Coal Mining in Whitechapel
I’ve just received Crossrail’s Autumn 2014 newsletter and there’s a section about using coal mining techniques to connect the Crossrail platforms at Whitechapel to the rest of the station and the surface. They say this.
An uphill excavator is being used for the first time in the UK on the Crossrail project. The machine is being used at Whitechapel, before installing the escalators that will take passengers from the platforms (over 30 metres below ground) to and from street level.
Due to difficulties in accessing the station box to dig downwards, Crossrail’s Whitechapel contractor BBMV decided that excavating the escalator barrel upwards, starting from the platform base, was the best solution.
The uphill excavator, traditionally used in coal mines, is being used in an innovative way on the Crossrail project. Built to do two jobs in one, it works its way up by excavating the earth using a digger fixed to the front. With a spray nozzle attached to the top of the machine it also installs the tunnel lining as it goes.
I suspect this won’t be the last place that the technique is used under London. I think it could find applications in connecting stations to the surface in a reversing loop with stations, or perhaps adding step-free access to a deep Underground station.
Whatever happens, it does seem that engineers are throwing conventional thinking out of the window.
Tunnelling certainly seems to be fun!
Hanwell Station Gets A Second Entrance
Hanwell station, which will become a stop on Crossrail, is a Grade II Listed building, which according to Wikipedia, English Heritage says is in very poor condition.
A second entrance on the South side of the line has now been opened.
If this is the standard to which the rest of the station will be refurbished, I suspect that English Heritage will be pleased to update their view of the station.
As I’m writing this, I’m listening to Radio 5, where there has just been a piece talking about a shortage of bricklayers. Obviously, some very good ones were working hard on Hanwell station.
When I visited Hanwell station in October, I gave it a score of 3/10 and said it was a relic from the past.
I now have high hopes, that when this station opens fopr Crossrail, that it will be one of the jewels in London’s new train line.
Sneaking Onto The Metropolitan Line At Baker Street Station
I have used Baker Street station many times over the years, but I’d never found this way to sneak between the Metropolitan/Circle line platforms to and the Bakerloo/Jubilee line ones.
I wonder how many other quick routes there are on the London Underground
It’s Not About The Wheelchairs
First Bus are probably delighted that they have won the court case about whether wheelchair users have priority over babies in buggies. This is the first paragraph in the BBC web report.
Bus companies are not required by law to force parents with buggies to make way for wheelchair users in designated bays on vehicles, senior judges ruled.
I travel regularly on London’s extensive bus network. A couple of years ago, there was a wheelchair bay full of buggies and a lady in a wheelchair wanted to board. On London buses, the wheelchair bay is opposite the middle door, which is the one with the automatic ramp. So the driver asked if the bay could be cleared, as he lowered the ramp. One lady took her buggy down the ramp and another folded hers and passengers made sure they had one of the spacious double seats by the middle door. The lady in the wheelchair then pushed herself into the space and as there was enough space the first buggy was able to be squeezed in too!
It had all been a sensible dance up and down the ramp and the bus was fairly quickly on its way, after an amicable confrontation.
On new Routemasters, with their bigger space by the door, better layout and completely flat floor, I’ve never seen anything other than minor problems.
Compare London with what happened at Reading when I went to see Ipswich play in August.
Returning from the Madejsky stadium after the match, there was a long queue for the buses. In front of me in the queue was a guy in a wheelchair. As the downstairs of the almost brand-new double-decker was full, with at least ten standing in the wheelchair space, to get the wheelchair rider on the bus, meant virtually unloading the bus and starting again. A lot of fans were not happy.
If the bus had had a central door and wheelchair ramp, what took perhaps well over five minutes, would have been much easier and probably a lot quicker.
Given all the other advantages with two or more entrance buses, like faster loading and unloading and a possible reduction in the number of attacks on staff, isn’t it about time that all the city bus services of the UK, were made to follow London.
How about adding talking buses, bus maps understandable to everybody and cash ticketing to bring the rest of the country into the twenty-first century?
Cake Anyone!
I’m not a cake connoisseur by any means, but I just had to put a link to Borough 22, even though I haven’t seen them for real, had a bite, or just a sniff.
As Marie Antoinette said “Let them eat cake! Even coeliacs and others with allergies!”
An Open Letter To Police Commissioner Adrian Leppard
In the article in Friday’s Standard with the front page headline, Force Banks To Fight Web Fraud, you say that the banks must fight web fraud.
I agree that banks must be forced to report all frauds to the Police.
