Germany Thinks About Charging Foreign Drivers To Use The Roads
I saw this story in the Sunday Times, but it is also discussed in detail here, in The Local, which is German news in English. Quite a few countries now use vignettes to enforce tools.
I feel we should do the same, as being a non-driver, why should I subsidise foreigners, who drive on the roads of the UK.
I suppose the advantage of driving in Germany, is that you don’t have to put up with their crowded and often late trains.
My Use Of The Word Lith
I grew up in my father’s print works, where words were the substance of the business. My generation also used to make up words much more than most seem to do today. For instance at school, we used to use the word plob for the little stopper in the end of a Bic pen.
On the Wikipedia entry for Legible London there is a section, that describes the elements of the system.
The existing primary Legible London on-street signs or information boards are the ‘Monolith’ ‘Midilith’ and ‘Minilith’ which are free standing signs made of a mixture of vitreous enamel and vinyl printed glass materials within a stainless steel frame.
So I just shortened the whole of that to liths, as a convenient collective term for all of them. It also means, that I don’t have to state what type of lith it is.
I shall do what my father would have done over questions of words and contact the OED.
Chaos In The Balls Pond Road
The roadworks that caused all the problems with the buses, last week are still ongoing. There are no open bus stops and just one narrow lane for the traffic.
One Narrow Lane In The Balls Pond Road
When I left home this lunchtime, I walked to the next stop, where there was an angry crowd and even angrier drivers trying to get onto the Balls Pond Road.
The diversion on Dove Road was congested and totally inadequate, especially as they were running extra buses as the Overground was closed, so putting a large number of extra passengers on the buses. When I returned later in the afternoon, the problems were made worse, by everybody trying to get to the Emirates to see Arsenal at home to Liverpool.
If they’d wanted to organise chaos, they’d created it, in the best way possible.
I was talking to a bus driver and he blamed Boris, which was a bit unfair.
As my background is project planning and management, I believe this chaos was all down to no co-ordination between the parties involved. The Arsenal match has been in the calendar for months, so surely to do the necessary resurfacing work, on a match day was a bad decision. It was probably costly too, as it meant that all of the chaos, meant that not as much progress as had been hoped was made.
Surely too, the Overground should have been kept open, whilst the road was effectively closed, as this closure imposes extra strains on the road network.
The only good thing about the roadworks, was that I could cross Southgate Road with ease.
A Closed Southgate Road
But crossing the Balls Pond Road is difficult for pedestrains, as there are no lights and we’ve been left to our own devices and wits.
No-one seems to have any idea, how long this chaos will go on. Although this notice mentions that Phase 5 ends on the first of December.
I can’t help feeling, that traffic problems in the area would be helped on match days, if the Northern City line was open between Finsbury Park and Moorgate. Perhaps, when Thameslink is fully established this line will get some long-needed improvement.
Florence Is Being Destroyed By Tourists
Not my words, but those of Ottaviano de Medici, a direct descendant of the Medicis, who created Italy’s jewel. He is quoted in this article from the Sydney Morning Herald. Here’s the first paragraph.
A descendant of Florence’s famous Medici family said on Tuesday that mass tourism was a “threat” to his native city and called for it to be put on a UNESCO list of endangered areas.
I must admit, I get a bit fed up with tourists, especially in London. It’s one of the reasons, I’m a member of many of the arts institutions in London, as it means I can bypass queues and crowds, and get invited to special events like this one at the British Museum.
So if I go to Florence or Venice, I always go in the winter, as the threat of cold and wet weather keeps most tourists away. It was one of the great charms of my visit to Genoa recently, that the city was almost empty.
Tourists may be a curse, but they do bring in money and create employment. We need to find a balance as to how we charge them for their disruption.
Praise For Kings Cross From Down Under
One of my Internet alerts is for Kings Cross Square and I picked up this article praising the area from the Sydney Morning Herald web site.
Afterwards, Australian visitors, will only need to go to Highgate Cemetery to feel at home.
