Now Huncoat And Rishton Want Todmorden Curve Service
The title of this article in the Accrington Observer says it all – Council writes to government calling for Huncoat and Rishton to be added to direct Manchester rail link.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens over the next year or so, as more diesel trains become available.
Along this line from Preston to Todmorden, everything though does seem to be on the up.
Did five hundred metres of relaid track ever cause a such a large positive effect before?
An Amateur Tube Map
This amateur Tube Map is published in Gizmondo.
Amateur Tube Map
It is a brave attempt to make something that is getting increasingly complicated, more readable.
As I travel around Europe, I see some terrible maps, but the biggest sin is places, where they show their maps far to small or place them so you have to be nearly two metres tall to see them.
London has a unique advantage in that many stations have been designed so you go down the escalators, you are often in a large spacious lobby, with often quite large flat walls. Also with the removal of booking offices, there is now often a sizeable flat wall, as you enter the station from the street.
The current common map in stations is printed in A0 format which is 841 x 1189 millimetres. But there are larger paper sizes.
So why not use 2A0 (1189 x 1682 mm.) or even 4A0 (1682 z 2378 mm.)?
They could be printed direct onto high-strength vinyl in a similar way to the advertising you see wrapped around buses and trains.
Not all maps would be this size, but I believe putting them in prominent locations on the transport network would be a good idea.
After all, we’re always being told Big is Beautiful.
Eventually, as electronic screens get larger and more affordable, these could be used.
It doesn’t really matter what the map looks like, as I hope any bad ones would never be displayed.
But size and readability is everything!
The Problems Of Upgrading Railways
The East Coast Main Line from Kings Cross to Newcastle and Edinburgh via Peterborough, Doncaster and York may be a High Speed Line that allows trains to run at 200 kph. The trouble with the line is that it doesn’t have enough capacity for all the passenger and freight trains that want to use the line.
The French or Spanish would have probably built a new line, but we don’t have the space they do, and it is questionable in this country, if high speed trains are popular with the general public.
But on the East Coast Main Line, there was already a decrepit bypass called the Great Northern Great Eastern Joint Line from Peterborough to Doncaster. I’ve talked about this line before in Project Managers Have Fun In The East.
This article in the Rail Engineer is the story of upgrading that line, so that in particular freight trains can be diverted to free up space on the East Coast Main Line.
The line has been virtually rebuilt, resignalled, level crossing have been removed and stations have been improved, at a cost of around three hundred million pounds.
There is still work to do and in a few years time, the following could have happened.
1. A better connection at the Northern end at Doncaster.
2. A diveunder or flyover at Werrington Junction near Peterborough, to remove a bottleneck.
3. There might even be a direct link across the Fens from Spalding to March. This would allow freight trains between Felixstowe and the North to join or cross the East Coast Main Line at Doncaster.
4. The line might even be electrified, in part to cut the noise of the dreaded Class 66 diesel locomotives.
Freight At Maryland Station
I had to catch a train from that ruin in the East, Maryland, this afternoon. When I took pictures of all the stations before they are taken over by Crossrail, I gave Maryland a score of 2/10. As these pictures I took today, show of a freight train passing through, I think I was generous.
Sorting this dump out will need a real top quality architect with imagination. This Google Earth image shows the station and the roads around it.
Maryland Station
The following problems will challenge the design team.
1. The site is cramped and surrounded by busy roads.
2. The access to the station is along narrow pavements, even if they opened up the entrance on the South side.
3. The Crossrail platforms on the South side of the station are too short for the new trains and selective door opening will have to be used.
4. There would also appear to be few redeeming features in the current station. There isn’t any Victorian ironwork to preserve.
This is what is shown at present on the Crossrail web site.
Proposed Design
At least the number of trees has been increased!
I wish the architects the best of luck, but I sometimes feel that the only way to improve the station, would be to put a concrete raft over the whole area and build some tower blocks on top. At least they’d have good access to the rail system.
But then what do I know about architecture?
More Electric Multiple Unit Refurbishment
I am not a great fan of the Class 321 electric multiple units, that I seem to use, when I travel all over Essex and Suffolk.
On my regular trips to Ipswich, I much prefer to take the trains formed of a rake of Mark 3 coaches hauled by a Class 90 electric locomotive.
However like many of the UKs electric multiple units, the Class 321 are based on the smooth-riding Mark 3 coach.
As in recent years, a some of these like the Class 319 and 455 have been refurbished, it is no surprise that Eversholt Leasing has decided to update its fleet of thirty Class 321 trains, to make them more attractive to train operating companies.
This article in the Railway Gazette describes the project to upgrade these trains, into a new variant called the Class 321 Renatus.
