Disjointed (and not accessible)

Posted some thoughts as comments on this Going Underground post:

Wouldn't it great if the London transport network was more joined-up?

Why are the two Edgware road stations not joined as one?
Same question for the different Hammersmith station: why doesn't the Hammersmith & City line not going a bit further underground to join the District/Circle lines stations?)
In Putney, why did they put tube and rail stations 150 m apart despite those two lines intersecting?

What would it take to make this world-class (and maybe Olympic-class)?

There would be immense benefits in commute time, as long changeovers can add 10-15 mn to a journey and are a major put off for people.

Rethinking those stations would help commuters, much more than charging people for entering in the city by car -which no one in their right mind would do if they truly had the choice.

Oh, and another thing would be to make the tube and trains more accessible. There are very few lifts in the tube, and I've been campaigning for quite a while to install a new footbridge in North Sheen. Of course it would be better to find ways to make the station accessible to wheelchairs (and buggies), especially since Richmond isn't either....



Tags: tube, richmond, north, sheen, footbridge, transportation, richmondtransits.blog

Mayor's evening flop

Tried to go and see the fireworks tonight:
Lord Mayor's Show: The Lord Mayor’s Fireworks

Arrived at North Sheen Station to see the trains were not running today. Why would they after all? Took the car till Vauxhall and finally arrived on the embankment, along with quite a crowd. The show lasted a mere 10 minutes. TEN MINUTES!!! Thankfully, the kids liked Wagamama...


Tags: transportation, london, trains, southwesttrains, richmondtransits.blog

Could this have been avoided?

The whole neighboorhood has been talking about this tragic event, a there has been a fatality at North Sheen crossing:
Man's death sparks new safety fears - Richmond Guardian
It happenned right before children that were going to school...

I feel really sad and concerned about this, not so because I have been campaigning for a footbridge at this station -little can prevent a suicide- but more because I feel strongly there should not be a crossing at all at this place. I am not the only one to have thought about this:
New Crossrail plan proposed
Of course, it would be great to have an underground station as we could dream of a parking on top to encourage commuters to leave their cars and take the train. Just a dream?



Tags: North, sheen, footbridge, Richmond, richmondtransits.blog

Keep taxing us, but the problem won't go away

These days, it seems that to many problems the solution is "more taxes" when it's up to the governement or a local authority to deal with it.

Take London traffic: it's bad. So what did Ken do? Tax people so that City boys can whizz around. But the only problem is that it's only buying time. It's just not working, check this article for instance: London has slowest traffic in Europe at just 12mph - Times Online
As the article puts it, positive incentives work, like for instance in Hamburg:
“Hamburg, in comparison, has a very good public transport system. They have free park-and-ride buses, and trains are coordinated; and if you’re on a bus, and you know you have a long walk from the bus stop to your house, you can ask the bus driver to call you a taxi".

People are not mad: if they have an alternative, they'd rather save money and time. Not sit in a car. London public transport is just not functioning, even the big money says so. For instance, I've blogged several times about The Drain which have been shut 6 months last summer to overhaul it. Well, tonight at 17:35 only one platform was operational at Bank, because of signalling problems....
Plus, it's the "most expensive in the world" (Guardian). As a passing comment, Ken's announcement to freeze fares before coming up for re-election is a really bad taste since the 1 zone ticket went from £1 to £4 in just a few years... At best it's spin, I'd say it's a con. Maybe we should look at our neighbours: in Paris, employers by law must refund 50% of employees travelcards. A simple measure that would make a lot of difference for many commuters and probably do more to move people onto busses, trams, tubes and trains....

Another one is waste management. The UK has a poor record on recycling and may even be fined by the EU (a positive catalyst for change I'd say). What's the response? Smart bins to tax people. You can guess where this will end: in the streets where fly tippers will dump their rubbish to avoid paying. Here again, there are little positive incentives, for instance in Richmond you can't recycle plastic (only bottles will be recycled from the 5th) and there's no collection for garden refuse.

My point? Politicians must try harder and be more creating when dealing with problems: the stick is not the only solution to all problems and in many cases taxes have perverse effects.


Tags: Richmond, london, transportation, politics, richmondtransits.blog

Londonist: Save Smithfield Market

Saw this on Londonist: Save Smithfield Market. I really like Smithfields, and in general industrial architecture from 18th and 19th centuries. But it looks conservation movements haven't yet caught up with this century, especially if you look at what they're doing to Camden Town Stables Market. Ten years ago it was vibrant and you could really find unique pieces and good bargains. Not anymore, it's too organised.

It's quite a shame really, and short sighted as well: in fine, depriving areas from their soul is bound to make them lose their souls and therefore commercial viability? People go to Borough Market because it's a market, not a supermarket. Disorganised, lively, unpredictable, cheap...

It's important to fight to keep industrial and folk heritage: when all streets will be transformed in retail chains malls, when the choice will be Gap and H&M, Starbucks and Nero, Pizza Express and McDonalds, people will stop going places. Why indeed travel when Richmond is the same as Wimbledon or Islington as Soutwark, or even Barcelona and Amsterdam? Residents in Barnes fighting to keep their local shops are so right...

