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Post by stapler on Nov 20, 2016 8:02:40 GMT
Point taken crusty. Are you saying the buses' time display is obtained by GPS? Or a the machines synchronised by code received wirelessly by some other means. I always find it annoying when the time on a bus is replaced by "Bus stopping" or some announcement about no trains on the Goblin!
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Post by stapler on Nov 19, 2016 22:29:20 GMT
Bit odd that buses do, on the DMIs............
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Post by stapler on Nov 19, 2016 8:09:38 GMT
The way forward for the 60+ Oyster might be to charge an annual card fee (perhaps comparable with a railcard) and you could vary the start time of Freedom Passes, which would probably affect relatively few people (and give currency again to the old bus drivers' descriptor of OAPs as Twirlies (from "am I too early?".)
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Post by stapler on Nov 18, 2016 21:34:26 GMT
humph! So, Travelcard season / day Travelcard / daily caps are still rising. The more I learn about this fares freeze the less attractive it sounds. To boot, if nothing major happens in the global economy then by 2020 the income shortfall will be severe. I am hoping that this shortfall is not recovered by downgrading the Freedom Pass offered to Londoners aged 60+. I say this because in 2019 I join that esteemed group of people and am now becoming concerned that it might be watered down - or even withdrawn for people below state retirement pension age. Simon Think I'm right in saying some elements of the Freedom Pass are laid down in primary legislation, to provide for a default scheme. But others are not, like the 60+ oyster card and free travel before 0930 and on NR services. Given the sector of the population who habitually vote, I suspect the add-ons are safe enough....
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Post by stapler on Nov 18, 2016 14:15:17 GMT
The same press report says that fares on TFLRail will be frozen, so that means the GE main line to Shenfield, presumably.
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Post by stapler on Nov 18, 2016 12:32:03 GMT
Orienteer, Thanks---could you confirm as to the state of the NL station (fast lines, etc platforme) in your youth?
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Post by stapler on Nov 16, 2016 22:24:44 GMT
Well, of course the LNW used Broad St as its "City Terminus" with Birmingham-London business trains, and hence the fast lines were needed for non-stops. Also freight, which was the main use of the NL when I was a boy, hauled by the ubiquitous Jinty. I just wonder how long that 1922 pattern continued, and when H&I became effectively a 2-platform passenger station. Possibly it was a similar situation to stations on the GEML today? So far as I know, the GN&C was entirely a 2-platform station till they drove the Victoria Line through in 1967.
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Post by stapler on Nov 16, 2016 18:34:09 GMT
BF, the NLL service through Highbury didn't end in 1944. That was only **east** of Dalston Junction.....
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Post by stapler on Nov 16, 2016 15:58:06 GMT
Were both pairs of tracks on the NL and hence all 4 platforms used by NL trains pre-1939? As I remember it in the 60s, only one pair was electrified/used, but I might be wrong.... The whole site was heavily hoarded up, I think, a bit like that other grand NL station, Bow. But at least H&I still had trains.
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Post by stapler on Nov 16, 2016 8:31:12 GMT
Thirst, you say the station is built on a bridge - but the NLR must have had its massive Horne building grounded on something fairly solid. The concrete rendering on the first shop NW on the A1 shows where it must have stood - the site is occupied today by what look like temporary single storey shops. Was there any underground connection between the GN&C and NL stations before the war?
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Post by stapler on Nov 15, 2016 22:25:04 GMT
Among closed stations, York Rd might be worth a look. It's plumb by a massive regeneration area, its reopening would relieve Kings Cross, and it's substantially complete. Yet it has been ignored!
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Post by stapler on Nov 15, 2016 14:41:21 GMT
You might like to know that the oldest line now forming part of the Underground is not the Met from Farringdon (1863) but from Leyton to Loughton Jc on the Central, which is 7 yrs older.....
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Post by stapler on Nov 15, 2016 13:06:54 GMT
Yes. The passages down would be a challenge. An overhaul of the surface buildings is surely a development opportunity, though? Maybe Mr Trump would like to build an hotel based on Thirst's 1900 picture? Surely Stratford (down TFLRail and Central particularly) must be a prime candidate for safety revisions? I often feel downright unsafe there...
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Post by stapler on Nov 15, 2016 13:02:44 GMT
Actually, I regard Arriva rather better than many of the other TOCs! As a rule, I think I'd prefer promotional literature to feature neutral expressions, not exlcusively models saying cheese!
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Post by stapler on Nov 15, 2016 8:23:17 GMT
Interesting that the "cover picture" on contact us shows a pristine 378 in a curved platform, which would make it impossible for any mobility-challenger passenger to get on said train. And as for the armies of smiling people, I don't see them that often round the Overground. It's as bad as promotional literature produced by the NHS.