A Pre-Match Meal In Ipswich
Yesterday, it was football at Ipswich at 19:45 due to SKY, so it was an early train to avoid the rush hour and a pre-match meal in Pizza Express on the waterfront.
PX is the only really coeliac-friendly restaurant in the town centre. I’ve yet to find a good Indian one, close to the football ground.
PX was heaving, so it does appear that the demand might be coming up in the town, which in my view and those of some of my friends is a restaurant graveyard. I always wondered if East Suffolk people go to bed early, ever since my father and I used to walk home from his club in Felixstowe at about 21:30 and see all the houses cmpletely dark.
But getting to and from the quay and PX in the dark is a walker’s nightmare, with uneven pavements and all sorts of barriers everywhere. How many drunks will tip into the dock?
However there did seem to be a lot of good development going on at the waterfront, but knowing Ipswich as I do, I doubt that it will be complete for upwards of five to ten years.
The quay might end up as a good place to go, but it’s not that close to the town centre, the railway station and the other attractions in the town, like Christchurch Mansion, the Wolsey Theatre and the football ground.
If ever a town was crying out for a free circular bus-route that ran around the town centre like Manchester’s Metroshuttle, it is Ipswich!
At least though the meal was good and walking down the hill to the restaurant from the station was easy, even if I didn’t find the quickest route back to the football ground in the dark. In the light, I’d have had the liths to guide me!
I shall go again in the light!
Siemens’ View Of The Future Of The Underground
This mock-up of an Underground train is being shown at The Crystal by the Royal Victoria station on the Emirates Air Line.
If they ever build these trains, what will be much more significant is the technical specification of the new trains.
If you look at these pictures, you’ll see that the cross section appears taller and wider than the current deep-level trains. It has been designed so that someone of 2.6 metres can stand without stooping.
The trains are designed to be articulated with a walk-through gangway, like the new S Stock on the sub-surface lines. I think Siemens hope that air-conditioning could be squeezed in.
It is a pity that most of London’s Underground was built to such a small size, but that is one of the problems you get by being first. The technical problems of London though, are probably minor compared to building new trains for the Glasgow Subway, which is even smaller and totally unique.
I doubt London will ever see a new Underground line built to the current tube standard, developed by the Victorians!
Crossrail is effectively a main line railway and other lines across London will probably use that standard, with the possible exception of some lines built to the standard used on the Docklands Light Railway.
A Phallic Lith
Is there any other way to describe this lith at the Emirates Air-Line?
A Phallic Lith
London doesn’t appear to be too dictatorial about the liths, as some like this one seem to go their own way.
Getting Ready For The Flat Pack Station
Custom House station on Crossrail has been described as the flat-pack station, like in this article in the Standard. Here’s the first paragraph.
A £35 million “flatpack” station for Crossrail is being built hundreds of miles from London in a first for the rail industry.
The new station for Custom House is taking shape in a factory near Sheffield, pictured left, before being transported to London for assembly in 2015.
The question has to be asked, if they will be bringing the station to London by train.
The pictures show the state of the site, with lots of work going on.
If we can buy flat pack furniture from IKEA and their ilk, why can’t Crossrail use similar suppliers?
Phyllis And Ada To Be Buried Alive
This headline from a magazine, seems like something consistent with Halloween.
But it’s not!
The headline actually is from the Crossrail update on the back page of this month’s Modern Railways. It tells how, the two tunnelling machines; Ada and Phyllis, will be left in the ground rather than recovered. The two machines are named after Ada Lovelace and Phyllis Pearsall respectively.
This does seem to be a pity, especially, as they cost ten million pounds each, but getting some of them out will be a very difficult, dangerous and expensive job. I also suspect that there isn’t much of a second-hand market for specialist tunnelling machines, which generally seem to be built for a particular set of conditions and sizes. Crossrail are actually using two different types of machine for their project. There’s more about the tunnelling here.
The Anonymous Widower 