Tags: richmondtransits.blog, camden, smithfields, urbanism

Should Americans eat more excrements (or just camembert?)

In this Slate article, Kent Sepkowitz asks whether the food chain is too clean?
Why Americans should eat more excrement. - By Kent Sepkowitz - Slate Magazine

The answer to the question is simple but not quite as simplistic as the author puts it. When I go to the US, it always strikes me that you can't find much fresh food in their supermarket: everything is sanitised and vacuum packed. They won't cook beef blue because it's against the law. They may be just ahead of us, I get this as an excuse here too.

I would rather suggest Americans to stop eating shit: dump all crap processed food, stop pasteurising all their "cheeses", eat sushi and beef tartare, fresh vegatables and oysters.

I bet they would soon discover that cooking from fresh ingredients, eating camembert, roquefort, raw seafood is not only better to taste but I also better for the waistline.

Camembert for instance is not pasteurised. Those who think it stinks may be right, I just say it's an acquired tate. My 6 and 3 year old love it so much that I am lucky if I eat 1/8th. Of course, roper camembert is of course unpasteurised and helps the digestion system to be reactive and healthy.


Tags: foodings.blog.uk, camembert, cheese, health, cheese

RTT article on Garden road redevelopment

The Richmond and Twichenham Times has published an article about Garden Road redevelopment in which they quote me:
Residents fear waste site may be dumped on them (RTT, 1/10/07).

It exposes how unclear the council is and they quote in the article is a model... of political wooly technospeak. Read it and write to the council!


I've posted twice before on this:

• Office or homes?
• Garden road redevelopment

Tags: Richmond, richmondtransits.blog, gardenroad

All that money down the Drain

This morning, the Waterloo & City line was again closed. Signal failure apparently.

While I was walking (20 mn, good for me and it was not raining), I had two thoughts:

• why did it break down when they closed it for 6 months to renew the tracks and signalling? (I think it's incompetence)
• and of course, why did the TfL mobile travel alert service not work?
  

Tags: tube, London, waterloocity, transportation, richmondtransits.blog

Solving the email quota problem

Now, as I've mentionned before not everyone is disciplined with email and with the amount of email I get every day I blow-up my server quota every week. Until now, I had to delete every large attachment, save it on my disk drive and add something like <> to find it again (I have Copernic installed on my laptop, so I can just key in the file name, and then drag-and-drop it from Copernic into a message. This is a manual process and I've been looking for Outlook add-ons to automate it. I've searched a long time and found free ones that were also buggy and not satisfying.

The best one I've tried is from MAPILab and called Attachments Processor for Outlook. It does what it says on the box: it's quite simple to use and configure, just sits on your Tool menu and in the toolbar. There are a few nice options, like you can have renaming filters, you can do several rules to run automatically or manually, etc... For now, I've just created one to scan all sent items and detach them but you can run it on all outgoing items. I have yet to figure out the Archive feature though. There's even a function to reattach automatically files that were detached which I am very much found of. The complete feature list is impressive and since they're now at R4.2 I would think it's a pretty mature and bug free product. OK, it's not free but at $24 it's not expensive either if you can save a few hours trying to bring down your mail folder size when you're stuck in a remote country with only intermittent WiFi or slow PSTN access (it happenned to me during a trip in South Africa). Email deprivation syndrome is terrible...

The only snag is that I now have an attachment directory that duplicates with the files I had already stored on my HDA so I'll be looking at ways to deduplicate files on my disk drive although as space now seems so abundant it's a more long term priority (the main issue comes with backing up my HDA but then I've got a NAS).

Tags: internet, ordilogiques, richmondtransits.blog, tip

Petrol rip off?

I subscribed a while back to PetrolPrices.com to try minimise my petrol bill. It's a great service that tells you where petrol is cheaper. Except that the petrol industry seems to be very good at making sure prices are in line in a given neighboorhood.

As you can see below, there's a huge difference between prices in Reading and in Richmond but with those areas prices are very similar... Looks like a scam to me...

5 cheapest stations in Reading for Unleaded...
---------------------------------------------
Station : Shell/sainsburys Shinfield
Address : Shinfield Road, Reading, RG2 8HA
Brand : Shell
Distance: 2.22 miles
Price : 91.9p
Updated : 23-09-2007
---------------------------
Station : Asda Lower Earley, Price : 91.9p
---------------------------
Station : Shell Fairfield, Price : 91.9p
---------------------------
Station : Tesco Reading Extra, Price : 92.9p
---------------------------
Station : Morrisons Reading, Price : 92.9p


5 cheapest stations in Richmond Unleaded...
---------------------------------------------
Station : Shell Oak Lane, Price : 93.9p
---------------------------
Station : Studley Grange Service Station, Price : 94.5p
---------------------------
Station : Sainsburys Richmond, Price : 94.9p
---------------------------
Station : Brentford Filling Station, Price : 94.9p
---------------------------
Station : Chiswick Flyover Service Station, Price : 94.9p



Tags: automobile, cars, petrol, richmondtransits.blog, transportation

Update on the update on the North Sheen station footbridge

View Larger Map
Following onto our campaign for a second footbridge at North Sheen station, we chased up our MP, Susan Kramer, who in turn chased again Network Rail.

