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These pages give my view of the Metropolitan Line from Amersham. At times, my views may paint a negative picture, but I like the line and choose to use it
On these pages you can find -
Introduction | The Met's
Advantages | Some Reasons for the Met's Problems
The Future | An Analysis
of The Met's Performance
The Met in the 1930s
around Amersham | Old Met Tickets
Other Metropolitan Users' Comments | Related Links | Amersham
Home Page
Amersham Station on a Sunday in summer 2001,
looking towards Aylesbury with another A60 train in the sidings
INTRODUCTION - The
Metropolitan Line has had a major influence on the development of Amersham over
the past 125 years. (See "A Potted History of Amersham"
here
). The last major change to the line was in the early 1960s when the line
was electrified to Amersham from Rickmansworth. This change meant steam trains
were replaced by new electric multiple unit A60 trains and London Transport
services were terminated at Amersham, leaving only British Rail services
running north to Aylesbury.
Amersham Station on a Sunday in summer 2001,
looking towards
London. The NHBC office block and multi storey car park occupy the site of the
former goods sidings and shed
Since then, not a lot has changed
on "The Met". In the early 1980s there was a proposal to close Marylebone
Station and terminate the Aylesbury / Marylebone trains at Amersham, passengers
then having to continue their journey to London on the Metropolitan trains.
However, this proposal was defeated and since then the British Rail services
have undergone a major refurbishment with new trains and rail company -
Chiltern Railway Company Limited, trading as Chiltern Railways. Now the service
into Marylebone from Amersham is fast, reliable, fairly comfortable and seems
popular. At peak times it is often hard to get a seat on the Chiltern services.
There are also "express" services running non stop to and from
Marylebone
A Chiltern 165 unit
prepares to leave Amersham for Aylesbury in April 2004
By comparison, the Met trains (now over 40 years old) are
slower and not as comfortable. They have been refurbished, but they will not be
replaced for some years. Following the change in funding of London Underground
which took place in 2003, a private company is now responsible for running the
Metropolitan Line (along with the District, Circle and Hammersmith and City)
and there are plans to introduce new trains to a standard design to run on all
the "sub surface" lines. 
The inside of a refurbished A60 train.
Since their
introduction in 1960/62, the Met's trains have had a major refurbishment which
saw windows introduced at the end of the cars, new lighting and colours inside
and out. The old unpainted aluminium finish was hard to clean when covered by
graffiti, the units now have a vinyl like finish which makes cleaning
easier.
Quick links - Introduction
| The Met's Advantages | Some
Reasons for the Met's Problems
The Future |
An Analysis of The Met's Performance
The Met in the 1930s around Amersham |
Old Met Tickets
Other
Metropolitan Users' Comments | Related Links |
Amersham Home Page
Amersham station in April 2004 showing the two
types of service serving Amersham,
the Metropolitan service to Baker Street
and the City and the Chiltern Aylesbury / Amersham service
THE
METROPOLITAN'S ADVANTAGES - Even though the Met trains are slower and not
as comfortable as the Chiltern Railways trains to Marylebone, they do have
advantages -
1 They start at Amersham, so you always get a
seat
2 They have great interchange with other tube lines - you do
not have to go through ticket barriers like you do at Marylebone
3
If the trains are over 15 minutes late, you can claim the cost of your
ticket back from London Underground through their Charter Claim
system
4 The fares seem to be cheaper than similar lines
(Beaconsfield / Marylebone or Hemel / Euston)
The Met enjoys quick
interchanges with other tube lines without the need to go though ticket
barriers.
Above the escalators to the Bakerloo and Jubilee lines at Baker
Street
There is also another factor to consider. The data
indicates the service is often late, but are other lines any better? Reports in
the media would suggest other services into London can be unreliable.
In
addition, comparing the Met to my experience of using other lines, the stations
on the Met are better lit, have better information and seem to have more staff
than stations on other lines. This makes the travelling experience seem safer
and more pleasant. The A60 stock is also much better than other rolling stock
elsewhere, even though it is now over 40 years old. 
The Bakerloo Line - a typical "Tube" line. The
trains are smaller (above left) and whereas this is OK for inner London,
the Bakerloo travels far out into north west London through Queens Park
(above right) to Harrow and Wealdstone.
The line sort of runs parallel to
the Met and used to go out as far as Watford Junction. North of Queens Park it
shares tracks
with Silverlink (which runs a service from Euston to
Watford). By comparison, the Met's A60 trains
are nicer than the Bakerloo
or Silverlink stock and the stations on the Met are far superior with regards
to lighting and staffing levels.
A point for concern is the lack
of information often given to passengers when delays occur. On many occasions
irate passengers are told by staff that they do not know why there were delays
and cancellations. Drivers on several occasions apologies over the train loud
speakers that they were unable to contact the line control room. If this lack
of information and poor communication systems for staff is correct, it is
rather worrying.
