Your guide to London's culture and transport news and events taking place across the city.
Your guide to London's culture and transport news and events taking place across the city.
The Thames river bus service, The Thames Clipper – which zooms past my flat on a very regular basis – has announced that it is to start accepting Oyster PrePay cards from November. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/11479.aspx Still to be confirmed is whether…
Proposals for Post-Crossrail development at TCR
A brief comment has been released on part of the redevelopment proposals for the land which will be cleared as a result of the Crossrail developments at Tottenham Court Road station. As the buildings on the corner will be completely…
The DLR’s Brief History of The Docklands
Somehow missed this, but the DLR has published A Brief History of Time the Docklands as a station by station guide. The booklet, some 28 pages long gives 2-3 paragraphs to the history of the area which each station is…
The last Thameslink train from Moorgate
Yesterday evening, the very last ever Thameslink train to leave Moorgate station – did indeed leave Moorgate station. Being the last train, loads of train geeks turned up to be able to tell their grandchildren “yes, son – I did…
The last Thameslink train from Moorgate
This Friday, Moorgate station will close to Thameslink trains forever as the track approaching it will be cut off thanks to the Thameslink 2000 – I mean, Thameslink Programme – of network upgrades. Hinted at in this week’s issue of…
Scavenger Hunting @ the Acton Depot
Yesterday was one of the periodic opening at the Acton Depot, which holds tons of kit that can’t be fitted into the Transport Museum’s Covent Garden venue. This weekend was themed around miniatures, so the place was also manned by…
London Transport Museum’s Open Weekend
Just a tip – if heading over to the periodic open weekend at the Acton Depot this weekend, you would be strongly advised to try and get tickets from the Covent Garden museum before heading over to Acton as the…
Railway sleepers to be made from plastic bottles
A press release from Network Rail amused me for the headline grabbing potential, although the press release title was somewhat drier. PLASTIC FANTASTIC: RECYCLED SLEEPERS SET TO ROLL OUT ACROSS THE NETWORK Everyday waste could form part of the railway…
Watching the A1 Tornado Steam Train arrive at King’s Cross
Update: The train will be returning to London on the 15th Sept – details here. — Today I wandered over to Kings Cross to watch the A1 Tornado steam train make its inaugural commercial trip – and into London. Got…
The A1 Tornado Steam Train Arrives in London
Just a heads up that the A1 Tornado, the first steam train to be built in the UK for nearly 50 years will be making its first commercial passenger trip tomorrow (Sat 7th Feb), and will be expected at Kings…
Tube Station sponsorship could be valuable
Some months ago, I noted an advert in The Economist calling for companies to sponsor the stations on Dubai’s new metro railway. As Annie Mole noted last December, the London Underground is also considering lifting its ban on station sponsorship…
Steam Trains and Road Crossings
A press release from Network Rail the other day made me do a bit of a double-take and a bit of research. The press release itself was nothing special, being a warning that a moribund, but never technically closed (echos…
Today was the completion of a DLR extension project which had taken the light railway down towards City Airport – and after a short hiatus for tunneling work – under the River Thames to Woolwich town centre. I had planned…
Steam trains in London this weekend
If you’ve been watching the recent series of TV programs on BBC4 (and some on BBC2) about the ending of steam trains in the country – then you might be interested to learn that this weekend is an excellent one…
Bloggers Briefing with London Transport
On Tuesday, I was invited to join a bunch of other London based scribes to have a lunchtime round-table meeting over at Transport for London’s iconic HQ building office round the corner from their iconic HQ building to get some…
Warning Messages on London Transport
Prompted by a comment on Annie Moles’s blog about sarcastic warning messages on the tube network I was reminded of a thought I had yesterday about the perpetual audio warning messages which pervade the transport system today. I was sitting…
The end of an era on the railways
The East Coast Main Line National Express trains are to stop serving tea in cups and saucers. Apparently passengers in First Class dining cars complain about the noise of spoons rattling about in their saucers, so mugs are replacing cups…
There is a section of the London Underground which has a short bit of track, and just a single train which shuttles between two stations at either end – and it isn’t the Waterloo and City line. I am referring…
The Cathedral Express Steam Train
We may live in an age where trains are bland tubes with garish colours and an announcement every 30 seconds, but there are still some good old fashioned steam trains in use on the UK’s railways. Not just confined to…
Shepherd’s Bush station moved – a lot
Go to the National Rail website – http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/SPB/details.html Then click on ‘Local Bus Map’ Then click on ‘Local Map’ Now zoom out. I wonder what zone that is in – or is it part of London Transport International? Hat tip…
I wandered up to Greenford in North West London this morning to have a look at one of London Underground’s little novelties. Greenford Station on the Central Line is notable for a couple of reasons – it has the only…
Transport developments in London
The latest issue of the transport plans for the Olympic Park has been published. From a rail transport perspective, the key points: Stratford Station Stratford station passenger numbers are expected to double by 2016. The trebling of capacity and improving…
Transport for London has just announced that changing between lines at Bank tube station will not be possible from the end of this month until the middle of next year.
An old news article about the Central Line Underground Railway
I have a copy of an article published in The New York Times on March 7th 1898 which goes into detail about the construction of the first stage of what we today call the Central Line on the underground. As…
