Around Loughborough Junction Station
I took these pictures close to Loughborough Junction station.
They show the triangle of lines that make up the junction and some of the buildings in the area. In An Overground Station For Camberwell, For pictures from the station see this post.
I quoted the 2050 Transport Plan as saying this.
e.g. at Camberwell, that can plug connectivity gaps and act as development nodes.
Surely there is a connectivity gap between the London Overground and Thameslink, but the Luftwaffe didn’t do anything creative to help with clearing the site for the development node, the area needs.
Lunch In Vozar’s In Brixton
I went for lunch today to Vozar’s in Brixton, which is a gluten-free restaurant, that also sells Celia lager.
Note that I took the last pictures as I walked back to Brixton Underground station after the excellent lunch.
Match One: Ipswich 2 – Fulham 1
It was a result, I hadn’t expected as I walked to Portman Road from Ipswich Station.
Ipswich Town is one of the better placed grounds with respect to transport and also access to the town centre. There are also maps, but as you can see the stadium from the train station, you don’t need to consult them.
The only problem I had, was that the club had run out of programmes.
The club must have been pleased with the result and also with the size of the crowd considering, the match was on Sky. It’ll be interesting to see, if the performance has any effect on the gates at home matches after the next, which is Norwich, so it will be a full crowd.
A Quote From Baroness Trumpington
She has just said this on the BBC.
If you don’t have a bit of guts, you’re not going to get far in life!
Long may she continue to be so forthright.
Getting Rid Of Useless Foreign Currency
I travel a lot and the small change from my Icelandic holiday is annoying me, as is the monetary detritus from trips to Poland and Scandinavia.
So I have now collected it together, with all the Eurotrash with a value of less than a euro. The total weight is just under half a kilo.
But what to do with it? I searched and found this page, which has a lot of good ways to give it to charity.
I have the money, now I’ll make my choice!
Is Drug Packaging Distinctive Enough?
I take quiet a few medicinal drugs. Every day, I test my INR and then put the drugs for the next twenty-four hours in an old black 35 mm. film canister, which fits neatly into the bag I generally carry or a pocket of my coat.
When I go away for a few days, I put the required drugs plus a few for luck, in a white film container, which I then transfer to the black one every morning.
Look at these two pictures of two strips of drugs.
One is Spirolactone and the other is 1 mg. Warfarin. When I went to Glasgow because I was in a hurry, I took two Warfarin instead of two Spirolactone. It didn’t matter in this case, but for others similar mistakes could be more serious. A contributory factor in this mistake, was that Boots have started to give me a differently packaged brand of the Warfarin.
The top side of the drug packaging should be distinctive. I think too, that the old brand of Warfarin had the writing on the back in the same colour as the drug. i.e. brown in this case. The new one is just an anonymous black.
Funding Circle Does Underground Adverts
The three big peer-to-peer lenders; Funding Circle, Ratesetter and Zopa, tend to rely on newspaper and magazine articles, and personal recommendations to spread their message.
So I was surprised to see this advert for Funding Circle on the Underground.
Funding Circle Does Underground Adverts
I don’t think occasional Underground adverts have the kiss of death that is associated with covering large numbers of buses with advertising. Could their bus advertising have anything to do with the falling reputation of Wonga. Or as with films, does blanket advertising of a product, show up the real turkeys?
Wars Of Religion
This was the big headline in The Times on Friday. It does sum up the mess involving Muslims in the Middle East in particular. Admittedly, with a little bit of help from their bogeymen; the Israelis.
A commentator yesterday on the BBC who had a military background, said that what is going on between the two main factions of in Islam, is akin to what when on between Catholics and Protestants in Europe in the Thirty Years War. Wikipedia describes that war like this.
The Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) was a series of wars principally fought in Central Europe (primarily present-day Germany), involving most of the European countries. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history, and one of the longest continuous wars in modern history.
The commentator said, that it is conceivable that the two factions is Islam, will bring on a similar conflict.
We must do our best to not be drawn into this stupid conflict. To air drop food and water to refugees is one thing, but to favour one side or the other is a complete no-no.
An Overground Station For Camberwell?
In Transport for London’s Transport Plan for 2050, there is this paragraph.
Some examples of the type of scheme to help address these issues are an upgrade to the London Overground network to provide 6 car trains and new stations on existing lines, e.g. at Camberwell, that can plug connectivity gaps and act as development nodes.
By Camberwell, I suspect they mean at Loughborough Junction, where the London Overground passes over Thameslink. A couple of years ago, I visited the site and created a post with some pictures.
