The London Overground, which operates services through Acton Central and South Acton has seen its revenues rise by 17 per cent and ticketless travel fall from around 15 per cent to three per cent since it took over from Silverlink a year ago.

The introduction of visible platform staff and the adoption of Oyster Cards are cited as the prime reasons for the success of the line,even though massive disruption is affecting services east of Willesden Junction while major improvements are made to accommodate more trains and increase reliability.

* THE operator of the North London Line has now started to receive its new trains which are desperately needed to accommodate the extra passenger numbers.

Though at first they will operate to Watford they will be seen on the Richmond Line by May. Seating is provided facing inwards to allow more standing room at peak times and extra safety features have been included in the design to reduce crime and vandalism.

Later,once platforms have been extended, an extra carriage will be added to the trains.

* MEANWHILE, FGW can no longer be called 'Worst' Great Western.

Its performance figures are at their highest level since 1994 and now rate amongst the top operators, a remarkable turnaround attributed to staff co-operation and the support of Network Rail's engineers and planners.

* Beware of travelling without a valid ticket on London's buses, trams and trains.

The penalty fare is set to rise from £20 to £50 from January 11 next year.

In 2007, the latest year for which figures are available, around 110,000 penalty fares

were levied and, although the percentage of Tube passengers evading fares has fallen to around two per cent elsewhere, the level of fare avoidance continues to cause concern, costing the network around £70m a year.

* THERE will be a chance to hear plans for the future of west London's transport strategy on November 13 when Westrans, a local authority led transport think-tank, will talk about its proposals for new north to south underground lines through Ealing as well as the Fastbus Project, the benefits of Crossrail and other key transport issues.

The meeting, at Ealing Town Hall starts at 7pm. Admission is free and will be followed by the AGMof EPTUG, the Ealing Passenger Transport Users Group, where members will be able to hear of the more immediate plans for our local transport.

* THE new shopping centre at the White City is now open and attracting thousands of shoppers each day but while both London Underground and London Overground have opened new stations to serve the centre London Buses seem to be lagging.

A revised rote 316 from Cricklewood starts in late November but it will be January before the route 228 to Maida Hill is introduced.

Meanwhile,no allowance has been made for the extra passenger numbers and extra traffic congestion being experienced by routes 207, 607 and other services to and from Acton and Ealing.

EPTUG has been trying to contact London Buses to find out why this is, but so far they have not replied.

Perhaps if you have experienced a poorer service since the centre has opened you would leave a message on EPTUG's message line, 020 8998 0999.