Police On The Trains/Tubes In South London
I came back from Wimbledon to Dalston Junction tonight, by taking a train into Waterloo and the a Jubilee Line train to Canada Water before taking the Overground north.
South of the Thames there were police everywhere, but from Canada Water onwards, I didn’t see any sign of the boys and girls in blue.
But I didn’t see any trouble either!
One officer told me they were being careful as it was Friday night. It all seemed to be effective!
From New Cross To London Bridge
I took a train from New Cross to London Bridge to see if I could get any pictures of the Bermondsey dive-user works.
One think that is noticeable from the pictures, is the amount of space there is for the lines into London Bridge. At the present Thameslink isn’t running and it would appear there are two ready-ballasted tracks between the junction to New Cross Gate and London Bridge.
New Cross Station Is Finished
In a post last September, where I went up and down the East London Line, I took a few pictures of New Cross station. I changed trains at the station today and took these pictures.
It certainly looks a lot better. The sun helped too!
My only problem with the station is that changing trains to go south after travelling from Dalston Junction is a walk across a platform and very easy, but return journeys mean a platform change over the bridge.
Perhaps one day, they’ll extend the East London Line trains to a proper terminal at another station. like Hayes as I suggested in this post, so northwards changes would be simpler.
A Modern Take On Victorian Railway Arches
I took these pictures of the new viaduct that is being built as part of the works concerning the Bermondsey Dive-Under.
This artist’s impression is from Network Rail and shows the dive-under.
Bermondsey Dive-Under
I actually walked along the side of the East London Line Extension, which crosses under the three sets of railway lines running through the area, towards the right of the picture.
The two lines shown in my gallery are the two viaducts towards the top. Note how both are shown going into a concrete tunnel, with the other line, which will carry the Thameslink trains over the top. You can also see the viaduct being built in this Google Earth image.
Bermondsey Dive-Under
I think the viaduct is being built alongside the rail line closest to the top-right of the image. Are the white shapes, the concrete shells of the arches shown in the gallery?
The sets of lines from top to bottom are as follows.
1. This set of lines along which I think the new arches have been built will take trains on the South Eastern Main Line between London Bridge and New Cross and on into Kent.
2. This set of lines also takes services between London Bridge and New Cross, although at the moment no trains are running on these lines.
3. This set of lines will take Thameslink services to New Cross Gate and beyond.
4. This set of lines links London Bridge and New Cross Gate.
It’s all very complicated and if anybody can correct anything or add more, please let me know.
I do think that untangling the spaghetti left by the Victorians, probably caused a lot of sleepless nights amongst Network Rail employees.
I also wonder, whether Network Rail will be creating small business units in the large number of new arches.
Would This Be The Easiest Station To Build In The UK?
Provision was made for Surrey Canal Road station when Phase 2 of the East London Line Extension was built a few years ago.
The pictures show that the work to create a new station wouldn’t be too great. They have decided to rename it to New Bermondsey station. The new station is close to Millwall FC as this Google Earth image shows.
Millwall FC And New Bermondsey Station
The station is in the bottom right-hand corner of the image, where the railway crosses Surrey Canal Road and construction could start this year.
Exploring Around The Bermondsey Dive-Under
As the post entitled Uncovering The Past On Thameslink showed, the railway lines around South Bermondsey station are complicated to say the least and at the moment they are more so due to the construction of the Bermondsey Dive-Under. This Google Earth image shows the main viaduct out of London Bridge as it goes south east.
Exploring Around The Bermondsey Dive-Under
The top left corner of the image shows the old Peek Frean biscuit factory and at the bottom right there is Millwall’s ground. I took these pictures as I walked around.
The arches are certainly a good example of Network Rail’s extensive collection of railway arches used for non-rail commercial pyrposes.
Is Violence Really In Decline?
The respected study from Cardiff University on violence as reported on the BBC’s web site is saying that injuries due to violence is at a new low. This is the first two paragraphs.
The number of violence-related injuries in England and Wales is at its lowest level for at least 15 years, an annual study suggests.
Cardiff University’s survey of 117 hospital units showed about 211,000 victims of violence went to hospital in 2014 – 10% fewer than in 2013.
All sorts of explanations have been offered and they’re probably all a bit responsible.
Since I moved here to Dalston in 2010, one of the biggest differences, is that the streets just feel so much safer. It’s only a personal view and not backed by any statistics, but generally everything just seems a lot quieter.
Why?
