London Reconnections with one post in the last 3 weeks (and that was on
the cable car - yawn!), Mind The Gap going down the loo, and scarcely a
thread of note on here in weeks - there must be something interesting
happening.

There isn't that much happening which is really big headline news. Much
as I like London Reconnections it seems to me to have become
increasingly reliant on feed from press offices.

Aye - I'm not personally that fussed about "which company receives which
contract", and for someone pretty well plugged in (like yourself) I could
imagine that you'd read very little stuff on there that you wouldn't find
out about already - though it does form a nice single place where someone
else has done the hard work of sifting through guff, and "reporting" any
nuggets of interest. U Thant used to do an excellent job of that, where
he'd read it all, and find the single sentence in a 40 page doc that was
of genuine interest.

The new Thameslink bridge at Borough High Street is ready to be swung
into position very soon. I took photos of that recently. Lots of
Crossrail related holes are starting to be dug - I noticed a lot of
activity near Westbourne Park yesterday as I travelled out of
Paddington.

Again, this is probably the "problem" at the moment - there's obviously
shedloads going on for Crossrail/Thameslink, but it's so far into the
future that the's not so much to excite for now. The bridge at Borough
does sound interesting though - I went past Borough Market recently and
was noticed that the pillars to hold up the new stretch of bridge were
looking good. Re Crossrail holes - we're still quite a while from the TBMs
going into the ground though, aren't we?


To stir some debate, any updates on the following?

- When will London Overground hit the stage where we have no more
weekend engineering? Isn't that due to be around now....? What are they
actually currently doing on the weekend works on the line?

The Sunday NLL services are restored in three weeks time when the Summer
timetable commences. The all day, every day Stratford - Clapham Junction
service starts then as does the enhanced WLL frequency and the x15
Sunday GOBLIN service. It will be very interesting to see how patronage
builds given the vastly improved service levels. I am still surprised
at how busy the NLL and GOBLIN are given what they were like back in the
80s and 90s. I think if anyone had predicted the current levels of usage
back then they'd have been consigned to a mental institution.

When I lived in Hackney, I gave up getting the NLL during the rush hour,
as the experience was so unpleasant, it felt better to get the bus to
Bethnal Green and crush my way onto the Central Line than get the NLL to
H&I. However, I got onto a train recently at 6:15 at H&I to Hackney, and
it made all the difference to have the extra room (and probably a more
even timetable). Given such a wretched service (and this was only 6 or so
years ago) I can believe that the 80s and 90s didn't have good usage.

- Also, is there any decent analysis on the usage on London Overground,
esp since the Highbury and Islington stretch has opened? I've used it a
few times recently in the evening peak, and it still seems pretty
lightly used.

I am pretty certain that patronage growth is running ahead of schedule.
I think I read in TfL Board or Panel papers that TfL is happy with the
way ELL patronage is going but that excluded the Highbury section. To be
fair it has only been open a couple of months and journey patterns for
new links take longer than that to build up. I am sure we will get some
sort of commentary in due course - Board and Panel meetings are due in
May.

I have used it a few times at different times of the day and while it
has never been packed out it is pleasing to see people using the new
link. It has certainly got me to parts of South London I have not been
to for years. I suspect it is equally true that South Londoners have
been exploring bits of North London they've not been to for ages.

I still suspect that people *really* don't know about it, nor what it
could open to them. And I also think that it suffers from not QUITE going
to places (eg, not QUITE going to Canary Wharf, and not QUITE going to
the City) - but even if numbers don't grow as quickly as planned, they do
have one trick up their sleeve, being that they could reclassify
Shoreditch High Street as zone 2, and a marketing campaign on a number of
places to advertise the savings that could be made if you work in the
City (or even Canary Wharf) could build up a bit of extra patronage?

- Dare I ask about the DLR extension and when it might be open....?

I think the view seems to be Summer, about a year before the Olympics.
The DLR site has a short update saying this dated 13/4/11. I would
expect a date in July given that the major work to get three car working
on the Beckton branch is now complete and efforts can be turned to
getting the final stages of testing sorted out.

So was getting 3 car running on the Beckton branch a deal-breaker in
terms of opening up the new section then?

