The Future Of Commuting
I take the title from this article in this Guardian, which is entitled Cattle-class: are Thameslink’s new ‘tube-style’ trains the future of commuting?
This is the sub-title to the article.
As the UK south-east’s rail nightmare continues, a new class of commuter trains has been quietly revealed – long, metro-style carriages without tables, built to accommodate as many standing passengers as possible. Is this the new normal?
The New Class 700 Trains
I have travelled on the new Class 700 trains and I wrote about my journey in A First Ride In A Class 700 Train.
These are things I thought some people might not like.
- The lack of audible messages. – I liked the quiet, but I’m not blind.
- The lack of tables in Standard Class compared with say the Class 387 trains, that currently work the line.
- The lack of wi-fi.
- The length of the train at 242.6m., if they get in the wrong carriage.
- The high step up into the train.
The last one is possibly to be compatible with other trains and is being addressed at East Croydon station, by raising the platforms. I didn’t go to Gatwick, but imagine large numbers of heavy cases being loaded and unloaded.
I think that the problem is that some bright spark in the Department of Transport or the Treasury, decided that the trains should be a one size fits all and that they had to cope with a lot of stations, where the platforms wouldn’t be seriously modified.
Thank goodness this idiot didn’t order the same trains for Crossrail.
The Routes Compared
It is interesting to compare the route and trains of Thameslink with Crossrail
The trains are similar in length, with about a third of the passengers getting seats at full capacity of 1500 for Crossrail’s Class 345 trains and 1800 for Thameslink’s Class 700 trains.
But I think there will be a big difference in passenger loading between the two lines.
These are times from four selected end points to Farringdon, where the two lines cross.
- Bedford (Thameslink) – 60 minutes
- Brighton (Thameslink) – 86 minutes
- Reading (Crossrail) – 58 minutes
- Shenfield (Crossrail) – 43 minutes
So it looks like the average commute on Thameslink could be longer, so possibly their trains should reflect that, with wi-fi, lots of tables etc.
But whereas Brighton and Bedford will get a few trains every hour to Central London, Shenfield will get ten.
Shenfield and Reading will also have long distance services coming in from further out and going direct to the capital.
Unfortunately, trains can’t start further South than Brighton.
Another big difference, is that Crossrail serves a lot of the places, commuters and visitors to the capital want to go. For example.
- Bond Street for the shops and the Underground
- Canary Wharf with a cross-platform change, if not direct.
- Heathrow for the planes
- Liverpool Street for long distance trains and the Underground.
- Moorgate for a walk to the City.
- Old Oak Common for long distance trains and the Overground.
- Paddington for long distance trains.
- Stratford for the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, shopping and the Underground.
- Whitechapel for the Overground.
Thameslink’s list is shorter and less impressive.
- Blackfriars for a walk to the City.
- City Thameslink for a walk to the City.
- Gatwick for the planes.
- Kings Cross St. Pancras for Eurostar and long distance trains.
- London Bridge for a walk to the City and the Underground.
I might be wrong, but this leads me to think that Crossrail will act like a high-capacity Underground Line across Central London,and will for example, be used by visitors wanting to have a walk in the City and then go to do some shopping in Oxford Street. Thameslink doesn’t have similar casual uses across Central London.
Another difference, is that Crossrail’s Shenfield and Reading branches are very much all-stations branches, whereas Thameslink’s have a lot of semi-fast trains.
This thinking leads to an important difference.
Crossrail’s train design and capacity depends heavily on the needs from Stratford to Old Oak Common, wheras Thameslink’s trains are more about the needs of long-distance commuters.
But then, Crossrail has been designed as a system of trains and routes to satisfy the capital’s needs, whereas Thameslink has been created by stitching together a series of Victorian lines, that all have different needs.
A Redesign For Thameslink
I think a few years after Crossrail and Thameslink open, Thameslink services will have a big redesign.
So what will happen?
It will be driven by the statistics of where passengers need to go.
But I can see the following happening.
Upgrading Of The Class 700 Trains
The more I read about the two sets of trains, the more I feel that passengers will moan about the Class 700 trains on Thameslink, when they experience the Class 345 trains on Crossrail.
Points of annoyance could include.
- The lack of wi-fi and charging sockets.
- Nowhere to put a coffee.
- The number of tables.
- The layout of the seats.
