Step-Free Access To The Underground
Coming back from Kings Cross station tonight, I took the indirect route using the Circle line to Moorgate station and then getting a 141 bus from just outside the station to just round the corner from my house.
The reason was that I had a heavy parcel of bedding, I’d bought in John Lewis and my normal change to the bus home at either Angel or Highbury and Islington stations would have meant crossing a major road.
Although I’m not in any way disabled, sometimes I do find that my left hand is a bit gammy and it is better to take an easier route, with escalators, lifts or right-handed staircases. For this reason, I know a lot of the best routes to get around London.
As I went through the gate at Kings Cross, the staff were chatting about step-free access and how difficult it will be to put in at some stations. I said that I think we’ll be finding some innovative engineering solutions used in some stations.
I know that inclined lifts are going to be used on Crossrail, but when I got home I found that at Greenford station, London Underground is going to get its first inclined lift. There’s more here on the Crossrail web site.
I think we’ll see a lot more of these, especially at stations, where there are three escalator positions, but the middle one has never been installed to save money.
The great advantage of inclined lifts is that in these stations, they can be installed without any digging or disruption to the station during the installation process.
I also think that buses have a large part to play in step free access.
As I said, I often plot my routes around London to avoid difficult stations or interchanges. For instance, I don’t change at Green Park station, as although it has lifts and is step free, you can walk miles between trains. Kings Cross too, is a bit of an Underground maze. Often though, the best route is to go to an easier station and then get a bus.
But not all stations have easy access from the trains to the buses and vice-versa like London Bridge, Euston and Victoria.
It may improve the lot of passengers and especially those who are disabled to improve the bus/Tube interface, as it will mean that some difficult stations can be bypassed.
I want lots more step free access to stations, but lets see if we can have innovative and more affordable solutions, that allow more stations to be given the full treatment.
The Two-Minute Rule On The Jubilee Line
This poster illustrates the two minute rule superbly.
The Two-Minute Rule On The Jubilee Line
Stanmore station takes 39 minutes from London Bridge station and that is nineteen stations, which is roughly two minutes a station.
I wonder when these time diagrams were introduced.
I Like This Advert
The London Underground has more many decades been famed for its posters, graphics and art.
I Like This Advert
Their own adverts are usual better than companies and organisations that pay for them. I do feel too that some shouldn’t be allowed to advertise.
I Don’t Like This Advert
I don’t think any religious or quasi-religious adverts should be allowed, with the possible exception of charities that do good work, like the Salvation Army or Christian Aid. But Scientology should definitely not be allowed.
Apparently, they are having a media blitz according to this article in Wired magazine. Here’s the first paragraph.
The Church of Scientology is in the midst of a multi-million dollar media campaign that includes running ads on news sites, satellite dish networks, 37 cable stations, and even Wired.com — a blitz that seems to have not so much won new friends or influenced people as stir up more animosity towards the group many consider nothing more than a greedy cult.
I was pleased to read this, as the last bit is my view of this scientifically-incorrect movement.
I certainly won’t be watching a Tom Cruise film. In fact, I don’t think I ever have. Nicole Kidman is another matter though!
Green Lanes Ventilation Station
The picture shows the ventilation station on the Piccadilly line between Manor House and Turnpike Lane stations.
Green Lanes Ventilation Station
Note that it actually looks like a station, although its purpose is only ventilation. According to Wikipedia, it was intended to be a station.
It was also planned to build a station between Manor House and Turnpike Lane at the junction of Green Lanes and St Ann’s Road in Harringay, but this was stopped by Frank Pick, who felt that the bus and tram service at this point was adequate. However, a ‘Ventilation station’, in similar architectural style to tube stations of the time was provided at the site, and is visible today.
But all we have today is the ventilation station!
Frank Pick’s assertion about the buses and trams probably doesn’t hold today, as although the 29s and 141s are fairly numerous, they can get crowded.
The gaps between stations is long too and there is a plan to move Manor House station to the Victoria line and build a new station underneath Harringay Green Lanes station. I doubt it will happen in the near future. If ever!
Moorgate Gets Ready To Welcome Steam Trains
On Sunday, London s celebrating one hundred and fifty years of the Underground.
Moorgate Gets Ready To Welcome Steam Trains
A steam train will run through to Moorgate from Kensington Olympia.
Irene’s Law – Estimating Tube Journey Times
I may have talked of this before.
If you want to get an estimate of how long a journey will take on the London Underground, you count the number of stations and multiply by two, before adding five for every interchange.
That is then an estimate in minutes as to how long a journey will take.
My mother and I used to do quite a few long journeys on the Tube and it may have been something that she developed to keep me interested in the journey. We certainly always played lots of mental arithmetic games all the time. But then she’d been a comptometer operator at Reeve’s in Dalston and that was a job all about memory and mental and manual dexterity.
Incidentally, with the introduction of the Harry Beck map for the Tube, the counting became a lot easier, so was this law something that evolved as people learned to use the new map?
Incidentally, most of our journeys were up and down the Piccadilly line, where because it is long with lots of stations, the rule will work pretty well.
The rule seems to work for the DLR and the Overground too!
Wish Me Luck!
I’m leaving soon to go to Charlton to see Ipswich play.
How I’ll get there I’m not sure of at present, as ASLEF are having their usual Christmas party, a day late.
I think if London had a referendum on driverless trains, there’d only be one result.
What A Load Of Old Rubbish!
This sculpture is by Canning Town station.
What A Load Of Old Rubbish!
But it does have a rather unusual charm.
Canning Town Has A Flying Rat Problem
I photographed this mess at Canning Town station.
Canning Town Has A Flying Rat Problem
They need to get the eagle out to deal with the flying rats. A wash and brush-up would be helpful too!
Sex On The Underground
What would Mary Whitehouse have thought about these two posters at Angel station?
On the other hand, who’s to know what Mr. and Mrs. Whitehouse got up to in the privacy of their own home.
I’m a bit surprised that the web site sexytimesRus.com is using that URL. Perhaps, they are expecting to be sued, so they get a lot of free publicity.
The Anonymous Widower 