On May 2, 4:01*pm, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Mon, 2 May 2011 13:58:59 +0000 (UTC), Martin Petrov









wrote:
London Reconnections with one post in the last 3 weeks (and that was on
the cable car - yawn!), Mind The Gap going down the loo, and scarcely a
thread of note on here in weeks - there must be something interesting
happening.

There isn't that much happening which is really big headline news. Much
as I like London Reconnections it seems to me to have become
increasingly reliant on feed from press offices.

Aye - I'm not personally that fussed about "which company receives which
contract", and for someone pretty well plugged in (like yourself) I could
imagine that you'd read very little stuff on there that you wouldn't find
out about already - though it does form a nice single place where someone
else has done the hard work of sifting through guff, and "reporting" any
nuggets of interest. U Thant used to do an excellent job of that, where
he'd read it all, and find the single sentence in a 40 page doc that was
of genuine interest.

I'm not that plugged in. I think you have hit on the difference by
referring to Mr Thant digging through piles of facts to pull things
together. *There were always plenty of surprises back then plus features
that probably annoyed TfL and others. *The commentary now feels a little
more "planted" and less likely to offend the powers that be. *It's still
useful to read but perhaps less challenging and incisive.

The new Thameslink bridge at Borough High Street is ready to be swung
into position very soon. I took photos of that recently. *Lots of
Crossrail related holes are starting to be dug - I noticed a lot of
activity near Westbourne Park yesterday as I travelled out of
Paddington.

Again, this is probably the "problem" at the moment - there's obviously
shedloads going on for Crossrail/Thameslink, but it's so far into the
future that the's not so much to excite for now. The bridge at Borough
does sound interesting though - I went past Borough Market recently and
was noticed that the pillars to hold up the new stretch of bridge were
looking good. Re Crossrail holes - we're still quite a while from the TBMs
going into the ground though, aren't we?

Well I think people need to consider the pace that things will move at.
You only need to look around to see that the streetscape can change over
a weekend at the moment and if people aren't out photographing the
mundane and what might just be "preparatory work" then we'll lose the
record of this stuff. It's why I went and snapped some shots at Borough
High St the other weekend.

I still suspect that people *really* don't know about it, nor what it
could open to them. And I also think that it suffers from not QUITE going
to places (eg, not QUITE going to Canary Wharf, and not QUITE going to
the City) - but even if numbers don't grow as quickly as planned, they do
have one trick up their sleeve, being that they could reclassify
Shoreditch High Street as zone 2, and a marketing campaign on a number of
places to advertise the savings that could be made if you work in the
City (or even Canary Wharf) could build up a bit of extra patronage?

I don't think you're correct about this. *I have bumped into old ladies
at Highbury asking for the West Croydon train and it's clear that people
do realise it serves Dalston and Hoxton. I am repeatedly surprised at
how many people board at Hoxton even on a 5 minute headway. *The numbers
changing at Shadwell for London City Airport and to the Jubilee Line at
Canada Water are noticeable.

There is an advertising campaign on the Vic Line to point out the
journey possibilities via Canada Water. I have certainly filed the line
into my alternative journeys file I keep in my head in case my usual
routes are disrupted.

- Dare I ask about the DLR extension and when it might be open....?

I think the view seems to be Summer, about a year before the Olympics.
The DLR site has a short update saying this dated 13/4/11. I would
expect a date in July given that the major work to get three car working
on the Beckton branch is now complete and efforts can be turned to
getting the final stages of testing sorted out.

So was getting 3 car running on the Beckton branch a deal-breaker in
terms of opening up the new section then?

I don't know but I am guessing that in terms of priorities for DLR that
getting the Beckton branch sorted has a higher priority as it is an open
line and getting to the end of the engineering work is probably a plus
point for them. To the extent that the Beckton works involved signalling
then there is obviously an interface to the new line at Canning Town
plus there will be through services when the new line opens. They have
plenty of time to deal with the Stratford International line even if
some people who might like a service haven't quite got one yet! *

It is very hard to understand what has gone on - there was the big delay
in releasing the bit of NL line through Stratford Station itself because
Network Rail did not complete the new Overground platforms at Stratford
to schedule. However reconstruction of the line seemed to proceed well
although Abbey Road station seemed to take longer than the others for
some reason. *Trains then suddenly started testing and then nothing. The
only official published comments have related to contractor delays and
work being outstanding. *There have been rumours about cable theft too.
I am genuinely surprised that there seem to be problems this late in the
day with what would seem to be the quality of the installed
infrastructure. If such issues arose on previous DLR extension projects
then they kept them very quiet! *

I doubt we will ever see a published explanation for the problems but it
is a shame as DLR has previously had an extremely good record in
delivering substantial bits of new transport infrastructure to time or
even early.