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Post by stapler on Nov 14, 2016 18:21:13 GMT
Quite agree this is one of the tawdriest stations in London. It ill-serves its 47 million users a year, and is hardly an ornament to the locality. Surely this is a prime redevelopment site? Other possibilities might be developing the west end LO entrances, as well as reopening the old "oxblood" station. Safety is now a major concern from the volume of interchange traffic
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Post by stapler on Nov 10, 2016 18:14:33 GMT
Think what was meant was that one of the door open buttons had got jammed in the depressed position. When the 92s were fairly new, I saw this happen at Leytonstone. It was cured by one of the platform staff giving it a kick, with the imprecation f.....awful trains!
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Post by stapler on Nov 9, 2016 10:40:16 GMT
Chesham was not quite so affected by green belt issues as some other places. It recorded approx 5000 increases between successive censuses post WW2
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Post by stapler on Nov 9, 2016 8:01:24 GMT
No insight, but wasn't it analogous with the Ongar line? There, it wasn't so much the cost of installing the conductor rails, but the electricity supply, which was done on the cheap, thus restricting the length and power draw of the trains. Steam continued there until 1957, and huge passenger numbers did not materialise on electrification. There was relatively little development, because of the application of green belt policies. And all this at the time of "you've never had it so good" and the great increase in private car usage and cheap petrol. So surely the LTE would be looking generally at "why electrify?" rather than "why not?" for places on the periphery.
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Post by stapler on Nov 8, 2016 11:03:44 GMT
Simon, how right you are!
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Post by stapler on Nov 6, 2016 13:04:22 GMT
www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/the-key/Southeastern are to launch ITSO Key Travelcards soon. It looks like TFL may need to adjust its systems in order to accept the new upcoming smartcard on its systems, as southeastern tickets are currently valid on the tube at all times between Cannon Street and Charing Cross, even during peak rush hours. It's a great idea, as the majority of London bound train companies are on the smartcard system, probably only leaving Great Western and Chiltern out in the cold... Are TFL not modifying their system anyway, eg, to accept ENCTS passes on the yellow pad rather than using the "clicker"?
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Post by stapler on Nov 3, 2016 10:18:50 GMT
Mike Ashworth is ill and unable to come to give his advertised talk on the Central Line on Thursday 10 November to the Loughton and District Historical Society
Instead there will be a talk given by Chris Pond
Commuters and Excursionists - the Chingford and Loughton Railway Lines
8pm in the Loughton Methodist Church, 260 High Road, Loughton. Non-members £2.50 as usual
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Post by stapler on Nov 1, 2016 15:37:40 GMT
Yes, that (capacity gain) was the same advantage of the 305s over the N7s 60 years ago. However, it's rather undermined by GA's practice of running 4-car units in the peak shoulders!
Anything leaving Chelmsford between 3 and 4 is vastly overcrowded from school traffic. Mind you, with "a grammar school in every town", that may change!
GA, I still think, would do better to equip their top-of-the range trains with stock other than bog-standard sardine cans. And I suppose they may have to pull something out of the hat to meet the timings they have promised the Govt.
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Post by stapler on Nov 1, 2016 13:27:27 GMT
They'll be cascaded. Think I heard London Midland mentioned. Must say, the new GA stock doesn't look inspiring. Thanks NF
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Post by stapler on Nov 1, 2016 8:20:42 GMT
I was disappointed to read when the franchise was renewed that the Norwiches were to go to EMU. There is something "different" about travelling on them with loco haulage. None of the EMUs used on the GEML since the 309s have been at all distinguished for anything beyond maximum sardine can design. If GA have any marketing sense, they will specify an EMU with greater comfort and some outward distinction for their flagship service.
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Post by stapler on Oct 30, 2016 8:06:43 GMT
Wasn't part of the old C&SLR tunnel enlarged to become the current Northern Line? Yes, and the Central Line to take standard size Tube stock
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Post by stapler on Oct 27, 2016 20:56:25 GMT
South Tottenham was always a bit of a problem given the junctions. Harringay Stadium was, I remember, refurbed in the 50s, but perhaps its platforms were shortened subsequently. BHR was of course moved to a new location with very minimum facilities (unlike the old wooden station!)
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Post by stapler on Oct 27, 2016 6:20:40 GMT
Is it made of silicone?
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Post by stapler on Oct 27, 2016 6:19:38 GMT
True, but it's not quite such a task as (for instance) the Crossrail/GEML lengthenings
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Post by stapler on Oct 26, 2016 22:07:09 GMT
Which are the stations that need much lengthening? A fair number have platforms that were long enough for a 4-4-0 or 2-6-4T with up to 8 carriages; that would mean refurbishment of the disused bits, not new construction, presumably?
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