Am I Bothered?
Look at this picture of a Congestion Charge sign.
Congestion Charge Sign
And this parking ticket machine.
Parking Ticket Machine
But then look at this picture of the traffic as I approached the West End on one of the few means of transport still available to me, my feet.
Traffic in the West End
So am I bothered? Not in the least, as I can still walk, use buses, the Underground and other trains and where it is more convenient or a cost saving, I can even use a black cab!
Born 1967, Still Going Strong
I took this picture of the door plate on a Victoria Line train yesterday.
Victoria Line Train Door Plate
Note the date of 1967, which says that the train was built in that year.
Or it was originally intended to, although the plate on the other side of the carriage said 1972. In fact, on the train I took from King’s Cross to Highbury and Islington, there was a mixture of 1967s and 1972s. I doubt it matters, but I do like to see the age of my train!
It is rather sad, but all new trains now seem to be undated.
A Pointless Strike
The London Underground strike is totally pointless as it is trying to protect booking office staff, who because of the new ticketing systems, have little to do anyway.
Boris hohnson said this.
We need to take account of the fact that some ticket offices are now selling fewer than 10 tickets an hour. We need to liberate staff to get out on to the platforms and concourses where they can be of most use to the travelling public.
I’m afraid that this won’t be the last strike, where new technology is threatening to get rid of jobs or redeploy people.
Reflections on My Journey to Scotland
In my Modern Railways for October, which I bought in Doncaster, there was an heretic article by Chris Stokes, asking if we really needed HS2 or the High Speed Line to the North, which would go to just Birmingham at first. He described it as a vanity project.
Twelve months ago, I was a sceptic on whether we needed a High Speed Line to the North, mainly because I didn’t think it would do anything for anybody in East Anglia where I lived. If I needed to get to the North, I wanted a fast line from somewhere I could drive to easily like Peterborough.
But when it was announced that the route would be to Birmingham in the last days of the disastrous NuLabor experiment, I warmed to it a bit, although I did think it needed to go via Heathrow. I also thought very much that it was a Nimby’s charter.
But Chris’s article has now turned me back to very much a sceptic. Competition being what it is, his argument, that unless you virtually close down the West Coast and Chiltern Birmingham services, no-one will pay a premium to go from London to the Midland’s premier city. My son incidentally always goes by Virgin and has never thought about using Chiltern, as Euston is on the same Underground Line as where he lives.
Chris also argues, that the amount of First Class traffic will decrease due to austerity, good housekeeping and modern technology removing the need to travel. Some years ago, I installed a Management Information System in a company, which was web-friendly and even allowed the computer-phobic CEO to find out how the company was doing from any computer in the world. But also, the modern traveller will become First Class smart and book it when and where they need it. So if you think there is a premium market that saves a few minutes, forget it!
Put simply, a lawyer say going to Birmingham from London for the day, will choose his route and class dependent on what is best for his needs. Hopefully, when I move to London, it will be in walking distance of Canonbury. Who’s to say that in 2015, someone isn’t running an express to say Milton Keynes, Coventry and Birmingham from Stratford and East London on the North London Line and possibly the Primrose Hill Tunnel?
So what will happen to lines to the North, if we don’t build HS2 on schedule? We’ll get the usual whining, we always get when the investment is cut, but let’s look at the reality of what will happen!
We now have two good and pretty reliable and fast train lines from London to the North of England and Scotland. I was told on my trip to to Inverness that it should be possible to be some minutes under four hours from Edinburgh to London. This compares with a fastest journey now of about four hours twenty minutes, although Operation Peppercorn is aiming for the magic four hours flat for the fastest trains with a stop at Newcastle. Glasgow to London by comparison is now about four hours and twenty minutes. Many of my Scottish friends say this is fast enough to mean they won’t bother to fly to London, as airport checks and delays are getting worse and they can use phones and laptops on the trains.
If there is a problem with the two stiles of a possible ladder reaching up the United Kingdom, is that some of the interfaces to other lines are poor. But the basics and some of the rungs of the ladder are already in place.
There are a succession of large stations on both lines, such as Peterborough, Crewe, Doncaster, York and Newcastle, which can be developed into easy change stations to other places. As I said earlier, Doncaster isn’t bad and I think Peterborough is going to be developed and hopefully linked to the nearby shopping centre, but a lot of work needs to be done.
