Bad Sign Layout At Piccadilly Circus
It’s not often that the London Underground gets its signage wrong.
Bad Sign Layout At Piccadilly Circus
But they have here, as you can’t see the train indicator, as it’s positioned behind the Way Out sign!
Is It Really Necessary To Send Out One Of These With Every Holiday?
I got this from the holiday company who arranged my trip to Iceland.
I have loads, so if anybody wants it, just send me your address and I’ll put it in the post.
No wonder holidays are expensive, if agents sent this sort of junk every time.
Boom Or Bust In Ilford?
I like this article about the effect of Crossrail on Ilford, when it opens in 2018, from the Ilford Recorder.
I think generally the article thinks the new line will have a positive effect on the area.
One thing the article ignores is the Essex Effect. Give the county an opportunity and it will take the fullest advantage of what has been given.
The littleWaitrose In Kings Cross Station Opens On Tuesday
Kings Cross station is becoming the model of an upmarket food and shopping destination for a railway station.
On Tuesday, the new littleWaitrose opens, to join a good Marks and Spencer, a pretty good pub and a Leon, which probably does the best gluten-free fast food in Europe. The new shop is handy for the trains and the Underground.
So when I arrive back in London after a trip from the North East or Scotland, I’ll certainly be able to pick up supper at either the new shop or M&S. Competition must improve both stores.
I posted some time ago about Network Rail’s policy on stations and it looks like we’re seeing the fruits of that revolution.
Do We Want Platoons of Trucks?
I first read about this idea in the Sunday Times, but I have found a detailed article on the bbc.com website. Here’s the lead paragraph.
Convoys of wireless-linked semi-autonomous vehicles could soon be hitting our roads, giving drivers a chance to put their feet up on the morning commute.
I don’t drive and I miss driving, like you miss the teenager next door, who thinks he’s the best drummer since Ringo, who has just left home.
The technology may well work, but it’s in the same category as driverless cars and unmanned level crossings. They’re all perfectly good and safe until something goes wrong. How many air accidents were never envisaged, when the aircraft was designed?
The thing though about this technology, is there is already a proven alternative in the UK. It’s called freight trains. The money would be better spent removing trucks from the roads, as far as possible. Obviously for long distances across countries like the US, Canada, Australia and Russia, it may well have a place.
On Line Rail Tickets Aren’t Always Cheapest
I’m going to Reading today to see Ipswich play Reading at the Madejski Stadium. It is one of the easiest out-of-town stadia to get to, as there is a bus service from the main Reading station.
I live about a ten minute walk away from Dalston Junction station on the Overground.
They have recently updated the ticket machines there, so you can buy any point to point ticket for use on the day or the next one after 16:00.
So yesterday, I would my ticket for Reading today at Dalston Junction station. As I have a Freedom Pass, which gives me free travel to any station within the Zone 6 Boundary, I was able to buy a ticket from the machine that took me from the Zone 6 Boundary to Reading. Previously to this clever machine appearing on the Overground, the only way to buy this extension ticket was to go to a Ticket Office and queue for often twenty minutes or so.
Zone 6 Boundary to Reading Ticket
The ticket cost me £7.40 with my Senior Railcard.
That seemed cheap to me, so this morning I looked at the First Great Western web site, to see how much they’d charge.
It would have cost me £11.70.
Was the ticket machine programmed by a senior citizen with a Freedom Pass or just somebody, who understood how holders of such passes think and behave!
I suspect though that over a season buying my London to Ipswich tickets at an Overground station, might save me nearly a hundred pounds.
The only problem for some people will be that their local Overground or Underground station doesn’t have these new ticket machines.
But as they are so comprehensive and surely every non-London ticket sold is revenue to Transport for London, it can’t be long before these are the universal ticket machines in London.
The only thing they don’t do is to issue Oyster cards, which is probably not needed, as they will probably not be needed for ticketing at some point in the next few years.
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!
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!
The Anonymous Widower 