The Party’s Over!
Network Rail and their engineers may have had problems at Kings Cross, but the new bridge at South Tottenham station on the Gospel Oak to Barking Line opened a few minutes before the previously published time of ten o’clock.
I was able to get the 09:45 train westwards from the station towards Gospel Oak.
I wonder how long it takes before a vandal puts some graffiti on the brand new bridge.
Never On Sunday!
The Northern City Line never normally works on Sunday, but it did today.
Perhaps it was because of yesterday’s troubles at Kings Cross, a decision was made to run the trains into Moorgate.
The Problems At Kings Cross
When I was at Kings Cross station early this morning, I asked a guy from the Information Desk, if the problem was with the Canal Tunnels, which will connect Thameslink to the East Coast Main Line, and which I photographed in this post. He said that the problem was in that area.
Network Rail have said they have had some sort of equipment failure. Where the work is being done, is a very critical area.
Incidentally, once Thameslink opens this will build quite a few alternative routes and destinations into the system. For example, if Kings Cross couldn’t be used for some reason, the Thameslink route could be used to shuttle passengers to Peterborough.
Before Thameslink opens, it strikes me that they could have told passengers to go to Cambridge from Liverpool Street or Tottenham Hale, from where they would provide a coach to Peterborough. This option has been used before, when there has been overhead line problems.
In the longer term, I think it is important that as many diversionary routes as possible are electrified and cleared to be able to handle the largest trains. With today’s problems, if Ely to Peterborough had been electrified, GreaterAnglia could have used some of their 12-car Class 379 trains to extend the Liverpool Street to Cambridge service to Peterborough.
Why Does Anybody Park A Car In London At This Cost?
This was a poster at the Angel, showing the cost of parking.
Why Does Anybody Park A Car In London At This Cost?
At £18 a day and against a taxi rank within fifty metres of this poster and buses going every way every half minute or so, I can certainly understand, why you never hear anybody complaining about the difficulty of parking in this area.
A Forest Of Orange Poles
I took this picture looking down a London Overground Class 378 train.
A Forest Of Orange Poles
This was a standard 4-car train and I’m still looking to get this view on an extended 5-car train.
It’s An Ill Wind
I always take opportunity of any situation that fate presents me.
Today, I woke to the news that due to overrunning engineering works, no trains would be running into Kings Cross station.
So I had a quick bath and before it was light, I was on my way to the station to see if there were any opportunities for some decent photos.
I took a few pictures of the deserted station, but as the shops and restaurants were open, I was able to do my food shopping in Marks and Spencer and have an excellent breakfast in Leon, without having to share the calm with too many other people.
It was all a bit surreal and summed up when a Japanese tourist asked me where the Harry Potter platform was. He even got to see that properly,almost by himself.
What Do Yanks Call A Subway?
The title of this post occurred to me, when I saw this sign.
What Do Yanks Call A Subway?
All it does in English, is get you from one side of the road to the other.
You could also ask, what would you call seven sisters in the subway at Seven Sisters station.
Match Twenty-Three – Brentford 2 – Ipswich 4
I’d never been to Brentford for a match before and I suspect it’ll be unlikely again I’ll go to Griffin Park again, unless it’s for the play-offs this year, as Brentford are trying to build a new ground nearby.
A Pub At Each Corner
The picture shows the narrow streets around the ground which is unique in having a pub on each corner.
It’s not much bigger inside either and we had to stand.
Standing At Brentford
At least in a couple of weeks, we’ll be playing Millwall at the Den, which has one of the best Away areas in the country.
As we left the ground, Ipswich were top, but by the end of the day we’d been overtaken by Bournemouth.
I think that Mick McCarthy is going to have an interesting transfer window in January. At least by the end of month given another couple of wins, I would suspect that Ipswich will be safe from any relegation.
The Bridge Party Continues
There has been a lot of progress since I took the last pictures.
Rumour has it, that they’ve given the bridge to North Korea, in the hope it will help them realise that bridges are good things to build links between different views.
Is Silicon Roundabout Going To Become Silicon Peninsular?
Silicon Roundabout or the Old Street Roundabout is well known as the centre of a high-tech area of the UK.
But is that all going to change as part of the de-roundabouting of London by Transport for London, the roundabout will be simplified. The full plan is here. It includes this map.
Note how in TfL’s words in the full plan, it has been turned into a peninsular. Hence the title of this post.
I think car, truck and van drivers will hate it, taxi drivers will do what they always do and adapt and joke, cyclists will love it and pedestrians will probably find it better.
For myself, I would like the bus stops placed so that I could get on a 21/141 bus going northward with only a short walk from the station. Coming from Kings Cross or Euston, I might take the Northern line to Old Street station and then get the most convenient of the number of buses that serve my house. I probably wouldn’t go the other way very often, as getting a 38 to the Angel will probably be slightly quickly.
Whatever you say about the plan, it has been very well explained on a good map.
The Anonymous Widower 