The Ghost Of West Ealing

One of London's exotic parliamentary services has undergone a change recently, still existing but being much harder to access for most people.

On the last day of operation into Paddington...

Providing an exact definition for a parliamentary train is quite difficult as there aren't any strict guidelines separating services which qualify and those that don't. Essentially, they're publicised trains which run the most basic and limited service, merely to keep a section of railway open, as running a train once a day is more viable than officially closing the section of track, which is a costly and complicated process. There aren't too many in the South-East, but one very well-known example was the daily Chiltern service into Paddington, using the exclusive New North Main Line which parallels the London Underground Central Line, to access the normal Chiltern route. Its outer termini have varied over the past few years, but the most recent diagram was in the form of the 1057 South Ruislip to Paddington, with the return being the 1136 Paddington to High Wycombe. As oyster cards were only valid on the first service, this was generally more popular with rail enthusiasts. The arrangement could only work for so long though, as HS2 have demanded a section of track that this service used near Old Oak Common, which means it can no longer run into London Paddington.

The last Chiltern parliamentary train into Paddington operated on Friday 7th December 2018, with the outbound service making additional calls at South Ruislip and Gerrards Cross for the benefit of rail enthusiasts. Much to the surprise of many people waiting on platform 14, where the parliamentary could usually be found, the service was diverted onto platform 1 instead, presumably to help with crowd control. It also provided a much nicer backdrop for photographs at Paddington! The event was extremely well attended, with 192 passengers travelling on the last service out to High Wycombe. Usually the train doesn't carry anyone, so this turnout was pretty impressive. Chiltern Railways generously provided a three-car Class 165 instead of the usual two carriage train and from my observations this was certainly necessary - upon departure almost all the seats were taken. It'll be disappointing for many to not have the luxury of accessing a ghost train in Zone 1, but for Ealing residents like myself, the new configuration is much more convenient.

During the first week of operation into West Ealing...

Fortunately, the parliamentary service hasn't been withdrawn entirely, as there's still a chunk of the New North Main Line that needs to be covered to avoid formal closure. The destinations at the country end (South Ruislip and High Wycombe) remain the same, but instead of running alongside the Central Line all the way to North Acton, the new service uses a previously freight-only curve to join the Greenford branch. It then runs non-stop down this section of track to the West Ealing bay platform, where it sits for half an hour before repeating the same thing and extending the journey to High Wycombe. During this time the stopping GWR shuttle to Greenford arrives and departs further up the bay platform, but to prevent any local passengers accidentally ending up in Buckinghamshire the Chiltern train is locked until the Greenford service has left. Interestingly, on the return journey to High Wycombe there is a pause at South Ruislip for crew members, but passengers aren't allowed to alight which is rather irritating. As the journey to West Ealing is shorter than to Paddington, the train leaves South Ruislip slightly later at 1102, before returning at 1147.

Chiltern and GWR share the bay platform, whilst TfL Rail operate a service to Paddington.

 Chiltern started their parliamentary service to West Ealing on Monday 10th December 2018, just after the biannual timetable change. A much smaller crowd of enthusiasts turned up to ride the service, but having anyone even remotely interested in my local station is pleasing enough. Since then, loadings have remained higher than usual as railway aficionados find time to ride the new service, but sooner or later I'm sure the passenger count will return to 0 on a regular basis. For the very first trip, it wasn't possible to buy a ticket for the service as the machines at West Ealing would naturally send people wanting to reach High Wycombe via Paddington and Marylebone. To rectify this, for the parliamentary train only London Terminals tickets are now valid from West Ealing, which does glorify the station somewhat, but I'm not complaining. Although this is certainly a random manouvre, its quite reassuring to have a local link to Buckinghamshire even though I'll probably never use it.

Today also marks a rather special occasion for the blog, since it has been functioning for six years now! It's quite shocking that the site has survived for so long, but the support from all you dedicated viewers has been incredible and I certainly wish for publications to continue for many years to come! Now that you've read this, how about a visit to the superb London Connected, who coincidentally also turn six today.

Thanks for reading, keep safe out there and here's to another year "on the go."