It has been slow progress, not for the lack of trying from Susan's office but because of inertia at Network Rail.

In the meantime, the same Network Rail is spending its money on radio ads to keep reminding us how much level crossings are. We'd rather see them actually removing level crossings or making them safer: according to them, "an average of one person a month is killed at level crossings", most likely on one of the 1,521 sited on public roads.


Read also:

• Richmond Transits: Another train tragedy in waiting at North Sheen?
• Richmond Transits: Level crossing tragedy in Barnes
• Richmond Transits: Update on the North Sheen station footbridge
• Richmond Transits: Preliminary plans for North Sheen footbridge rebuffed
• Richmond Transits: Campaing for suppressing level crossings
• Richmond Transits: Richmond and Twickenham Times: Commuters see red over level crossing
• Richmond Transits: Susan Kramer's progress on North Sheen Station footbridge
• Richmond Transits: Time to remind Susan Kramer about the North Sheen Station footbridge

Tags: North, Sheen, footbridge, richmondtransits.blog, level, crossing

Offices or homes?

This article from the Richmond and Twickenham Times states that the bourough lacks affordable housing.

What really puzzles me then is why the council wants more offices in the vincinity when so many stand empty?

Read my other post on the area behind the fire station (Market road, Garden Road and Orchard Road) which is due to be re-developped. The concil wants to change the designation from light industries to heavy industries, including offices. A developper in the meantime wants to build houses.

As a related issue, area behind the fire station (Market road, Garden Road and Orchard Road) is due to be re-developped. The concil wants to change the designation from light industries to heavy industries which angers residents. If there is a shortage of affordable housing, why adding more offices when so many stan empty on Lower Richmond road?

Tags: Richmond, richmondtransits.blog, gardenroad

TSA security

For anyone having travelled to the US of A, this clip should bring back memories:



The daftness of the airport security regulations is at best annoying, if you add the gross incompetence of the so-called security staff it's actuall no laughing matter...

11/09/07 Update: even high-ranking officials are caught by the over-zealous-iditotic US aiport security: Cahill voices anger after customs detains his family over fruit [The Boston Globe]


Tags: humour, transportation, USA, richmondtransits.blog

Read today's Time

The Times has a great article on Richmond council barking against motorists:
Drivers under siege from the council that hates cars - Times Online

Personally, my issue is not that much that they're againsts car but rather that they don't provide any other solution. I could go on for ever, but it's like Red Ken charging people to go to London: a) it's not a new idea, it's even medieval, b) it's expensive to administer, c) a private company makes a lot of dosh, d) only rich can now enter London (not nurses or teachers) and f) there's no alternative as the trains and tubes are over-crowded and not reliable and the cycling network is just a joke.

If Richmond council provided secure bike parking in all train stations, enough places to lock your bike when you shop and a proper cycling network we could speak again about taxing car. But not before.

Tags: richmondtransits.blog, Richmond, transportation, automotive

Update on the North Sheen station footbridge

Last year, following my posts on the footbridge at North Sheen station, the office of Susan Kramer emailed me back the options considered by Network Rail.

As a reminder, the issue is that North Sheen has just a single footbridge and that pedestrians (and car) have to wait at the level crossing if they come from the Southern side of Manor road. Now, in any civilised country I've ever been to, a tunnel or a bridge would have been built to remove a level crossing in a dense urban fabric. Given the fact it is taking over 20 years to build a vital link such as Crossrail, I doubt this will happen in North Sheen so I've moved onto suggesting more pragmatic actions to remove the need for pedestrians to wait at the crossing. There is a serious safety implication, as there are no less than 5 schools within half a mile and kids just jump the barriers to cross.

You will find below those options, verbatim. My views are that the third option is interesting however it would make the access to the station even more concealed and difficult to find, however it would be easier to drop off passengers. We could even dream of a bike parking there to encourage carbon friendly commuting (would require CCTV surveillance to deter thieves).

Additionally and a more radical option would be a double bridge at the Eastern end of the platform. On the South side, this could link Sheen Court and/or Upper Richmond road respectively via the allotments and via Holy Trinity school (this would require to extend the pathway through the side of the school and along Sheen Court. Is is relevant here to note that Sheen court has 200 flats and Courtlands opposite is a similarly dense development, both currently have to walk a detour to go to the station -and be stuck at the crossing for up to 15 mn.

On the North side, this could link Manor grove, providing access to the neighbourhood around Bicester road, Somerton avenue and Lambert avenue -again a denser development.

This would give North Sheen three accesses and make quite a difference for local residents and encourage commuting by train. Then more than four trains per hour would be nice, but that's another story.

NETWORK RAIL PROPOSALS

North Sheen Station – Summary of Draft Options

Network Rail, following appeals by local residents and elected figures, is exploring possible options to address the widespread misuse of the level crossing at North Sheen Station.

The options are in discussion stage and Network Rail would like the views of local residents and elected figures before developing any option beyond this initial point. (NB: No specific costs/ funding sources have been identified.)

Option 1 – Extension of footbridge to connect with the old pathway and relocation of the signalling box blocking access to this pathway.

Pros:

• Add an extending arm to the footbridge relatively in-expensive

• Open up the old pathway to access the south of the level crossing

Cons:

• Relocation of the signalling equipment and reintegration with local signalling systems.

