When are we going to see this in London?

Nothing To Do With Arbroath: Bicycle storage in Japan

richmondtransits.blog, cycle

Join the Facebook group "Stuck at North Sheen level crossing"

Just join:
Facebook | Stuck at North Sheen Level Crossing
See my previous posts on the level crossings and the footbridge...

Do also check this BBC News footage, partly filmed at North Sheen:

As far as I am concerned, it's all too easy for Network Rail to accuse people to be careless when a level crossing is down for up to 15 mn at the time and is located in a densely populated area.

North Sheen level crossing belongs to a long bygone area and the line should be running in a covered trench at this place, leaving space for a commuters bicycle park and a more modern station for instance.

North Sheen, Level Crossing, richmondtransits.blog, north, sheen, level, crossing, facebook

It's Monday, says the crab

Rainbow crab in the Princess of Wales conservatory, Kew Gardens.

photo, kew, richmondtransits.org

Still waiting at the level crossing...

At the North Sheen station / Manor road this morning.

I'm not sure I understand the ambulance crew logic: if it's urgent, why go through a level crossing? If it's not, why the flashing lights?

Anyhow, just another life level crossings cost lives (and a reminder we're waiting for that footbridge promised by Susan Kramer MP)

See my previous posts on the level crossings.

WE break: what to do and see in Amsterdam?

No, not that!

Here are a few tips, in random order.

• eat a herring with onions and buy some aged (beleggen) gouda cheese at the Albert Cuyp market
• Check out Vincent's ear and The Night Watch -the Van Gogh museum and Rijksmuseum are just next to each other and it would be a crime to miss them!
  
• Buy a paper at the international bookstore across the street and read it while having a koffie verkeerd at the Luxembourg café (or any other brown cafe) And go to Beginage, opposite via the small door near the Esprit shop. Oh, and that shop is on the corner of one of the busiest shopping street, take it North to go to the Dam on the Amstel.
  
• Hop via the Singel flower market to get some bulbs for your auntie, and loose yourself in the Jordaan. Remember to book a restaurant for the evening, one of my favourite is Toscanini.
  
  
• If you're still in the mood for shopping, check out the second hand clothes on Waterlooplein. There are quite a few antique markets... I like the Prinsensgracht one which seems to be in no guide, with his little cafe on the side: get some bitterballen with oude bruin beer). Go through Utrechstraat if you still have some budget to do some more shopping.
• The red light district has a small museum worth the detour: Our Lord in the Attic.
  
• In the evening, swing by Leidseplein and drink a few shots at the Heeren van Amstel. Only if imbibed, try some take away from Febo. There is also music bars like the Waterhole and concerts at the Melkweg.
  

richmondtransits.blog, amsterdam, city break, tourism

I could not say it better

Saw the quote below in INTERVIEW: The Man in Seat 61... - Londonist:

If you had a magic wand, what one thing would you do to improve London’s current transport problems?
We urgently need Crossrail, and Thameslink 2000 (or is it 3000 by now?). Like the RER in Paris, this will bring suburban trains right through the centre of the city and out the other side, relieving the Underground and for many passengers, avoiding the need to switch from train to Tube at all. But whereas other countries seem to plan ahead, we Brits prefer things to reach crisis point before we do anything.

UK, trains, rail, railways, transporttion, richmondtransits.blog

Richmond gets its Michelin star!

In the paper today: Richmond restaurant The Bingham awarded Michelin star (From This Is Local London)

I've never been there and hope the prices won't increase!

Bingham
61-63 Petersham Road, Richmond, TW10 6UT, United Kingdom
020 8940 0902‎

thebingham.co.uk

restaurant, richmond, richmondtransits.blog

More about the Richmond car park charges...

Fury over ‘£3m cost’ of unwelcome car park charges (From Wandsworth Guardian)

Implementing car parking charges in Richmond and Bushy parks will cost the Royal Parks Agency (RPA) nearly £3m – and will not make it a penny for more than six years, it has been claimed.

My own views are here: Park Tax

richmond, parking, park, richmondtransits.blog

Park Tax

As I was writing earlier (here Sign the petition to keep Richmond park free and there Another petition, for Bushy park) it seems that there will be another place (after it was imposed that it would no longer be free to park in Richmond on Sundays) where you can't escape the Parking tax:

London Royal Parks parking fees approved (on freetopark.co.uk)
I hope Susan Kramer will keep on the fight.

Some think it's a good thing, I view this as NIMBY (see my comment on the post): Parking charges approved for Royal Parks :-).
But overal parking charges in the park are hugely impopular. An unwanted impact is that the Borough will inevitably extend the Sheen CPZ to cover Fife road as it will be used by park-goers instead of the Sheen Gate car park. That's parking tax contagion!

See also my previous posts: Kingston hospital parking and Blatant hypocrisy over parking spaces

richmond, park, parking, richmondtransits.blog

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...

Kew is now on Streetview

Kew Gardens have been visited by the Google black cars and you can now do a virtual visit:
Kew News - Kew Gardens On Google Street View

Nice...