It would appear to me, that these 100 mph trains will find gainful employment all over the UK Rail network, as more lines are electrified.
The New Freedom Pass Map
This document on the Transport for London web site, is the latest definitive map of where I can roam with my Freedom Pass.
The big addition for me is Shenfield, as although I don’t go there often, I could use it as the station to get my train for football at Ipswich.
I would have to change trains twice, but I could still arrive on the same 13:43 train into Ipswich.
But by using TfL Rail to Shenfield and then Abellio Greater Anglia from there, my Saturday Off-Peak Return, drops from £26.25 to £16.75, which is a saving of £9.50.
Similar savings even occur for a Tuesday evening match, as the cheapest fare drops from £28.70 to £19.35. It would also appear that you just buy an Off Peak Return, which is a saving in aggravation.
I’m only working on the current timetable, but I suspect that a new Anglia franchisee in a couple of years time, might stop all of the Ipswich and Norwich trains at Shenfield for Crossrail. It will probably be quicker to go from Liverpool Street, but there will be a lot of possibilities for saving money.
I also suspect that, when Crossrail opens, then Reading, like Heathrow and Shenfield, will appear on the Freedom Pass map, so instead of going to Paddington, will I join trains to Wales and the West Country at Reading.
The biggest effect on the economy of the spreading of the Freedom Pass, will be that more and more retirees will move into the capital, thus fuelling the rise in house prices.
So perhaps the best way to spend that pension pot is to buy a place in London.
The Todmorden Curve Has Helped A Campaign For More
The opening of the Todmorden Curve seems to have been a success according to press reports I’ve found, but this article from the Lancashire Telegraph, entitled New hope for campaigners looking to re-establish link between East Lancashire and North Yorkshire, shows that the opening is having other effects. This is the first paragraph.
A NEW hope has emerged for campaigners looking to re-establish a link between East Lancashire and North Yorkshire after a transport chief signalled concerns about possible logjams in Calderdale and Leeds.
The link between Colne and Skipton, which is mentioned in the article is shown in this map.
Skipton To Colne
It is being promoted by the Colne-East Lancashire Rail Action Partnership.
Having explored the area a lot in the last couple of years. I feel very much that tram-trains perhaps linked to Blackpool and/or Manchester have a lot of possibilities. I said as much in Could Tram-Trains Be Used To Advantage In Blackpool? It may sound fanciful and ambitious, but a single track tram-train link from Colne to Skipton, would have a high passenger capacity and wouldn’t require the infrastructure of heavy rail.
Things seem to be moving fast in East Lancashire.
In North London, there has been strong enthusiasm for the recent extension of the Overground. I now perceive a wanting for more of the same.
So are the good citizens of East Lancashire behaving in the same way?
The Connection From Waterloo East Station To Southwark Tube Station Is Only For The Young, Fit And Agile
My mother’s advice as a Ponders Plonker (her words) from North London, advised me never to go South of the Thames as you’d get lost or have trouble.
Today, I wanted to do a bit of shopping, as one does, and thought I’d go to Bluewater for a change, as I needed a John Lewis, a big Marks and Spencer, and preferably a Carluccio’s for a pit stop. Westfield doesn’t have a John Lewis, Eastfield is a gluten-free desert and Oxford Street is often crowded.
So Bluewater seemed a good idea at the time! It was as I got all I needed and the Shopping Centre was very quiet.
For Bluewater, you go to Greenhithe station and get a bus, but today there had been a derailment on the North Kent Line at Charlton as reported in this article in the Standard, so my preferred route to Greenhithe via the Overground and the DLR to Greenwich or Woolwich Arsenal was blocked. So I had to go to Charing Cross station to get a direct train to Greenhithe via Sidcup or some such place in the wilderness that is South London.
I got to Greenhithe and Bluewater with just the odd delay and after a successful shop, I returned to Greenhithe with a bag from M & S, to be told that there were still delays, but a direct train to Charing Cross would be arriving in six minutes.
So I took it and was treated to a tour of places I didn’t know. I had hoped the train would stop at Lewisham, so I could cut off the corner using the DLR to Shadwell and then the Overground to Dalston Junction for a bus home.
But it didn’t!
So I decided that as Waterloo East station has an interchange with Southwark station on the Jubilee Line, that it would be easier to change there and go to Canada Water for the Overground.
Southwark station was built for the Jubilee Line Extension in 1999, so I assumed that it would be an easy modern connection with a full spectrum of stairs, escalators and lifts.