- Bicycles
But then these trains weren’t specified by the operator, unlike those on Crossrail, where Transport for London had a big input.
Creation Of More Cross-Platform And Same-Platform Interchanges
The only quality interchange between Thameslink and other services is London Bridge. But that has been designed recently.
East Croydon has been the victim of make-do-and mend for decades.
Gatwick Airport could be so much better.
St. Pancras is truly terrible and was designed so that passengers are kept fit, by walking long distances underground to reach other services.
West Hampstead Thameslink could be another Stratford, but it falls short.
I think we’ll see improvements to some of these stations to create better same-platform or cross-platform interchange between Thameslink and longer distance services.
As an example Alexandra Palace and Finsbury Park seem to have been improved so that Thameslink has a good interchange with local services out of Kings Cross and Moorgate.
On Thameslink East Croydon, Gatwick and West Hampstead Thameslink must be updated to improve connectivity between Thameslink and longer distance services.
Separation Of Short And Longer Distance Trains South Of The River
On Crossrail, passengers going further East can change at Liverpool Street or Stratford in the centre or Shenfield in the East and those going further West can change at Paddington in the centre or Reading in the West.
Four of the five interchange stations; Liverpool Street, Paddington, Reading, Shenfield and Stratford, are large stations with excellent facilities and lots of trains and I can see that Shenfield will be improved by some pragmatic use of the current platforms and the nearby High Street.
North of the River on Thameslink, the interchange between short and longer distance distance trains isn’t perfect, but Finsbury Park, Kentish Town, Welwyn Garden City and West Hampstead are better and have more spare capacity than East Croydon.
The only decent interchange South of the River is the recently-updated London Bridge. But it is too close to the centre of London.
South of the River, Thameslink needs a station like Reading or Shenfield, where passengers have a cross-platform or same-platform change to and from a proper long-distance commuter train to a comfortable high-density shuttle across London, as an alternative to getting one train all the way.
The Brighton Belle Will Return
The Brighton Belle was the way to commute between London and Brighton until it ceased running in the 1970s.
I may have ridden it once as a child of about seven with my father, but we may have made our trip to Brighton on an ordinary train.
Having travelled to Brighton many times, the route could probably sustain a higher quality service than it currently gets.
Currently, there are three services on the route.
- Thameslink, that when complete will go via Gatwick, East Croydon and London Bridge to all points North of the River.
- Southern to Victoria, that will go via Gatwick Airport, East Croydon and Clapham Junction.
- Gatwick Express to Gatwick and Victoria.
All are operated by the same franchise, Govia Thameslink Railway.
In my view, this is part of the commuting problem to the South Coast and especially Brighton.
There are no paths for a high-class operator on the route between either Victoria or London Bridge and Gatwick, but I think that better use could be made of the current services to increase capacity and the quality of the trains.
So I believe that as it was after the initial privatisation, Gatwick Express should become a separate franchise.
In its simnplest reincarnation, it would offer a high-class operator between Vicrtoria, Gatwick and Brighton, perhaps calling at Three Bridges and/or Horsham, just as did the original Brighton Belle called at Horsham.
But I’ve believed for some time that with the electrification of the Great Western Railway, that a service between Reading and Gatwick, should come under the control of Gatwick Express.
Consider.
- A network of upmarket Gatwick Express services could be developed centred on Gatwick.
- A Class 387 train, running from Reading to Gatwick would do the journey faster than using Crossrail/Thameslink, without all the problems of even a simple change.
- A Gatwick to Ebbsfleet or Ashford service would be possible.
- Gatwick could have Gatwick Express services to Luton Airport using Thameslink via London Bridge and St. Pancras.
- The current services to Victoria and Brighton would continue.
- It would have dedicated platforms at Brighton, Gatwick, Victoria and possibly Reading.
Properly structured it could be a mix of high-class Airport and commuter services.
- It must have nothing to do with Govia Thameslink Railway.
- The Class 387 trains are probably good enough for the franchise.
- Something like a Chiltern-style Class system might be best.
- Surely, modern technology should be able to create a decent buffet car.
- Ticketing would be as now and must include contactless bank card and Oyster.
- If it wants to extend services to Eastbourne, Portsmouth and Southampton, it should be taken seriously.
I’m certain, a bright marketing man would come up with an iconic name for the service.
The only problem would be that Govia Thameslink Railway would object like mad, but in some ways they’ve brought it on themselves.
