Looks Like It Was Modelled On A Steel Urinal Stolen From The Gents In A Flat-Roofed Pub
This pithy comment was put in the comments of The Times for an article on the Tesla Cybertruck.
I once saw a Hummer on the road in London, but Tesla’s monstrosity would be a lot worse.design.
The Cybertruck is certainly a design crime!
A Design Crime – Marks And Spencer’s New Paper Carrier Bag
This article on the BBC is entitled Marks & Spencer Scraps Plastic For Paper Bags.
This is the sub-heading.
Marks & Spencer is swapping plastic carrier bags for paper ones in all stores, in an expansion of a trial that began in 10 branches in January.
These two paragraphs give a few reasons.
It follows other High Street stores in swapping plastic bags to paper in a bid to cut plastics use.
Supermarkets Morrisons, Waitrose and Aldi all use paper bags for customers, though some stores offer plastic bags as an option.
But the proof of the bag is in the using.
This picture shows the new bag.
It’s main problem is unlike the plastic bags, it is a nightmare to fold.
I could also fold the plastic bags, so they went in the pocket of my Barbour jacket.
I have searched my house for some of the green plastic bags to use in the future.
Conclusion
Three out of ten!
A Design Crime – Platform-To-Train Access On The Northern Line At Bank Station
These four pictures show the platform-to-train access on the Northern Line at Bank station.
Note.
- The first two pictures are the new Southbound platform.
- The last two pictures are the Northbound platform.
- The other pictures show the wide and level walkways between the two platforms.
The Southbound platform has level platform-to-train access, but the old Northbound platform does not!
That constitutes a design crime in my book.
It’s Time To Detopsify Stratford Station
Stratford Station has grown like Topsy for too long and has several problems and possible future expansions.
Not least of these include.
- The final arrival of Crossrail.
- A direct connection to Chingford.
- A Stansted Express service.
- Massive housing developments in the area.
- More hotels
- New cultural developments like the branch of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
- A new campus for University College London.
This article on IanVisits is entitled Stratford Station Set For Massive Transformation.
This is his opening paragraph.
Stratford station could be radically redeveloped under plans being worked on by the rail companies and local council.
That is rather understated!
The station will become several times busier and needs a complete rethink, many more services and deTopsification.
These are my thoughts.
The Development Of The High Meads Loop
The High Meads Loop exists and is a double-track loop that can turn trains arriving at Stratford station via Lea Bridge station.
- It is underneath the Eastfield Shopping Centre – Westfield is in the West of London.
- Each track of the loop has its own long platform in the station. – Platform 11 is for clockwise trains and Platform 12 is for anti-clockwise.
- It has been used in the past for a Stansted Express service.
The Wirral Line in Liverpool like the High Meads Loop is now a modern loop for turning trains.
- The Wirral Loop is only single-track.
- It gives connections for over thirty stations on the Wirral and in Cheshire and North Wales to Liverpool City Centre.
- It is run by fifty-year-old Class 507 and Class 508 trains.
- The loop has now been improved and can handle upwards of the fourteen trains per hour (tph) it currently does.
Merseyrail will soon be introducing new Class 777 trains on the Wirral Line in the near future and will be increasing services and the number of destinations.
British Rail’s vision for Liverpool, that was cruelly cut-short by Liverpool MP; Harold Wilson, is finally coming to fruition.
Newcastle also got its British Rail tunnel which is now being used by the Metro, but what would have happened in Manchester if British Rail had been allowed to build the Picc-Vic Tunnel?
I have a strong belief, that a Lea Valley Metro can be developed on the West Anglia Main Line.
- It would have two Southern terminals – Liverpool Street station and the High Meads Loop at Stratford.
- When it opens, Crossrail will mean that Liverpool Street and Stratford stations will be seven or eight minutes apart with a frequency of at least 12 tph.
- Northern terminals would include Broxbourne, Cheshunt, Chingford, Enfield Town and Hertford East.
- Crossrail 2 was planned to have a frequency of 10 and 15 tph between Tottenham Hale and Broxbourne stations.
I believe that if services in East London are thoroughly reorganised, that all the benefits of Crossrail 2 can be brought to East London by the use of the High Meads Loop and the upgrading of existing lines.
Stansted Express Services
Go to Stratford station and there is an out-of-date sign at the end of Platform 1 and 2, where the Overground trains terminate.
It directs passengers to Platform 12 for Stansted Airport.
The picture was taken in 2017, but there is still a walk-through to Platform 12, that I use regularly, if I’m changing between London Overground and Greater Anglia or TfL Rail services to destinations on both the West Anglia or Great Eastern Main Lines.
I believe that there is still a need for a Stansted Express services from Stratford, as for some people, including myself, it is easier to get to Stratford, than Liverpool Street.
From some places the connections to and from Stansted are not very good. Try going between London Bridge, Canterbury, Euston, Victoria or Waterloo and Stansted with a few mobility issues like a heavy suitcase and/or a baby, without a degree in Ducking-and-Diving!