First, I had to walk to the far end of the platform and then descend a long flight of fairly steep steps to a concourse below. I’ve certainly been on worse flights of steps in the Underground, but it didn’t prepare me for what I would encounter. Instead of an escalator from the concourse to the Jubilee line platforms, I found that the down escalator was under repair and I would be expected to descend a set of steps you’d more likely find in the Swiss Alps.
There wasn’t even a warning like there is at Hampstead tube station, but it was certainly more difficult than the steps there.
So I turned back and asked the guy on the gate, where the Way Out was. But there isn’t one! He told me, you had to go back to the platform and then use the bridge to Waterloo. So I had to climb back up the first set of stairs and in the end got a train to Charing Cross to come home by means of the District Line and the Overground.
My company, Metier Management Systems supplied Artemis software to do the project management for the Jubilee Line Extension. I have heard some odd stories about this project which had to be finished before the Millennium, so that the Great and Good could get to the Dome.
The guy on the gate did tell me that Transport for London tried to get an entrance to the concourse, but the residents objected. Whoever heard of a train station without a Way Out to the street?
At the present this interchange is an accident waiting to happen and there are no signs discouraging those who are not of a supreme fitness level from taking the route.
There are signs pointing to the Jubilee Line on the platforms at Waterloo East and after going through the barriers for those at Waterloo East, you are opposite the barriers for Southwark Tube station, which is only accessible by the extremely steep stairs.
Something needs to be done!
I could have probably managed it, if I wasn’t carrying my bag from Bluewater.
But I am a person, who doesn’t take unnecessary risks.
Bluewater Shopping Centre By Train
Out of curiosity, and because I needed to go shopping, I went to Bluewater Shopping Centre by train.
It probably wasn’t the best day to go, as there had been a freight train derailment at Charlton and I did have a terrible journey home, with a dreadful change at Waterloo East. Without the train derailment, I would have gone using the DRL to Woolwich Arsenal and then getting a train direct to Greenhithe, but I had to go via the dreaded Charing Cross, which was built in the wrong place for East London. After London Bridge station is complete, that will also be another easy route. One thing that would make trips to Bluewater easier for me, is if it was Freedom Pass territory., which only extends to Dartford two stations away.
Greenhithe is a interesting station, in that it was built in 2008 using a modular system, that has been used elsewhere.
I have included a picture of the excellent bus terminal at Bluewater, which is by the enormous Marks and Spencer.
The shuttle bus is the usual rigmarole of a paper ticket, rather than a siple touch of my bus pass. When will those outside London realise that you do ticketing with a contactless card these days and not the same technology my great-great-grandparents would have recognised from the nineteenth century. The journey is only short as this Google Map shows.
Greenhithe Station And Bluewater
Note that Greenhithe is the more Easterly of the two stations at the top of the map, which are both on the North Kent Line.
I do think that in the future, Greenhithe Station to Bluewater could be one of those places, where a spectacular high-tech people mover could be an attraction in its own right. I estimate the as the crow flies distance at under fifteen hundred metres.
By comparison the Emirates Air Line cable car in London is a kilometre, so this would be a virtually off-the-shelf solution. This Google Map show there is plenty of space around the station.
Greenhithe Station
It probably won’t happen, but I wouldn’t bet against it, especially if Bluewater goes in for a large expansion.
I Like This TfL Proposal
Transport for London have proposed changes at the junction of Stamford and Kingsland Roads near where I live. The changes are detailed in this page on their web site. This image shows the proposed junction.
Proposed Kingsland Road Stamford Road Junction
And this is a Google Map of the area.
Kingsland Road Stamford Road Junction
Note the inevitable truck parked outside Tesco, gumming everything up. Why is it that Tesco do this more than other supermarkets? Or they seem to do it in my opinion! As the crossing has been moved to allow buses to turn left out of the bus station, the loading bay has been moved further south, so I suspect that trucks won’t be able to park there and cause other vehicles to block the crossing that I regularly use. So that is one reason I like it, as it will make it easier for me to cross the road to get into Dalston Junction station. As buses will be able to turn left out of the bus station, I do wonder if TfL have got plans for more bus routes from Dalston, which of course I would support. I don’t think others will be so supportive. Look at these pictures of the junction and Tottenham Road.
Note that the Tesco store is quite a way up towards the Balls Pond Road and after the changes are made, they will have a cycle lane in front of the shop. My heart bleeds for them! – I don’t think! There are quite a few businesses in Tottenham Road, who might find movements of vehicles rather difficult. Especially, as the Cycle Superhighway will soon cross the road in the middle. I also think that some residents of Tottenham Road will be objecting, as effectively unless they do a three-point turn, they will have to go a long way round to get out, as they’ll be a dead-end at one end of the road and the Cycle Superhighway across the middle. As I don’t drive, I don’t care!
The Anonymous Widower 