This is a weekly round-up of London’s rail transport news…
The image is from a Dec 2021 article: Moor Park, the tube station in a private estate
London Underground
Arson investigation as train carriage set on fire at Leyton Underground station Essex Live
The expansion of mobile coverage on the London Underground continues, and they’ve just added more parts of the Northern and Central lines. ianVisits
TV presenter Ade Adepitan has hit out at the lack of accessibility on public transport after sharing a video of being carried up stairs on the Tube. AOL
Artificial intelligence is to be trialled on the London Underground in a bid to stem soaring rates of fare dodging, it can be revealed. Standard
The London Underground carried over 4 million passenger journeys last Thursday – the first time daily passenger journeys exceeded 4 million since the pandemic hit. ianVisits
Elizabeth line
Passengers stuck for hours on Elizabeth Line after cables damaged BBC News
TfL on launching the Elizabeth line connecting Heathrow to Central London The Drum
Mainline / Overground
Great Western Railway (GWR) has honoured two railway heroes by naming an Intercity Express Train after them. Cotswold Journal
DLR
Thamesmead needs DLR extension, not just bus transit, says Greenwich Council leader The Greenwich Wire
Miscellaneous
Susan Hall: Tory mayoral candidate accused of ‘weaponising’ Tube ‘pickpocketing’ incident to attack Sadiq Khan Standard
A swan, found trapped between fencing and a tube line in Wembley, was rescued and subsequently released into the Grand Union Canal. Harrow Online
Tube Mapper’s 2024 calendar for London’s transport fans ianVisits
Sir Rod Stewart and Jools Holland announce new album with a surprise performance at St Pancras station Planet Radio
Reopening Tilbury Riverside railway station’s booking hall three decades after it closed ianVisits
London footfall takes costly hit as rail strikes wreak havoc on Christmas trade CityAM
Sadiq Khan Faces Pressure to Prohibit Gambling Ads Within London’s Public Transport Casino Guardian
Claire Mann appointed Transport for London’s Chief Operating Officer RBD
And finally: Comedian Dom Joly poses as an undercover TfL Revenue Inspector to check commuters are wearing their festive knits for Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day Save the Children
The image is from a Dec 2021 article: Moor Park, the tube station in a private estate
Network Rail not been having much look on the lines between Paddington and Action ML.
Perhaps they never did but the Liz Line has drawn attention to them?
The stuck Elizabeth line train once again illustrates why these trains should have at least one accessible toilet on them. TFL may be able to claim that the stations have toilets and the normal journey times between them are short. However, not everyone can wait that long when the service is running normally, let alone when the train is stuck for several hours.
Can the toiler could still operate normally in a power cut? The recent incident on Eurostar seems to suggest otherwise.
Trains/carriages should have a backup battery to cover “amenities” (lighting, toilets) in case of loss of main power (from outside, or from locomotive), and indeed some do–with next generation now starting to have a “crawler” battery to allow short low speed moves (e.g. depot working and limping to a station, siding or other access point)
If only DfT spent more time on this sort of consideration and less time on standards setting that resulted in uncomfortable seating.
Not convinced the core section is justified. If the line could run Heathrow to Abbey Wood without toilets and Shenfield towards Reading with that would seem reasonable.
Given how stock winds up in the wrong places at times and the line just gets so busy, I can’t see how even that would be workable.
Sharing track increases the risk of issues, but that’s how we have a joined up transport network.
This one’s on Network Rail, and of course, successive Governments, not least the current one
@Ian
At what point will the headings start to roll the Elizabeth line into Mainline/Overground, or vice versa Elizabeth/Overground and maybe lump Northern City into that section as well
The ASLEF member’s suggestion that the Elizabeth line management only has itself to blame for snarling up OLE cables and chossing up a whole day’s rail service is less than constructive criticism.
Apart from any other consideration, how on earth have we got to a situation where not even the driving instructors know how to drive the train effectively just leaving the actual drivers as the only ones?
Very clever manœuvering by the unionised staff right under the noses of their employers akin to the deadlock up in the Pennines which allows a tiny number of union apparatchiks the power to shut down commerce in the capital for as long they desire.