An additional Stansted Express service from Stratford would make things a lot easier to get to the airport for many travellers, because of Stratford’s connections to the Central, Jubilee and North London Lines and SouthEastern’s Highspeed services.
Better Connection Between High Speed One And The High Meads Loop For Passengers
Some passenger connections are missing at Stratford.
This is indicated in the IanVisits article.
This map from cartometro.com shows the Topsy-like nature of the platforms at Stratford.
Note.
- The Docklands Light Railway is shown in turquoise.
- The DLR platforms in the North-West corner of the map are those of Stratford International station.
- High Speed One and the four platforms of Stratford International station are shown in black.
- The North London Line of the London Overground is shown in orange.
- The North London Line terminates in Platforms 1 and 2, which have a level link to Platform 12.
- Platform 12 is on the anti-clockwise platform for the High Meads Loop and has step-free access to the subway system underneath the station.
- Platform 11 is on the clockwise platform for the High Meads Loop and has level access to Platform 10a and full step-free access,
- Platform 10a is used by some services to East Anglia.
- Crossrail is shown in blue.
- The Central Line is shown in red.
- The Jubilee Line is shown in silver.
It is not the best passenger-friendly station layout.
- Inevitability, you often find yourself trudging a long way at Stratford station.
- Changing to or from any high speed services is supremely difficult.
- Often you have to walk through the busy Eastfield Shopping Centre.
Particularly annoying for me is coming back from Kent on High Speed One and needing to take the North London Line, as I do several times a year.
As it involves a long walk through the Shopping Centre, I now take the easy way out and carry on to St. Pancras and get a taxi home.
As Stratford International is one of the draughtiest stations in England, the station is a real Design Crime and it needs a serious makeover.
Conclusion
Sort it!
Why Did WordPress Do That?
I was happily editing a post, when in the middle of typing a sentence, WordPress swapped me to the awful block editor.
How do I get rid of this load of crap?
I downloaded the classic editor plugin. How do I install it?
I thought the covids were worse, but this is much worse. All my posts are now unable to be edited.
A Design Crime – Pedestrian Chaos At London Bridge
To get home from London Bridge station, I usually get the 141 bus in the station, or if I’m walking along the riverside, I get a 21 or 141 bus from the stop at the Southern side of the bridge.
There is now, no stop on the bridge, so it meant walking nearly to Bank station to get a bus. Not everybody of my age could manage that!
I hope the pea-brained idiot, who designed the current scheme at London Bridge, with no bus stops in either direction has been given his marching orders.
I know that for COVID-19 and wannabe terrorists something must be done, but surely one of the bus-stops in each direction should be working.
I suspect, it was designed by the same idiot, who decided to close the important Waterloo and City Line.
The Mayor won’t care, as he’s a South Londoner.
A Design Crime – The Average Smoke Detector
On Saturday Evening, the smoke detector in my bedroom decided to go off.
I was able to silence it about three times, but it refused to go off permanently.
I then decided to take it down, by standing on the bed.
Unfortunately, I slipped and broke the detector.
It is not the first altercation, I have had with the cheap and nasty smoke detectors in this house, which were probably bought in Istanbul market for a few pence.
- In my view, there is a need for a superior type of smoke detector wired into a building in a better way.
- It should be possible to replace a failed detector, like I had on Saturday in a simple operation without any tools.
- There should also be a master switch in the house, that switches off all the smoke detectors.
- Instructions on how to deal with the smoke detectors in case of failure should be in an obvious place in the house, like on the door of the meter cupboard.
Smoke detectors are too important, to be designed down to the cheapest possible station and most are a true design crime.
A Design Crime Of A Bus Livery
This bus livery must be the worst I’ve seen and it does appear sometimes, that designers are looking to design the worst they can.
I didn’t have any idea what it was advertising.
A Design Crime At West Hampstead Thameslink Station
I almost laughed, when I saw this extension.
It’s the sort of building put up on industrial sites, where planning rules don’t apply.
Dwell Times And End Doors
Chris Stokes finishes his column in the January 2019 Edition of Modern Railways, with this paragraph.
Dwell times remain critical too. The new TransPennine units provide more seats, but have single end doors. For an operation with high numbers joining and alighting at many stops, dwell times are going to increase significantly at stations such as Manchester Victoria, Huddersfield, Leeds, Boltonand Preston, chewing up any savings in running times, and exacerbating the problems at platforms 13 and 14 at Manchester Piccadilly.
I haven’t seen a TransPennine Mark 5A coach in the flesh yet, but I’ve seen several pictures, which show each coach has single end doors.
This picture of the 100 mph Class 755 train shows the door layout is totally different.
It looks like it has a single double door on each coach.
It appears that the electric Class 745 trains have more doors.
If you look at a typical Bombardier Aventra or Electrostar, Stadler Flirt or Siemens Desiro City, there are generally no end doors.
Have CAF commited a design crime of the highest order?
Or is it TransPennine’s fault?
The Anonymous Widower 