Kew, gardens, richmond, richmondtransits.blog, streetview

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

Lessons to be learnt from the Eurotunnel Christmas debacle

Alright, this isn't very timely but I was enjoying my holidays in a nice farmhouse in Dordogne. So, here I am: we too were stuck with Eurotunnel because of some Eurostar trains stuck in the chunnel.

Our short story is that we heard on the radio a 5 am that the tunnel was closed, so we went back to sleep and set off late around 10 to try get through the EuroTunnel shuttles. After spending some time in a traffic jam on the A20 caused by Operation Stack (another typical English Dad's Army band-aid-like approach to solving infrastructure issues) we came back on a trailer lorry after out car broke down. Which wasn't that bad since friends of ours spent 18 hours getting through -not that nice with two small children.

At no point Eurotunnel proactively contacted us to advise on the situation, either by email or telephone, mainstream media was at least 2 hours late and we got our most reliable information from Twitter and Facebook.

Jasmine Birtles puts it well here: How not to do it – lessons from Eurostar and Eurotunnel.

Use social media and use it properly. As I pointed out above, I’ve been following #eurostar and #eurotunnel for at least a week and it was quite clear from the start that neither had a proper social media strategy. Eurostar had brought in a fledgling social media company to promote itself on Twitter using the handle @little_break but they hadn’t even taken up the @eurostar name which was used by a guy in China! It took them days to get round to tweeting information – it should have been minutes. People on the stranded trains were tweeting, angrily, the moment they got out of the tunnel. The anger and hatred poured out on the Twittersphere and Facebook (which set up a ‘We hate Eurostar’ group after just a day or so) and was largely ignored for the first all-important 48 hours after the incident. Social Media is here and is a very important means of communication. Ignore it at your peril.

Their web site was reduced to a single page, only referring to a telephone number. That number was diverted to a recorded message prompting to call that same number.

On the causes of the incident, they are now quite well documented (wrong kind of snow), but I must say the PR has been way better in France than in the UK -they got some journos onboard of the test trains, etc... As Daniele Beccari (@danbec) points out in his blog post "Eurostar communication failure: here is a glimpse of what caused it" point out details of the communication breakdown between Eurostar and Eurotunnel, in particular when it comes down to liaising with the staff in the trains inside the tunnel, it's far from clear whom the responsibility lies with.

Daniele concludes that he is "now getting nervous for my future travels, because I don’t like the idea of being left alone in an emergency situation due to gaps in responsibilities."

This same post also goes on to comment that incredible Eurotunnel press statement fingerpointing Eurostar -well worth a read for anyone in communications. They accused Kent Police too -can't think this will benefit them in any ways...

His conclusions:

• Eurostar staff inside the trains was probably not allowed to do and say anything at all. They have probably been waiting for information from Eurostar HQ, which was in turn waiting for information from Eurotunnel HQ.
• Eurotunnel staff have executed the emergency operations, and they probably have the instructions to report to central without leaking any information – even to Eurostar staff.
• Eurotunnel HQ has probably taken the time to verify every detail and ensure control before communicating to Eurostar.
• Eurotunnel is not a consumer facing company. Hence I am not sure if they have any marketing, customer service or consumer focused PR agency. I am not sure if they have any procedure for external communication at all. [There is an @eurotunnel Twitter account but it seems never been used].
• This is probably a stretch, but if Eurotunnel zone of responsibility stops just outside the tunnel I wonder if this explains the reports from passengers that they had to wait again for hours once outside the tunnel for someone to come and pick them up.

On my side've tried to send them an email, but all I only ever get was an autoresponder.

Heather Yaxley MIPR echoes this in her post "Winter blunderland – snow highlights poor PR at Eurostar, Eurotunnel and more":

• Marketing messages are still being communicated – I called the Eurotunnel FlexiPlus phone number yesterday (to cancel a booking) and instantly was advised this was the fastest route to France. What a joke!
• When there is a crisis, hiding behind recorded messages is insulting. In the case of Eurotunnel, the customer information line (08444 630000) provided little information and directed customers to the web (www.eurotunnel.com) to rebook. That means of communication was equally poor – and only allowed you to select another date, to travel in the same direction. The online instruction was to call the customer contact centre (08443 35 35 35) to cancel – which was another pathetic recorded message. (Or you can email: customer.relations@eurotunnel.com) Hence, under “contact us” I found the FlexiPlus premium customer line (0844 335 3335) answered (after the marking message) by a real person. Although no apologies were expressed my cancellation was efficiently wiped off the system with a “phew that’s one out of the way” attitude.
• There has been no direct communication with people booked onto either Eurostar or Eurotunnel – and this seems common in other organisations such as the airlines. When making most travel bookings, you are required to provide email and mobile phone contact details. So, why not use these to actually update customers. Relying on media reports, rarely updated websites or recorded customer phone lines does not put the company in control of its own communications. Hence people turn to Twitter and other forums where wider criticism of the organisations soon escalates. I was busy packing my car to leave yesterday when my mum called – she lives in France but heard a television news report regarding Eurotunnel’s “saturation” meltdown – without this, I would have been stuck with two dogs in freezing conditions for hours. A text or email – or preferably both – would have been simple. After all, my dentist, doctor and car dealer all manage to do this for routine matters.