As someone, who has analysed a lot of databases in his time, I know from experience with some of the best consultants in the City, that properly analysed these reports will uncover valuable patterns that will help police locate the perpetrators. The findings should result in sensible advice that would help both the banks and customers.
My worry is that the banks will introduce levels of security, that mean you have to do things like access your bank account with a dongle or install special protection software on your computer. This approach just means that criminals use the new restrictions as new ways to fool clients.
In my view, banks need to think deeply about adding new features to their banking systems for the benefit and protection of customers.
So what would I do?
1. A friend was robbed at a cashpoint and someone took his card and got him to give up his pin at knife-point. I think we should all have an emergency pin, that if typed into a cashpoint, indicates something is wrong. The machine keeps the card and perhaps gives out a minimum amount of money, saying that the client has no funds available.
2. We should be able to set a limit on payments, above which the bank sends us a text message, to say that we’ve just paid £220 to Marks and Spencer. So if say your card details had been stolen, you would at least get an early warning.
3. We should also be able to lock bank accounts. Say you were going away for a month and during that time, you would not be accessing your bank account. You would enter an extra password, which only you would know, that stopped access to your account until it was re-entered.
If banks were to think what customers actually want and not waste their time selling them junk products, we might get a banking system that was fit for purpose and very secure.
Banks should do other things.
1. Some of the work I know was done with my software, allows banks to profile how customers access their accounts. Are they doing enough in this area to fight crime? I doubt it.
2. Banks should also only use systems and programmers based in the UK, as this would mean that those responsible for any serious breaches or problems can have their collar felt.
Personally, I also always access my banking from the same computer, which stays locked in my house and has never left. Those that use apps on their mobile for banking deserve all the trouble they get!
Nigel -There Are Trains To South Wales
Nigel Farage is blaming his non-appearance at an event in Wales on immigration causing the jams on the M4. He said this on the BBC.
It took me six hours and 15 minutes to get here – it should have taken three-and-a-half to four. That is nothing to do with professionalism, what it does have to do with is a population that is going through the roof chiefly because of open-door immigration and the fact that the M4 is not as navigable as it used to be.
Obviously, if he travelled on the excellent train to Wales, he might have had to talk to some immigrants. Like I did on another train, where I chatted for an hour or so, to an Italian businessman, who moved here thirty years ago and married an Englishwoman a few years after.
I think I’ve met planks of wood with more real intelligence than Farage.
Could The East London Line Be Extended To Ebbsfleet?
A few months ago, I speculated in a post called Can We Extend Overground Connectivity In North London, about what to do for northern termini if the number of trains through the core of the East London Line (ELL) is increased from 16 to 24 tph. This capsacity increase is one of Transport for London’s objectives for the line, which would create a second high-capacity link between North and South London, fanning out to several termini at both ends, just as Thameslink does.
There is probably not the problem of finding termini south of the river, as there is an intricate network of lines, where the extra trains could go.
But after looking looking at taking Crossrail to Dartford and Gravesham, I think that it might be better to send some of the ELL trains past New Cross, which of all the southern terminals is probably the less likely to be able to turn round many more extra trains an hour.
Trains would go to Ebbsfleet from New Cross by way of the following stations.
St. Johns
Lewisham – for DLR
Blackheath
Charlton
Woolwich Dockyard
Woolwich Arsenal – for DLR
Plumstead
Abbey Wood
Dartford
Greenhithe – for Bluewater
If it had a Reading-style bridge connection to Eurostar and Highspeed services at Ebbsfleet, this would give much needed connectivity in getting passengers to and from South and Central London and Crossrail.
The only disadvantage is that you would be swapping a fast train for a slow one.
I estimate that Ebbsfleet to Abbey Wood would take about twenty minutes. By comparison Abbey Wood to Heathrow on Crossrail will take fifty-three minutes. Going from Ebbsfleet to Heathrow via St. Pancras will probably take just under the hour, but you’ll have to negotiate A Fur Coat And No Knickers Station, that is St. Pancras.
But there are several advantages.
1. As was pointed out here, Crossrail going past Abbey Wood will need third-rail capable trains. The East London Line is third-rail like most of the lines south of the Thames and I think it is unlikely that it could ever be powered by overhead electrification, due to the size limitations of the Thames Tunnel.
2. As these trains would go through the Thames Tunnel to destinations in the North, this would effectively add more much needed terminal capacity to the terminals serving South of London.
