TfL’s Big Problem For 2015
look at this map for the London Overground.
TfL’s Big Problem For 2015
When the Lea Valley Lines come under the control of TfL in 2015, it’s going to give them a terrible problem about how they incorporate them into the maps.
But that’s only the start, as Crossrail will appear in 2018. But that has already shown on a map.
The picture shows the short-lived Lego version at Kings Cross station, this summer.
they’ve also got the problem of what to call Crossrail, if they do change the name. there has been some talk of calling it the Queen Elizabeth line, by such as Boris Johnson. I suspect, it’ll be called Crossrail or something similar like Across or EastWest line, if Boris doesn’t get his way.
If we called it Across, then Crossrail 2 could be called the Diagnonal line!
Of all the wonderful feats I have performed, I think yesterday I performed the most wonderful. I produced unanimity among 15 men who were all quarrelling about that most ticklish subject — taste
I think Brunel would have loved this problem, judging by this quote from the engineer.
It’s not a problem, I would like to have to solve.
The TfL Journey Planner Knows Best
Yesterday, I went to see Ipswich at Bournemouth, who play within walking distance of Pokesdown station.
That area is served from Waterloo, and if there is a difficult station to get to from Dalston, it is Waterloo. In fact it’s difficult for anybody, who doesn’t start their journey on the Bakerloo line, Jubilee line or some parts of the Northern line. I usually use a bus or buses to get to the station, or bypass it totally and pick up the train from Clapham Junction, after getting there on the Overground.
But, yesterday, I thought, I’d see what the TfL journey Planner recommended.
It recommended taking the Overground from Dalston Junction to Canada Water station, and then using the Jubilee line to get across to Waterloo.
It seemed a bit of a roundabout way, but it does appear to be quickest.
Whilst waiting for my Overground train, I told a driver, waiting for his train to arrive, what the Journey Planner had recommended.
He was as surprised as I was!
One of the other things about the Overground/Jubilee route, is that it is step-free, at all stations.
Crossrailed Yet Again!
Coming back from St.Pancras today, I took my normal route of the Circle line to Moorgate to get a 141 or 21 bus home.
When I left on Sunday, the buses were running their normal route, but coming home, they were on diversion because of Crossrail. The display was showing a bus was due, but if I had waited until September, I have frozen to death before one arrived,
So it was back into the Underground to take the Northern line and see if I could cut one off at the pass opposite Moorfields.
When I got there, it was showing twelve minutes wait, but one arrived in two.
So I was lucky.
Why don’t they divert the buses permanently until Crossrail is finished with digging up Moorgate?
I’m sure, I wouldn’t be the only one, who would be very pleased!
Did Nelson Mandela Cause Underground Problems?
This notice was displayed in Bond Street station today.
Did Nelson Mandela Cause Underground Problems?
In its own way this humble notice is a tribute to the former South African President and his popularity and legacy.
Roll On Crossrail
Yesterday was a day, when Crossrail would have been more than handy.
I went to Exeter to see an old friend and his wife and had booked myself out of Paddington on the 09:07 train.
From Hackney, getting to Paddington is not easy and I usually take the Metropolitan line to the western end of the station and walk in to the trains from the bridge. Since the new Underground station has been built, this is the easiest way to get a train for Wales and West.
Paddington station for me also presents a gluten-free breakfast problem, in that there is nowhere I would trust in the station. So I took a bus to Kings Cross station, where there is both Leon and Carluccio’s, who both do excellent gluten-free breakfasts. Yesterday, it was Leon’s turn and I left myself thirty seven minutes to get to Paddington, after finishing my egg, chorizo and beans.
But that was my downfall, as there was signalling problems on the Metropolitan line and the trains were very infrequent and crammed solid.
So I tried a taxi and the queue was hundreds long and there wasn’t a taxi in sight.
In the end I found a bus to take me up to Euston Square station, where after a wait, I got on a train to Paddington.
But I missed the train by about five minutes.
Normally, the journey takes ten minutes from Kings Cross to Paddington, but it had taken me forty-five. The Metropolitan line, which is normally one of the most reliable had let me down.
It’s on journeys like this, that Crossrail will really benefit people like me, who live in the eastern part of the capital.
I should have a choice of buses to various Crossrail stations, or I could even take the Overground to Whitechapel from Dalston Junction station, just up the road from my house.
Crossrail is going to change the east of London dramatically and not just the places, which have a station on the line.
London Underground Goes Bilingual
There is not much bilingual signage in London. So I was surprised to see this.
London Underground Goes Bilingual
I must check, if the machines have instructions in various languages.
The Closing Of Underground Ticket Offices
The unions will have a field year of disruption over the closure of all ticket offices on the Underground, as is reported here in the Standard.
But the Underground must move on, and another story in the paper is more important, which reports that London tourism will be worth £77billion by 2025. This is a rise of over £30billion from today’s figure.
Many of these tourists will require help in the Underground, so those staff displaced from the closed ticket offices, will be needed in the stations and on the platforms.
I think the unions have a choice here; create some of biggest strikes we’ve ever seen or negotiate proper conditions for staff working overnight and outside of the ticket offices.
More Hot Air For Bunhill
During Open House in September, I visited the Bunhill Energy Centre, which provides heat and power for homes in Islington.
There are now reports like this one on ITV, that they will be taking in the waste heat from the Underground and an electricity sub-station. I would assume the latter is the massive one between the Regent’s Canal and City Road, that provides power to the City of London.
Perhaps they should build a centre like Bunhill close to the Houses of Parliament to heat homes n Westminster!
I Choose The wrong Way Home
I regularly have supper near Oxford Circus station, just as I did tonight.
To come back, I have a myriad number of ways.
1. I can take a 73 bus virtually all the way or change at the Angel for a 30, 38 or 56, which stop closer to my house. I use this route, when I’ve got a big parcel from John Lewis, as the 3 stop, is right outside the front door of the store.
2. I can take the Central line to Bank station and then take a 21, 76 or 141 bus.
3. A similar route is to go to St. Paul’s station and then a 56 bus.
4. I can take the Victoria line to Highbury and Islington station and then take a 30 or 277 bus.
5. Another route is to take Victoria lie to Kings Cross and then take a 30 bus to home.
On the other hand, one of the advantages of Kondon’s transport system, is that there are innumerable ways of getting from A to B.
The number of routes seems to keep growing.
Tonight, I tried to get home, using route 2, but there had been an accident, so the buses had virtually stopped running.
It was a very wrong choice.
In the end, I took a 43 to the Angel and theb git a 56 ti my house.
Welcome To Kings Cross
I started my trip to Blackpool, yesterday by going to St. Pancras station for breakfast at Carluccio’s, as because of its location it opens early at 7:30 am on every day except Sunday, when it is ninety minutes later.
So to catch the 10:30 train out of Euston to go north for Preston and Blackpool, it is convenient pit stop, as there is nothing but gluten-rich food at Euston. And also at Kings Cross, there is Leon, so journeys to the north for me, nearly always go through the station.
But it was very heartening to be greeted at the gate of the Underground by “Come on the Tractor Boys!” from one of the station staff. So it wasn’t busy, but one of the things that marks out the London Underground above most systems in the rest of the world, is the help, guidance and jokes from station staff.
It all makes the system go round easily!
The Anonymous Widower 