Inside Canary Wharf Crossrail Station
This was one of the must-see events in Open House.
The areas we saw were the bottom levels of Canary Wharf station where trains and passengers go. On the top of these floors is a large retail mall.
This is the future, where stations are more than just means to access the trains. The new Birmingham New Street station has another large retail mall on top and the new Crossrail station at Woolwich, is underneath masses of flats, as is my local station of Dalston Junction. Land is expensive, but digging down or building in the sky only increases its value and hopefully gives benefits to all of us.
Going Underground
I saw this poster on the Undergound.
Going Underground
I think it will be worth seeing, as a glimpse into the future.
Kings Cross Square Is Nearly There
I took these pictures recently and it looks like the opening date of the 25th will be met.
Although there is nothing as a certainty in construction, where completion dates are concerned.
Dealing With Late Trains
Last night after the Yeovil match, there was a spot of bother on the trains at Ipswich. A freight train had broken down and the knock on meant that all of the other trains were delayed and cancelled.
I’d just missed the 21:43 back to London and the next one, which was the 22:23 had been cancelled. So I had to wait nearly an hour until the 22:43 arrived. Thankfully on time! It was on time at Liverpool Street, despite having to make two extra stops.
GreaterAnglia dealt well with the problem and there were staff everywhere. The only place I didn’t see any staff was on the train, but that didn’t of course matter.
Because of the delays getting to Sudbury from Ipswich was difficult and GreaterAnglia were providing extra transport from Colchester to get people home.
So their response was excellent and totally at the other end of the spectrum to what I got from Deutsche Nahn at Osnabruck.
Why Do Trains Travel On The Left?
Next time you board a train on a double-track railway, notice which side of the tracks the train runs.
In the UK, the trains are virtually all driven from the left-hand seat and the trains go on the left. A lot of this is tradition, as early trains had to be compatible with existing traffic in the early days of trains. As the British helped built French railways, they followed our lead, as did many countries under British influence. Metro systems, which tend to run on streets at times, have to be compatible with road traffic, so they could be on the right. There’s a detailed explanation in Wikipedia here. This paragraph sums up a lot.
In France, for instance, cars keep to the right, but the first train lines were built by British engineers, so kept to the left. The Paris RER trains keep left, but the Paris Metro was designed to run on the right. Another anomaly occurs in the Alsace-Moselle region, where trains keep to the right because the lines were built in the late 19th century when Alsace-Moselle was part of Germany. Bridges at the former border allow the trains to swap sides. High-speed TGV trains, however, operate on dedicated lines which were built more recently, but they keep left because they interface with older lines.
The question was asked by our guide in Sweden. He had noticed that main line trains in Sweden run on the left and that most Metro systems run on the right, except for Stockholm, which runs on the left.
Wikipedia says that in Sweden trains generally run on the left except for Malmo and further south.
I uspect that the Stockholm Metro is on the left, as it was built in the 1940s when Sweden drove on the left and thus was following the more or less universal Metro compatibility rule. The first line was also converted from a underground tramway, which would of course be compatible with road traffic.
So we’re still left with the Malmo anomaly in Sweden.
Oslo’s Tourist And Transport Information
There is a lot of transport information in Oslo, but much of it, is not really geared at tourists and especially those that walk everywhere like me. Here’s some examples.
Note that the bus timing information is in the stop itself and the clock in the train information.
But there were no walking maps and you needed to have a paper guide or book in your hand.
Mind The Gap – Norwegian Style
As I got into the Metro train to go away from the stop at the Munch Museum, I thought I heard the familiar phrase from the London Underground – Mind the Gap.
There was this picture on the train window.
Mind The Gap – Norwegian Style
However, when I took the Airport Express it was more obvious.
MInd The Gap On Airport Express
This article from Wikipedia explains the worldwide use of the phrase, but Oslo doesn’t get a mention.
A Crazy Train Ride
it should have been very easy.
I was dropped back at Vasteras station and then all I had to do was take a train to Hallsberg, where I would get a fast train to Oslo, where I would arrive around nine o’clock. The aim was to then spent a day in Oslo, coming home on the Wednesday to London by British Airways.
The first part of the journey was uneventful, except that to me it seemed that no-one had adjusted the heating system on the train I got to Hallsberg. But it was in time to get my connection to Oslo at 17:06.
Hallsberg was a station that was the mix of old and new and had a wide bridge over the tracks like Reading and other rebuilt stations in the UK.
Hallsberg Station
But the train that arrived to take me to Oslo had seen better days. But if I thought that was a bad train, we were then informed that we’d be changing to another train to continue our journey.
Changing Trains
The new train was one of the worst I’d travelled on in the last couple of years and I’ve even been on a Pacer that was in better condition. None of the toilets were working.
No Toilets Were Working
All of this game of musical trains was because there works on the lines and they had to get the passengers through on only one line.
Eventually, we got to Kongsvinger, where Swedish Railways had assured us the fast train to Oslo would have been held.
But it hadn’t been held, so about fifty of us gathered in the waiting room at about eleven. Luckily, I had details of my hotel in Oslo and was able to get them on the telephone to assure them I was on my way. But I know others weren’t so lucky, as they hadn’t any rooms to go to in Oslo. They’d just hoped they’d get there early enough to find one.
Customer service was non-existent and even the toilets needed a credit card. Luckily a forceful Swede knew how to fix them, so everybody could have a much-needed pee.
Eventually, a train arrived and although it was fairly new and very clean, it wasn’t the fastest, as it crawled its way to Oslo.
A Train Arrives
It was an enjoyable journey though, as the Swede was handing out beer to fellow passengers, who included a teacher from Devon and his German girlfriend. Just as we did on that memorable night in Venice, we enjoyed ourselves and put the world to rights.
I got into Oslo about midnight and wandered around for perhaps half-an-hour until I found a taxi to take me to my hotel.
No Tables On The Heathrow Express
I went to Heathrow Airport by the Heathrow Express.
It is a nice train,but why are there no tables on the train? There isn’t any between seats or in the seatbacks!
Upgrading Alexandra Palace Station
I have very early memories of Alexandra Palace station and probably first used it to get to Kings Cross with my father. But now it’s being upgraded.
This is very much needed, as there are quite a few suburban stations on that line, that need improving from a new coat of paint upwards. But it’s coming, according to this post on the First Capital Connect web site.
The Anonymous Widower 