The Future’s Bright, The Future’s Orange
The London Overground is starting to show its true colours and design philosophy. I took these pictures at Camden Road station today.
In some way the designs differ to those at Crystal Palace station, but then that station is a Grade 2 Listed building and bright orange would not have been an authentic choice.
The Rail Bridge At Primrose Hill
These pictures show the rail bridge at Primrose Hill.
It is now pedestrianised, but it wasn’t in 1970, when I used to walk across it twice to get to and from work.
There may well be development here, as some plans would mean adding the former Primrose Hill station, which used to be under this bridge, to a rerouted North London line. Wikipedia says this.
It has been proposed to re-open Primrose Hill station by bringing the short stretch of line between South Hampstead and Camden Road stations back into the regular passenger service by incorporating it into the London Overground network.
From this passenger’s point-of-view, it would be a good thing, but it is only part of a bigger plan, that might be needed to get the freight through London.
December the 9th Is Dalston to Clapham Day
Howard Smith, the CEO for London Rail at Transport for London has let the cat out of the bag in this interview. Here’s some of what he said.
London Railways invested about £3 billion between 2005 and 2011. That’s gone into the East London Line, North London Line upgrade, new trains, the creation of the Overground, all the investment in stations that went into the Overground, creating what from the December 9 when East London Line Phase 2 opens will be the Orbital Network.
December the 9th is a Sunday by the way. Judging by what I saw last Sunday, it would appear that much of it could open now. But it’s only eleven weeks.
The New Overground Line To Clapham Junction
I took these pictures today, whilst walking from Surrey Quays station to SELCHP.
Note.
- How the track for the new branch, runs between SELCHP and the fence along the route I walked.
- A couple of trains have been seen travelling along the line. One may have passed me, but I’m not sure.
- It would appear that the new bridge over Surrey Canal Road, has been designed to be incorporated into any proposed Surrey Canal Road station. I actually met a guy with his dalmatian by the station and he and/or a neighbour could remember Surrey Canal Road as the Grand Surrey Canal. The neighbour could also remember troop trains going by over the old line, that was dismantled in the 1960s or 1970s.
- The proximity of the New Den to the proposed station.
- The new line has an out of station interchange at Clapham High Street station with Clapham North station on the Northern line. It would make it easy for anybody in my area to get to the Tooting area, although I think that Clapham North station is not the best.
One thing that would appear to be certain, s that opening the line this year, is not an outrageous boast.
Open House – The Thames Tunnel Revealed
Because it was Open House, the floodlights were left on in the Thames Tunnel today. I took these two pictures.
I did intend to take some more on my way back, but I was rather delayed.
Perhaps it would be a good idea, if Transport for London, lit up some of the disused stations on the Underground, so they could be seen from passing trains on the Open House weekend.
Open House – Crossrail’s Bond Street Station Presentation
This was a presentation, that I wanted to see yesterday. But as you can see it was very popular. At least from the numbers who turned up.
Crossrail’s Bond Street Station Presentation
At least it probably shows, that CrossRail is going to be a success.
London Uses The Train Model For 600 New Buses for London
London has just ordered 600 New Buses for London from Wrightbus, according to this article on the BBC website.
Boris’s political opponents say he is wrong, but they would anyway, wouldn’t they?
On the other hand, what Transport for London (TfL) are using is exactly the same purchase model, as that used for trains in this country.
The trains are ordered by the Department of Transport, owned by leasing companies or ROSCOs and then hired by the train companies like Virgin. In many cases, the maintenance is arranged by the manufacturer or ROSCO and they guarantee to provide so many trains each day.
When applied to London’s buses, this must give similar advantages.
- Although, TfL are buying 600 buses, I suspect that this package includes maintenance and guarantees a specific number of operational buses. In fact, on the 38 route, there are nine in service, but usually one is kept as a spare, in case of failure.
- Are TfL selling the leases on to a third party? How many of those, who are against the deal, have never bought something on hire purchase or a lease?
- The buses can be used, where and when they are needed. Most routes need about 20-30 buses, so batches of the New Buses can be moved around, according to need. For instance, the passenger pattern may be very different according to the seasons, so buses might run on one route in summer and another in the winter.
- These buses will change as time goes on and owning them outright, gives TfL the opportunity to update the older ones to the new specification.
- I think too, that the single ownership, should mean that the buses will have a longer service lifetime, just like the old Routemasters and the Inter City 125 trains.
- It will also give TfL time to do a full analysis of bus design, operation patterns and costs.
So all things being well, I think this could be a good decision, that saves money in the long term.
A Stray Airliner?
In my exploration of the Gospel Oak to Barking line, I decided to follow the line on Google Maps. All went well and I was able to see where the electrification stopped and kicked in around South Tottenham. And then I found this image, as the railway passes south of Seven Sisters station.
I wonder how many stray planes are available to view on Google Maps?
Can anybody identify the tail to determine the airline? Judging by the silhouette, it looks like it’s some variant of Boeing 737.
If you want to find it, type “Seven Sisters station” into Google and then select maps. The plane is just south of the station.
As someone, who has over a thousand hours in command of an aircraft, you are taught under Visual Flight Rules to fly with the line feature on your left. So it could be they’ve taken off from Stansted and they’re following the railway. But then, they wouldn’t be under these rules over London, except in very special circumstances.
Identifying the airline would help solve the puzzle!
The Anonymous Widower 