Entries tagged with “Victoria Line” from Working For Walthamstow

I have now received a response back from Transport for London regarding my concerns about the rail replacement service for the Victoria Line whilst engineering works take place. They have assured me that a service is supposed to run once every five minutes and that delays have been caused recently by roadworks that have now finished. They have assured me this has improved the service and that the bus company are monitoring the service to ensure reliability.

Oyster card passengers can receive targeted information about any planned closures or delays that may affect their journeys by registering to receive email alerts with planned closures. To register, go to www.tfl.gov.uk/oyster and then follow the "open an online account" link. Furthermore, a new facility to provide weekly planned closure emails regardless of Oyster registration is in the pipeline and should be available over the next couple of months. In addition the "check before you travel" page on the website has a six-month calendar of planned closures - that is available on www.tfl.gov.uk/check.

This weekend there are a series of engineering works that are likely to make travel into town complicated for local people. These include the complete closure of the Victoria line on Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 September as part of the Victoria line upgrade and no service throughout September on the Gospel Barking Oak line, which serves Blackhorse Road and Queens Road station. In addition to this, this weekend will see closures on the Jubilee Line and Northern Line as well as on some overground services.See the Transport for London Website for further details.

I recognise that many local people are annoyed by the extra travelling time these engineering works have added to their journeys and the road congestion caused by the provision of several replacement bus services seeking to travel around areas such as St James Street. I share this frustration and I look forward to the improved service we will hopefully experience as a result of these disruptions.

However, there are some areas of managing these engineering works that can be improved. For that reason I have written to Transport for London to express my concerns about the use of bendy buses in providing replacement services from Finsbury Park as these vehicles are not suitable for Tottenham Hale Station so preventing the services going further than Seven Sisters. I will circulate their response via this newsletter and would welcome evidence from local residents as to any further use of these vehicles to serve this purpose and the waiting time experienced at Finsbury Park, Manor House or Seven Sisters for a service to Walthamstow as a result.

The Barking to Gospel Oak line, which serves Queens Road and Blackhorse Road stations, is now closed for major upgrade works. The upgrade will enable more frequent services to be run carrying more passengers and freight. The line is completely closed from 1st to 28th September, with buses replacing the trains. For updates on this service please check the Barking Gospel Oak Users Group Website for details.

Please note too, that the Victoria Line is suspended this weekend (6th and 7th September) between Walthamstow Central and Highbury and Islington as part of on-going upgrade engineering works. A replacement bus service will also operate, stopping outside all stations between Walthamstow Central and Finsbury Park.

Many of you will remember from last year the early closure of our Victoria Line service as the engineering works to upgrade the line took place. We've now been informed by Transport for London that from Monday 4 February until November the Tube will finish at 10pm Monday-Thursday to enable them to test the new trains on the track.
 
There will be a replacement bus service from Finsbury Park to Blackhorse Road and Walthamstow Central and at present I am informed the Liverpool St - Chingford service will run as usual. You can download a leaflet detailing the closures and also some weekends when the Victoria Line will not run at all here.
 
Both Neil Gerrard and myself are frustrated by this sudden action, despite previous assurances that no such closures were proposed. Neil is also writing to London Underground to ensure that there are no simultaneous closures of the Victoria Line and the Liverpool Street-Chingford overground line. I will update this blog as to their response and any details of further disruption.