Consultation Starts On The Bakerloo Line Extension
The Standard is reporting that consultation is going to start on the route of the Bakerloo Line Extension.
I’m always surprised that this project which was first proposed seriously in 1931, has taken so long to this point, given that the line is the most lightly used of all the main Underground lines.
Will St.Pancras Cope With More Trains On Thameslink And Eurostar?
This lunchtime I walked through St. Pancras station from the entrance by Kings Cross station on Euston Road, through the Underground ticket hall and the shopping mall past the Eurostar Entrance and exit to get a train on Thameslink.
It is a long walk, but if you want to catch Thameslink after arriving in the area on a 30 bus, it’s the shortest way. When Thameslink had a station on the Pentonville Road it was just a short walk through the passages at the bus stop direct to the Thameslink platforms.
What made matters worse was that a Eurostar train had just arrived and the ticket hall and shopping mall were teeming with passengers and masses of luggage. After all it was Friday and the time was about that, where early morning trains from Paris and Brussels will arrive.
The Thameslink station wasn’t busy, but at this time there are only about half-a-dozen trains an hour each way through the station.
But in 2018, there will be twenty four trains an hour each way for a lot of the day.
As by then, Eurostar or other operators should be running to Amsterdam and Cologne, these will be delivering a whole lot more passengers into the station.
So I can’t help feeling that St. Pancras will be an incredibly crowded station.
I’m probably lucky in that I can pick up Thameslink at London Bridge by using a 141 bus or perhaps at Farringdon using a 56.
If the Thameslink station had been built as an island station with escalators at more than one place, the problems would have been mitigated, as I said in this post. I won’t withdraw my concluding paragraph in that post yet.
St. Pancras is very much a fur coat and no knickers station!
Show on top and draughty and lacking at the bottom!
It’s up to Thameslink and Network Rail to convince me to do so.
Beware Of Underground Winds
I saw this at Kentish Town Underground station today.
Beware Of Underground Winds
It’s nice to see humour getting involved with Health and Safety!
Was Jerry’s Junk Poisoning Me?
This afternoon the cause of the temperature rise I noticed here, has hopefully been resolved.
Richard from RC Electrics has removed the old transformers from the roof and replaced them with modern units.
Have you ever seen junk like this? They were running really hot and all the Bakelite cases were in bits.
I asked if there were any health hazards with what I thought was Bakelite and I found this page. It says this.
Bakelite is made in a process that uses Phenol and formaldehyde both of which are toxic. Bakelite is safe to handle, but may deteriorate over time releasing the toxins in small quantities.
Only time will tell, if there is any improvement in the air in this house.
But after sitting here with the windows closed and the lights off for half-an-hour, the temperature has stabilised at 24.6°C, as opposed to 25.3°C last time. The difference is accounted for by different temperatures outside and the updated roof. I’ve now switched the lights on and we’ll see what happens.
After half-an-hour it’s risen to 24.7°C with a humidity of 44%. Three hours later it was 24.1°C and 43%.
My New Crap Design Tag
The new WordPress screen has resulted in my bringing in a new Crap Design tag. Click the tag on this post to see the design horrors.
Doing this was not as easy as it used to be, due to WordPress’s new editor design!
So is it back to the future with WordPress?
How Do You Get Rid Of The Beep Beep Boop Screen On WordPress?
Every day, I add my current INR reading to a post in the blog. It is just a simple way to show my results to doctors, dentists and anybody else who needs to know. I’ve also got a couple of researchers looking at the figures for interest, as it shows INR might vary from day to day.
It used to be easy and quick. I just got the page up and then clicked the Edit link on the WordPress toolbar and then the edit screen came up immediately. After typing in the new value, I just clicked Update and that was it.
If I wanted to check the page, I clicked on a View Post link and it replaced edit edit screen. Now it creates another tab in my browser.
What took a couple of seconds now takes a lot longer.
I have better things to do than look at the work of an imbecile.
I suspect the guy who designed this crap was the designer of the chocolate tea-pot.
If my blog wasn’t so big, I’d move it elsewhere!
Moscow To Neryungri
I found this article about long journeys by train in Russia on the RailStaff website.
Fascinating, but there are lots of easier places to see first!
A Birthday Present From nPower
Saturday is my birthday and I’ve just received this letter from my previous energy supplier nPower, who I left to their own devices some months ago.
Dear Me (They got my name right!)
As part of npower’s ongoing efforts to ensure our records are up to date, we’ve noticed that there is a credit on the above account. I’d like to apologise for the time it has taken us to identify this; it’s not the kind of service we strive to offer our customers.
Your bank account will be credited with £107.79 within the next 5 working days.
Thank you for your patience and understanding. If you feel that we may be able to help with your energy needs in the future, we’d love to hear from you.
So the money will pay for the small party I’ll be having on Friday night!
These are the sort of surprises I like!
London’s Other New, But Forgotten Rail Tunnels
Crossrail with its fifteen billion pound budget gets all of the attention, but it could be argued that two much smaller tunnels outside Kings Cross and St. Pancras will have a significant effect on several million people. And not just those living in London.
This extract from an article in Rail Engineer describes the Canal Tunnels.
Each tunnel was constructed with a six metre diameter bore and fitted with a pre-cast concrete lining, and they are both more than 660 metres in length. At the King’s Cross end there is a 100 metre cut-and-cover concrete box which leads up to an open area which, in total, forms a 1km length of new twin track railway.
Despite their significance to the Thameslink programme, they don’t have a Wikipedia article.
They may be much shorter than those of Crossrail, but they are the way that trains passing through the Thameslink core go up the East Coast Main Line. Thus they help to add a hundred new stations to Thameslink and allow 24 trains an hour to pass in both directions through London.
I took this picture of the tunnel entrance from a local train between Kings Cross and Finsbury Park.
The Canal Tunnel Entrances At Kings Cross
I also obtained this image of the area from Google Maps
Kings Cross From Above
Three existing main railway lines are shown in the picture.
- The multi-track railway down the right of the picture is the East Coast Main Line.
- The railway from top-right to bottom-left is High Speed One. Note the tube that the line runs in to cut noise at the right hand side.
- Above this line runs the North London Line.
The Canal Tunnels can be seen in the angle of the East Coast Main Line and High Speed One, with the dark shadow showing the cut-and-cover concrete box entrance. These pictures are obviously some weeks old, as no track has been laid yet, unlike in my picture.
I do wonder if the public might be given a chance to walk through these tunnels before they are opened.
At present all you can do is catvh a glimpse from trains running into or out of Kings Cross or St. Pancras.
The Viewing Platform At Kings Cross
I came across this viewing platform at Kings Cross.
The pictures show the platform and some of the views.
It’s on the path that leads between Kings Cross Station and Granary Square, by the Regent’s Canal.
Building sites should have more of these!
The Anonymous Widower 