Only Twelve-Car Trains Through The Central Tunnel
It is essential that to maximise capacity of the line, that in the most restricted section through the central tunnel, that all trains through the tunnel are twelve-car trains.
So this would mean that Sutton Loop Line services would have to terminate at Blackfriars station, as was originally intended until MPs intervened.
In the Wikpedia entry for The Sutton Loop Line, this is said.
Recent proposals were to increase the frequency of the Thameslink service but terminate at Blackfriars. This would allow the trains through the core section to be replaced with longer trains which could not use the loop, but this has not proceeded due to objections from loop passengers about the withdrawal of their through service.
It might be difficult to bring in now, due to the layout of Blackfriars station. This means that passengers going South will need to Cross under the lines to get to the bay platforms on the other side of the station.
It should be noted, that under the latest plans, passengers coming South on Thameslink and wanting to go to Sevenoaks, will have to negotiate this down and up at Blackfriars. It will be easier, if they are on the Midland branch, as they could get any of the four Sutton Loop Line trains and change at Elephant and Castle. But those passengers on the East Coast branch have only the 2 tph Maidstone East service that goes through Elephant and Castle.
Sufficient Trains On Each Section Of Thameslink
If you look at the current proposed timetable in All Change On Thameslink, you can summarise each section as follows.
- Bedford to St. Pancras – 16 trains per hour (tph)
- Bedford to Luton – 8 tph
- Luton to St. Albans – 10 tph
- St. Albans to Kentish Town – 14 tph
- Kentish Town to St. Pancras – 16 tph
- Peterborough/Cambridge to St. Pancras – 6 tph
- Peterborough to Hitchin – 2 tph
- Cambridge to Hitchin – 4 tph
- Hitchin to St. Pancras – 6 tph
- St. Pancras to Blackfriars – 22 tph
- Blackfriars To Elephant and Castle – 8 tph
- Elephant and Castle to Sutton Loop – 4 tph
- Elephant and Castle to Swanley- 4 tph
- Swanley to Maidstone East- 2 tph
- Swanley to Sevenoaks – 2 tph
- Blackfriars to London Bridge 16 tph
- London Bridge to Orpington – 2 tph
- London Bridge to Rainham via Greenwich and Dartford – 2 tph
- London Bridge to East Croydon- 12 tph
- East Croydon to Gatwick – 10 tph
- Gatwick to Brighton – 4 tph
- Gatwick to Horsham – 2 tph
- Gatwick to Littlehampton – 2 tph
My numbers are probably not totally correct, but it does show there are reasonable frequencies everywhere.
Note.
- Rainham to Luton via Dartford, Greenwich and London Bridge looks a service for an area of South East London that needs development.
- Rainham to Luton calls at Abbey Wood for Crossrail, so it also is a valuable extension to Crossrail services at Abbey Wood.
- Swanley seems to be developing into an interchange for services to Kent, with four tph to Blackfriars and two tph to each of Maidstone East and Sevenoaks.
- Gatwick gets a frequency of 10 tph to London on Thameslink.
- There are 8 tph between Gatwick and Luton airports.
These frequencies have changed from those given in Wikipedia
The Effect Of The Northern City Line
The original service plan for Thameslink to the North of London, showed the following.
- 4 tph to Bedford
- 2 tph to Peterborough
- 4 tph to Cambridge
In total sixteen sixteen services were planned go up the Midland Main Line and eight up the East Coast Main Line and the Cambridge Branch.
But as I showed in All Change on Thameslink, it is now planned to be.
- 8 tph to Bedford
- 2 tph to Peterborough
- 4 tph to Cambridge
The service to Finsbury Park and Welwyn Gsrden City has also disappeared, so although the total number of services on the Midland Main Line remains the same, the number of services on the East Coast Main Line has dropped to six.
Could this be because the Northern City and the Hertford Loop Lines are going to be given an increased role in providing services, when the new Class 717 trains arrive in a couple of years?
It certainly looks as if Govia Thameslink Railway could be organising their services out of Kings Cross and Moorgate to augment the Thameslink services.
It looks like the following is happening.
- Short distance services up to about Hitchin and Letchworth Garden City are being served by trains from Kings Cross and Moorgate.
- The increase in the number and quality of the Class 717 trains is being used to provide an improved local service.
