Brendan McGrath’s Counter Proposal to Planned Weekday District Line Closure at Olympia Station

myolympia.org.uk’s counter proposal to the closure of weekday Olympia District line services.

A workable alternative to closure of all Olympia’s weekday District line services.

This proposal has been written in an effort to find a compromise that might satisfy many of the ambitions of TfL’s current plan, but without the total loss Olympia’s weekday tube service. In order to achieve benefits for other District line users it involves a considerable sacrifice on our part, but one that would be mitigated in part by the creation of a more generally useful service to Olympia. It must be stressed that this would constitute an INTERIM arrangement, pending improvements in signalling at Earl’s Court, when a fuller timetabled service could be reconsidered.

Proposal

To reduce the Kensington (Olympia) service to 2 trains per hour BUT extend the route all the way to Edgware Road. This would increase capacity on the Edgware Road branch and still allow for one extra Wimbledon train per hour, thus providing a large proportion of the benefits of TfL’s current proposal without the closure of the Olympia service. Advantages over TfL’s current proposal

1. Maintenance of a weekday underground service (if at a reduced frequency) for Olympia residents and exhibition visitors.

2. No loss of step-free access to the local area and Olympia Exhibition Halls.

3.Continued provision of tube services for ALL Olympia exhibitions, with no requirements for special signage/additional travel information for visitors.

4.This proposal still provides the opportunity to increase trains on the Wimbledon branch by one train per hour, not just limited to the morning rush-hour.

5. Increased capacity on the Edgware Road branch between High Street Kensington and Edgware Road of 2 trains per hour (as opposed to a loss of  3 trains per hour between Earl’s Court and High Street Kensington under the current proposal).

6. No requirement for ad- hoc special services for Olympia exhibitions, (and the associated complexities of information of when they would be running or not).

7.A significantly increased catchment area for direct services to Olympia exhibitions, including an interchange with a major rail terminal at Paddington.

8.Minimal overcrowding caused by interchanges at West Brompton during busy exhibitions.

9.Some easing of the ‘bottleneck’ at Earl’s Court in the off-peak hours that extra Wimbledon trains are not required.

Implications

1.More infrequent service on Olympia branch.

Two trains per hour is far from ideal, however it is most certainly better than nothing. This would be somewhat mitigated if trains could be run at memorable times, eg. on the hour and half hour from Edgware Road and quarter past and quarter to from Olympia. In between times, clear announcements could advise passengers to travel on to West Brompton and change there for Overground services (obviously not suitable for disabled people). This would present minimal extra interchange traffic for West Brompton, even during popular exhibitions at Olympia.

2.Not quite as many extra trains on Wimbledon branch in the two peak hours proposed under the current plan.

Under TfL’s current proposal, there would be only two extra trains between 7am and 8am, and three between 9am and 10am. This is only an increase of approximately 1% over the day. Our proposal would still allow for 3 extra trains between 7am and 10 am – 60% of the original increase, but of course without having to close the Olympia service. However, our proposal would also enable extra trains in the return direction during the evening rush-hour, so could actually be of greater benefit to Wimbledon users than TfL’s current plan.

Practicalities

The route would require the use C Stock due to the shorter platforms further up the Edgware Road branch. C Stock are definitely compatible with the Olympia branch as they were in use during the recent suspension of the Edgware Road section. The 3 minute journey from Olympia to Earl’s Court plus the 12 minute journey time from there to Edgware Road would make a total journey time of 15 minutes. It may be possible to provide the service with a single 6 car C Stock train shuttling backwards and forwards: leaving Edgware Road on the hour, back from Olympia at quarter past and back again from Edgware Rd at half past etc. The Olympia service would effectively join the Wimbledon/Edgware Road part of the District line. Both Olympia and High Street Kensington could be removed from the D Stock train carriage maps and Olympia added as a spur to the C Stock maps.

The future

Over recent years, the Olympia area has seen a great deal of change. The hugely successful introduction of the Overground (incidentally a service, like the District line, that was neglected for years) has opened up real potential for the station in an integrated transport system.The future is also set to require greater need for the Underground service, not less. The closure and redevelopment of the Earl’s Court site will result in the consolidation of Olympia as THE west London exhibition hub, a move that will greatly increase visitor numbers, not just at weekends but onweekdays throughout the year. Also, amongst others, the development of the Charles House site by Berkeley Homes will in itself create a significant extra daily demand for the service. As such this proposal should be seen as an interim plan, pending the improvements in Earl’s Courtsignalling that may restore a more frequent Olympia service. Let’s face it, if the current planned closure goes ahead, it will be very difficult to reverse, even when the inevitable increased justification for the line becomes evident.

 Brendan McGrath

28th August 2011

www.myolympia.org.uk