Waterloo & City Line?

Question

I am baffed as to why the Waterloo & City line was closed for 5 months for enginering works, and now they seem to be closed on most Saturdays for enginering works, it has only been open for about one Saturday since re-opening. Also, who agrees that the Waterloo & City line should extend the running hours. I work at Waterloo and do shift work, and I would far rather get the Waterloo & City line so the journey time is quicker for me, seeing as I live in East London.

Answer 1

It's the Public/Private Partnership, the outsourcing of work to private companies.  They know that despite the fact they get fined by TfL for late work, it's peanuts compared with the net profit of the company overall per tax year.  The W&C is closed Sundays as always because it's mainly used by City workers and there is no demand for it other than Mon-Sat.

Answer 2

The short answer is that, despite the line being closed for five months, Metronet didn't upgrade the signalling during the closure, which is why the line promptly failed several times within the first week after reopening.

As such, they're now closing on Saturdays (as well as the usual Sunday closure) to play "catch up".

Answer 3

I think its because of the olympics, expect delays on all tubes for the next 10 years- and although this seems annoying the thing is the tubes were created  over a hundred years ago and really havent been touched up since (other than jubilee) remember the crash on the central line? thats coz the tracks were so uneven that the chasis screws came loose- well they are still the same rails on there!! we (londoners) need the horrendous "engineering works" coz we use deathtraps every day!

but I feel for you having to use the waterloo and city. its always down!

Answer 4

I believe the W&C was closed all weekend permanently before the works and once they finish the work proper, Saturday will be an added bonus day. I see what you mean about the running hours and your problem with East London. I assume your best bet is the Jubilee to the Northern Line and then to the Central (Which I deduce is possibly the Line you live near). Of course, with all the closures and works going on, there's hardly any point in going by Underground at weekends. How long were the H&C, Metro & Circle lines closed from Edgware to Aldgate/Whitechapel every weekend - damned ages! I think they're trying to get the entire network sorted in one giant fell swoop to get everything sussed for the Olympics.

Answer 5

Don't forget about the Central Line! That White City development is ruining lives!

Answer 6

You and a couple of others would be the only ones using the line after about 8pm - don't forget it was built as, and still seems to be run as, a line for "city gents" coming into Waterloo, so as soon as the city closes for the day, there's just no traffic to speak of.

The reason for the continuing weekend closures is because they're still up-dating the signalling system.

Answer 7

it is basically a mean trick they play on us all to s***w with our days. I can offer no other explanation for London's transport system.

Answer 8

Because TFL are completely incompetent. We pay some of the highest fares in the world for use of the underground and yet every day our lives are disrupted by another signal failure at Clapham, or a broken down train at Green Park.

They must surely have enough money to buy some new signals and trains if the old ones are broken????

Like I said, incompetent.