- Trains from Thameslink and Great Northern will provide the bulk of the long distance commuter services to Cambridge and Peterborough.
- GTR have also said that their Class 387 trains, will be working between Kings Cross, Cambridge, Peterborough and Kings Lynn.
I don’t think anybody will be complaining.
Embracing The East London Line
If you were going from say Gatwick Airport to Hatfield, when Thameslink is fully open in a few years time, you would probably get one of the direct trains, which will run at a frequency of 4 tph.
But rail enthusiasts and masochists might travel by this route.
- Gatwick Airport to East Croydon on Thameslink or Southern.
- East Croydon to Norwood Junction on Southern
- Norwood Junction to Highbury and Islington on the East London Line
- Highbury and Islington to Finsbury Park on the Northern City Line
- Finsbury Park to Hatfield on Great Northern or Thameslink.
I know it’s rather convoluted, but it does show how the East London Line is an important cross-London route, with strong links to railways controlled by Govia Thameslink Railway.
It is well-connected at the North, but connections at the South to Southern and Thameslink at the important station of East Croydon are woeful.
Thameslink must embrace the East London Line fully, just as it is embracing the Northern City Line.
Swanley Station
Swanley station could prove to be an important station for Thameslink.
Currently services call at the station are as follows.
- 4tph to London Victoria via Bromley South
- 2tph to West Hampstead Thameslink via Catford
- 2tph to Sevenoaks via Bat & Ball
- 1tph to Ashford International via Maidstone East
- 1tph to Canterbury West via Maidstone East
- 1tph to Dover Priory via Chatham
But if the current plans for Thameslink are fulfilled there will be the following Thamesline services through Swanley.
- 2 tph – Maidstone East to Cambridge
- 2 tph – Sevenoaks to Blackfriars
Adding these to the current services gives.
- 4tph to London Victoria via Bromley South
- 4tph to Blackfriars via Catford
- 2tph to Cambridge via Catford and Blackfriars
- 2tph to Sevenoaks via Bat & Ball
- 4 tph to Maidstone East
Effectively, Swanley will get a turn-up-and-go 4 tph service to Blackfriars, Maidstone East and Victoria.
This map from carto.metro.free.fr shows the layout of lines at Swanley station.
Swanley Station
Note.
- Swanley station has two island platforms.
- The line going North-East is the Chatham Main Line.
- The line going South-East is the Maidstone Line, leading to Maidstone East and Sevenoaks stations.
- At present, the platform arrangement is not one island platform for each direction.
This station could be dramatically improved to be a cross-platform interchange with London-bound and coast-bound services each with their own island platform. If of course, this were to be possible for other operational reasons.
The only passengers who would be inconvenienced, would be those who were travelling between stations on different lines to the East.
- The East London Line having cross-platform interchange vwith Thamesllink.
- Sortout the dreadful St. Pancras with good interchange between Thameslink and other lines.
- Gatwick acts as a collector station, where passengers from all over the South change trains to a high-capacity Gatwick to Luton/Bedford shuttle.
Thameslink will be radically different to how it is planned to be today.
Did The Mind Of Buyers Cause The UK’s Surprise Manufacturing Rebound?
This article on the BBC is entitled Pound jumps as UK manufacturing activity rebounds.
This is the opening paragraphs.
The value of the pound has jumped after a survey indicated the UK’s manufacturing sector rebounded sharply in August.
The Markit/CIPS purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the sector rose to 53.3 in August from July’s figure of 48.3. A figure above 50 indicates expansion.
The weakening of the pound following the Brexit vote boosted exports, the survey found.
I also think another factor comes into it – The buyers who are purchasing the goods.
My father’s business was ruined by a bent buyer, who was taking bribes all over the place. When this was discovered, all the suppliers were changed and three-quarters of my father’s orders for his specialist printing disappeared to the only other company locally, who could do it.
My father was not amused and he told me so, in no uncertain terms.
There is also the story of the UK department store chain, that cut the foreign travel budget for their buyers, who were sourcing goods to sell. One unexpected consequence was that they increased the proportion of UK-made goods.
I’ve heard so many tales of bent buyers, and suitcases filled of high-value notes, that I can afford to keep some back for later.
Now though, the UK could have a rather strange advantage because of Brexit.
Say you’re a German buyer of components for your company, that are made in the UK.