I said this about creating a Camberwell Beauty out of Loughborough Junction.
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 shall go again to see if a development node can be used to bridge a significant connectivity gap in London’s train system.
On a personal note, it would really improve the ease of my getting onto Thameslink routes to the South.
How Will Crossrail Affect My Rail Journeys?
It may be wishful thinking as I’ll be 72, when Crossrail fully opens in December 2019.
But how will the new line affect the journeys I take regularly?
Access To Crossrail
I will get to and from Crossrail in one of two ways.
I am within walking distance of Dalston Junction station, where I could use the Overground to get to and from Whitechapel station, which is a major station on Crossrail.
This route is a good one for coming home, as I just walk up the stairs or take the lift at Dalston Junction, before waiting no more than a couple of minutes for a bus to perhaps fifty metres from my house.
The other way to go to Crossrail is to get a bus directly to the line. At present, I have three routes within a hundred metres that go direct to stations, that will be on Crossrail. The 56 goes to Barbican and the 21 and 141 go to Moorgate. I suspect that the buses will be reorganised for Crossrail, so the 38 might be routed to stop by an entrance to the Crossrail station at Tottenham Court Road.
Coming back, if the stop for the 21 and 141 is sited as well as it is now for Moorgate station, this would probably be my preferred route in the rain, as the stop for those routes, is just across a zebra crossing from my house.
If anything my biggest problem about access to Crossrail, is choosing from a selection of convenient routes. Especially, as the buses could well be a few minutes quicker than they are now.
Ipswich
This is probably the most common destination out of London, where I go to the football.
I doubt that I’ll change my route much, but it should be easier to get to and from Liverpool Street and I doubt, I’ll ever use a taxi again.
The only possible change I could see is that if the Great Eastern Main Line links up better with a cross-platform interchange at Shenfield, I might use this route. Hopefully, Ipswich services could also be faster under the Norwich in Ninety program, so sitting in a comfortable train will be less important, than say a journey in under an hour from Liverpool Street.
Liverpool And Manchester
I’ve bracketed these two cities together, probably much to the annoyance of a lot of residents of the two cities, but by the time Crossrail opens, there will be a thirty minute service every ten minutes between the two cities. Much of this happens late this year, so we’re not talking about possible projects.
So for many who live between and around the two cities, your route to and from the South will become one of personal preference and convenience.
Coupled with all the other Northern Hub developments, I suspect that both cities will have a more frequent service to and from London and the South than they do now. It might also be quicker, if 225 kph running is enabled by new signalling.
If Milton Keynes is a Crossrail terminal, I could see up to three trains an hour to both cities stopping there to pick up and set down passengers.
If say Liverpool and Manchester did get three trains an hour from Milton Keynes, you would have a maximum wait of twenty minutes for a train to your desired destination.
I would probably book a seat from Euston, but as that dreadful station starts to be rebuilt, I’d probably hop on Crossrail for Milton Keynes.
If though it was four trains an hour to Liverpool and Manchester from Milton Keynes, and perhaps I wanted to see an exhibition at the Tate Liverpool, I’d probably book a Standard Off Peak Ticket the night before and take my chances on getting a decent seat at Milton Keynes.
The more I look at it, Crossrail must terminate at Milton Keynes and that city should be a stop on a large number of Virgin services.
Reading
I’m going to Reading next week to see Ipswich. This one is a no-brainer and it’ll be Crossrail all the way.
Birmingham
I’m also going to Birmingham next week and this one could be difficult choice from a multiplicity of routes.
By 2019, Birmingham’s tram system and some extra trains will link a lot more parts of the city, so depending on where I’m going I might not even go through New Street station. If I’m still going to Bordesley for Birmingham City, will the worst station I’ve used recently be a better proposition and perhaps easier to get to?
But again Milton Keynes is an option.
At the southern end, Crossrail doesn’t really ease the Marylebone problem if I use Chiltern to get to Birmingham. Unless of course getting to the Bakerloo Line at Paddington is easy. The alternative might be to exit Bond Street Station on Crossrail, walk to Oxford Street station and get the Bakerloo Line to Marylebone.
Paddington
I’m always surprised that Brunel’s Great Western had such bad connections to his father’s Thames Tunnel.
Finally, with Crossrail, Paddington gets put on my list of stations that are easy to get to.
But will I actually go there or get a Reading train and change for Wales and the West there?
I think it depends on whether the new Class 800/801 trains are better than InterCity 125s!
Heathrow
Definitely a go direct and no more slogging along the Piccadilly Line.
The Anonymous Widower 