• Closure of the railway line

• Timescale of the work likely to be lengthy

• All enhancements (i.e. new infrastructure on the railway) need to be DDA compliant.

Note: So, why did they remove the bridge in the first place then?

Option 2 - Install a completely new footbridge on the west side of the level crossing

Pros:

• Provision of crossing point for those south of the level crossing.

• Could be used by all pedestrians on Manor Road.

Cons:

• Possible interference with the sight-lines of train drivers approaching the crossing

• All enhancements (i.e. new infrastructure on the railway) need to be DDA compliant.

• The western side of the crossing has residential buildings.

Option 3 – Extension of the footbridge to the old path, connection of the old path with a new route through the allotments.

Pros

• Extension of the footbridge and reinstating the old path relatively in-expensive

• No need to move critical signalling equipment

Cons

• Purchase of land from the allotments

• New path next to residential properties (lights etc)

• All enhancements (i.e. new infrastructure on the railway) need to be DDA compliant.

Tags: north, sheen, footbridge, richmondtransits.blog

It's Friday, let's laugh away!

Babies -isn't that the best thing in a lifetime?



Tags: humour, richmondtransits.blog

Garden road redevelopment

It is quite fascinating how a council such as Richmond can behave. Residents between Chalkers Corners and Manor Circus have recently been addressed a letter by a developper suggesting the area close to Garden Road will be redevelopped for industrial use and possibly waster processing.
I must add that the tone of the letter was deliberately alarming.

This area behind Richmond fire station is currently home to a dairy plant, some warehouses and a removals company.

The letter was good though because it drew residents to a meeting which otherwise would have gone un-noticed. Sneaky politics?

After the brouhaha, the council sent us a letter saying the redeveloppment won't be for heavy waste management....

Here are my questions to them, what do you think?

Dear Sirs,

Having received your letter dated 17/8/07, about the redevelopment of the are between Market road and Orchard road. I hereby would like to share my comments:

1. Type of business
You imply the new development will be business or light industries. There are already un-occupied office premises on Lower Richmond road so it seems the area is not short of office space.
What is the rationale of Richmond Council to encourage light-industries as opposed to housing?

2. Parking
The area is already quite stretched in terms of parking space, in particular we are concerned by the office block at the corner between Clifford avenue and Lower Richmond road not having provision for parking spaces. Will the council add the provision of decent parking space for this redevelopment?

3. Green spaces
The local development plan mentions the area has not enough green open spaces. We would like to have your comments on how this redevelopment is going to address this.

4. Safety
As opposed to housing which is occupied 24/7, light industrial premises are vacant at nights and week-ends.
Is the council going to provision extra police forces to make sure that this redevelopment is going to stay safe?


Regards,

LW>

Tags: Richmond, richmondtransits.blog, gardenroad

No will for carbon friendly transportation strategy

While binge flying relentlessly puts pressure to expand airports thanks to the fact aviation fuel is not taxed, the government has just released details of its rail strategy: Rail fares to soar as government slashes funding - Times Online

Or rather the lack of:
"Ministers intend to shift the burden of paying for the railway much more heavily to passengers, who paid 50 per cent of the cost this year but will pay 75 per cent by 2014. "

This is appalling and hypocritical.

On one hand, the government is encouraging motorists stealth tax pretexting carbon emission and on the other it simply does not invest enough in non-polluting public transport. Trains are over-crowded and little improvement is to come. It took over 10 years to get the Eurostar connected with a proper high-speed line to London -with a great result: over 60% market share against airlines on the London-Paris route. This represents many many planes not buzzing in Richmond skies....

Commuters are often criticised for preferring their cars. This is in fact a perfectly rational choice. For instance, a Richmond resident working in Thames Valley Park in Reading, like many thousands of other employees, can travel by car of train. From North Sheen it takes about one hour and half although TVP is right between the Reading line and the Thames. This is because the station that was planned when TVP was developped has never been completed and one has to take a shuttle from Reading station.
So it's adding 30 mn each way, which is £8 if you have to pay childcare, plus £11 in rail faires, versus less than £10 by car and one hour.

Why can't we have continental-grade infrastructures? Why indeed...

PS: read also Mike Rutherford's column on Autoexpress: More rail inefficiency and more rate increases – and more investment from the Government

Tags: richmondtransits.blog, transportation, automobile, environment, UK, politics

If ever you can find eels....

The Richmond and Twickenham times relates the story of a rare local British dish, the Richmond Eel Pie.
Interesting tale, dating back to King Henry VIII: apparently Eel Pie Island is named after that dish. The ait was also famous for music in the sixities -I wish I was there!

Coming back to the Eel pie, it's apparently not that difficult to cook, the main issue is to find eels (and also to skin and bone them). Here's the recipe on The Great British Kitchen.

Tags: richmondtransit.blog, foodings, recipe, fish, Richmond

Free marketing advice for Dualit

I was looking to buy a Dualit toaster earlier this week. Seems simple enough, once you have made up your mind on the number of slots, right?

