class411
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Post by class411 on Oct 26, 2023 12:44:31 GMT
Walking through Victoria (LU) yesterday, I remembered that, from the seventies until a few years back, there was a doorway, close to the steps leading to Victoria NR, from which the smell of cooked food frequently emanated.
There was no signage, and I was never close enough, when anyone entered or exited, to see inside.
The whole area has changed so dramatically that it's all but impossible to visualise its previous state.
Can anyone say if there was a staff canteen in that location?
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class411
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Post by class411 on Oct 19, 2023 1:44:03 GMT
So tempted to say they got sent back in time to kill the leader of the resistance before he was born... Go on, I dare you.
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Post by class411 on Oct 13, 2023 13:08:53 GMT
Unlucky.
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Post by class411 on Oct 2, 2023 8:06:21 GMT
Odd, as I haven't noticed particularly long delays at EC. (Although I've only made about ~10 such journeys.)
There was around delay of about a minute on my last trip.
Does this apply to all W/B trains?
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Post by class411 on Sept 26, 2023 10:13:03 GMT
Thanks to both for their work.
This forum has always been one of the most - if not the most - civilised forums I have visited.
This has a lot to do with quiet, light handed, and effective admin/moderation.
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Post by class411 on Sept 24, 2023 9:50:11 GMT
Yes, I didn't start this thread to initiate another discussion about driverless trains on LU. I even specifically said as much (but, of course, you don't own a thread just because you start it).
I suspect that, even if there were the political will, it would take ~15 years to come up with a fully worked out and fully costed plan. Not only would formulating and costing this plan be enormously expensive, it would need to progress through a minimum of three parliaments.
So far all we've ever had is bluff and bluster from a few railway-ignorant politicians when there are strikes.
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Post by class411 on Sept 23, 2023 10:23:34 GMT
As you say many, many years in some currently unimaginable future when TfL has lots of cash to invest in upgrades and infrastructure. Certainly not before January 2028 when I am due to retire... God no. I was thinking more like 2038. And that's just to work it all out, not implement it.
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Post by class411 on Sept 23, 2023 8:09:34 GMT
Yes, as I said, it could not be taken as some sort of proof of concept for LU.
Apart from all the things you mention above, the sheer complexity of the interconnectedness of the Hammersmith & City, Met, District, and Circle lines would make handling of all the possible exception conditions incredibly difficult without direct human intervention.
Many, many, many, years into the future, it might happen, but I suspect that, if it does, there will be a core of drivers at some central location able to drive trains remotely.
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Post by class411 on Sept 22, 2023 13:11:31 GMT
Anyway, I travelled on the Copenhagen system some years ago, as part of a trip that included the rail / road connection with Malmo in Sweden and sampling the (then) brand new S-Tog suburban trains. I hope that you were able to sample these too as they re-wrote the rule book* with respect of carriage lengths and widths, so in their own way are more significant than the driverless metro. Yes, I did. Also, naturally, being in Copenhagen I had to visit Malmo. I wonder how much money Malmo tourism has made over the years on the back of 'The Bridge' (TV programme, not the actual bridge, although that must have helped). As an aside, if anyone finds themselves in Malmo, there is a delightful museum complex (Malmohus Castle) in easy walking distance of the station.
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Post by class411 on Sept 22, 2023 8:28:56 GMT
I had my first ever encounter with a multi-line driverless metro when visiting Copenhagen last week.
Quite fun, and seems to work well.
Obviously the track layout is vastly simpler than LU so it can't be taken as some kind of 'proof of concept' for London.
It was interesting to note that the tunnels are permanently illuminated and there are signs every few metres telling you how far you need to walk to get to the next station. I do wonder about wheelchair users though, as the walkways did not look wide enough for some motorised wheelchairs/scooters, and even normal ones would be a very close to the edge.
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Post by class411 on Sept 21, 2023 8:32:24 GMT
What will the swimming pool roads do? At a guess it's a track with an inspection pit. If you filled the pit with water you could use it as a lap pool. Go on, ask me what a lap pool is.