Could Brexit on the horizon mean that you’re worried that in a couple of years, doing business with the UK will be a lot harder?
So perhaps now is time to have a last business trip to the UK before it gets too difficult.
If the price is right, it’s also a lot easier to go to Birmingham than Shanghai!
Never underestimate buyers, who are always looking out for themselves.
You are probably a straight buyer, but your family will probably enjoy the UK more than China.
What Game Were Corbyn And Milne Playing?
To sabotage the Labour party’s support for Remain, as I detailed in For The Female Of The Species Is More Deadly Than The Male, seems to me a very strange thing for Seamus Milne and Jeremy Corbyn to do.
Most commentators felt that by voting Leave, it would put the country into a recession. Other commentators have stated that the EU needs the UK as a balance to Germany.
My father old me about the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Hitler and Stalin , which he felt was two equally bad regimes supping together. To him, there was no difference between the extreme left and the extreme right and let’s face it Stalin’s Russia was as bad at killing people as Hitler’s Germany.
So in some ways to me, this seems like two of the hard left , have deliberately aided those to the right to remove the UK from the EU.
Perhaps, they are hoping that this will cause the EU to collapse!
And who would benefit from that?
Vladimir Putin.
I hope I’m wrong.
Certainly the pair of them have destroyed any credibility the Labour Party had left!
Thoughts On My Vitamin D Deficiency
I’m now convinced that the cause of my bad springs and substantial absences from school as a child, and periods of bad health since, is due to a periodic vitamin D deficiency.
I suffer from several of the same symptoms as my father, who was most likely the parent from whom I inherited coeliac disease.
As a child, I didn’t go out in the son much, as I think I found it a bit painful and I burned. My father was the same in those days and was very much a man for his garage or shed. He only ventured out to smoke his pipe.
The problems dropped, when I went to Liverpool University and met my future wife. But then she would drag me out into the sun for a walk, with great regularity.
When I was diagnosed as a coeliac, I thought this would be the end of it all. And it did get a bit better, with the bonus that I could now sunbathe without burning. I also stopped being bitten by mossies.
Since the death of my wife, my stroke and moving to London, the bad springs and a lot of the other symptoms have returned.
But no-one could say the weather in London and it seems much of North and Central Europe has been very sunny over the last few years.
I even took a holiday in Croatia for some sun, but in My Home Run From Dubrobnik, I saw probably a day and a half of sun at most!
I’m now on vitamin D3 tablets and they appear to help.
But I think, what I need is a good scientific book on vitamin D, how it is absorbed by the body and what it actually does.
So much of what I get told seems to only have vague science behind it!
If I could find a top class University, where they were doing serious research into vitamin D, I’d go halfway round the world to talk to them.
Vitamin D Deficiency And Atrial Fibrillation
I’ve just found a paper in the International Journal of Cardiology with this title.
As according to two cardiologists in Cambridge, the reason I had my stroke was atrial fibrillation, I should discuss this with a cardiologist.
I think my story goes something like this.
- For some reason, I didn’t like the sun and kept out of it.
- When I was diagnosed as a coeliac, I went gluten-free and didn’t get added Vitamin D in my food.
- But C dragged me off to the sunnier climes, where now I can stay in the sun without problem.
- When she died, I retreated into myself and didn’t go to the sun.
- So did I get low vitamin D?
- My GP thought so and I decided to drive around in my Lotus with the top down.
- I eventually, had the stroke, I’d probably been just missing since C died.
- Atrial fibrillation was diagnosed and it was said to have caused the stroke.
- Warfarin has been prescribed to protect me!
I’ve added sun and vitamin D for good measure.
Until I can prove otherwise, my father who gave me coeliac disease, wasn’t so lucky and died of a stroke.
Did he have atrial fibrillation and low vitamin D?
An Excursion To Lokrum
As I’d missed all of the full day trips, I took the boat to Lokrum and had a walk round for three hours or so.
Before I was diagnosed as a coeliac and went gluten-free, I couldn’t have done a walk like this.
It was almost, as if my blood couldn’t move the heat away fast enough from my skin and it all overheated. But once, gluten-free and with blood full of B12, the heat transfer was better.
I used to burn badly some years ago, but I don’t now. After Lokrum my face was just a healthy colour.
Intriguingly, my father, who was probably an undiagnosed coeliac, rarely went in the sun and was very much a man for wasting time in his garage or shed.