On their website (which is not well referenced by Google: advice #1, spend some time on Google Sitemaps) they list the four slots at £152.95 in colours and £177.13 in polished steel. As this is a tad steep, I checked on eBay and found a good range of of new specimens under £130 and used under £50. Unfortunately they have only the hideous glacier blue and none of the eBay shops carries the metallic blue.

Not being selfish, I remembered by better half wanted a new kettle. So I wrote to Dualit to know whether they also did kettles in either Lavender or Metallic hues. Nope. So, you'll find advice #2 below: why on Earth don't they make it easy to buy two of their products in matching colours?

And you'll see advice #3: team up with other iconic brands, because frankly Marmite isn't going to cut it...

Finally, here's advice #4: the Dualit web site doesn't work well with Firefox: that's advice #2, ensure wide browser compatibility. Maybe hire specialist consultants or use open source software.


Hi,

Take this as a suggestion for improvement then: it's always nice to be able to match coloured items in one's kitchen.

Another suggestion: why don't you team up with Kitchen Aid to sell a set in metallic blue of your products and their famous mixer? You could announce it on July the 4th?

Or do the toaster in the same coulours as the Francis Francis X1 -it is equally iconic and a yellow dualit would look really nice besides mine.
http://www.coffeegeek.com/proreviews/firstlook/francisfrancisx1

Seems to me a better commercial idea than corkscrews....

Regards,


Ludovic.

Dualit Enquiry Response wrote:

Dear Ludovic,

Thank you for your email enquiry. Unfortunately, we do not manufacture a Kettle is Metallic or Lavender Blue. However, we do have the Jug Kettle available in Glacier Blue.

Best Regards

Dualit Limited
County Oak Way
Crawley
West Sussex
RH11 7ST
info@dualit.com
Tel: +(44) (0) 1293 652500
Fax: +(44) (0) 1293 652555
This email and any attachments are confidential. They may contain privileged information and are intended for the named addressee(s) only. They must not be distributed without our consent. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify us immediately and do not disclose, distribute, or retain this email or any part of it. Unless expressly stated, opinions in this email are those of the individual sender and not of Dualit Ltd. We believe but do not warrant that this e-mail and any attachments are virus free. You must therefore take full responsibility for virus checking. Dualit Ltd reserve the right to monitor all email communications through their networks.

---

From: Ludovic
Sent: 12 June 2007 13:37
To: Dualit Enquiry Response
Subject: Matching kettle for blue toaster

Hi,

Do you make kettles in metallic blue or lavender blue to match your toasters?

Regards,

Ludovic

Tags: marketing, richmondtransits.blog, foodings

And the winner is...

The winnner of the UGLIEST LOGO of the year is the Olympic quango, that same one we have to pay taxes for since they deliberately under estimated the cost of the games:

2012 Olympics logo debuts to whalesong | The Register

PubsCafs -Good or bad?

A pub chain has announced a tiee-up with a coffee-chain:
BBC NEWS | Business | Coffee Republic expands into pubs

This little island is changing fast: less than 10 years ago few could spell basalmic or name another grape varietal than chardonnay. Like it or loathe it, we can now get some proper coffee in pubs!

The times where caffè translated into English meant Nescafe are long gone -and for a foodie it's a good thing. Unfortunately it also seems to go along with the decline in popularity of real ales, even though we now see talented local brewers, some like Meantime even sold by Sainsbury's as their own label. Richmond has some local supply of its own thanks to Twickenham Fine Ales (but I am not sure if you can get it in a pub near you?). Tony ought to know this...


Tags: richmondtransits.blog, foodings, pubs

YouCreativity!

Absolutely great stop-motion clip unearthed on YouTube! (link from BoingBoing):



Tags: humour, richmondtransit.blog

How to send large files through the internet?

Internet is great. You can exchange with folks elsewhere in Europe... or in Guatemala.

The only snag is that receiving mp3 or joke mails quickly fills in your inbox.

I came across this very useful web site today: SendThisFile.com allows to send files without size limit!

Tags: richmondtransit.blog, internet, trick

Transported logic

The government is talking about expanding Heathrow -if the airport meets its pollution targets. To achieve this, they've started leaking the idea of creating a congestion charge around the airport... to remove some ground transportation CO2 (powered by taxed petrol/diesel).

The alternative of taxing aviation fuel (kerosene) and invest in new high-speed rail has not been investigated by the Edington report: the ex-BA boss who was asked to work on the "future of transportation", which he did by totally ignoring indirect costs such as environment, health, etc...

For instance, it is claimed that delaying the airport expansion could cost £5bn. The flight path to Heathrow alone is impacting over 1 million Londoners. Who has factored in those costs in the equation?

Tags: transportation airlines Heathrow politics richmondtransits.blog

mBlogging

I am "mblogging" (blogging on the move) in the Eurostar back from Paris today. And I can't help that thinking that it's a very civilised way of travelling, yet light on "indirect costs".

