Greece Eight Weeks Away From Euro Exit
This headline was in the Sunday Times today.
So don’t book a holiday in Greece in the middle of July!
You Get a Better Class of Busker in St. Paul’s Tube Station
I took this picture tonight, on the mezzanine floor between the escalators at St.Paul’s Tube Station.
A Busker with a Celtic Harp
I would have thought that usually those playing a harp, were well above the cathedral, rather than underneath it!
I hope I got the type of harp right!
Congratulations Your Majesty
I’ve only seem it on one bus on route 21, so it might be unique.
Congratulations Your Majesty
Although, I have seen it several times, before I got this picture at Newington Green. In some ways to photograph it there is appropriate, as that is the area of London, where the non-comformists based themselves in the seventeenth century. It has a long connection with Mary Wollstonecraft. It is a place well worth a visit, as it has a nice garden and some buildings worth a look.
Clapham High Street and Clapham North Stations
Clapham High Street station will be on the London Overground from December 2012 and Clapham North station is on the Northern Line. So how do they rate as an interchange?
This picture shows the view of Claphsm North from under the bridge by Clapham High Street station.
Looking Towards Clapham North Station
The station is in the distance on the right. And this shows the view the other way.
Looking Back at Clapham High Street Station
It’s not too far to walk and Clapham North station does have escalators. But it also has rather a scary platform.
A Scary Platform at Clapham North
With a tricky set of stairs to get down to it.
Tricky Stairs at Clapham North Station
It was a station that I was glad to leave on a train.
I asked how the two stations rated as an interchange. I managed to use them successfully, but the platfdorm gave me the willies.
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Borehole Cooling at Green Park Tube Station
Green Park Tube Station is cooled using water from a borehole in the park. The method is described here.
Cooling Unit in Green Park Station
The picture shows the cooling unit above the Victoria line platform.
Over The Top of Brixton and Loughborough Junction Stations
Today I wanted to get another view of Brixton and Loughborough Junction stations, so I took a train from Victoria to Peckham Rye and then back to Clapham High Street station.
You can see how high up the line is and the two tracks that will form the London Overground are much higher than the parallel tracks that pass through Brixton.
Minding the Gap on the Victoria Line
The Victoria line is unusual in London’s Underground lines in that many of the stations are hump-backed. This means that the slope up into the station, slows the train and the descent out of the station, speeds it up. I took some pictures as I rode the line this morning.
Note the variable step-up into the trains,which is also partly explained by the humped-backing of the platform, which was done a couple of years ago,to ease entry for wheelchair users and buggy pushers. All stations except Pimlico have these humps and they are at the middle of the station.
As to the hump-backed designs of the stations, this saves energy. In fact 5%, according to Wikipedia, which also says it makes the trains 9% faster. So why isn’t this simple idea used on other lines?
More Train Doors
I took a few more pictures yesterday.
Note that most are not much better than the first ones I took and posted here.
The strange one is that the Overground at Dalston Junction station is virtually flat, but it isn’t at Highbury and Islington station. As there is only one class of train on the line, surely the step should be the same.
The London bus which may be slightly higher was taken with a typical kerb, but the step up is generally lower. Remember too, that this door on all London buses has a wheelchair ramp, which unfolds from under the bus.
I Finally Get to Loughborough Junction Station
Today all of the trains were running and I was able to get to Loughborough Junction station.
The pictures don’t really do, one of the worst stations I’ve visited in recent years, justice. It had the usual long difficult staircases to the trains, narrow platforms, difficult access for the elderly, the disabled and buggy pushers and no visible staff. It did though have what looked to be a reasonable cafe, but as I was running late, I didn’t have have time for a coffee.
But as it is on a major cross-London route, you’d hope it would be a station on the list of stations to be improved. I’ve searched the Internet and Lounghborough Junction station is not slated for any improvement in the next few years. I did find this blog post, moaning about lack of improvements in the area.
In the pictures, you’ll see the line, that will take the London Overground on its way to Clapham Junction station. This is to the right in the pictures, with the line to the left leading to Denmark Hill station. Putting platforms on the London Overground on this line here, has been dismissed on the grounds of cost, just as they have been at Brixton.
This may be right, but it just shows what a mess has been left by Victorian railway engineers in this area.
However, linking the London Overground to an improved Thameslink at this point, may offer a very much better financial case, than to link with the Underground at Brixton, which is linked because of the Victoria line to larege numbers of important places in the capital anyway, but of course to nothing towards the south, like Gatwick Airport and Brighton.
It is one of these problems that needs imagination. A good architect might be able to produce an elegant connection between the two lines and then link it to the ground on the other side of Coldharbour Lane to the current station entrance. Looking at the local bus map, shows that the area is well served by bus routes, so perhaps we could make Loughborough Junction a true interchange in the east of Brixton.
I just think that London can be improved by providing proper bus/rail interchanges and Loughborough Junction could be another, to join Stratford, Canning Town and West Hampstead, that have been created in recent years.
Whether Loughborough Junction could be one is debatable though, especially as I was told at London Bridge by a ticket inspector, that First Capital Connect, don’t want the connection built. That surprised me, as the link would not be built, if it wasn’t going to be used. And users would mean money for the company.
The Anonymous Widower 