Quick links - Introduction | The Met's
Advantages | Some Reasons for the Met's Problems
The Future | An Analysis
of The Met's Performance
The Met in the 1930s
around Amersham | Old Met Tickets
Other Metropolitan Users' Comments | Related Links | Amersham
Home Page
Baker Street in March 2004. Here the Met Main Line joins the Circle
and Hammersmith and City Lines.
Any delay on these lines or signal or
points failure at Baker Street or towards the City
causes great problems
for all three lines which have to operate a high capacity integrated
service.
SOME OF THE METROPOLITAN'S PROBLEMS - In my
opinion, the Met has a number of reasons why it suffers from delays and
problems -
1 The trains and signals are over 40 years old, reliability is an
issue
2 When the Met gets to Baker Street, the line joins the
Circle and Hammersmith & City Lines. A delay on any of these lines will
cause a delay on the others. If there is a delay between Baker Street and
Aldgate there is no easy way to move / cure the delay, trains back up and get
out of sequence causing disruption to the timetable
3 The Met has
to share track with Chiltern Railways trains, if one is late, it holds up the
Met (and of course, the opposite can happen)
4 The Met has
several branches which combine at Harrow on the Hill, a delay on one branch can
cause problems on the others
5 During the autumn, the track is
covered in fallen tree leaves. This poses problems for braking and acceleration
of the trains. A special timetable is run giving the trains longer planned
journey times and special trains run to clear the leaves from the track. It is
not just a question of sweeping away leaves, the leaves are compared onto the
track and form a slippery coating which is hard to remove
6 Like
the rest of the Underground, investment has been delayed while the financing of
the system was sorted out.
7 Perhaps the introduction of private
companies to run and maintain the lines (different companies I believe) is
causing problems of planning and coordination. The Met's services were badly
affected by a cold snap in the winter of 2004, I heard one of the problems was
that the line iced up, de icing trains could not run because another company
was doing engineering works. If this is true, then it is another problem the
Met has to solve
Quick links - Introduction | The Met's
Advantages | Some Reasons for the Met's Problems
The Future | An Analysis
of The Met's Performance
The Met in the 1930s
around Amersham | Old Met Tickets
Other Metropolitan Users' Comments | Related Links | Amersham
Home Page
Unlike "tube" stations in central
London (as in Edgware Road Bakerloo line above)
most of the Met's stations
are above ground and have better facilities and staffing than many National
Rail stations
THE FUTURE - Hopefully within the next ten
years the Met will have new trains. They may be part of a standard fleet for
use on all the sub surface lines of London Underground (Circle, Hammersmith
& City, East London and District) and hopefully they will offer a
comfortable journey for the Met's long distance traveler rather than being
designed for the shorter journeys of the other sub surface lines.
A Baker Street service pulls into the platforms
from the sidings at Amersham in April 2004
If London Underground
is allowed a period of planned investment and funding, hopefully the service
will continue to improve. The journey analysis details provided elsewhere on
this site have shown delays were common. It has to be said that in my opinion,
since the revision of the timetable, the delays appear to be fewer, although
there can still be major problems and the speed of the journeys is not what it
used to be.
Chiltern have recently had their franchise renewed for a 20
year period. This should allow them to plan and improve their services. They
are providing new trains for their Birmingham service through Wycombe, this
will allow more trains (hopefully) for the Aylesbury / Amersham / Marylebone
service. They are also refurbishing their current fleet and introducing air
conditioning (although I think the seats are not as comfortable!). They also
have plans to provide a service north of Aylesbury to Milton Keynes, thus
perhaps proving Amersham with a long distance train service again as it used to
have pre the late 1960s.
There is one project on the Metropolitan which
has been talked about for years, but because it is not within the Greater
London area there are funding problems - no one can agree who will pay for it.
The Croxley Raul Link is a scheme for a minor connection between Metropolitan
at Croxley and the disused Croxley Green rail branch to allow Met trains into
Watford High Street and Watford Junction.
This
link should provide more details. In my opinion this would be a very useful
service. If the north curve at Rickmansworth was used, many interesting
services could be run - Amersham / Chesham to Watford, or Chiltern services
connecting to the West Coast Main Line, thus avoiding the need to go into
Euston for connections. In addition a better station for Metropolitan
passengers in Watford would benefit the Met.
A recently arrived service from
Aldgate at Amersham on an April 2004 evening
LINKS - You may find the following links of interest -
The Federation of Metropolitan Line Users' Committees
www.thetube.com
This link should take you to The Tube.com's performance
pages
www.chilternrailways.co.uk
Transport
Projects in London
Just a quick note about the
pictures on these pages. They have mostly been taken with an Orange SPV E200
camera phone (no flash - you must not use flash on the underground), so don't
expect too higher quality images!
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