• The journey is 2h55 or something like this, my outbound train was on time and the return is predicted to arrive 15 mn late. If I was to fly they would not even apologise for 15 mn -actually, given the terrible weather today and yesterday (check those tornado images), I would expect flights to be rather 1h late.
• Door to door, Richmond to Colombes, I guesstimated that taking the train makes my journey about 30 mn longer. That's if planes are on time. But I can work, sleep, eat or read for about 3 hours -uninterrupted. So it's much more productive than having to check-in, queue for security, having your deodorant taken away (they don't seem to make 100ml sprays), walk, lounge, lurk, walk, wait, second secutiry check, wait, walk, fly, walk, wait, show your passport, get your luggage back and then travel from CDG to Paris...
• Costwise, it's probably similar if you book you air ticket in advance but for an extra TEN POUNDS you can travel Eurostar Business Premier. Which means you're comfortably installed in wide reclinable seats and today the menus was as follows: selection of French wines (inc. some Champagne), selection of a cold morteau sausage with potato salad or some hake and prawn pie, with a tartlet to finish. It's almost a shame my French colleagues kindly bought me lunch :-) Plus you have power for your laptop... BTW, the difference in price was easily recouped by not having to buy breakfast on the outbound and saving on taxi fares to/from the airport as you "land" in the middle of the town. Oh, and free magasines and airline-style departure lounges.

So, it's not a coincidence that the Eurostar took over 70% share on journeys between London and Paris. And I guess that's quite a few planes that won't be buzzing over Richmond and sending CO2, CO, NO2, etc, into the Ozone Layer. Shame those yellow trains are moving away from Waterloo.

Which brings me to my favourite topic: all that was possible thanks to public investment in transport infrastructure. From the French governement and as long as 25 years ago when they initiated the TGV. Oh, and that tunnel. Rod Eddington's report is thus very disappointing: why do we still have to fly to Edinburgh or even Manchester then?

This week's Economist lead was on gridlock campaing and the article was supporting road charging. Excuse me but pricing poor people out of the roads is not the solution. We should think about using transport real-estate more effectively (I am one in favour of bus lanes, non-share cycling paths) and easing journeys with "intermodal hubs" (like the Hammersmith bus-tube station, but much better designed please).

Tags: travel richmondtransits.blog transportation eurostar trains

Excessive excuse!

Today, we learn that the WATERLOO & CITY LINE is "Suspended due to excessive dust on platforms". Must be the daftest excuse we've heard for a long time...

The Drain has just been shut for 6 months for a complete refurbishment but broke down the next day after service had resummed...

Excessive incompetence?

Tags: tube richmondtransits.blog transportation TfL London

Free WiFi in Leicester square

Apparently there's now free Wifi in Leicester Square. I maybe paranoid but it looks like a good way to get your laptop nicked while moblogging? I'll stick with Starbucks...



Tags: starbucks London Wifi richmondtransits.blog Leiceseter square

Borough Tony

Check Artist Tony's blog for daily pictures of Richmond -he's got a great eye (and maybe a better camera than mine?). Let's just hope he continues posting....

In this post he brings nice pics of Borough market -which apparently is under threat (see link for the campaign)

Tags: Richmond richmondtransits.blog BoroughMarket London

Perfect timing: 40% off wines?

According to this blog (thanks for the pointer James), Thresher is running a promotion on wines between the 30/11 and the 10/12: they're discounting their whole range by 40%.

Read it here: word-of-mouth story in the making... [Gapingvoid]

We have yet to see if it works but if it does the timing is perfect... and I'll come back on this with my recommendations (Threshers has a fairly middle-of-the road assortment, Waitrose if often cheaper and has almost always a beeter selection).


Tags: wine UK marketing richmondtransits.blog

Why is air travel competitive against rail on short distances?

The quick answer is: because UK politicians have not invested in high-speed railways and keep subsidising air travel. For once, there's a lesson to be learnt from the French.

Read my comment here: Zut alors! Airport group demands end to Paris flights [Richmond and Twickenham Times]


Tags: train transportation richmondtransits.blog travel politics airlines heathrow

New Richmond blog

One blog to add to my links bar: The Richmond Blog, by Andrew Pilkinton -a sociology writer.

He has strange views on junk food having no links to obesity though...

Ads misunderstandings...

I finally found the artwork for the famous "Nothing suck like Electrolux" ad here.

Another one is there, probably also on a Swedish blog.

This perfect example of mistranslation is detailed on Snark Hunting (reading highly recommended) and more translation funnies can be found there and everywhere.

Sometimes it's just not funny: I don't envy the guys who got the brief for Hitachi and came up with this. Sometimes translating is just culturally impossible...

Stagecoack to replace SWT, introduce Oyster

This article details changes to come for the Richmond (mass) transit system:
World’s your Oyster, rail users are promised - Richmond and Twickenham Times

More on news.bbc.co.uk.

In a nutshell, South West Trains are to be replaced by Stagecoach who won the franchise. They also promised to improve the service and introduce Oyster ticketing. Better late than never, but that also means that North Sheen users won't be able to use the valid excuse of the unmanned ticket desk and changeless ticket machine to get a free ride :-)

Finally, our condolances to Susan Kramer who has lost her husband.

Trains fare robbery is not promoting sustability

Train fares are raising, much faster than inflation:
Commuters hit hard by Ken's latest fare hikes (Richmond and Twickenham Times)

Hardly a way to encourage commuting in crowded public transports, Ken?

