first hour, between 07.00 and 08.00, 15 in the middle hour (no change) and 15 (up by 3) in the last hour, between 09.00 and 10.00.

----

The change to the service pattern will directly affect customers using Kensington (Olympia) station. LU‟s data suggests that District line services to and from Kensington (Olympia) station are currently used by circa 2,500 – 3,000 people on weekdays when there are no events or very small events with fewer than a thousand visitors; a recent one-day count recorded 2,840 passengers on a non-event weekday2. This is typically on average 2 days per week.

When there is a modest event(s) at Olympia with around five thousand attendees, this can rise to around 4,000-4,500 people using the District line per day3. This will typically be 2-3 days per week on average.
Larger events – with around 10,000 visitors or more - attract more customers, dependent upon the size and nature of the event4. These will fall on average on around 2 weekdays per month, albeit usually bunched together.

----

The proposed withdrawal of the weekday District line service to Kensington (Olympia) would mean that passengers travelling to and from Kensington (Olympia) on weekdays would have to use alternative routes. Analysis suggests that most alternatives involve little extra journey time given the very low frequency (3 trains per hour (tph), or every 20 minutes) of the current District line service to Kensington (Olympia). Moreover, in May of this year, London Overground services to Kensington (Olympia) increased to a minimum of four trains per hour (tph) all day, meaning that the combined Overground / Southern train service frequency at this station is now far greater than the tube – with over double the Tube service in the peak (seven tph) and just under double in the off-peak (five tph).

----

The various halls and venues at Olympia have capacity for between 500 and 12,000 people, with the potential to generate up to 30,000 additional station entries and exits on any one day (encompassing both LU and rail passengers), although only a few events each year currently generate this maximum level of attendance. Whilst these events do cause demand spikes, many of the busiest exhibition days are at the weekends, and weekend services are of course unaffected by this proposed change. In addition, many of the events have „soft‟ start and finish times, meaning people arriving and departing over a relatively long period of time, rather than the „hard‟ start/finish times for events such as football matches where large numbers of people leave at the same time.

London Rail has undertaken analysis of the expected impact on the crowding of Rail services at Kensington (Olympia) station of passengers switching from LU services. This concluded that on days with no or small events the impact of withdrawing the LU service would be negligible.
During the largest events at Olympia there can be a significant number of extra entries and exits on weekdays. In the absence of LU services, additional demand could result in a shortfall in rail capacity during some parts of the day. LU will operate event services wherever this is necessary in order to ensure adequate overall capacity serving Olympia.

LU is working closely with ECO on the details of special event services and will also put in place further mitigations that would support this proposal and ensure a smooth transition to alternatives for people attending all other events at the exhibition halls.

----

[JGR]

Well, I've read the full report, and it seems very logical and unsurprising.
I didn't realise that the Wimbledon branch was that bad however (I've only ever used it to get the Overground from West Brompton)...

[Kevo00]

Seems like fair enough really. Bit like the Aldwych branch, probably no one will notice that it's gone.

[JamieLei]

The difference is that the Aldwych branch didn't affect the main train services services whereas the Olympia service does. I'm sure that if this wasn't the case and there was a bay platform, they'd find a short set of stock from somewhere and use it on the line. Or even a PPM! I always did wonder why they ran an 8-car set on it when they could use a 4-car A-stock on it instead.

[Kevo00]

True, but if the line were busier they'd probably put up with it. Now all they have to do is sort out the Aldgate Triangle and the sub surface routes might actually be reliable!

I suspect there were probably either clearance issues with the A stock, or it just wasn't possible administratively because A-stock 'belongs' to the Metropolitan line not District.