Streetlife

I didn't realise it was Ken Livingstone who was responsible - it applies to Northbound as well, of course, though you do generally have an empty train to get on. It will be even worse when the extension from Kennington to Battersea Power Station gets built (if it ever does!) since you can your bet your life half the trains will be diverted there. I have not seen a single valid reason for no-trains-to-Morden on the Charing X branch except that I was once told that there is a reversing loop at Kennington which enables trains via Charing X to terminate there and return Northbound on the correct line, and that this does not apply to trains via Bank. However over the years I have on numerous occasions had Bank trains that terminate at Kennington, so I don't know how they turn them round. What really annoys me is that any change of this sort is always represented as improving the service, when usually it is quite the reverse.

As I understand it, one of each of the two northbound/southbound platforms at Kennington will cease to serve Morden anyway, it will be used for the Northern Line extension so the 'dotted bit' on the tube map will then veer off to the left to incorporate the new line and stations down to Battersea. I think this means a single line up from Morden (Bank branch) to change at Kennington for what will be the new Battersea to Charing X track. Good innit !

In full agreement with the above. Is there any other line where one train full of people have to get off and then cross to another platform to get on a train already full? Lovely if you work in Bank/LB/Old St but rubbish if you are in the west end. Also, don't you just love the way the guy in charge of the signals at Kennington will give the green signal for the stationary train to pull off just as 300 people are crossing the passage to the platform, resulting in the doors shutting just before you get on. I'm sure it cheers them up no end in the control room.

Trains no longer run through in order to improve the reliability of the service - this is one of the main reasons the northern line has gone from one of the least to the most punctual lines. Through services are unlikely to ever be restored because:

a) The northern line upgrade will deliver an increase in service (up to 32 trains per hour). This is only possible if the lines are kept separate (there is a reversing loop at kennington for charing cross trains that is independent of the morden-bank line)

b) As Iain says, all services from the charing cross branch will be diverted to battersea under the extension plan.

Overall the benefits of a more reliable, faster, more frequent and extended service surely outweigh the minor inconvenience of a cross platform change (where the longest time to wait in rush hour will be less than 2 minutes)

Can't agree Jamie. The Northern line was much improved long before Ken stopped Charing X trains going through to Morden.

It doesn't sound like you are a daily commuter in peak hour that has to change at Kennington. I've done it every day and it is more than a "minor inconvenience". In peak hour the trains from Bank inevitably arrive packed at Kennington and only a few of the hundreds of people who have been chucked off the Charing X train can squeeze on. I've often had to wait for several trains until I can get on. Also, plenty of times I've waited a lot longer than 2 minutes. I've hardly ever had a change that only takes 2 minutes.

Yer, it also drives me nuts Terry when doors close on a Bank train seconds before anyone changing from a Charing X train can make it on. The people in the control room must think it's hilarious to watch all these suits running across the platform only to have the doors shut in their face. Call me cynical, but it just seems so calculated!

One thing I like about living round here - being able to walk down to Colliers Wood to catch the last seats upstream in the morning (pretty much all out by Tooting Broadway aka the 4th line on the station)... then sitting there smugly all all the Claphamites squeeze on and hang onto the windows like in-car Garfield toys

Whenever possible I change at Stockwell on to the Victoria Line to get to the West End. At least coming home one only has 3 stations of a grossly overcrowded carriage to contend with. I'm afraid Jamie B sounds as if he works for the Northern Line since his post goes on about the improved service and totally ignores the facts so accurately presented by Terry C. And it is not only commuters who suffer. The Bank branch trains are full even late in the evening, so that if one is unwise enough to catch a Northern Line train at, say, Charing X, one still has to suffer the indignity, along with hundreds of other returning theatre goers, of being herded like cattle into an already full train. Try it, Jamie - I'm sure you'd change your tune. Frankly it's not the waiting time that I find so unacceptable, it's the overcrowding, suffering as I do from ochlophobia (= fear of crowds).

Seems to me a bit odd to think that Ken Livingstone decides the operating proceedures of the Northern Line. More likely it is the Underground management who take the decisions and that they do so on good operational grounds. They are, after all, the people who know the operating facts and details. As an outsider, even I can see that sometimes they will have to close the doors and get a train out of the platform if they are to operate 30 plus trains an hour as that gives only 2 minutes between trains including slowing down into the station, the stop and the speeding up out of the station.

Yes, it is odd that Ken decided the operating procedure, but as a friend of mine worked at tfl and regularly had meetings with him, it doesn't surprise me in the slightest.
The man's ego knows no bounds, he rode roughshod over people with far more knowledge than him.

Unfortunately the Northern Line is a very busy line, and it becomes particularly problematic at the Clapham stops. When I lived in Clapham I just got up early to go to work, and that helped, though I realise not everyone has that flexibility/wants to get up so early. On occasions when I went in later I would often head south for a couple of stops and change over platforms. It added ten minutes to my journey but meant I could sit down and read!

There is a plan to improve signalling etc to make the service more efficient/faster. I believe the delays to this were due to delayed work on the Jubilee line, but hopefully when it is complete (2014!), it will make some difference. In the meantime the world's biggest game of sardines will continue. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/projectsandschemes/18091.aspx

Interesting reading everyone's comments here. I don't commute that regularly any more, but absolutely hate having to get on a Charing X train in the evening - as so many others here have said, you're thrown out into the crowds at Kennington without any regard for how many people are already on the platform. I have complained to TfL at least twice on safety grounds as I've felt very vulnerable being at the front of the crowd, with literally hundreds of bodies pushing in my direction - I have nightmares of ending up on the track! I'm sure I'm not alone in that concern...

In this nanny state I can't believe that H&S haven't been involved in what can be dangerous overcrowding late on a Friday evening with a lot of people, some very inebriated, packed in like cattle.

I have already written to the commitee taking 'suggestions' over the battersea extension. I think the consultation is closed now, but it may be worth writing to MPs etc. I cant believe how they can justify adding another branch to an already ridiculously overcrowded line. If they want a tube line going down to Nine Elms they really need to figure something else out. What do they want us to do, start hurling people on top of our shoulders to get everyone into the trains??

ah yes - elfin safety rears its ugly head.....from someone who does not bear the responsibility for Health and Safety(again).

My industrial experience is that the best people to determine H and S issues are those managers who are responsible for those issues - and yes I do mean legally responsible.

Can anyone point to recorded real health issues or reported real safety issues?

"nanny state".......don't let it become so!

Andy