I took the Waterloo and City line yesterday, after it's been shut for repairs for FIVE months. While I was contemplating a poster presenting the benefits of the refurbishment... while waiting for late trains (alledgedly due to hardware issues)...

Finally, I am reading this morning about Virgin Trains' attempt to break the Glasgow-London speed record by going at more than 100 mph (160 km/h). This record have been in place for 25 years. Cooincidentally, it's also the 25th birthday of the French TGV, which is now trialled for commercial speed at 360 km/h (the speed record is over 500 km/h!).

Speed alone is not what matters: high-speed trains has remapped France, relieving some of the pressure on the dense Paris area and stealing market share to air travel. This matters enormously: by gaining a 68% share on the London-Paris route, rail is proving a viable and sustainable alternative to polluting airliners.

Tags: train, transportation, richmondtransits.blog, tube, waterloocity, London

What to do with diet coke and menthos?

A geyser of course:
Coke and Mentos Fountain at EepyBird.com

Much healthier than drinking and eating them!



Tags: humor

PhotoFeed du jour

I've added this feed in my RSS reader:
[daily dose of imagery]

(RSS feed)

Tags: photo

A bad Indian

I usually don't write negative restaurant reviews, but this will be the exception. A few weeks back, Sharkels', our favourite Indian, was closed for refurbishment (although it opened in Sheen quite recently). So I set off in a mission to find a takeaway, where I could also park the car and found this Bengal Village, opposite the The Red Cow.

Don't even try it, it's probably the worst curry I had for a very long time...

Put the fun back into flying

Travelling by air is becoming even more a hassle than it was before after the recent events.

Fortunately, it seems like RyanAir has found the solution:
Boing Boing: RyanAir: Airport security is like a strip-search

Tags: richmondtransits.blog humor air travel

Swan in a pub...

One for Tony...A swan near the White Cross in Richmond, one of the few pubs on the rivers to sell real ales.

Tags: richmondtransits.blog Richmond pictures pubs beer

Richmond is the fittest!

This Richmond and Twickenham Times article, relates a poll (for what they're worth :-) citing Richmond residents as the most active in mainland UK!

Run Richmond, run!

Tags: richmondtransits.blog Richmond

Is Thames Water taking the piss?

Thames Water is thanking its customer for saving water...

In the meantime, it still loose 894 millions liters a day
or about FIVE TIMES the ammount saved by the drought order (equivalent to 255 litres/property/day) just reported a 31% rise in pre-tax profits to £346.5m and narrowly escaped a fine for missing leaking targets.

As for most national infrastructure issues (trains, roads, etc...) the source of the problem lies in a lack of public investment in the recent decades. There's indeed no shortage of water in the North nor there is a mean to bring it to the most populated area of the country.

What a legacy baby boomers leave us: accute environmental issues, pension funding shortfall, derelict infrastructures. Every day, it looks like this generation took it all for themselves...

Tags: richmondtransits.blog draught politics

[thepassionatecook:] Food Destinations: Richmond

Quite a great post from Joanna for foodies who live around Richmond:
thepassionatecook: Food Destinations: London

All the addresses are there, she's netted all of the neighbourhood food places worth of a mention!

Tags: foodings.blog.uk Richmond

Is cheap air travel is a good thing?

With the advent of budget airlines such as EasyJet and RyanAir, you can get to Prague for less money that it would cost you to go to Penzance but there are buts.

While a dinner somewhere sunny for £18 rtn sounds like an attractive proposition it has a negative impact on the environement. I think cheap air travel is not a sustainable option, as it's only cheap because there is no fuel duty on kerosene.
On the economic aspect, and the droves (2.3m last Easter) of holidaymakers going abroad end up not benefiting their own economy through tourism revenues.

And there are catches too: their customer service not great, to say the least. I remember a time where we were queuing to check-in for a RyanAir flight to Bergerac and they closed the counter without telling anyone! We went to ask what was going on and were told the flight was closed for good -although we arrived plenty of time in advance! It actually took quite some negotiation before they accepted to rebook a flight to Bordeaux...

Plus, you should not travel with any luggage whatsoever:
Boing Boing: Judge to RyanAir: no valuables in checked bags?

So, is cheap air travel such it a good thing? I am not so sure...

Tags: richmondtransits.blog politics airlines air travel transportation environment

Kingston worst for bike thefts

If you planned a shopping trip to Kingston during this bank holiday week end, think again.

Going by car requires to navigate the one way system and endure long queues to park your car -unless you fancy be there at 9.
Taking the family by bike can be an option, as Kingston is easily accessible by the Thames towpath (which is unfortunately a shared pedestrian/cycling path), however make sure to lock your bikes properly:
Poll reveals cycle theft hotspots (BBC, 12/04/06)

Of course, there are no secure parkings...



Tags: richmondtransits.blog cycling sustainability transportation

Restaurant review: The Victoria (East Sheen)

The Victoria in East Sheen is a gastro-pub converted in a modern restaurant. It used to look like a pub, with a conservatory, a garden and a climbing frame to keep kids at arms' length during Summer dinners. They even had a table football and home made lemonade for teenagers. The old bar is now gone to make way for more tables and the the teenager corner is more like a café corner.

