I Finally Get to Loughborough Junction Station
Today all of the trains were running and I was able to get to Loughborough Junction station.
The pictures don’t really do, one of the worst stations I’ve visited in recent years, justice. It had the usual long difficult staircases to the trains, narrow platforms, difficult access for the elderly, the disabled and buggy pushers and no visible staff. It did though have what looked to be a reasonable cafe, but as I was running late, I didn’t have have time for a coffee.
But as it is on a major cross-London route, you’d hope it would be a station on the list of stations to be improved. I’ve searched the Internet and Lounghborough Junction station is not slated for any improvement in the next few years. I did find this blog post, moaning about lack of improvements in the area.
In the pictures, you’ll see the line, that will take the London Overground on its way to Clapham Junction station. This is to the right in the pictures, with the line to the left leading to Denmark Hill station. Putting platforms on the London Overground on this line here, has been dismissed on the grounds of cost, just as they have been at Brixton.
This may be right, but it just shows what a mess has been left by Victorian railway engineers in this area.
However, linking the London Overground to an improved Thameslink at this point, may offer a very much better financial case, than to link with the Underground at Brixton, which is linked because of the Victoria line to larege numbers of important places in the capital anyway, but of course to nothing towards the south, like Gatwick Airport and Brighton.
It is one of these problems that needs imagination. A good architect might be able to produce an elegant connection between the two lines and then link it to the ground on the other side of Coldharbour Lane to the current station entrance. Looking at the local bus map, shows that the area is well served by bus routes, so perhaps we could make Loughborough Junction a true interchange in the east of Brixton.
I just think that London can be improved by providing proper bus/rail interchanges and Loughborough Junction could be another, to join Stratford, Canning Town and West Hampstead, that have been created in recent years.
Whether Loughborough Junction could be one is debatable though, especially as I was told at London Bridge by a ticket inspector, that First Capital Connect, don’t want the connection built. That surprised me, as the link would not be built, if it wasn’t going to be used. And users would mean money for the company.
Disabled Non-Friendly Train Doors
I don’t travel south of the river that often. But it was only today, that I noticed how bad the doors are on some of the trains. Here’s a selection of some of the doors I found.
I would suspect, that it’s not just in this area of the country, that they are bad. Obviously, to get all doors to accept a wheel-chair user on their own without assistance would be a difficult objective to achieve. But these are difficult for a mother with a buggy and are vastly inferior to 99 % of London’s red buses, which most wheel-chair users are able to enter and leave easily.
London Bridge Bus Station Opens on Monday
Over the last few months, getting a bus at London Bridge and especially the 141 that gets me home, has been difficult to say the least. But not as of Monday, when the new bus station on the forecourt opens.
As you can see from the pictures, it will be a great improvement on what is there now and what was there before the Shard put its enormous feet all over the place.
This is the bus spider map that shows the routes from London Bridge. It is a bit out of date at the moment and let’s hope that it links to the new map on Monday. I hope to that the temporary stop shown in the picture has been replaced by a permanent one.
By the way, there is no sign up to say that the new bus station opens on Monday, but a member of staff with the right helpful, intelligent and cheery attitude, who gave me the information. People like him, are one of Transport for London’s big strengths and they’re always there to help. The same can’t always be said for most bus and metro companies outside of the capital.
Blackburn Rovers are Relegated
One of the most historic clubs in the Premier League, Blackburn Rovers, was relegated last night.
It would appear that the new owners had no idea about what they had bought and BBC Radio 5 was saying last night, that they’d thought they’d bought a franchise which couldn’t be relegated and an endless cash chicken.
Someone emphasised the latter, by bringing a chicken to the match, complete with its own team shirt. Read the report in that new tabloid, the Guardian.
It is a very sad affair and is another club that has got into trouble because of inappropriate and/or stupid ownership.
I felt particularly upset last night for Dave Whelan. the Wigan owner, as his team sent them down. He had been a Blackburn player in the 1960 Cup Final, when he was carried off due to a broken leg.
Dustin Hoffman Saved My Life
This is the headline in a story in The Sun.
It concerns a man, who collapsed whilst jogging in Hyde Park and it was Dustin Hoffman, who called the ambulance.
All seems to be well now!
They Do Presidential Debates Differently In Mexico
This story about a Mexican presidential debate, shows they do things rather differently.
Basically, the production company hired a lady to escort the candidates to the podium and she wore rather inappropriate clothing. Or perhaps clothes more appropriate for one of Berlusconi’s parties.
The Anonymous Widower 