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Post by class411 on Sept 20, 2023 10:07:21 GMT
I am sure I read somewhere on the forums that the S stock trains are not air conditioned, they are air cooled and do not have humidity sensors. It helps a bit, but they really can still be too warm for my liking. 👍 It does help to know where to stand/sit. A few years back I had to do some rush hour travelling in packed S-Stock, and found it was often just as stifling as any other stock. However, if you work out where the A/C outlets are, it can be much more pleasant. One other point is that in any situation, it doesn't matter how good the A/C is if you are exposed to direct sunlight, and in trains, having a lot of windows, that's more likely than in buildings.
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Post by class411 on Aug 27, 2023 8:21:41 GMT
Do LU keep stats for the overall reliability of the service on a monthly basis?
Back before the resignalling and introduction of the S-stock, my journey to Victoria on the HC&C and District lines, which, under perfect circumstances would take ~30 mins, would frequently take nearly an hour, with long delays possible at various points, meaning a dash across Victoria to catch my train. (Although I only ever actually missed it once.)
It's recently realised that now, there are very few significant delays, and I often make the journey in ~ 35 minutes. I've even cut the time I allow to 50 minutes.
Obviously the whole point of resignalling and restocking was to improve reliability, but I am curious as whether there was a sudden improvement, or whether it has been happening gradually.
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Post by class411 on Jul 25, 2023 10:39:51 GMT
This will only change when 'be here' ticketing is introduced, because it will follow (track) us through our entire journey and be able to charge for actual travel. Whether passengers will welcome that degree of surveillance / tracking remains to be seen. Is this something that is on the horizon or a figment of your imagination? It isn't a figment of his imagination, as all the technology is current available and reasonably mature. Of course, that doesn't mean that it's even been considered for LU (or any other railway). It would be a long and costly programme to implement. In general, LU has a more difficult problem than the many other metro systems that rely on 'timed tickets', which are extremely easy to implement and use, but mean that those who undertake short journeys subsidise those that take longer ones.
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Post by class411 on Jul 11, 2023 5:45:01 GMT
Super retro and rather wonderful.
(The indicator and the driver circuitry.)
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Post by class411 on Jul 4, 2023 7:12:31 GMT
lack of precision just where it's needed. 1 mile 27 chains 5 links = 1 mile 1785.29724 feet = ~~1.338125 miles = ~~2.15350344km And do you ask for 568.261 ml of ale ? Or milk ? Is that why I keep getting funny looks down the pub?
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Post by class411 on Jul 3, 2023 8:17:48 GMT
I've never heard/seen anyone quote a distance in miles and chains. Incredibly rarely, miles and yards, but almost invariably miles + a fraction of miles, or a decimal point representation. Have you never looked at the main line Sectional Appendix ? Strangely, no.
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Post by class411 on Jul 1, 2023 18:06:58 GMT
I plan to write a blog about a jounrey I made while visiting the UK, using three different units (km, mi, mi + ch). In this day and age of blogging, is there really any benefit of mentioning the third unit i.e. miles + chains? Apart from (possibly - it was a long time ago) at primary school, I've never heard/seen anyone quote a distance in miles and chains. Incredibly rarely, miles and yards, but almost invariably miles + a fraction of miles, or a decimal point representation. I plan to write a blog about a jounrey I made while visiting the UK, using three different units (km, mi, mi + ch). In this day and age of blogging, is there really any benefit of mentioning the third unit i.e. miles + chains? Why can't you use furlongs? Yes, use the well known FFF (Furlong Firkin Fortnight) system. (The unit of mass, it should be noted, is a firkin of bitter beer with an alcohol content of 5.27% by volume.)
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Post by class411 on Jun 30, 2023 17:44:22 GMT
As this involves rolling stock, signalling, and stations, I've put it here. Apologies if it needs moving.
I saw this today, and thought it mentioned a couple of things not brought up in the discussions we've had previously.
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Post by class411 on May 28, 2023 8:43:18 GMT
I suppose they introduced this feature because there are some very long treks as some stations. At Victoria, from the station entrance to the Victoria line platforms it's almost a half marathon [/HYPERBOLE]
But as I said in the OP, there are oddities.
At Shepherd's Bush Market, there's no way that for 99.9% of passengers it could take 3 minutes to get from the entrance to the platform. It may be that there is a default amount added for ticket buying/possible congestion.
