Is The East London Line Big Enough For Crossrail?
Over the last couple of years, whilst the Metropolitan, Circle and District lines have been getting new larger S Stock trains, the overcrowding has been reducing and the comfort has been increasing.
Whereas two years ago, I would have never done it, nowadays, if I’m coming from say Paddington or as yesterday from Embankment in the rush hour, I’ll take a train to Whitechapel and then a short dive into the Overground for a train to Dalston Junction. Incidentally, do Transport for London have naming problem here, with the Overground passing under the Underground.
From Dalston Junction, it’s then just two stops on any of one of four bus routes, one of which is the New Bus for London equipped 38. I usually wait no longer than two minutes.
It’s not the quickest route, but it’s certainly the most comfortable way to come home and if you have a case or heavy parcel, it’s one of the easiest.
In a few years time, Crossrail will join the knitting at Whitechapel, and the interchange there between the various lines will become totally step-free or at a worst case escalators. So my trip home from Oxford Street will be Crossrail to Whitechapel and then the Overground.
But as the East London line of the Overground goes from Highbury & Islington station in the north to a large number of stations deep in the south, will the line be able to cope? I suspect, I won’t be the only person to use Crossrail as an extra Underground line.
From the end of this year the trains on the East London line are going to five cars, but will we be needing an increase in frequency from the current sixteen trains per hour through the core section through Whitechapel? Longer trains are probably ruled out by the difficulty of lengthening the platforms at some stations on the line.
London’s Secret Underground Line Is Coming Together
yesterday, I went to the Tate Modern.
It is one of those awkward journeys from here in Dalston, especially, as when I got out the 21 and 141 buses going to London Bridge station, seemed to be conspicuous by their absence.
So I decided to take a 38 to the Angel for a Northern line train to London Bridge, but when I got there, I just missed the southbound train.
In the end, as a northbound one arrived, I hopped to Kings Cross to get a Thameslink train to Blackfriars station, the new southern entrance of which is close by the Tate Modern.
Thameslink is gradually turning from a once every ten minutes or so railway, into a line with an Underground-like frequency of twenty-four trains an hour. Although, that frequency won’t be achieved until 2018 at the earliest.
But even so, the line is a good short cut across the centre of London. For example, in one of my trips, where I was searching for the Dudding Hill line, I ended up at Cricklewood, so to come home, I took a Thameslink train to London Bridge for a 141 bus home.
It might seem a roundabout route, but it minimised the walking. Especially, as the 141 bus stop is the closest to my house.
A Summary Of My Health
Doctors have always been puzzled about my health. In my early years, Dr. Egerton White struggled to find, what was wrong with the sickly child I was.
I used to miss one school term in three and it was probably the Spring Term, but as I’m relying on memory I could be wrong. I was always suffering from rhinitis, sore throats and often coughed for England. At one time, I was diagnosed with scarlet fever, but as I was the only case in London and no-one caught it from me I do wonder if it was a misdiagnosis.
Dr. White, at one point thought I had an egg allergy, but in the end I got the usual treatment of children in those days, they took my tonsils out.
Sadly, none of my medical records of those days exist, as they got lost somewhere between London, Felixstowe, where my parents had retired and Liverpool University.
But as my current doctor and I have agreed, whatever has bugged me over the years didn’t kill me as a child, so hopefully it is unlikely to kill me now!
Spending time at Felixstowe on the windy East Coast seemed to improve my health, but I still had lots of small problems like athlete’s foot, terrible dandruff, joint and foot pains and an overactive gut. I should also say that I suffering pain from my left arm, where the humerus had been broken by the school bully.
My mother’s health incidentally was generally good, but my father suffered from terrible rhinitis and catarrh, which wasn’t helped by his smoking of a pipe. His father had been similarly effected and found that the best way of coping was smoking and drink. Consequently, he died in his forties.
Moving to Liverpool for four years for university and work, seemed to dull my troubles and I can’t remember any new problems until a few years later, when I was living in a flat in London, when I started to get pains in my knee joints. One doctor recommended an operation, but luckily I decided to pass.
Things seem to get better in the mid-1970s, when my wife and I moved into an eleventh floor flat in the Barbican.
Generally, for the next thirty years or so, my health was pretty good, although my arm, where it had been broken, could be painful in hot weather. We had moved to Suffolk and generally spent a lot of time outdoors.
Then in the early years of this century, I was diagnosed as a coeliac by Addenbrookes and went gluten-free. My health changed for the better, with most of the joint pains and gut problems disappearing. But I still seemed to suffer from the odd bad Spring, although it got better, when my wife and I could afford to take luxurious winter holidays.
Then my life fell in, in that my wife of forty years died of a squamous cell carcinoma of the heart in 2007, followed by our youngest son, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2010.
My health got worse on the death of my wife, with hay-fever like symptoms at times.
I then had a serious stroke in Hong Kong, whilst on holiday. Luckily, they gave me the superduper clot-busting drug, and my brain is no worse than it ever was!
As I lay there for about three months with the sun streaming through the window, some of my old symptoms returned. Rhinitis was pouring down my throat, like it hadn’t since the 1960s and my left humerus was giving me some of the worst pain ever.
