Westfield Gets Its Own Overground Station
Shepherd’s Bush, Kensington Olympia, West Brompton and Imperial Wharf stations are the four stations on the West London Line of the Overground, that also served by services between Clapham Junction and Milton Keynes.
Shepherds Bush station has just been updated with longer platforms and a second entrance.
As the pictures show, the new new entrance is by the Westfield shopping centre and there is a light-controlled crossing across the road.
It will be interesting to see how customers take to the new entrance. I go to Westfield occasionally and it is usually because I’m coming back from somewhere in West London and need to buy some food or have lunch. As the centre has a Waitrose and a Carluccio’s in the corner near the station, I would probably use the new entrance to get a train home, as it would be a shorter walk. I doubt I’d use the Overground to go to Westfield, as going by the Central Line is quicker. But for those south of Shepherd’s Bush, it would probably be the exit of choice.
The main reason for the station upgrade would appear to have been a need to accommodate the longer trains on the Milton Keynes services, but I do think that we might see new entrances created at the other end of other Overground stations. I’ve felt for a long time, that Highbury and Islington station could benefit from a second entrance.
I also wonder, if this updating is part of a bigger plan to make more use of the West London Line.
The current Milton Keynes service terminates at its southern end at Clapham Junction, but it used to go through to South Croydon. In fact in November 2014, I used the link to go from Wembley Central to East Croydon. From Clapham Junction, the route was by Wandsworth Common, Balham, Streatham Common, Norbury, Thornton Heath and Selhurst, I would assume the service has been cut back because of Thameslink work, but I do feel that quite a few people could have been inconvenienced by this. I have a friend, who lives in South London, who uses the West London Line to get to matches at Wembley. So he might not be amused by this cutback.
As Clapham Junction is such an important station in South London, perhaps if there was a better connection to Willesden Junction, then the service might find quite a few passengers come out of the woodwork.
If Crossrail builds the threatened station at Old Oak Common, to link to HS2, the current service will be totally inadequate for the demand I’d expect. This is a map of the favoured option at Old Oak Common.
Option C Proposal At Old Oak Common
One of the problems is the number of freight trains that currently use the West London Line. But surely with a good sorting out and after electrification is complete in the area, their level can be reduced.
London Gets A New Garden
The British on the whole love their gardens and London’s new garden over Crossrail Place, the shopping centre on top of the Canary Wharf Crossrail station has now opened under its plastic roof.
It will be interesting to see how this station-cum-shopping centre develops. The cinema opens soon and there’s a floor and a half of shops at least to open before the station opens towards the end of the decade.
Am I The Supermarkets Worst Customer?
There has been a lot of reports lately about misleading special offers in supermarkets, like this one in the Independent.
As I’m a 67-year-old widower living alone, who because I don’t drive, has to carry everything home from the supermarket, I only rarely buy any bogofs, but then only with something that doesn’t have sell-by date like washing tablets, soap, tissues or bottles of cider or olive oil.
If I’m cooking a casserole that needs one onion, one carrot, a leek and say two hundred grams of mince then that is what I buy.
I also have given up on fresh herbs and use the dried ones in pots , as I don’t like throwing the unused ones away.
As I regularly complain about the bags in Waitrose at the Angel, they must consider me a bad customer, especially as I usually enter with a half-full bag of bread, biscuits and lemonade from the Marks and Spencer next door.
Van Sales Are Rising!
I had a shipment today from IKEA and it was delivered in a new truck efficiently at the time they said it would come.
The growth in on-line purchases is according to this article on the BBC responsible for a rise in truck and van sales.
So are we spending more and boosting jobs in retail and logistics businesses? The BBC article says this!
Online sales in the UK hit £103bn last year, according to the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index, creating a booming market for home delivery of orders.
The figure is expected to rise by 12% in 2015 to about £1 in every £4 spent by Britons.
Could this rise in online sales be attributed in part to much better on-line systems and more confidence on the part of purchasers that on-line systems work?
I think it is and if so this will have other effects.
I processed a complex order on-line with IKEA, but why can’t I deal the same way with the NHS on simple repeat prescriptions and appointments?
In a few years time, citizens will want to deal with all health and government business on-line.
We’re getting there in parts, but when we’ve got all simple processes on-line we’ll see a large improvement in service and hopefully a reduction in costs.