We decided to pay a visit to that old favourite a few weeks back, on a Friday night. The place was moderately busy yet we were made to wait at the bar for our table. Service has never been a strong point at the Victoria but they're friendly.
We had some lamb sweetbreads with a morel cream and gnocchis. A bit sweet but delicious. And a sirloin with béarnaise, chips and watercress. Good as usual. Lamb rump with a Lebanese mezze. Good also but not as filling as expected. And some chocolate steamed pud wich was quite nice.
The menu also boasted a monkfish saltimbocca with spiced aubergine and curried lentils which attracted my attention, seems creative and nice. We had a bottle of beaujolais to wash this and the bill came at £120 for three.

To me, this seems outside the gastro-pub sphere and plays serious restaurant business. And this is the point I struggle with. Yes, the food is good but not as refined as say The Glasshouse or Redmond's which are around the corner. The service is the real let down. Value for money is no longer there with mains ranging from £11 to £20.

Verdict: good but now overpriced.

PS: they have bedrooms and they're quite nice. But where they were £85-ish four years ago, they're now priced at £98 (and that's an internet special deal!) but broadband is now include.

The Victoria
10 West Temple Sheen, London SW14 7RT
tel: 020 8876 4238


Tags: foodings.blog.uk, restaurant, review

Less is more: good design is less design

I was reading an interview from Terence Conran (which I can't find today :-( where he spoke of car designers being too conservative and over-complicated.

Surely, there are few tings more complicated than designing a car -there are so many engineering and safety constraints- but I feel that the main restriction in car design has become corporate marketing. It's peculiar for instance that they should copy each other: the Audi single-frame (which could look much nicer would it not have the licence plate in the middle) came from the same designer who invented it for Alfa Romeo before moving to Seat (part of the VAG as Audi and Lamborghini). Now even the new Golf GTI has a single frame...

Anyhow, in terms of design as with many other things, less is more. It's easier said than remembered, this video should be a useful nudge to all marketeers:

Microsoft Designs the iPod (Office-humour.co.uk)


Tags: humour car automotive design marketing

Kew Spring Festival 2006

Kew Gardens have nicely put online a page with the current state of all spring flower beds:
Kew Gardens Spring Festival 2006

Thanks to Tony for the link!


Tags: richmondtransits.blog Kew Gardens thingstodo

Parking tickets on ITV tomorrow

Received this email today:

Parking Tickets will be the subject of Tonight with Trevor McDonald on ITV Friday 14th April @ 8.00 pm.

As parking fines hit new records, Jonathan Maitland goes out and about to meet the growing band of `road rebels' who are using legal loopholes to escape paying

Regards,

www.parking-ripoff.co.uk

the Campaign Against The Parking Rip-Off

Tags: parking richmondtransits.blog London

Sustainable transportation in Richmond?

With Richmond park and the Thames towpaths, one could think Richmond is an ideal spot for cycling. It is probably better than many places, but there are still many improvements to be made:

• Theft, is quoted as one of the key deterrent to cycling (17% of cyclists got their bike stolen in the past 3 years, of which 24% no longer cycle at all and 66% cycle less often). Secure parking is an obvious answer, but there are few places to attach your bike in Richmond and few primary schools have bike sheds.
• Cycling routes are designed to an appalling standards, with high-friction sufaces (more effort is needed to pedal on the green paths!), potholes and manholes covers protrude often (the Upper Richmond Road is a bad example) and in the park or towpath, the shared pedestrian/cyling path is a recipe for disaster (which cyclist has never experienced hesitating pedestrians jumping left and right to make way or bullying runners packs?). The standards are seldom respected -have you seen many lanes 1.5m wide?
• Passive road infrastructure safety is a topic where we have much to learn from the Dutch experience. There's little concept of segregating the traffic (establishing a physical separation between cars and bicycles): "advisory cycle lanes" are an example of this thinking. Take again the A205 (Upper Richmond road): there's no provision for segregating traffic at major junctions (there could be separate traffic light for cyclists) and minor intersection (there should be a "hard" traffic island before the junction so that cars turning right have a visual obstacle reminding them of observing the cycle lane priority. Large roundabouts like those on the A316 are also dangerous for cyclists.

Cyclists' rants? Maybe, but increasing the cycling sahre in commuting (now less than 3% of journeys to work) is the easiest way towards sustainable transportation. Sustainability in transportation is not a buzzword for tree-hugging ecoxtremists but has direct and major benefits for all:

• reduced pollution
• reduced noise
• reduced congestion
• positive impact on public health
• decrease in working hours lost in public transport delays and traffic jams
• increased turnover for city centre retail
• ... and it's cheaper than any other alternative but walking!

What needs to be done by Richmond borough?

• Upgrade the cycle lanes, to ensure they are un-interrupted and segregated from cars
• Allow two way use for bikes of one way street
• Transfor "advisory" cycle lanes into "hardened" cycle lanes
• Increase numbers of bike attachment posts (aka Sheffield stands) close to shops
• Build 24-hour secure parking for cycles at the borough stations to promote combined rail-bike use (see Munster example on page 41: 25% rail customer now cycles to or from the station)

Links:

• Wikipedia article on utility cycling
• TfL cycling reports
• Richmond Cycling Campaign

Tags: cycling Richmond richmondtransits.blog