My son who died, appeared to me to be the most likely to be coeliac and he was always hidden away working on his music.
My Father Has Been Proved Right!
My father described himself as a left-wing Tory. Today, he would probably have approved of the views of the likes of Michael Hesseltine or Kenneth Clarke.
I’m not sure what he actually did in politics, but I do know that he once worked at the League of Nations in Geneva before the Second World War. During the war, he was for some time a Civil Servant, but apart from one or two clues, I don’t know much. I should have a look at Kew and the web site.
I also know that I never heard him say anything racist and when someone questioned why he actually printed letterheads and wedding stationery for the local black community in Wood Green, he rebuked them by saying that as long as their money had the Queen’s head on it, he’d do business with everyone.
I also know that he was firmly anti-fascist and was at the Battle of Cable Street, where as he said, all the East End stopped Mosley and his Blackshirt thugs, marching through.
Recently, I took a taxi, where the driver had had talks with his Jewish grandfather, who had also been at Cable Street. His grandfather, like my father was adamant that it was not just the communists who stopped Mosley, but a wide alliance of right-thinking people in the East End.
I use the term London Mongrel to describe myself and my father used it himself, in my presence a couple of times, which is where I picked it up. You have to remember that the Nazis referred to people who were part-Jewish as mischling, which roughly means mongrel or half-breed. My father wasn’t Jewish but his great-great-grandfather, who I refer to as the Tailor of Bexley, was probably a Prussian Jew, who had run away from Napoleon.
As the term dates from the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, it would very much have been a term of the time my father was on the fringe of politics, so it is no surprise that he used it.
Incidentally, I’m probably more of a mongrel than my father, as my mother’s father was a Huguenot engraver and her mother was a posh lady born in Dalston Junction from Devonian yeoman stock with the surname of Upcott. Cullompton Museum told me that the family were very much involved in the development of worsted serge and made a fortune from it. This section in the Cullumpton Wikipedia entry, says more about the cloth trade and the Upcotts.
I once asked my father, if he’d ever wanted to stand as an MP and he replied that he’d been asked to put his name forward as a candidate for a by-election, but a young Duncan Sandys was chosen instead, which my father thought was probably the right choice.
Searching Wikipedia says that this was the Norwood By-election of 1935. Wikipedia says this.
The by-election was held due to the resignation of the incumbent Conservative MP, Walter Greaves-Lord. It was won by the Conservative candidate Duncan Sandys.
An Independent Conservative candidate was fielded at the by-election by Randolph Churchill, who sponsored Richard Findlay, a member of the British Union of Fascists to stand. This got no support from the press or from any Members of Parliament, despite Randolph being the son of Winston Churchill. Ironically, in September that year, Duncan Sandys became son-in-law of Winston and brother-in-law of Randolph by marrying Diana, the former’s daughter.
Knowing my father’s strong anti-fascist views, it fits with his version of the tale. The other thing that fits, is that although my father had met and liked Winston Churchill, he had no time for his son, Randolph.
Indirectly, I think I benefited from my father’s political contacts, as after the war, when he rebuilt his printing business in Wood Green, his largest customer was Enfield Rolling Mills, whose Managing Director was John Grimston, the Earl of Veralem, who was eight years younger than my father and had been MP for St. Albans a couple of times.
When in the early sixties I needed a summer job to earn money and I couldn’t have my usual one in his print works, as my father’s business was bad, my father phoned the Earl and asked if he had something that would suit.
The Earl of Veralem said yes and I had a very good job in the Electronics Laboratory for two summers, where I learned an amazing amount about life and making things.
I have no idea of the Earl’s politics except that he was a Conservative MP and very much thought to be a good boss of the company, by those with whom I worked.
One view of my father’s though, was that as he hated the likes of Hitler and Stalin equally, he said several times to me, that the extreme left are no different to the extreme right.
Reading this article on the BBC entitled Livingstone Stands By Hitler Comments, I can only conclude that the Labour Party has proved my father to be right.
Islamic Scumbags
I watched Andrew Neil’s carefully-crafted monologue on the BBC last night, in which he referred to Islamic State as Islamic Scumbags.
It was a brave and very right thing to do and I hope there are no repercussions.
But his monologue was in the great tradition of the BBC, that started in the 1960s, with That Was The Week That Was or TW3.