It all adds up to another factor, that will ensure whoever wins the 2015 election will have a head-start to winning the next.
Whoever loses this election, will really be a loser for all time! Unless the Luddites make a late comeback!
Shopping In IKEA Without A Car
I don’t drive, but when it comes to shopping in IKEA, I can get to the three London stores at Croydon, Edmonton and Neasden by public transport.
Edmonton, to where I get a 341 bus, is probably the easiest and if say I bought something that was too big to carry, the store will put me in a mini-cab.
Croydon is actually the farthest, but I use it at times, as it is so easy to get to using the tram from West Croydon. So if I’m going South of the river for some reason, and I need to check something, I’ll pop in to that store.
As my house and the built-in garage front the street and there is usually plenty of parking outside, I usually shop at IKEA by going to a store and ascertaining what I need and then ordering on-line. It doesn’t always work out as it should.
Due to finger trouble I ordered the wrong freezer for my kitchen. And as I only discovered too late to send it back, if you want an IKEA DJUPFRYSA, I’ll be putting one on eBay soon!
I need to check on a few things at the moment.
On my trip to Huddersfield on Monday, I wondered, if there was an IKEA in Sheffield that I could have visited to answer my queries. But there isn’t.
So it got me thinking, as to how many IKEA stores in the UK, are as easy to get to by public transport, as the three in London.
Only four seem to be easy to get to from the local station or tram stop.
Here’s Manchester, shown on a Google Earth image.
IKEA Manchester
This store would have been ideal, as there is a direct train service from Ashton-Under-Lyne station, which is near the store to Huddersfield. Except that there were no trains to Manchester on Monday and anyway I’d already bought my ticket via Sheffield.
As to the other stores on the UK mainland, they are Cardiff, Coventry and Southampton, all of which are in easy walking distance of a train station. But they wouldn’t have been much use on Monday!
So I’m off to Croydon today!
Investigating Warrington
Warrington with its two stations at Warrington Bank Quay and Warrington Central was flagged up as possible place for turning back Merseyrail trains on the Northern Line.
So on my way back from Leeds via Liverpool, I decided to visit for the first time.
If you trace these images on a map you’ll see that I walked from Central to Bank Quay and back again.
I was very pleasantly surprised.
Instead of the rather second-rate Lancashire town I’d expected, I found a town that had been enlivened by lots of shops and quite a few restaurants including an Ask and a Nando’s.
It’s also a good idea to look at the two stations with Google Earth images, to see what possibilities exist for turning trains back to Liverpool.
Warrington Central And Bus Stations
This image shows how the bus station is close to Warrington Central station, but as the station is close to the A57,which crosses the town, I doubt there’s any way a tram-train could access the Liverpool to Manchester Line on the viaduct.
Warrington Bank Quay Station
You can clearly see the freight line passing under the West Coast Main Line in this image of Warrington Bank Quay station. A tram stop or low-level station on the freight line could easily be connected into the current high-level station and with lifts it could easily be a step-free interchange.
As I walked through Warrington town centre, I thought that an innovative tramway engineer could probably find a way to turn the tramway northward after Bank Quay station to perhaps finish its journey by Warrington Central station and the bus station. The route would probably be not more complicated than some of those in Manchester that I saw today.
But you could also go for a simple solution. There is probably space at the low-level Bank Quay station for a bay platform, where trains from Liverpool would turn back. That would not solve the problem of transfer passengers between the two rail stations and the bus station. They use a shuttle bus at present, so why not increase the frequency, perhaps power it by batteries and make it more visible!
Warrington got a boost today in that in this report on the Modern Railways web site, it was said that Liverpool to Manchester via Warrington is in the top group of lines that will be electrified.
That will also add to the possibilities of railway and tram-train layout in the Warrington area.
It All Happens In London In May
May is looking to be a big month for the infrastructure of London.
I’ve just read this article in the Hackney Gazette, which is entitled Canary Wharf Crossrail Artwork Released.
But as the article says, we won’t see the artwork until 2018, when Canary Wharf Crossrail station opens.
But what the article does say, is that the shops, restaurants, bars and the roof garden will open to the public in May.
So what else is happening in May?
1. Crossrail will take over the Shenfield Metro services in May. I have spoken to staff about this and everybody I spoke to seemed positive about the move and there has been the odd article like this one in the Btrentwood Gazette that has shown a positive tone.
