This is a weekly round-up of London’s rail transport news…
The image is from a March 2015 article: Remains of a disused station uncovered by Network Rail
London Underground
Call for government to fully fund Piccadilly Line’s signalling upgrade Enfield Dispatch
The elderly Bakerloo line trains will eventually need to be replaced, and TfL has started looking for suppliers to prepare the Bakerloo line for the new trains. ianVisits
A man who has lived in Ladywell for 40 years is concerned that the Bakerloo line extension being considered by TfL is “not a good idea”. Local London
Northern line commuters faced chaos after a train’s “sticky brakes” sparked a fire alert at a Tube station. Times Series
Cause of Kentish Town Tube station reopening delay revealed Local London
Elizabeth line
Talking dirty: Will Wiles seeks a positive in the ghosts of the Underground RIBA J
Mainline / Overground
Mitigating local planning concerns meant HS2 was always going to be expensive, says scheme’s former COO Building Design
The Government is to be called on to take the operation of the West Coast Main Line into public hands and terminate Avanti’s contract. CityAM
The long-running saga about whether a new railway station will be built at Beam Park in East London is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon, as a decision is not expected now until later this year. ianVisits
Streetwave and c2c have published the results of a new real-world benchmark, which examined the mobile networks across the Essex Thameside Railway route. Overall, EE customers get the best experience. ISP Review
Brand guidelines for the new Overground names TfL Digital Blog
GWR starts west London trials of a battery-powered train to replace diesels ianVisits
Sellar’s £1.5bn Liverpool Street station plans hit by more than 2,000 objections Building
Last Friday, Marylebone station celebrated its 125th anniversary with a special train naming ceremony. ianVisits
A woman has changed her middle name to Marylebone because the railway station has “a soul”. Asian Image
Network Rail has removed an Islamic hadith that was displayed on the departure board at London King’s Cross after the message sparked a backlash, particularly from right-wing groups. Standard
If you were planning to travel via Euston station this Easter, try to change your plans, as the station will be closed all weekend. ianVisits
Luke Pollard, Labour MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, said building the [HS2] station at Old Oak Common, in west London would affect rail passengers travelling between Devon and Cornwall and Paddington. BBC News
Miscellaneous
We must be more ambitious in efforts to modernise the UK’s rail network Politics Home
Train drivers announce new series of rolling strikes alongside walkouts on the Tube Morning Star
Fed-up passengers say strikes are ‘becoming too much’ Daily Mail
Rude Tube: 160 Years Since First Naughty Graffiti On The Underground Londonist
The ‘closet renationalisation’ of the passenger rail sector provides an opportunity for the industry to be more honest with passengers about real-world performance, Railway Gazette
Father-of-two accuses TfL of ‘reprogramming’ his debit card and leaving him unable to even buy a loaf of bread Daily Mail
Walking the Metropolitan line extension to Watford Junction Diamond Geezer
And finally: After Henry Fell raises £1,280 for Macmillan Cancer Support, by visiting every station on the London Underground, he was rewarded with his own VIP ‘behind the lines’ Northern Line tour and cab ride. Hi Hub
The image is from a March 2015 article: Remains of a disused station uncovered by Network Rail
Was it really worth linking to that Daily Fail scaremongering clickbait?
TL;DR: Stupid drama king, foolishly relying on a single payment method, goes ballistic instead of calmly asking the bank to replace his iffy card.
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The contact pads on the card often get grubby, especially now that they’re used much less because of the £100 limit. They’re also unreliable if the card isn’t perfectly flat, e.g. if kept in a change wallet in a back pocket. That’s probably why it also didn’t work in his card reader.
Similarly, a hairline crack could desensitise the aerial loop. I’d expect the activation field on a TfL gate to be much stronger than at a store checkout: the very high throughput means it’s imperative that the gate reads every card instantly, even if it’s only waved close rather than touched flat.
So it would be quite possible for an iffy card to fail almost everywhere with Chip & PIN and to work contactlessly only with TfL.
I am not a huge fan of censorship, and if the Daily Mail reports a story, it gets the same chance of being included as, for example, the far-left Morning Star newspaper also writing a typically biased version of a news story.
Ah, but that’s using common sense, being logical & fair minded ianVisits, and some don’t like that ………