Since then, I’ve sold up in Suffolk and moved to Hackney, so that I have access to public transport.
The rhinitis is often present, usually in the Spring, and my body feels very much as it did, when I was at school. I’ve also started to get conjunctivitis in my eyes
In one instance, I collapsed and was taken to hospital. They were puzzled, but did report that I had something like water on the lung. A couple of days of oxygen and I was able to come home.
This Spring, my small problems have been getting worse, with constant wind, itchy skin and especially eye-brows. Then I was found to have a fungal infection in my toes for which Terbinafine was prescribed.
This reacts with my Warfarin, but as I test my INR daily on a meter, I’m able to keep it under control. I should be able to, as I have a Degree in Control Engineering.
One thing that seems to help cope with the muck pouring into my mouth and throat is fresh lemonade, as it scrapes the muck into my stomach. The odd glass of weak Scotch has a similar effect. At times though it all goes away and white wine tastes like white wine, rather than vinegar.
The Missing Jam
My jam and marmalade goes missing most Mondays.
The cleaners always put it in the fridge.
Does anybody else keep their jam and marmalade there?
Putting The Grim Into Grimaldi
That is part of the comment in The Times about the new biopic about Grace Kelly.
With a plot that is risible and a dialogue lost in translation, poor Nicole Kidman puts the grim into Grimaldi
That is one film, I’ll be missing.
Cats For Protection
The BBC is showing a video of a cat saving a young boy from a dog. It’s here on the Daily Mail.
But cats are strange animals and often behave in ways to get what they want.
Years ago, I often used to walk round the stables by the house to check the horses. One night, I shone a torch into the stable and saw that the horse was sitting curled up by the back wall. But the torch picked out two eyes just under his shoulder and I could see one of our ginger cats snuggled in the warmth. It wasn’t the only time I saw this and one day mentioned it to an old horse-coper, who explained it like this.
Horses don’t like mice and rats scrambling through the straw, as being flight animals small noises may make them want to flee and of course they can’t. So the horse had encouraged the cat in, to protect him from the savage rodents. He said that over the years, he’d seen several strong friendships between horses or ponies and cats.
The Harrods Of The East End
I’d never heard of Wickham’s Department Store known in East End folklore as the Harrods of the East End, until I read about the building and its troubles in Private Eye.
Note how the two parts of the building are different sizes, with an off-centre tower. All caused because the jewellers in the middle wouldn’t sell out.
If you need to know more, there’s an excellent article here.
A Double Handrail At London Bridge
I’ve been up these steps many times in the past and don’t remember the double handrail in the middle.
A Double Handrail At London Bridge
They seem to be springing up in a lot of places in London. They certainly makes the steps a lot safer. Especially for me, as my left hand isn’t the best.
A Maritime Tour Of England
My trip to Portsmouth yesterday, got me thinking.
As I waited for my train to return to London, there was a First Great Western train waiting in Portsmouth Harbour station waiting to depart to Cardiff via Bristol.
So why if you are thinking of visiting England and you’re interested in the sea and ships, why not visit England’s three western maritime cities; Portsmouth, Bristol and Liverpool? All have their main attractions close to the city centres and with the exception of Bristol, the stations are too!
Trains between Portsmouth and Bristol are every hour and take about two and a half hours and those between Bristol and Liverpool have the same frequency but take just over three hours.
So it is feasible to perhaps start your trip in London and then spend say two or three days in each city. Remember that Portsmouth and Bristol are near to excellent beaches for swimming and sunbathing and Liverpool is near to the amazing beach at Formby with its statues by Antony Gormley.
After Liverpool, you might carry on to Newcastle or Glasgow for a maritime theme or take the flight home from either Liverpool or Manchester airports.
As all cities are to the west, the weather is more likely to be sunny and warm, than some other places I could mention. The weather in Portsmouth yesterday was supposed to be of cloud and rain, but I ended in the sun all day.
Two things would improve your trip.
Some rail companies allow you to break your journey, provided you keep going in the same direction. So for instance, between Portsmouth and Bristol, you might like to break your journey at Salisbury for lunch.
But if you do, I suspect there’s no Left Luggage facilities at the station.
As to hotels, you would obviously pay your money and take your choice. I think that in each city, there are ones at all prices in the city centres or by the stations.
Remember if you’re over sixty, you can buy a Senior Railcard for a third off rail fares. If you are someone, who can stick to a timetable, the three tickets linking London, Portsmouth, Bristol and Liverpool, booked in advance over the Internet will probably cost around £30 each leg or £20 with a Railcard.
Judging by the number of foreign tourists, that I meet on trains, this type of holiday is getting much more common.
Why We Shouldn’t Mine Coal
I’m sixty-seven this year and all my life, every year or so, I’ve heard reports of the deaths of coal miners.
Now today, there are reports of a serious mine disaster in Turkey.
When I was in Poland, I shared a train compartment with a lady going to Katowice. I remember the city for a mining disaster in the 1950s, which was nearby.
Isn’t it about time, we stopped mining the filthy stuff, as it just creates grief for the miners and their families? And of course there’s always the issue of global warming.
The Anonymous Widower 