2. Cossrail has put out this report, which says that tunnelling will be complete in the Spring amongst other things.
3. The Lea Valley Lines become part of the London Overground on the 31st of the Month. I don’t think you’ll find many, who believe it was wrong that London took over the North and East London Lines to create the Overground in 2007. So probably the sentiment for this takeover is positive.
4. Today on Hackney Central station, I asked a London Overground employee, when the pedestrian link to Hackney Downs station will open. It should be in May. He also told me about all the other developments at Hackney Central that are being planned, like extra lifts. The Overground does seem to have instilled infectious enthusiasm into its staff.
There is also the little matter of the first General Election of 2015.
One Reason We Need More Engineers!
When I graduated in 1968,with an Upper Second Class Honours in Engineering from Liverpool University, my first job at ICI paid £1150 a year.
According to this article in The Independent, Aldi are paying trainee managers £42,000 a year or £3463.70 in 1968 money.
It is my belief that good engineers are some of the best practical problem solvers, so how many of the best engineers are lured by high salaries to non-creative jobs like being a trainee supermarket manager?
High salaries in these sorts of non-creative industries like Retail and the Civil Service, are robbing the country of its best engineers.
My New All-Purpose Shopping Bag
I bought this stringbag for £2.95 and when I go out, it fits neatly in my shoulder bag or pocket.
My New All-Purpose Shopping Bag
Isn’t a stringbag the most useful of bags? After all it did lend its name to that most mighty of the Royal Navy’s attack aircraft; the Fairey Swordfish, which was called the stringbag on account of its ability to carry virtually anything to its target. Wikipedia has a full explanation.
The Swordfish is almost unique amongst military aircraft for two reasons.
Several aircraft types were built to replace it in service and it out-served them all.
In some attacks, it pressed the attack home successfully, because it flew slower than the low limit of the gun-aiming computer of the ship being attacked. The Germans hadn’t believed that an attacking aircraft would be as slow as a Swordfish.
But this unusual biplane did carry out one of the most unlikely battle successes of the Royal Navy, by attacking the Italian fleet at anchor in the Battle of Taranto. The lesson was not lost on the Japanese, who inspected the port after the attack. But the Americans, who must have known what happened at Taranto, did nothing to change their thinking.
Putting Some Green Style Into Wood Green
My memories of Wood Green High Road go back a long way. My father’s print works was just around the corner in Station Road and I can still remember the trolley buses turning round just down from the tube station in front of the Nags Head pub. The pub is now called The Goose and it’s not the only name change in the area, as the hill up from the station to the north was called Jolly Butcher’s Hill. Look at picture 166 on this page, as it’s exactly how I remember the area.
Trolleybus Ascending Jolly Butchers Hill in Wood Green
Thanks to trolleybus.net for sending me a copy of the image.
I remember one story my father told about the pub now called The Goose. My father and his mother, at one time lived above the print works and one Sunday, their black dog returned home just before lunch with a large just-roasted joint of beef in his jaws. My grandmother retrieved it from the dog and put the less-impressive joint she was going to roast away for a later meal. My father always thought that the free meal had come from the Nags Head, where the cook had put the newly-roasted joint on a back window-sill to cool down before carving. He used to tell stories like this with a lot of gusto and actions.
I also remember several times going for lunch at the QS restaurant just about fifty metres down the High Road for lunch with my mother. That because something like a Wimpy bar around 1960 and I can still see Ally flipping burgers in the window. It was the height of sophistication to a teenager.
Further down, you went under the railway bridge, which took the Palace Gates Line over the top and my mother and I would often go past the old Alexandra pub to the Marks and Spencer. I went there recently and it still has a lot of the feel of those years. The Alexandra incidentally was demolished to make way for Wood Green’s first supermarket.
Because of this history, I was pleased to see that Haringey council are updating the High Road. This page described what will happen in detail, with wider pavements, new street furniture and quite a few trees.
As I had to get on the Piccadilly Line today and the weather wasn’t too bad, I’ picked the tube up at Wood Green, after taking a few photos on my way down the High Road.
I’d started walking from Turnpike Lane station and walked north.
I wonder how the walk will have changed when they’ve spruced up the High Road.
The Anonymous Widower 