Things can only get better...

As loads of you know the Overground North London Line has been undergoing some changes to the track - improvements to cope with heavier freight as well as wider enhancements to the line.

This has led to the line being closed for weeks now - but the end is in sight.

I wanted to share this picture - which I suspect will be quite a rare one in years to come - it's taken from the foot of South Hill Park / Parliament Hill over the fence by the peace garden in Hampstead and shows the sleeper concrete blocks stacked up ready for the Hampstead/Frognal tunnel.

Now I have been pretty critical of the arrangements for the refurbishment, motivated by a frustration with the old regime and pushed by a desire to see real service improvements for customers. So this is a chance for me to eat a little humble pie: the team at Lorol/Tfl and Overground have been in touch on the forthcoming station improvements.

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/04/13th-train-line-colour-for-london.html

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/07/our-railways-have-great-tradition-its.html

A number of us have wanted to interact with the service providers to make the stations better and now are being offered the chance to do so - I'm told a letter is on the way and I will share that with readers of this blog and others. But I wanted to take this first chance to acknowledge the sometimes unfair harshness of my commentary in this respect and flag up the 'wind of change' that will hopefully replace that, as we see the realisation of millions of pounds of investments in the line and the restoration of the service.