3. There is plenty of space at Ebbsfleet to build a proper terminal platform for the East London Line.
4. Ebbsfleet could also be given the capability of accepting third-rail through trains to and from the South.
5. There is no new infrastructure, except for building the extra platforms at Ebbsfleet.
6. The large new garden city at Ebbsfleet gets much better connections to South and East London.
7. Hopefully, the improved connectivity of Ebbsfleet will improve ridership on Southeastern’s Highspeed services and possibly get more services from both the South East and Europe.
8. There could be a connection to Gatwick on the Redhill to Tonbridge line.
9. Ebbsfleet will become another transport interchange on the outskirts of London to go with Ealing Broadway, Cheshunt, Clapham Junction, East Croydon, Reading, Shenfield, Stratford, Tottenham Hale and Watford. Where will the next one be created?
In some ways a lot of this speculation is unnecessary.
If the Channel Tunnel Rail Link had been built better, so that there was a simple interchange with Crossrail and the Underground at Stratford, then passengers would have the choice of using that station instead of St. Pancras. It was also designed as the bleakest and most unwelcoming station in the UK.
I do wonder though, if Transport for London are keen to get hold of the Dartford lines, so that they can sort out the mess.
Should London’s Freedom Pass Be Extended?
As someone who qualifies for a Freedom Pass, which gives me free travel all over London, I take it very seriously and I also realise how much the 1.5 million holders of the cards cost London and its taxpayers.
Since it was created in 1973, London has grown and with Crossrail further extending the tentacles of London’s trains, it must be part of planners’ thinking to extend the areas where residents qualify and the area where the card could be used.
It has been said that you will be able to use Freedom Passes to get to Heathrow on Crossrail, so what about the other termini at Reading and Shenfield?
There are a lot of questions, if the pass is to be extended.
I think cost will determine what will happen. Especially, as I suspect there are two main groups of Freedom Pass holders.
1. Those like me, who use the pass with gusto and enthusiasm to explore this wonderful city.
2. Those who use it locally on the buses and perhaps occasionally on the Underground.
Transport for London know the pattern and how much it would cost to extend the system.
But if I was the Mayor of London, I’d possibly look for some radical idea.
Let’s take the case of someone living in Birmingham say, who is over 60 and has the UK-wide bus pass and a Senior Railcard. At present they can associate their Senior Railcard with an Oyster card, so they get one-third discounts on all Underground and rail travel in the London area. But as London now embraces using bank cards as tickets on the whole transport system, surely the time will come when those with railcards can associate them with their bank card.
You could argue that allowing this link-up between bank cards and railcards will inevitably happen! Especially, if the banks promote it, as they have with Fare Free Fridays.
Surely, there is scope for link ups with other conurbations, so that visitors can get appropriate discounts on their travels. After all, how much does a visitor from London spend on a day-trip to Manchester or Leeds?
Would they also be more likely to go, if they knew that the ticketing was just using an appropriate bank card, that got them a discount on the local trams and trains?
I am going to Bolton on Saturday to see Ipswich. As I want to see how Posh is doing, I’ll have to buy a couple of extra tickets! Why can’t I just touch in with a contactless bank card?
Have The Ipswich Players Seen A Future They Might Like?
According to this article in the Daily Mail, the average salary in the Premier League is £43,717 a week.
Ipswich’s team cost just £10,000, which was what Mick McCarthy paid Chippenham Town for the raw talent of Tyrone Mings. But having met several of the players, they don’t seem to fit the stereotype of thick idiots, who can kick a ball a bit.
The players do contain, some players like Daryl Murphy, Jay Tabb, Stephen Hunt and Christophe Berra, who’ve had experience of the top level, but have never really established themselves there.
There are also quite a few players, who are best described as taking a second or even a last chance. Players like Tommy Smith, Paul Anderson, Alex Henshall, Kevin Bru and David McGoldrick could be in this category.
Add in a few competent players from a variety of sources and you get what Mick McCarthy repeatedly calls a great bunch of blokes.
So has someone like the eloquent Murphy, explained to the others that if they can keep this form together and get the team into the Premier League, they all might get at least one year of a good salary, that will set them up for life, if they don’t succumb to the temptations.
You might also credit Mick McCarthy and Terry Connor, who took Wolves into the Premier League and saw it all go wrong! They probably don’t want a thunderstorm to strike twice.
If Mick has a problem, it is what to do in the January transfer window. Does he do a bit of dealing to improve the team, but possibly disrupt the spirit? Or does he just pick up some more injury cover like Noel Hunt from high level discards and basically sit tight?
Whatever is happening, it’ll certainly be an exciting ride to the end of the season.
The Anonymous Widower 