I put it down to an long list of little factors, which have worked together to create the improvement. The Overground has opened, pavements, the built environment and buses have improved, there are busy cafes everywhere and generally you see more families and older people on the street.
I think it’s probably mainly down to the beneficial link between a better environment and improved behaviour, that has been suggested by Stephen Bayley and other commentators.
Am I The Supermarkets Worst Customer?
There has been a lot of reports lately about misleading special offers in supermarkets, like this one in the Independent.
As I’m a 67-year-old widower living alone, who because I don’t drive, has to carry everything home from the supermarket, I only rarely buy any bogofs, but then only with something that doesn’t have sell-by date like washing tablets, soap, tissues or bottles of cider or olive oil.
If I’m cooking a casserole that needs one onion, one carrot, a leek and say two hundred grams of mince then that is what I buy.
I also have given up on fresh herbs and use the dried ones in pots , as I don’t like throwing the unused ones away.
As I regularly complain about the bags in Waitrose at the Angel, they must consider me a bad customer, especially as I usually enter with a half-full bag of bread, biscuits and lemonade from the Marks and Spencer next door.
A Surprising Election Leaflet
I have got quite a bit of electoral junk mail this election, but one today was different.
It was the usual A4 or A5 well-printed flyer, from a party I have voted for in the past, but my name and correct address was actually printed on the glossy paper.
Admittedly, they had used last year’s register with my incorrect name, but that was understandable, as the register was only finally corrected a couple of weeks ago.
Perhaps, we need a law to say that nothing goes through a letter box, unless it is properly addressed.
I’d probably get about four letters a week.
Do We Featherbed Groups In Society?
I got my monthly State Pension today and at £677.16, that will do me for my day-to-day expenses for the next month. It doesn’t cover trips out of London, but it does allow me the odd light lunch in a restaurant.
But I also get other benefits just because of my circumstances, as a 67-year-old man, who lives alone.
I get a Council Tax discount because I live alone. But is that right as I live in a family house with a garage in a desirable part of London? If I didn’t get it, I’d still live here as that would be my choice, but I am blocking someone more worthy than me of buying this house.
I have a highly-insulated house with an efficient boiler, but should I get a winter fuel allowance? It would be better if the money was not paid at all, but used to improve our housing stock’s energy efficiency, so that those on a pension actually saved the money all through the year.
I have a Freedom Pass, which gives me free transport on buses, Underground, Overground and trains within the Central London area. This is one of the reasons I moved to Dalston. But is it too generous on the one hand and not universal enough on the other? Surely, a better system, would be one where you nominated your bank card as your transport pass and in the free areas, the system didn’t charge you. The advantage of this would be that London could enter into reciprocal arrangements with areas like Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle, so that we could use each other’s concessionary area at a discount. Would this encourage more of us to travel to explore the country and perhaps spend money in attractions, cafes and shops, we wouldn’t dream of visiting now?
This morning according to this report on the BBC, the Liberal Democrats are saying that those who have a second house they use in a beautiful area, should pay double Council Tax on their second home. Here! Here!
I live in Central London and I am starting to resent the traffic. Not because I drive, but because of the pollution and noise often put out by cars used as glorified shopping trolleys and baby buggies. We let all drivers get off too lightly with the problems they cause in cities and if they got the message, we may see more cycling and walking, and better air quality. We might even see better delivery systems for goods, where transmissions were hybrid or electric, like London’s newer buses.
It will happen eventually, that all cars pay road charges based on mileage, fuel used and congestion. But I doubt we’ll see it soon, as there are no votes in it. It’ll probably be introduced in London first, as cycling gets more common and Crossrail shows everybody what real railways can be like.
But would a city like Birmingham, where the car is king, and pedestrians are targets to hit when crossing the road, accept charging to pay for the updating of the numerous railways and more trams in the city?
And then there’s lifestyle, fitness and health!
Many people drink, eat and smoke too much and governments don’t really discourage it forcefully. It would be an interesting exercise for a town or city to declare a city centre non-smoking and see what happens. I can remember, when ahead of the smoking ban the landlord of my local pub in Suffolk declared it a smoke-free zone. He got some moans, but not from his bank manager.
The NHS is in crisis, but this is mainly a problem of the irresponsible patients making. So if we can get people back to the straight and narrow, we might help the dear old NHS out.
For a start, I would like to see a law, that no-one could stand for elected office or sit on the board of an NHS body, if they were a smoker!
I could go on a lot more. But we must all change our lifestyle, if we want this country to be a place, that is really worth living in.
The Anonymous Widower 