On Thu, 12 Aug 2010 07:37:56 -0700 (PDT), bob
wrote:

On 12 Aug, 09:26, Bruce wrote:
On Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:48:22 -0700 (PDT), Andrew H

wrote:
Now that Oyster Pay as you Go is valid on National Rail (although it
may already have been valid on Thameslink? but was all a bit vague and
confusing), I used the Thameslink route for the first time this year,
and realised that once Blackfriars south bank entrance is open, it
will be a handy link straight to the south bank and the popular thames
walkway/London Eye/Tate Modern/Millennium Bridge etc. At off peak
times a more comfortable journey than using the Northern line from
Euston.

It will be a very long walk from Thameslink's Blackfriars southern
exit to the London Eye. *I doubt that even 1% of tourists would
consider it.

You're right. Walking along a famous river through the centre of a
world famous city

They've dug out the Houndsditch ? That's going to mess up the traffic
a bit, isn't it ?

so that you can look at the sights and be outside in
the fresh air is not something any tourist would do. The BVMT[1] will
all cram themselves onto the Underground with all the commuters and
business people instead. Because that lets you take down the train
numbers. Oh no, that's only something the BAATs[2] do.

As it happens, when I was last showing round some real tourists in
London, walking along the Thames to get from one tourist site to
another was something they explicitly asked to do, and rejected out of
hand my suggestion that it might be quicker to use public transport.
But then none of the tourists I have ever shown round is a BVMT, I
suppose.

As so often on uk.railway, posters only consider their own personal
situation and seem to lack any ability to give a moment's thought to
what most normal people would want, and do.

Right, so because the real tourists I have met (visiting friends and
family), who do not share the tastes of the BVMT don't count.
Presumably because you take me to be a BAAT, so that my real world
observations don't count. Nothing like an ad hominem arguement to
help prove your point.

The vast majority of tourists would find staying in the thoroughly
seedy Kings Cross area quite repugnant. *If anything is going to put
them off returning to London, that's it. *

The situation may well improve over the next few years as the new
Kings Cross and St Pancras International is completed (the hotel is
still under construction) and the area is cleaned up. *But for the
time being, it is a particularly unpleasant place to be.

Hang on, are you suggesting there might be a hotel in the area? But
in just the other post you explained to me that there was no demand
for hotels in the area, because the BVMT all stay in BTHW[3].

When exactly was the last time you visited King's Cross? Of course
you can't get there, can you, because it's impossible to get from
Waterloo to King's Cross. That's why any BVMT who might have used
Eurostar *all* use Heathrow now (they can't use Gawtwick, as we have
already "established" that no tourist could ever possibly want to use
Thameslink). The area is alreay much improved over its one time
status, and is now reasonably pleasant (especially the area to the
south of Euston Road where all the made-up hotels with fictitious
tourists staying in them are).

So for some years hence, the vast majority of people who come to
London will still find accommodation among the thousands of hotels
that are to be found to the west, and of which trainspotters seem
completely unaware. *Perhaps I should not be so surprised that
trainspotters are so out of touch with normal people - it's the nature
of the hobby, I suppose, and its close connection with autism.

Well the BVMT are welcome to use the BTHW, it leaves more room for the
real tourists in the real hotels. Please mind the BAAT.

[1] Bruce's Vast Majority of Tourists
[2] Bruce's Army of Autistic Trainspotters
[3] Bruce's Thousands of Hotels in the West

Robin