--
Paul C

To be honest the main problem I've had with updating LR lately is only
slightly related to the relative paucity of happenings - its mainly
simply that over the last month and a half or so I've been swamped
with work, so haven't had the time to really dig into things the way
I'd like - its been a work/home/eat/bed cycle unfortunately.

I've actually got a big piece on the coring work done for Crossrail
sitting there (managed to persuade them to let me into their warehouse
a while back. Facinating place) that I need to tidy up and finish off,
as well as a couple of other things - they're just not yet in a post-
worthy state. Am hoping to get a chance to polish them off over the
coming weeks as my workload has finally subsided a bit. Worse, its
meant that i've not seen or done more with a few helpful things that
people have sent in because i didn't see the emails until too late.

That's the trouble really - beyond a couple of people (one of whom is
on a similar busy-ness hiatus), I've never really been able to find
anyone else to bolster our authoring ranks. These days I get about
three or four people a month who enquire about writing for LR, but
they either:

1) can't adapt to the tone and general a-politicalness we try to go
for (but which I admit we don't always hit!)
2) have a particular hobby-horse and can't/won't see or write beyond
it
3) think its just writing up cool stories about tube maps and new
trains, and run the first time you ask them to spend a few hours going
through MQT or the DfT site.
4) Want to be spoonfed press-releases/research to write up (and
frankly if I've had to do the research then I might as well write the
damn thing up myself)

The other problem these days, interestingly enough, is that our
profile is actually pretty high. Often that's great, because it means
I can leverage that it into getting us into places or seeing useful
info that others don't have/want (e.g. the Connaught Tunnel), the
downside though is:

1) I can't slip under the radar source-wise (or even me-wise. I get
recognised at events now so can't earwig as much) with TfL et al. as
much anymore. A lot of our sources have dried up or been warned away
slightly, and its always hard building new ones. Frankly, its why I'm
ever thankful that this group is still going as its always a good
place to keep up to date with what's going on.
2) "Spots" have dropped off as well - because people seem to just
assume now that we already know, or that we understand all the
intricacies of a situation already.
3) I have to be much more careful about what I post now - because its
far easier for us to get someone into trouble accidentally with their
employer.

Basically in an ideal world I'd love it if we had more people who are
genuinely knowledgable getting a bit more involved - either through
spotting or doing a bit of writing (which I'm always happy to tidy up
- i'm good at taking technical stuff and making it readable), but most
people I suspect just don't have the time, which is fair enough.

I love writing LR to bits but, as I suspect he's bored of me telling
him whenever I see him, Thant was right - its an insane amount of work
to do properly!

Anyhoo, back to the topic at hand, Thameslink bridge move was indeed
good. Will be writing that up tonight - popped down there several
times over the weekend to see how it was going and grab photos/info.

I've also been hearing some interesting rumblings about both
Piccadilly and Bakerloo line rolling stock that I'm trying to find out
a bit more about - everything from combined tenders to pushing the
Bakerloo stock back again. Not sure what's going on there yet.

On Sat, 07 May 2011 09:59:52 +0100, Paul Corfield wrote:

On Sun, 1 May 2011 12:15:29 +0000 (UTC), Martin Petrov
wrote:

- Also, is there any decent analysis on the usage on London Overground,
esp since the Highbury and Islington stretch has opened? I've used it a
few times recently in the evening peak, and it still seems pretty
lightly used.

As I predicted in another post there is an update on LU and London Rail
demand in the Rail and Underground Panel papers that have just been
published. There are some interesting numbers showing how patronage is
growing. Unfortunately it's too early for the Highbury ELL link but the
Overground numbers are pretty impressive.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/abou...chiefofficers/
papers/1444.aspx

Cheers! Some interesting stuff in there.