FNC recce run/evening Olympias

[RJSRdg]

Spurred on by the news of Nick's successful completion and that some other attempts were in the offing, I decided that now that temperatures had cooled a little, the time had come for me to test the bulk of the FNC route I put together earlier in the summer. (There were actually two sets of timings - a "banker" itinerary starting on the 5:15 from Chesham, and a quicker one - which effctively "catches up with" the first, starting on the 5:46).

(Chesham chosen because I can get home easily from a Heathrow finish).

For the purpose of the test run though, I left out the first 2 1/2 hours and started from Paddington a little before 8am.

At first all going well - too well, perhaps - as at one point I found myself ahead of schedule, however I let a train go in order to regain the original timings for evaluation purposes.

The first setback though was a lengthy traffic jam for roadworks with fouir-way control. Whilst taking the bus should have got me to my next station with plenty of time to spare before the next train, I instead caught it just before it left, and when it was held "to regulate the service", a later connection was missed, with knock-on effects.

Not all lost though, as this merely dropped me on to the later timings (the 5:46 start), and with some smart work on the Battersea branch (thanks to the increased frequency) and a change of plan to use the South Wimbledon gambit, I left Wimbledon back on the original schedule.

Unfortunately very poor door positioning later in the run caused me to miss a vital connection, and much time was lost as a result (not helped by some shoddy operating at one particular terminus). Skipped a few stations to enable me to get back on the original timings, and made a mental note to come up with an "insurance" schedule for this section.

Lost 15-20 minutes later owing to a train that apparently didn't run (either that or it left very smartly and I missed the connection owing to "regulating the service" again).

However a bit more slack in the schedule (and rearranging to pick up some other stations later) got me to Earl's Court by 19:40 but no sign of the 19:43 to Olympia on the boards. Checked JP in case I had the timings wrong or they had been removed, but it was still on there. I asked the chap who does the platform announcements about it and he replied "That hardly ever runs - if you want to go on the Olympia branch, you need to do it at a weekend." (Personally I would have thought 19:43 on Friday was the weekend....). However he did radio the control centre who confirmed it wasn't running (I didn't ask about the 2025).

Thoroughly dispirited at what had up to that point been a promising day, I caught the next District to EB and then the Lizzie home.

Plus points:
* Fast walking interspersed with short runs seems to be almost as quick to me as running!
* Opportunity to relearn some stations and their surroundings I'd misremembered having not visited for 3 years.
* Battersea gambit works well, as did doing South Wimbledon for the first time.
* Knees/ankles holding up reasonably well.
* Majority of the route working apart from some backup planning needed.
198 stations visited in a little over 12 hours.

Negative points:
* Made me realise just how inefficient the route is (at one station I had enough time to pop across the road and buy a sandwich!)
* One section not tested properly owing to the poor door positioning mentioned.
* More work on backup schedules needed.
* But is it worth putting in the work to do it and 14 hours of slogging round the system only to be let down by a train that "hardly ever runs"?

[al]

That would have peed me off immensely! My immediate thought is to FOI TfL to find out which dates in the last X months the two trains (individually) were cancelled. Maybe a pattern can be deduced, such as always runs on a certain day of the week? Makes the record very safe if it is flaky though, as I can't see being broken with an am visit to Olympia.

[RJSRdg]

Yes, as a former Information Rights Officer, I'm already planning to do that....

[RJSRdg]

Interestingly, from Monday onwards, JP is showing the evening Olympias as being 20:01 and 20:21.

[Golf]

if you look closer thats actually 20:04 and 20:24 but then i never trust jp WORST PLANNER EVER!

[RJSRdg]

Actually my route was worked out on JP (I usually draft a route from JP then check it back against the WTTs afterwards) and it was pretty much spot on apart from one service not showing up (which is listed in the WTT anyway).

[Golf]

Actually my route was worked out on JP (I usually draft a route from JP then check it back against the WTTs afterwards) and it was pretty much spot on apart from one service not showing up (which is listed in the WTT anyway).

somebody sticking up for journey planner i think you need to get paid by tfl