Waterloo: more Boris Bikes but still no sign of life for the Eurostar old platforms

Two good posts this week on Londonist.

• The first one is on the continuing mystery of the old Eurostar platforms and why they cost £4.1 to keep in mothball state -quite a good example for a pathetic failure on behalf of people in charge of the nation's rail infrastructure. It's especially enraging when you're waiting on the approach to the station in a commuter train for a platform...  I've blogged before about this, see links below.
  
• And it looks like TfL has heard about my winging on Boris Bike stations being located far away from stations: Huge New Cycle Hire Station For Waterloo.  Shame common sense did not prevail in the first place, I still wonder why they looked at Montreal rather than Paris for municipal cycle hire best practices...
  

See my previous posts on those subjects:

• Waterloo plans mean no end of misery for commuters
• Londonist: What Next For Waterloo?
• The Boris bike vs. the French vélib -unfair comparison?s

borisbike, cycle, DfT, London, richmondtransits.blog, transportation, travel, UK, velib, London, rail, railways, richmondtransits.blog, TfL, transportation, tube, waterloocity, trains, rail

Oyster on National Rail but not in stations

So you can use your Oyster card in the trains around London... but you can't buy one in Richmond station -despite it being a District line terminus.

Hum, not too good...

The circle line now runs to Hammersmith

Good news for commuters, as it increases the frequency.

I've never understood why they never joined the two Hammersmith tube stations though?

Side note: this picture show the different gauges of the LU -incompatible rolling stock doesn't help with reliability, line extensions, etc...

Integrated transport anyone?

One of the most frustrating aspects of the transport system in London, apart from its high-cost (busses went from 70p to an eye watering £2 in just a few years) and unreliablility, is the lack of integration. There are many examples -just look at a tube map to see where rail stations don't connect with the tube, like in Putney for instance: that one is quite frustrating as both lines actually intersect but instead of building an interchange above the train line, commuters have get out of the station and walk 200 feet. Or, why is the Waterloo & City line not extended to Moorgate and then through using National Rail tracks? And South?

Some things are improving though: from yesterday, the Oyster card is accepted on National Rail (except to Heathrow, etc). At last you may say...

There's some more scope for improvement though. For instance, this Evening Standard column suggests using the Thames a proper highway.

In under three years, and for an initial outlay of just £30 million, we can create a new, waterborne Tube line, with a frequent service of high-speed boats at 20 piers from Putney to Woolwich. That is about a quarter of the time, and less than a hundredth of the money, that a similar project would need on land.

Would Boris dare?

London, transportation, rail, railways, Waterlooandcity, tube, thames, richmondtransits.blog, TfL

Are London Taxis and tube really the best

The BBC reports today that London's taxis [have been] voted world's best. The article is quite un-interesting overall, with a quote from the Licenced Taxi Drivers Association and a reference to the source at the very end: a survey of 1400 travellers commissionned by Hotels.com. It just says they're not particularly good value for money.

Unfortunately, there's nothing on their web site to check on the methodology and the sample demographics, etc, which reminds me of another bogus award where the Tube voted Best Metro in Europe. When the news came out, in disbelief I tried to check the source but coult not find it, but thankfully London Underground pinpointed it to "a small group of Londoners who did vote for the Tube".
What all the newspapers failed to report from these bogus awards is that the best metro was Singapore's SMRT and the best passengers experience was Seoul's -two relativement recent transportation systems indeed.

Personally, while I agree the London Black Cabs are courteous and knowledgeable (quite unlike the rude and ignorant Parisian or New York drivers) and set a benchmark for the industry, the London Underground is dirty, saturated and not running well. For instance, the drain (Waterloo & City Line) has been CLOSED in 2006 for 6 months to refurbish signalling but I still get a text message saying it's to blame for this line not running at least once a month.

Where the tube could easily win an award though would be when it comes down to its ticket price: it's probably the most expensive in the world?

London, transportation, taxi, tube, rail, WaterlooCity, richmondtransits.blog

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

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

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

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