Reading’s Style Before Substance Maps
On my trip today, I’d planned to have lunch in Carluccio’s, so before I left, I looked up the address and the walking route from Reading station.
So after taking the photos of the station, I walked into the town centre and traced the way my mind told me to go. I had hoped to get help from a map, but all I had were ones like this.
Reading’s Style Before Substance Maps
Stylish they may be, but they aren’t the best, if you want to find a street, you’ve looked up previously, as there isn’t enough detail and no street index.
Luckily in the end, I found a local who knew where Carluccio’s was and I walked there and had an excellent lunch.
Londoners like me, are very used to good maps, as I can always remember them from my childhood, when every Tube station had a local map. Now every bus stop does, like this one at the Angel.
Local Street Map At The Angel
At the Angel too, there are also informational maps of the area, with all of the major buildings and landmarks indicated.
informational Map At The Angel
Reading’s maps may be stylish, but they are useless if you’re not a local and don’t use a smart phone.
But say you want to find Carluccio’s at Islington, you would just say
The restaurant is by St. Mary’s Church, opposite the Almeida Theatre.
Both places are mentioned on Islington’s informational map.
Perhaps the maps in Reading, were designed, by trendy smart phone freaks, who don’t realise how a lot of people think and operate.
The problem was made worse at Reading, because there was no local information or map at the station. This was probably due to the rebuilding. I didn’t even notice the finger posts, I saw the last time I was in the town. Have they been replaced by the maps?
Is It Architecture,Engineering Or Art?
I heard good reports on the television of the rebuilt Reading station, so today, as I hadn’t anything specific to do, I decided to go to the town and have a look at the work that has been done.
I think Isambard would have been proud of what has been done, as he rarely did boring! And the new Reading station is certainly not that!
The concept of the station is very simple. The thirty metre wide overbridge is connected to all the platforms by escalators and lifts. Then at one end there is another set of four escalators and lifts to take people to the main south entrance.
But in all my life, I’ve never seen so many people walking wide-eyed in awe around a new building or even an art gallery. One guy told me he’d come into the station specifically to photograph the building and had taken fifty pictures. Even railwaymen who’d probably seen it all, were walking around giving the new station a critical look.
There was also the teacher, who’d travelled with me from London. She was amazed at it all, especially as she had left on Thursday from the old Reading station.
Very little has been reported on the media about the design and quality of this new station. The only news seems to be stories pointing out the fact that the handover is a few days late and there’s a bit of chaos. None of the stories mention, that the project will be completed a year ahead of the original plan.
I do wonder if Reading is the shape of stations to come.
The wide overbridge concept is used in a similar, but smaller and less dramatic form at Leeds and Derby, but how many other stations could benefit from this type of design?
In the pictures, you’ll see some of Inter City 125 trains, that are used on all services from London to the West and Wales. They are genuine high speed trains capable of 200 kph, ride as smooth as silk and they are now forty years old. I doubt they’ll all ever be retired, as for running through the Highlands of Scotland and from Bristol to Cornwall, where electrification is virtually impossible, there is no other fast train, that can handle the route.
So at last, these trains have got a modern station, to complement their design.
Countdown Comes To Hackney
I don’t think it was working yet, but Pedestrian Countdown has arrived in Hackney, as this picture shows.
Countdown Comes To Hackney
I was on my way from my doctors to Paddington station, so I was going to Haggerston station, which you can see in the background.
It is not a simple journey and it requires two changes at Canada Water and Waterloo stations. The latter is a change to avoid.
Waterloo Interchange
At least there is a moving pavement in the long tunnels. I think of all London’s main stations, Paddington is the most difficult to get to from Hackney and other parts of North East London.
Window Dressing In The Sun
I took this picture yesterday at Gap in Islington.
Window Dressing In The Sun
It was very cold and perhaps a sunny window was the best place to be.
Rail Europe And Deutsche Bahn
In my trip, that i outlined in this post, i needed to book a sleeper from Munich to Paris on the night of the 12th of April. The oracle of all things rail, Seat61.com, recommended Rail Europe, so I tried that last night.
I don’t think I’ll be using that site again.
The main problem was that after choosing my ticket, the site seemed to get into a loop with Verified by Visa and in the end, the time limit to buy the ticket expired, with me not sure, if I’d actually bought a ticket or not. I haven’t had a debit on my account, so hopefully everything is alright,
Then, this morning, I tried to phone them to find out what had happened. After hanging on for several minutes, I got through and they couldn’t even find the account I’d created.
Another think about Rail Europe is they don’t take American Express, the card of choice for my travel.
I also wasn’t sure how they got the tickets to me. I think they are posted, which is not the best way to receive rail tickets if you might have left for Budapest.
So after trying to talk to the monkey for a few hours, I decided I had better talk to the organ grinder; Deutsche Bahn.
I chose the same ticket, at perhaps a few more euros, but at least I was able to get the ticket to my Inbox for printing easily.
Although, why you have to print seven pages for one ticket, I do not know. The British system of little orange cards is so more economical with forests. Incidentally, Easyjet did my flight out in one page.
So if you need to buy a train ticket to, from or inside Germany, I’d use the Deutsche Bahn web site. But isn’t this just the same as buying a ticket to Derby on the East Midlands Trains web site, as I did this morning?
Rail Europe may have failed to sell me a ticket, but they didn’t deduct money from my credit card account.
It was
Why Do Web Sites Get Redesigned?
I’ve used the East Midland Trains web site, many times in the last few years and have found it excellent.
But now it has had a makeover and I had to have a couple of attempts to get my tickets for the Ipswich match at Derby.
I always book a return in First Class, with the outrun being timed to get to the destination by something like 14:00 and then a fetch after 17:00 to get back to London. Usually, this is because, I won’t find anything to eat in the destination and so go straight to the ground. As Pride Park is close to Derby station, this would definitely be the case at Derby.
But the site kept telling me, I’d put in the wrong times, as I suspect someone had got his checking wrong. It was only, when the site handed me over to the ticketing engine behind the booking site, did I get some sense.
In the end, I’m travelling from London to Derby and back for the extortionate price of £29. And that’s in First Class with tea and drinks! If there are any snacks, I’ll forgo them, as they won’t be gluten free.
I Don’t Care About Cookies
I look at a lot of web sites and every one seems to get more and more strident about asking whether I mind if they store cookies on my computer.
I wouldn’t use their web site if I minded would I?
An aside here is why isn’t the the form of mind, I used in the previous line, mound? After all it’s find and found, bind and bound and wind and wound.
Isn’t English wonderful!
The Anonymous Widower 