It was on late and as I needed to get up early to deliver newspapers, I usually went to bed and my father would wake me and call me down to watch the program.
Perhaps the most moving program was the one they did after the assassination of President Kennedy, which contained none of the usual copious amounts of satire.
We should treat the so-called Islamic State with the contempt they deserve and strong words and biting humour are the weapons we should use!
Up Yours, Putin!
I tend to think that the reports of doping by Russia’s athletes, like this report in the Guardian entitled How Russian athletics’ rotten system built a wall to conceal doping and deceit, could be more significant politically. than anybody thinks. After all it follows a very similar pattern to their dealings with Ukraine and other former Soviet possessions, where Russia thinks itself to be able to ignore the standards of the rest of the World.
They should be banned from the Olympics in Rio!
I also suspect that the bombing of the airliner in Egypt was not deliberately targeted at a Russian plane. If that is the case, as some experts have said, it was Putin’s bad luck and our good!
The sooner Putin is removed from power, the better it will be for everyone. Except perhaps for a few Russian oligarchs!
My father, who was a very strong anti-dictator and anti-fascist would rate Putin alongside Hitler and Stalin.
He would have laughed like a drain at Peter Brookes cartoon in The Times, where Putin is shown laying a wreath sfter the air crash, with a speech bubble of “What sort of a rat blows hundreds of innocent civilians out of the sky?” As he turns to walk away, you can see his rodent’s tail.
Is liking cartoons in my genes?
Crossrail 2 October 2015 – New Southgate Station
This post looks at the works around New Southgate station.
I’ve known this area for over sixty years, as when my father used to take me to his printing works in Wood Green, he would drive past New Southgate and Alexandra Palace stations. Some parts have hardly changed in that time.
In my mind Alexandra Palace station will always be Wood Green station, whereas the Piccadilly Line one will always be Wood Green Tube station.
This Google Map show the area.
Crossrail 2 In New Southgate
New Southgate station is in the top left (North East) and Alexandra Park is at the bottom.
Note the following.
- The Hertford Loop Line branches off North of Alexandra Palace station to the North East.
- The station on this line is Bowes Park.
- To the right (East) of this junction is Bounds Green Depot, where the long distance expresses to the North are stabled and serviced.Bounds Green Depot is due to be upgraded for the new Hitachi trains that will run the services in the next few years.
- There is a tunnel between New Southgate and Alexandra Palace stations
In this document on the TfL website entitled New Southgate Station, details are given of how Crossrail 2 will be fitted into the area and connected to the East Coast Main Line. This Google Map shows the area North and South of New Southgate station.
Crossrail 2 Sites At New Southgate
There are three main areas of work-sites, all of which are to the East of the railway. Because of the amount of concrete and industrial roofs, they show up white on the map.
- The top site alongside Oakleigh Road South (A109) is shown on old maps as being railway sidings, is a proposed site for the train depot and stabling, Crossrail 2 and tnnelling support.
- The second site squeezed between the railway and North of the A406, will be the station site, where new Crossrail 2 platforms will be built.
- The third site to the South of the A406, which is now part of the Bounds Green Industrial Estate, will be the actual tunnel portal.
One by-product of all this work could be that the North Circular Road (A406) at this point could be opened out. This Google Map shows the area, where the Crossrail 2 station will go, the bridge over the A406 and the area around the proposed Crossrail 2 tunnel portal.
Crossrail 2 Over The A406
Note the following.
- The map shows most of the two southern work sites for Crossrail 2.
- Looking at this it would appear that the Crossrail 2 tunnel portals will be on that green space alongside the portals of the existing tunnels.
- The white almost boot-shaped building will be replaced with Crossrail 2 platforms.
- The bridge appears to extend far enough to take the extra Crossrail 2 tracks over the A406. It looks like it is used for truck parking at the moment.
- Could the condition and size of the bridge, mean that there would be little disruption to traffic durin construction?
- There doesn’t appear to be an demolition of residential property.
I just wonder if a top class architect could give New Southgate a spectacular station above the A406.
I’ve driven under that bridge so many times and can see some form of sculptured steel, brick and glass building with a giant Crossrail roundel advertising its presence.
These pictures were taken as I walked down past New Southgate station and crossed the A406.
The Builder Depot is the boot-shaped building and it looks as if it was built on an old railway embankment.
The North Circular Road was certainly very busy.
The Anonymous Widower 