And the Heathrow one just looks silly, saying that once you've stopped at the station it takes four minutes to get to the station.
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Post by class411 on May 27, 2023 12:48:44 GMT
Thanks. That makes sense.
I suppose even those of us who use the system regularly might get caught out at a station we haven't used before.
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Post by class411 on May 27, 2023 12:22:17 GMT
Does anyone have a clue as to why the TFL journey planner adds some arbitrary amount to the start and end of journeys to 'transfer' from/to where you asked to start and end?
I asked it to plan a journey (to get a time estimate), from a station to Heathrow 2&3, and the first 'leg' was a 3 min transfer to the station I asked to start at (from where was not specified), and the final one was a four minute walk from (get this) Heathrow terminal 2&3 to Heathrow terminal 2&3 underground station. (Is it planning on stopping in the tunnel and making us walk the last four minutes?)
I've noticed this before.
It's not a problem, but it is weird.
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Post by class411 on May 12, 2023 12:36:21 GMT
xtmw's version is a later article, but the lazy BBC have just used the same photo!
So at first sight it looks as if you've already read it.
It caught me out at first.
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Post by class411 on May 6, 2023 9:21:52 GMT
I wonder if Inspector Sands was called to the control room.
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Post by class411 on May 6, 2023 8:32:46 GMT
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Post by class411 on May 6, 2023 8:16:15 GMT
It depends how much effort the people charged with production of the system are prepared to expend. To give an example, based on the message "This is an <X> line train to <Y>". If you are putting in minimum effort, you would just get the voice artist to record a list of applicable lines and a list of applicable destinations, together with the fragments: 'This is a' and 'line train to'. Then you arrange for the equipment to dynamically splice the relevant fragments to make the announcement. This can sound very clunky. On the C-Stock it would come out as, for example: "This is a ... Hammersmith and City ... line train to ... Hammersmith" (Where the ellipses are audibly significant pauses.) To get a really good sound, you need to record the voice artist reading a longer fragment for each line/station, and accurately extract the relevant word or phrase so that it has the correct inflection and cadence. e,g, "This is a District line train to" "This is a Hammersmith and City line train to" "This is a Metropolitan line train to" Providing the extracted segments have the correct spacing they can be spliced to create an very natural sounding result. (Because it is inferred from work on a system I designed for a non railway application, I expect someone will post to tell me I've got this entirely wrong .)
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Post by class411 on Apr 28, 2023 17:30:39 GMT
I thought the screens showed the carriage numbers are shown on the screens when the trains approach the short platform stations. I think several postings have drifted into another moan session about S stock rather than Elizabeth line trains! I love S-stock. No nostalgic associations, but superb at its job. [/OFFTOPIC]
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Post by class411 on Apr 28, 2023 8:33:46 GMT
The point concerning 'doors' has been completely missed here. The 'rear two doors' could easily be taken to mean 'the two doors which close the rearmost doorway'. That is NOT the meaning which is intended, and so is a possible source of confusion: "The middle two didn't open either..." Quite. If there is any possibility of confusion, as there is here, and alternative, unambiguous, formulations are available, an unambiguous option should be used. Confusion for passengers may be exacerbated by the way the ‘doors not in use’ (note: ‘ doors’) signs come on randomly at inappropriate times. I know that LU have a very relaxed attitude to proving incorrect information to passengers, but that doesn’t mean it’s right.
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Post by class411 on Apr 27, 2023 21:37:00 GMT
Not sure if that's helpful at all, Class411. What's the difference between a door set, a door and a door leaf? It isn’t helpful, the messages should be clear. In this context ‘doors’ is ambiguous. ‘Pair of doors’, on the other time is clear and unambiguous. So why do LU choose to use the ambiguous option? I would have thought that ‘door’ and ‘door leaf’ are synonymous. Where more than one door fills a hole they are generally referred to in the plural (e.g. ‘French doors’).
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Post by class411 on Apr 26, 2023 18:26:28 GMT
It’s also a pity that LU don’t know the difference between a door and a set of doors. Telling people that the rear two doors won’t open is unhelpful if the person hearing the announcement does not realise that they mean the rear two sets of doors.
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