As I rode out of Edinburgh towards Inverness, I was impressed to see that electrification has started to link Edinburgh and Glasgow. As it is trains now run every fifteen minutes and most take just fifty to link Scotland’s two capitals. I suspect that this will become a very important link between the two fast lines, not only because of level cross-platform interchange from the South to local trains, but also because full electrification would allow fast direct trains from Glasgow to York and Edinburgh to Liverpool. Taking the first journey, my road atlas estimates that at four hours ten minutes, which compares with about four hours by train now with two changes and two different companies. I estimate that something like a Pendelino could do this journey direct with perhaps just a stop at Newcastle in about three hours fofty-five minutes. Who would back against, Peppercorn 2, squeezing more minutes out of the East Coast Line.
A similar situation could exist between Newcastle, York and Doncaster in the East and Manchester, Liverpool and Preston in the West, by expanding and electrifying the TransPennine network. Edinburgh to Sheffield is a journey that uses either a direct diesel service or a change to TranPennine at Newcastle. If TransPennine was a level change at Newcastle from one fast electric to another, there would be a much better service.
London too has a strong link across, although as I said Euston is not a welcoming station, but when you’ve got three world-class stations in Kings Cross, St. Pancras and Euston, as you will have, an innovative transport solution along Euston Road could surely be achieved. For a start let’s have a proper walking route a hundred metres or so north of Euston Road, with cafes and shops. But I’m certain that people should be encouraged to take the Metropolitan Line rather than the Victoria or Northern. Perhaps we need a moving walkway! Euston is supposed to be being developed and also be a terminal for HS2. If the latter does happen, there will be a lot of grief and opposition in that area of London. That development, whether it incorporates HS2 or not, will divert rail passengers to other routes, such as Chiltern for Birmingham and East Coast for Scotland.
There is also another link that might be brought into use, especially if Euston has to be partially closed to traffic, whilst it is rebuilt. That is the link to Manchester out of St. Pancras, which was used reasonably successfully as Operation Rio during the West Coast Main Line upgrade. I’ve always argued that this should have stayed in place, as it interfaces well with the A14 at Wellingborough for those going from East Anglia to the North Midlands,Sheffield and ultimately Manchester.
So what’s missing?
As I found going to Scunthorpe, it’s not what’s missing in this case, but what’s still here; Pacers. All of these links to the two stiles of the ladder must be upgraded to the standard of the diesel trains, I used in Scotland. And where possible, they should link easily to the fast services. I think that this will happen, but in some ways it depends on a strong electrification program to release suitable diesel units.
The real problem though is the lack of a full East-West route between say Peterborough and Birmingham or perhaps Milton Keynes and Stevenage or Cambridge. The Peterborough to Nuneaton route is being upgraded for frieght and passenger trains between the two towns take seventy-five minutes. So it would look like that route could be another rung in the ladder. The other route is the possible Oxford-Cambridge Line, which could be built, if funds were made avaialable.
I believe strongly that the two route ladder offers advantages over just building a speculative line from South to North, which would cost several times the amount needed to build the two route ladder.
For example, as electrification progresses, subsidiary lines like Birmingham to Bristol could be further improved, so that more and more people had less than two hour access to the main network. More rungs could be opened up, by any company that feel there was a niche to be filled.
So should HS2 be built? I think that one day it might be built, so we must safeguard the route, so that at some future date it could be added as another part of the network.
If Beeching made one big mistake it was not in making sure that abandoned rail lines were able to be rebuilt. How many lines hastily abandoned in the 1960s are needed now? But perhaps it would mean knocking down a hundred or so houses and a Tesco’s!
Welcome to Euston
I arrived at Euston on time at about a quarter to eight!
It was clean, neat and tidy, but really it is not the most welcoming of stations. Perhaps, it is if you are going a few miles in a taxi, but I was going to Kings Cross for a train to Cambridge. On a good day, I’d have walked and possibly had breakfast, in one of the few stations in the world, that can call itself a destination in its own right; St. Pancras. So I struggled into the Underground, luckily against the flow of people and took the one stop to King’s Cross. I thought about breakfast, but as I wasn’t really hungry I took the 8:45 to get home. It was virtually empty, so that was at least good!
