Everybody Talks on the New Buses for London
It’s true! I’ve been on one three times now and every time, I’ve had deep conversations with complete strangers.
Poeople discuss the merits of hybrid drive, the style of the seats and the joys of old Routemasters.
This can only be good, as it’s not just the past-it like me, but young kids with a life in front of them.
I think it is true to say, that the old Routemaster and the silver tube trains of the 1960s generated the same enthusiasm.
So long live good design! Or even valiant attempts at it!
Laughing All the Way to the Angel
The proposed fuel strike doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, as someone who can’t drive because of a stroke and has lost two of his nearest and dearest family in the last few years to cancer, I could claim that all of the bad news is being shared out a bit.
The strike does bring out the worst in people.
I do hope that no-one near me has stored a lethal amount of petrol in his front room and then decides to have a fag.
I’ve got a litre of goat’s milk in the fridge, which will last me three weeks. If things get tight, I can walk all the way to the Angel and because too many politicians live in Islington, the shops will be open.
My only problem is that I have a dental appointment in Notting Hill on the 4th and if the Underground runs out of electricity or the buses out of diesel, I won’t get there. But then, if that happens the country will be in total chaos, with tanker drivers the focus of everyone’s anger.
We live in interesting times.
Watching the Tube
They’re showing how they vacuum out the tube tunnels. Strangely, a few years ago those that did this job were women, now they are men. Can there be many jobs these days, where men have taken over from women?
Soon these men will be succeeded by a new Tunnel Cleaning Train made up of two old Victoria line power cars, with some carriages turned into a giant vacuum cleaner in between.
It was strange too, that the two aerial cleaners, who did the roof at Canary Wharf came from Suffolk. Strange as there aren’t many mountains in that part of England to practise on.
Bad Mathematics on the Underground
When the London Underground replaces or refurbishes an escalator, they put posters on them to amuse and inform. One says.
Twice the life. Escalators are refurbished at least twice in their lifetime.
Here’s a picture of the error, that I took later.
Bad Mathematics on the Underground
If the refurbishments make the escalator as new, surely two will treble the total lifetime.
We Need More Canning Town Stations
Canning Town station is a major interchange in East London and will be important in getting spectators to the Olympics.
The Jubilee line, two DLR lines and lots of bus routes meet there.
We need more interchanges like this in London and over the whole country for that matter. As I have said before, Hackney Downs and Hackney Central stations should be combined, with a bus station below.
Disabled and Normal Access on the Docklands Light Railway
When I was in Bank station yesterday, I noticed that there is a lift down to the Docklands Light Railway. Where it comes out at the surface, I don’t know. and it is worth an investigation. As it is foggy today, perhaps I’ll go and have a look. According to Wikipedia, the lift gets to the surface in the rectory of St. Mary Woolnoth
i should say though, that access to the DLR has greatly improved from the Northern line and now it is just one short staircase and twenty metres or so in a tunnel. There are also escalators everywhere, which is one of the reasons I didn’t use the lift. so sometimes, when they refurbish a station, like they have at Bank, they do get it right.
But this web site for Stratford International station doesn’t. Type disabled or wheel-chair into the site search engine and nothing is found. Although the station is known to be step free and if you want to transfer between the DLR and say a service to Ipswich, Southend or Dalston, it’s lifts all the way.
Why can’t people who design web sites get them right? I suspect that there’s full information on how to get to Eastfield, the Shopping Centre though!
To take the Golden Syrup picture, I travelled to West Silvertown station, which is a typical elevated DLR station, with a lift and a staircase to both platforms. Incidentally, this station has some short term parking, as many do on the DLR, so it is an ideal place to set someone on their way in a wheel-chair say and then go and find somewhere safe to leave the car for a longer time.
An Unusual Clock
Piccadilly Circus Tube station has a classic Art Deco interior. It also has this unique World Clock
World Clock at Piccadilly Circus Station
I’ve never seen another like it.
London Is Alive With the Sound of French
I don’t know why, but London this morning seemed to be full of the French. I thought it might have something to do with the rugby, but France play England in Paris on the 11th.
I was travelling to Westbourne Park station and back and both ways I had to sort out groups of French travellers, who had got lost. One thing that seems to have confused them, is that the Circle line, is no longer what it says on the tin. So experienced travellers to London, who want to get between say St. Pancras International and Victoria stations with heavy cases, get rather confused with having to change trains at Edgware Road station. The first group had been so confused they’d actually got on the westbound, rather than the eastbound they needed. I came back from Paddington and there it is more confusing, as all eastbound trains terminate at Edgware Road. The information leaves a lot to be desired.
I still haven’t found out why all the French were here, but something was up, as why would there have been a TV crew at St. Pancras.
TV Crews at St. Pancras
I think they could have been French!
How Various Nationalities Could Get to the Olympics
London has always been a multi-national and multi-cultural city, so there has always been large groups of various nationalities in various parts of the city. Where I live is just a stone’s throw away from where my French Huguenot ancestors lived and go a little bit further south and east and my Jewish ancestors could be found at the start of the 19th century. Even now, certain Caribbean groups have settled in places like Brixton,New Malden has been populated by Koreans and there’s an area of Camden with lots of Georgian restaurants. London is a complete jigsaw of nationalities.
So you can get a few mildly humorous rules about how the various nationalities might get to the Olympic Park.
The Koreans in New Malden, as do many, have an easy trip. They just take a train into Waterloo and then take the Jubilee line round to Stratford.
Remember the London Underground rule to estimate journey times; 2 minutes per station and add 5 minutes for an interchange.
The French should walk to the Park from West Ham or Hackney Wick stations, on top of the Greenway, as this walk and cycle path, sits on a major part of London’s sewerage system, which was built by a man called Joseph Bazalette, whose grandfather was French.
A few of the Russians will be very rich, so will be in VIP limos, but if they and their fellow countrymen do go by public transport, they’ll take the Olympic Javelin Shuttle from St. Pancras station. But one day they might like to go by the Central line and go a few stops past Stratford to look at Gants Hill station, which is to a design for Russia by Charles Holden. There’s some pictures I took of the station here.
The Tube
I watched the first part of this documentary about the London Underground on BBC2 last night and it was fascinating.
The thing that impressed me most, was how a very multi-racial staff acted as a coherent team and stood up so well to the hassle they got.
I shall be watching next week.
The Anonymous Widower 