London Overground disruption this autumn

The North London Line and the Gospel Oak to Barking Line will be shutdown for extended periods this autumn for the enlargement of Hampstead Tunnel and the GOBLIN upgrade.

I've already posted one set of possible alternative arrangements, but the latest Network Rail timetable has a different set which I've attempted to decode below.

• The North London Line will be closed between Willseden Junction and Gospel Oak from September 1st to November 16th. Replacement trains are as follows:
  • The Watford DC Line will be diverted to Stratford via Primrose Hill (i.e. Watford-South Hampstead-Camden Road-Stratford), with virtually no trains to Euston. This service runs every 20 minutes.
  • Roughly every 15 minutes there'll be a Richmond-Willesden Junction shuttle. The connections at Willesden with the Watford-Stratford service don't look great.
  • Twice an hour there'll be a Gospel Oak-Camden Road-Stratford service, at alternating 20 and 40 minute intervals.
  • On Sundays, half-hourly Watford-Euston, Richmond-Willesden, Willesden-Stratford and Gospel Oak-Highbury services will run.
  • Passengers for the closed stations between Willesden Junction and Gospel Oak are expected to use "adjacent" stations on the Willesden-Queen's Park-Camden Road route, or local buses.
• The Gospel Oak to Barking Line will be closed September 1st-28th with replacement buses running.
• The West London Line appears unaffected.

A new London Overground timetable came in last weekend (not that TfL have bothered updating their site), and the printed book has a small note on every page warning of the disruption, promising further information in August.

Croxley Rail Link to be rejected again shortly

Or, if you're an optimist like the Watford Observer, it just "edged closer to approval". Hertfordshire County Council have just rolled the dice once more by submitting the project's business plan to the Department for Transport, in their latest bid to get the required funding.

They want £95 million to divert the Watford branch of the Metropolitan Line to Watford Junction, via the disused Croxley Green branch. It requires 500m of new connecting viaduct and 1.5 miles of replacement track on the branch line, figures very similar to the East London Line's northern extension (and likewise involves the probable closure of an unlikely looking existing tube station).

The project is not terribly exciting, completely irrelevant to Londoners, and doesn't have a great chance of happening. But it is the only extension of the tube network on the table right now.