Thoughts on Transport to the Den
As I can’t drive, I rely heavily on three things, trains, buses and good old-fashioned walking.
On Tuesday night, I went to Canary Wharf for supper and for many places it is a good place to start an evening trip in London. The parking may be a bit expensive, but you can always get a couple of hours free, if you spend over £10 in one of the shops there. I used to buy something I needed like wine in Waitrose to get the token. Incidentally, is there a more up-market supermarket anywhere in the UK, than this one?
The first step to your evening entertainment, after a meal in one of the many restaurants, is to take the Jubilee Line from Canary Wharf Station, that makes all other Metro stations in the world, look ordinary. I once took a C into the station on the escalator from the surface and asked her to close her eyes, once she was safely on the moving staircase. I then told her to open her eyes a few metres down. The look on her face summed it all up.
As I was going to the Den on Tuesday, I just took one station on the Jubilee Line to Canada Water. From upstairs, I took a P12 bus, which stopped outside the ground. what could have been simpler?
One of the problems at the Den, is that it is an area with very few pubs, restaurants and cafes. My mate, Ian, chose to drive and he had quite a bit of difficulty parking and then finding anything to eat. I got the better deal by going to Canary Wharf.
There are plans to build a new station at Surrey Canal Road on the new East London Line extension to Clapham Junction.
This will make travelling to the Den easier, but it will probably do nothing for the quality of the hostelries in the area! I’m afraid at my age and with my medical conditions, greasy burgers, fish and chips and pints of gassy lager are not for me!
But it will give you more choices of getting to the ground, as it will then be directly connected to many other areas with lots of easily accessible places to eat and drink. For example, Ipswich fans coming in to Liverpool Street, might use the Spitalfields or Brick Lane areas, before going to the match from Shoreditch High Street.
Obviously Canary Wharf makes a good starting point for anything in the West End of London, but with just one simple interchange at Canada Water or Shadwell, it is also a good place to start for anything in South London, if you live north of the river. Crystal Palace, which used to be one of the more difficult grounds to reach is now a lot easier. It’s just a pity that the interchange at Shadwell from the Docklands Light Railway to the East London Line isn’t better.
An Express Return to Suffolk
I must admit, I did leave a few minutes before the end of the match, but time was tight, if I was to make my taxi home, as he had a later booking to collect someone from Gatwick.
So by 17:14, I was on a London train out of Fratton station.
Waterloo to Liverpool Street is one of those journeys that isn’t the best on the Underground. You can change from Northern to Central at Tottenhsm Court Road, but because I had my case with me, I’d found out before that there was a direct bus; the 26, which stops just outside the back entrance to Waterloo and goes directly to Liverpool Street. It was a good choice, especially as it dropped me at the Bishopsgate entrance at Liverpool Street. I just had time to purchase a ticket from a machine that worked, unlike at Whittlesford, and then board the train.
Admittedly, it was a few minutes late into the station, but the taxi was there and I was watching the television by a quarter to nine. So it was about three and a half hours door-to-door!
Exchange at Whitechapel
On Friday morning, I walked from the Raj Hotel in the Essex Road through de Beauvoir Town to Dalston Junction Station to catch the East London Line. It was a pleasant walk through one of the most unusual and pleasant parts of London and I was using the train to go to the Museum of London after a change at Whitechapel to the Hammersmith and City Line for Barbican.
The simple change took me longer than it should, as in the first place, signage from the East London line to the Hammersmith and City wasn’t good, a train indicator board was broken and then I had to wait some time for a train. I did talk to someone on the platform and he was helpful and acknowledged the problem. I hope it improves, as it will become an important link between the Overground and the Underground.
I should say that I’ve used Whitechapel for years and it really isn’t any worse than it was when my granddaughter was born in the London Hospital. I suspect there’s a lot of problems because the interchange is where it is, with pavements and a street market outside and limited space inside.
I would also suspect that as Whitechapel Station is going to be a major interchange on CrossRail, that the problems I encountered will be designed out in the years to come.
