Like a schoolboy clutching a scrap of dog-chewed homework after he's already flunked the course, the London Overground, which despite a change of name and snazzy new livery has failed to improve much, will for the remainder of 2008 have a convenient excuse for its habitual awfulness. Parts of the network are being suspended to allow engineering works and track upgrades to be performed.
The closures will run as follows:
Gospel Oak to Willesden Junction: closed from 1st September to 17th November
Gospel Oak to Barking: closed from 1st September to 29th September
Gospel Oak to Camden Road: closed from September 22nd to 29th
As this Londonista regularly relies on the Gospel Oak to Willesden Junction segment of the route, it's a less than thrilling announcement, frankly.
TfL are laying on replacement bus and alternative rail services, but we're not hopeful they'll be all that useful, seeing as conditions on the Overground regularly make the Tokyo underground seem spacious (they've recently taken to tearing out seats so more passengers can be crammed in). Unless those "alternative rail" services are actually flying trains. That might just work.
Photo by Lindsey Clarke
