Marylebone To N1
I went to Birmingham to do a few things including collecting all my brass-coloured IKEA knobs.
I used Chiltern Trains both ways as with all these winds about, they were unlikely to suffer electrical problems on a non-electrified railway.
I also bought my replacement phone in the Bull Ring by the station and sorted it out on the train home, using the free power and wi-fi. Not that I was able to connect with my replacement sim, as O2 had made a mistake entering it into their system.
To get home to N1 from Marylebone isn’t theeasiest journey, especially as it was the rush hour.
So I asked one of the experts on the gate and virtually gave the reply, that if you want to get there, you don’t start from here. He regularly went to Hackney Wick to see his sister, so he did have good personal knowledge.
In the end, I hopped one stop on the Bakerloo line and then took the Metropolitan to Whitechapel station before taking the Overground to Dalston Junction for a bus down the Balls Pond Road.
There must be a better way.
The Tfl Journey Planner recommends going to Highbury and Islington via Oxford Circus and then getting the Overground back to Dalston Junction. That was my other route, but it does show how badly Hackney is connected to the Underground and the useless routes of the Bakerloo and the Bank branch of the Northern line.
Thinking about it, perhaps a better way would be to get the Bakerloo line to Regents Park station and then get a 30 bus to close to my house. But you wouldn’t use that route in the rush hour!
Even the proposed Crossrail 2 wouldn’t help as it doesn’t link to the Bakerloo line!
Crossrail might though, as it would be one stop to Paddington on the Bakerloo and then on to Moorgate for a 141 bus.
Bob Crow Looks After The East End
The Tube Strike today, is a pain to many Londoners. But I’ve just been to Canary Wharf and back and things didn’t seem that crowded.
I even changed at Shadwell, which is Bob Crow‘s birthplace, from the Overground to the DLR, with no hassle whatsoever. So perhaps he’s making sure the strike doesn’t affect his part of London very much!
But then, Hackney doesn’t have any Underground lines. And probably never will, as the powers that be, think if you give the plebs in Hackney one, they’ll only want another!
Tube Strikes And Cashless Buses
London for the next two days will suffer a Tube strike, about the closing of ticket offices and putting more staff in station lobbies and on platforms. New technology means that very few people need the ticket offices and the space could be better used for other purposes like retail.
Yesterday, London buses announced that they would no longer accept cash on buses from the summer. I would have thought that the Unions would have objected to this, as surely there must be job losses in those handling the cash. Or are the unions concerned with buses, in favour of a better service for all Londoners, whereas those on the Tube, are just out to do a King Canute and turn back the tide of new technology.
I suspect, every rail company in the UK, can’t wait for the day when Bob Crow retires!
Riding The Drain For The First Time
Surprisingly, I’d never ridden on the Waterloo and City Line (a.k.a. The Drain) until today.
Normally, it’s closed on a Sunday, but to help out the Northern line, TfL were running it today.
I must be the first Londoner, who first rode the Drain in his sixties on a Sunday.
When I used it today, I just walked up the travelator to the surface, up a few steps and along Princes Street and I was at the stop for the 141 bus to take me home.
I do hope that the Drain is going to be run to a similar schedule to the rest of the Underground, as getting to and from Waterloo isn’t the easiest of journeys from Dalston.
I’ll probably use the line again in the future!
From Canary Wharf To Walthamstow Central
On a quick examination, Canary Wharf and Walthamstow Central, are both important transport hubs in their parts of London and probably there is significant commuter traffic between the two stations.
After my trip on the cable car, I took the Jubilee line to Canary Wharf, where I had a coffee.
After looking at some other things, I found I was running a bit late for lunch in Walthamstow.
I suspect the fastest way is usually to take the Jubilee line to Green Park and then change to the Victoria line. Using my mother’s rule on seventeen stations and one change gives 39 minutes. but there was one flaw, the Jerrylee line wasn’t running past Waterloo. At least, I wouldn’t have to walk miles in the tunnels at Green Park.
The obvious choice seemed to be to take a DLR or the Jerrylee line to Stratford and then get a bus. I chose the DLR, as I was nearer, and after a few minutes wait, I was on my way.
It was then that I made the wrong choice. The first bus to arrive was a 257, which treated me to a mystery tour of Leyton and parts of Epping Forest.
When I arrived late at my lunch, I’d taken quite a bit over an hour.
So what does the Tfl Journey Planner say?
It did suggest one all Underground route via London Bridge and Kings Cross, which was fourteen stations and two changes. Or 38 minutes according to my mother!
the others suggested were verging on the exotic, in that they generally involved taking a Central line train to Leyton or Leytonstone and then getting a bus. One even suggested getting off the bus and taking the Overground.
I think all of this illustrates the problem of going north and south in East London, unless you can use the Northern line or the East London line.
Crossrail might improve the journey a bit, as you should be able to reach Bond Street a minute or two quicker. But will the change to the Victoria line, require superhuman stamina?
What might help though, is if the services to Walthamstow are improved, when the Lea Valley lines come under the control of the London Overground. If the Hall Farm Curve is rebuilt, services from Walthamstow to Stratford could be of the order of twelve minutes, giving a time of Canary Wharf to Walthamstow Central of about twenty five minutes.
Tfl have the figures for the traffic, but surely creating a good service between Chingford via Walthamstow to Stratford would relieve the Victoria line, by giving those in Waltham Forest, an alternative route to Central London.
TfL haven’t published any plans for the Lea Valley lines and I’m waiting to see what they propose. If I judge them on the current Overground, it’ll have a few surprises and innovations.
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.
The Anonymous Widower 