Confusion Over Train Fares, Barriers and Call Centres
The railways are very much the media’s target and a big storm seems to have been kicked up in the last few days over what constitutes off-peak travel. The only off-peak set of rules that bother me are those out of Kings Cross on First Capital Connect, where the cheaper tickets are not available on trains leaving the capital between 16:30 and 19:00. But even that can always be bypassed by taking a Cambridge train from Tottenham Hale. I also think that if I buy an off-peak return ticket from Newmarket or Dullingham, then I can use the ticket on the forbidden trains, as I bought the ticket on National Express East Anglia. It is not too onerous and I haven’t been delayed yet.
One issue I do have is at Cambridge, where if I’m travelling from Newmarket, I can’t pass through the barriers to do my shopping in the Marks and Spencer in the station. You used to be able to do this and it was a reliable way to get my supper. And whilst on the subject of ticket barriers, if I buy a London Travelcard on the train between Newmarket and Cambridge, then it tends not to work the barriers on the London Underground.
Usually though when I book on-line for a long trip, I don’t have any issues with off-peak or not, as I choose the route and time and this then tells me what trains I can catch and what the prices are. The system works well.
One thing that could be done is to make it more obvious on some web sites, where the train I’m going to catch is going. For instance, if I’d known that my train to Crewe was going on to Chester, I might have changed my plans before I left. As it was, it wouldn’t have made any difference to me, but others might want to perhaps go a little further to see great Aunt Emma.
But one thing the web sites don’t do is allow the purchase of multiple tickets.
On Saturday, I’m getting up early and taking a train from Whittlesford Parkway to Tottenham Hale, as I’m going house-hunting in the morning in Islington. I’m then taking a train out of Liverpool Street to Ipswich for the match against Bristol City. Then after the match it’s back home via the train from Ipswich towards Cambridge. I will have to purchase three single tickets, as I can’t buy these tickets on the web and pick them up at the same time at Whittlesford, where there is a collection machine. It is all the more extraordinary in practice as all trains are the same company; National Express East Anglia.
I did try their call centre and because my voice isn’t that good, the guy on the phone couldn’t understand what I was trying to do. He thought I was trying to get from Whittlesford to Liverpool. The answer to that is probably the old one about not starting from there!
So today, when I go into Cambridge to play tennis, I’ll buy the tickets at the booking office.
Looking at Ipswich Town’s fixtures for this season, I can see several of these multiple trips looming. For instance on the eleventh of September I am going to Portsmouth and on the way, I’ll be breaking my journey to Fratton at Micheldever to have lunch with a friend. So it will be a single from say Cambridge, Whittlesford or Dullingham to Micheldever, another to Fratton and then another from Fratton back to home.
The solution to these multiple trip problems already exist. It’s called a OysterCard. But then I’d need to register my Senior Railcard in some way to get the discount on the trains. Alternatively, we could use scannable tickets like they do on Eurostar or Italian trains.
Let’s hope that a new system replaces the current mess soon. I’d prefer some form of scannable ticket, that I can print before I leave. These tickets could also carry additional information. But please not let’s make it a phone app, as these phones are just not robust enough for someone who drops them like I do.
London Underground and Overground Interchanges
As I have gold older, I’ve tended to avoid some interchanges between lines, as they are either difficult or they make the journey longer. Now after my strokes, I’m a bit more careful, as some stations are a bit claustrophobic and just too busy.
I was also got on this train of thought, by a friend, who has to get King’s Cross and Gerrards Cross regularly. Usually, they end up taking a slow taxi up Marylebone Road. I thought there must be a better way. In some ways it’s a pity that when they built the new Wembley, that they didn’t find some way to connect the Chiltern, Metropolitan and Jubilee Lines in the area, as this would have given access directly from places like Aylesbury and High Wycombe to the City and East London. As yesterday, I had to go to Oxford Circus I did check out the Bakerloo Southbound to Victoria Northbound connection and I think it is up one short escalator, a few steps and then down another escalator. But you wouldn’t do it with a heavy bag!
I think it illustrates how you must get to know your interchanges in London. Here’s a few of the things I like and dislike.
Access to the Northern Line is much slower than the other lines at Kings Cross, now that they have virtually rebuilt the interchange. So I usually avoid it.’
Green Park always seems to be a slow interchange, as you walk for ever.
Bank is not for the faint hearted, especially as there are a lot of works going on at the moment.
In fact these days, I’ll often look for a bus route that does the transfer and perhaps avoids the difficult stations.
The Anonymous Widower 