Thoughts Of Angel
I saw this notice at Angel station today.
Thoughts Of Angel – 29th December 2011
The URL at the top doesn’t work. But even so it’s an interesting way to get a message across.
If you can’t read it, the message is.
Common sense is the most evenly distributed commodity in the world.
Everybody thinks they have enough.
Today, there was a different one as I passed through.
Thoughts of Angel – 30th December 2011
I wonder if they will keep this philosophy up.
The Anonymous Widower 
And that’s what I found at Warren Street station today: http://www.flickr.com/photos/yurri/6594822273/
Comment by Yuriy | December 29, 2011 |
Did you see my chat about Farringdon in the comments in this post?
https://anonw.wordpress.com/2011/12/29/the-new-farringdon-station/
Comment by AnonW | December 29, 2011 |
No, I missed the comments. Thanks for telling me.
But the way, it must be very silly to ask, but I still don’t fully get the idea of Crossrail. Why is it going to be a completely new system with interchanges with the existing ones rather than extension of an some existing network? London already has so many kinds of rail transport (Tube, Overground, bypassing National Rail, DLR, tram), and there is another one to come, that seems strange.
As I see there can be financial or political reasons, but does that make a technical sense? Maybe you could recommend a link where I can read about that.
Comment by Yuriy | December 29, 2011
Crossrail is an idea that started in WW2. wikipedia has a good history here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossrail
Effectively, as being built, it will connect Shenfield in the East and Abbey Wood in the South East to Reading and Heathrow in the West, by linking existing lines to a large tunnel under the city with stations at Farringdon, Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street. The aim is to remove congestion on the east-west tubes and buses.
If you connect two or more lines together like Crossrail does, you remove the need to have terminus stations in the centre where land is expensive. That is why Thameslink was built to connect the St. Pancras surburban services with those to the south. It’s also why most London tube lines go right through the city.
In a way London can do this easier than a lot of cities, as the London clay makes building tunnels easy.
And after Crossrail, there might even be Crossrail 2 from Hackney to Chelsea.
There is a good history of the Underground called the Subterranean Railway by Christian Wolmar. I have a copy.
Comment by AnonW | December 29, 2011 |
I understand how is it going to make the commuting faster and easier, but what I don’t understand are the reasons behind creating an another system with its own standards (rails, trains, cars, power etc.) rather than an additional Tube line, for example, sharing the stock. As the project is very important and expensive there obviously are very important reasons for that, I just don’t understand them yet.
http://j.mp/vFFoQd – can you please tell if that’s the book you meant?
Comment by Yuriy | December 29, 2011 |
The odd one out is the Underground. Crossrail and Thameslink are full size railways with overhead 25 kv power supplies, just ike most trains in Europe. they are standard gauge like France, Germany and many other countries, although I think Russia uses a wider one. The tubes are of two sorts; sub-surface and deep. The sub-surface are bigger than the deep and use different stock, which is all being replaced at present. The deep tubes run in small tunnels, which is a matter of history and cost, rather than good engineering. Most other metros in the world use full-size trains. As each deep line is self contained and slightly different, they thus use different trains.
But Crossrail and Thameslink could probably use the same trains, although I think that politics will say Crossrail will use Bombardier and Thameslink has already bought Siemens.
One thing you have to remember is that a set of trains in London is built to have about a thirty year life. Some of the Victoria line trains were in service for over forty years from 1967 to 2009. They were more reliable than the new replacements from Bombardier. The current Piccadilly line trains were built in 1973.
Comment by AnonW | December 29, 2011
Strange, I can’t reply to your latest comment (there is no “Reply” link under it), so sorry for posting at the “top thread”.
Anyway, now it makes sense! I don’t remember where I got that idea but for some reason I used to think that Crossrail is going to be different from Thameslink in terms of its infrastructre. As it is not, I am no longer confused. Thanks.
Comment by Yuriy | December 29, 2011 |
There are slight differences.
Thameslink has a limit of 12 coach trains, whereas initially Crossrail will be 10, although provision to go to 12 will be there.
Crossrail will be all 25 kV overhead electric, but Thameslink will be this north of Farringdon and 750v DC third rail to the south. If you go to Farringdon now, you can see them change over from one system to the other.
There is also a need to take freight through London, especially when London Gateway is fully open. This might go on Crossrail at night. Freight can’t go through Thameslink, as the gauge isn’t big enough and anyway there is no need for north-south heavy freight.
Comment by AnonW | December 29, 2011 |
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