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.
Emergency services to simulate a terrorist attack on the tube network
Whenever the debate about why various disused tube stations — specifically Aldwych — can’t be opened to the public more often, it is usually pointed out that the best of them — specifically Aldwych — are still in use for…
Photos – Blackfriars tube station reopens
Several months late, or a week early, depending on how you look at it, Blackfriars tube station unexpectedly opened to the public this morning.
Green Park tube station to get groundwater cooling system
I thought work on this had been paused as part of the Great Olympic Engineering Shutdown, but a note from TfL earlier today says that a rather interesting air cooling system will be introduced at Green Park station this summer.…
New Boris Bike stands at Canary Wharf
Just a few photos of the huge new Cycle Hire stands right outside Canary Wharf’s Jubilee line station. Considering how many people use the area as a meeting place and sit on the high wall beside the bike stand, I…
Photos from inside Crossrail’s concrete factory
When the early sub-surface train tunnels were built, they were laboriously lined with bricks by the builders, but when the first deep tube tunnels were constructed, they had to switch to curved iron plates that were bolted into place. More…
Photos inside a future Crossrail Tunnel
Last April I had a chance to walk through the length of the Connaught Tunnel, a disused railway tunnel in Docklands that will be refurbished for Crossrail. Today I went back for another look, although due to the now ongoing…
Boris Bike stand maps ignoring the River Thames
The Boris Bikes are coming to the Isle of Dogs and in doing so, showing up the fallacy of using walking/cycling distance indicators that ignore the Thames.
Luggage racks from the old Met Line trains for sale
Possibly a slightly expensive gift for the commuting transport geek in your family, but the Transport Museum has grabbed a load of the old luggage racks that used to appear in the soon-to-vanish A Stock trains that spent the past…
Too many improvements in an email – TfL’s changing language
I noticed something last week which stood out a bit, and it happened again today, so I dug into my archive to see when it happened. What am I talking about? The weekly emails from TfL warning of dire problems…
Photos from behind the hoardings at Blackfriars Station
Since construction started back in 2009, much of Blackfriars railway station has been shrouded in builders hoardings protecting the public from the dirt (usually) and noise (occasionally) generated by the rebuilding work to make the station ready for Thameslink.
The tale of the “Dead Body Train” at Whitechapel
There is a tale that is often repeated late at night in spooky surroundings that there was once a Dead Body Train that ran through a special tunnel and collected the dead from the Royal London Hospital and took them no one knows where.
Crossrail is looking for names for its giant tunnelling machines
Being the sort of person who prefers rather bland factual descriptions, the idea of giving a cute name to a mechanical device seems a rather odd concept. However, as the vast majority of people disagree with my eminently superior opinions…
Michael Portillo rides on the Post Office Railway
A heads up about a couple of TV shows that may be worth watching later this week. Travelling around Great Britain by train, former politician, Michael Portillo uses a copy of Victorian cartographer George Bradshaw’s Railway Companion to compare and…
Watch some steam trains in London on Saturday
It’s the last of the big steam train runs though London tomorrow (Saturday) with two trains at lunchtime, one at an uncomfortably early hour in the morning, and all three returning in the late afternoon/evening. First up is the Christmas…
Updated photos of the Canary Wharf Crossrail Station
Although I did once go down underground into the station, here are a few photos I took over the weekend of the visible part of the building works, with reasonably close comparisons with previous photos I took. Difficult to get…
Steam train passing through East London on Saturday
Steam trains in North and South West London while not commonplace, aren’t rare – but a steam train in East London is exceptionally so, and tomorrow (Sat 10th Dec) is a chance for people in this side of the city…
First Pylon for Boris’s Cable Car Installed
When finally completed, the most striking aspect of Boris's latest folly/innovative public transport service (delete depending on political preference) will be the three tall pylons that carry the cables over the Thames.
Four chances to watch steam trains in London today
Four chances to watch steam trains running around London today – one leaving at lunchtime and three returning this evening. Firstly, there is the VSOE Luncheon Excursion leaving Victoria Station at 12:30 and running via Clapham Junction (12:40), Barnes (12:47),…
London Underground Moquette at Canary Wharf
The main shopping centre at Canary Wharf is doing something exceptionally rare this weekend – they are admitting that men like to buy clothes. Throughout the year, the place puts on lots of shopping events for the ladies, but the…
The Crystal Palace Subway Tunnel
I was interested to read this morning of a campaign to reopen a long disused tunnel at Crystal Palace that I have long wanted to poke rather more than just a nose inside for a look at.
A 3D model of Bank Tube Station – and a look at the upgrade plans
If planning permission is granted, then six years of building and tunnelling works will start at Bank tube station from 2015 to fix the notorious bottleneck at the Northern Line.
The underground railway in North Korea
About 7 years ago I was finishing a long stint of very hard work, and feeling weary, decided to book a holiday… to North Korea. Because that is the sort of holiday I like to take. Tourists are not routinely…
More details of London Underground’s 150th Anniversary Events
You may recall that the Transport Museum has secured a grant to restore an old carriage in time for the 150th anniversary of the London Underground, which takes place in 2013. A few more details have been released by London…
Changes Announced to London’s only Parliamentary Train Service
Regular readers may recall my rather fun little trip earlier this year on the