Not so simple if you don't have a good CRM system...

The information provided by Eurotunnel on the situation was to not travel and we decided to tempt our chances again on Tuesday 22nd. We had been unable to either call Eurostar or change our booking via your web site as the reservation below did include a password.
At this point, Eurotunnel was still indicating long delays and even that your Folkestone terminal was closed.

We eventually crossed but this has not only costed us a 180 miles roundtrip and a full day in the car for nothing and we missed two important Christmas celebrations with some relatives we typically only see once a year.

We arrived there and saw the shortest queues we've ever experienced in over 12 years of regular custom!

Bottom line:
I believe all that could have been much better managed by Eurotunnel (not to mention Eurostar), via real time communication with their customers by SMS, email and some PR that would focus on actually helping customers (rather than finger pointing Eurostar). Or put in other words, their response has simply been inadequate: answerphone, autoresponder, finger pointing PR.

I've asked Eurotunnel a full refund of my ticket, some vouchers for a new crossing in the future and £100 in compensation for the journey that we undertook in vain and the expenses incurred then. We'll see what we get...

PS
Slate.fr explains (in French) that UK is now much more European than it was 15 years ago and that Brits can't now do without the tunnel anymore. UK isn't an island then?

Recipe: truffled quail eggs

Very easy, once you get hold of the ingredients (readily available in Dordogne).

Take some quail eggs and lay them in a tupperware with a good sized truffle for a few days in the fridge.

Break them in small dishes and add some raw foie gras.

Salt, pepper and grill for about 10 mn.

Serve warm and enjoy!

CardAid in Richmond

Sharmin from CardAid asked me to post this -you can help by buying your cards from them:

Hello,

I apologise for springing this on you out of the blue but I couldn't find another way of contacting you. Basically, I'm writing from one of the Card Aid shops in Richmond. As an organisation, we represent over 250 Charities and each year, during the winter season, we set up two shops in Richmond Old Town Hall and St Mary Magdalene Church. Unlike many commercial outlets where as little as 2% goes to charity, all profits go to charity from our cards. Just so you know we're not crazy frauds, our website is here: http://www.cardaid.co.uk/

In short, and I hope it's not too cheeky to say this, would you be able to do us a huge favour and mention us on your blog? We would be incredibly grateful - the charity xmas card market is really suffering this year!

I love Mar I Terra too, by the way!

Thanks so much,

Sharmin, Card Aid

charity, xmas, richmondtransits.blog

I know where my vote will go...

It's a proposed cut I like: Tories 'would scrap third Heathrow runway' - UK Politics, UK - The Independent
The Right is greening, somewhat weird but nice.

We now have to make them promise this is more than just a pledge...

LHR, heathrowexpansion, BA, BAA, UK, rail, transportation, HS2, richmondtransits.blog

US Police sounds Orwellian

There's a weird sense of Orwell blended with Minority Report, a la Brazil in this clip:

(via Nothing To Do With Arbroath: G20 protesters blasted by sonic cannon)

A bit frightening if you ask me, that it takes so much armed force and sound canon to police a demonstration...

bigbrother, richmondtransits.blog

Reversing the burden of the proof would encourage cycling

I read today in The Times, an article sensationally titled Cycling plan to blame drivers for all crashes.

As usual, facts are quite different from the eye catching headline: it is only question to reverse the burden of the proof towards motorists for accidents involving cyclists. Which seems only fair as they don't have a metal body around them when travelling as opposed to those driving cosseted within two tonnes of metal

Such scheme would place the presumption of blame against whoever was driving the most powerful vehicle involved in an accident, so they or their insurers would be liable for costs or damages.

If a cyclist were hit by a car, the presumption of blame would fall on the driver, while a cyclist would automatically be blamed if he or she knocked down a pedestrian.

It's already the case in the Netherlands for instance, and it forces drivers to be more careful.

I already hear the voices saying that

...the risky behaviour of some cyclists — particularly those who jump red lights and ride the wrong way along one-way streets — that is to blame for a significant number of crashes.

This comment for me stems from people who never ride, as jumping a red light is often safer than risking being mowned by cars turning left or accelerating forward when the green light comes on. Some odd cyclist behaviours are also caused by the stupidity of those planning cycle lanes in the most bizarre fashion (read this great book for more: Crap Cycle Lanes)

Cyclists to be given the right to ride the wrong way

Read in the Times of this morning:
Cyclists will be given green light to ignore one-way signs - Times Online

At long last, it seems that common sense is prevailing and that the DfT is recognising that road rules made for cars are not appropriate for the poor souls plodding the street with no armour and taking little space.

The main advantage is to allow cycles to use quieter roads, moving them off busy and dangerous main roads in many cases. It is also a good traffic calming measure for one way streets, where cars tend to go too fast.

It's a small step in the right direction towards better ways to share the space between users of the roads. We just have to get proper cycle lanes now (post series on the subjet coming soon on this blog!)

cycle, cycling, bikelane, cyclelane, transportation, UK, London, DfT, richmondtransits.blog