In article ,
John Rowland wrote:
Edward Cowling London UK wrote:

2. A guy on his own with a large and very old 26 inch TV.

Loot Rail!

ITYM LOOT Rail ;-)

Nick
--
http://www.leverton.org/blosxom ... So express yourself

Edward Cowling London UK wrote:
In message , Richard J.
writes

The problem is that despite raising the congestion charge and
enlarging the area, all most of us can see from Ken in the way of
transport improvement is buses.... buses the numbers of which even
God hasn't seen before :-) Then Ken made it 2 quid to get on them
!

Don't be silly; it's £1 with Oyster.

I know it's away from the thread, but I really think Oyster isn't the
solution for many people who Ken should be helping. The out of work off
to the odd interview, granny on a special trip.... they just aren't
catered for, and of course it can hit tourists hard if they aren't
prepared for it.

Prepared for what? I had no trouble obtaining an Oyster card at Heathrow.

And I can't understand why anyone who lives in the London area or ever
visits the London area wouldn't have an Oyster card.
--
David of Broadway
New York, NY, USA

In message , David of Broadway
writes
Edward Cowling London UK wrote:
In message , Richard
J. writes

The problem is that despite raising the congestion charge and
enlarging the area, all most of us can see from Ken in the way of
transport improvement is buses.... buses the numbers of which even
God hasn't seen before :-) Then Ken made it 2 quid to get on them
!

Don't be silly; it's £1 with Oyster.

I know it's away from the thread, but I really think Oyster isn't the
solution for many people who Ken should be helping. The out of work
off to the odd interview, granny on a special trip.... they just
aren't catered for, and of course it can hit tourists hard if they
aren't prepared for it.

Prepared for what? I had no trouble obtaining an Oyster card at Heathrow.

And I can't understand why anyone who lives in the London area or ever
visits the London area wouldn't have an Oyster card.

Can you name the Paris Metro similar system ? Are you aware where you
buy it ? How about New York, or maybe Moscow ?

I think you're being a might near sighted about this. I'm sure a great
many tourists arrive here without a clue about Oyster and (to their
mind) get ripped off for expensive fares.

Ken needs to stop inflating cash paid fares and return to the old system
that worked well since.... well forever !

--
Edward Cowling London UK

In message .com,
Mizter T writes

Bikes definitely shouldn't be allowed on at peak times - and I speak
not as a bicycle hater but as a keen cyclist - when it's busy the
space available should be for people! Bizarrely I note that Silverlink
don't appear to have any policy banning bikes on the NLL at peak times
[1], which is pretty silly.

Yes. You can just see a fairly minor shunt somewhere leaving a lot of
people with handlebar size holes in vital areas. Then of course Silver
Link will be saying, "we had no idea, if only we'd been aware of the
problem."


Please understand that the following comment isn't me trying to be
belligerent, it really isn't, but if someone is paying £2 for a bus
fare on more than a few occasions then they're being a bit of a mug.
£1 with Oyster, or £1 with a Bus Saver ticket (sold as a carnet of 6
for £6).

After a long ponder on this I came to the conclusion that charging
double for those paying cash is not only probably illegal if someone
wanted to take it through the courts. But it's also just plain daft for
a Mayor purporting to serve the working people of London. And yes I am
sorry for using words like purporting on a Friday night :-)


Also bear in mind that the bulk of TfL's funding doesn't come from the
Congestion Charge, nor from the GLA's council tax levy, but from a
grant from central government.

I just got my Council Tax and I'm paying Ken about 450 quid this year.
(GLA part of my bill). So I'm determined to moan and groan about all his
many failings. :-)

--
Edward Cowling London UK

In message , Paul Scott
writes


I feel there is a real risk that the shiny new trains will attract even more
new passengers than they have space for - its a pity the planned service
frequency increases can't be guaranteed to be delivered at the same time as
the trains...

Ok, my two pennorth on how to improve the NLL.

1. Get the stations manned ! That will give control over the fare
dodgers who seem to think the service is free. It will also give more
control of the huge amount of haulage that goes on. Plus it will get rid
of the impression that no one is in charge of it.

2. Get longer trains now. Not in 5 or 7 years but make it a priority to
get the platforms enlarged and get the 4 carriage trains within the year
and extend to 6 carriages by 2012.

3. Get all the mile long goods trains to run at night. No exceptions.
During the day it's for carrying Londoners, not bags of cement.

4. Get the staff trained in how to deal with the public. I see the
problems the Tube got rid of years ago. Not a huge moan about obviously
tired and harassed staff.... they just need training.

Ok, that'll do for starters :-)

--
Edward Cowling London UK

In message , Dave A
writes

I was reliably informed today that trains arriving at Highbury &
Islington on the NLL are (officially) the most crowded in London. I'm
sure that's no surprise to you (but it usually is to everyone else who
thinks their trains are the most packed in London, and can't understand
how trains on a line that doesn't even go *into* central London can be
more crowded)!!

Plus the platform is constricted. So you get crowds on the platform with
nowhere to go, to get out of the way for people getting off trains. It's
a recipe for trouble and you see police there nearly every night.

Surely clearing the various sheds and god knows what off the platform
shouldn't be beyond Silverlink ? Or I think Drosslink suits them
better.


--
Edward Cowling London UK

In message , John Rowland
writes
Edward Cowling London UK wrote:

2. A guy on his own with a large and very old 26 inch TV.

Loot Rail!


He had a Camberwell carrot on the go and was talking to himself, so no
one had the courage to ask :-)


--
Edward Cowling London UK

In article ,
Edward Cowling London UK wrote:
In message , John Rowland
writes
Edward Cowling London UK wrote:

2. A guy on his own with a large and very old 26 inch TV.

Loot Rail!


He had a Camberwell carrot on the go and was talking to himself, so no
one had the courage to ask :-)

Not even to ask him for a drag ? :-)

Nick
--
http://www.leverton.org/blosxom ... So express yourself

Edward Cowling London UK wrote:

Ok, my two pennorth on how to improve the NLL.

1. Get the stations manned ! That will give control over the fare dodgers
who seem to think the service is free. It will also give more control of
the huge amount of haulage that goes on. Plus it will get rid of the
impression that no one is in charge of it.

Agree.

2. Get longer trains now. Not in 5 or 7 years but make it a priority to
get the platforms enlarged and get the 4 carriage trains within the year
and extend to 6 carriages by 2012.

Good idea but... Some stations could have the platforms easily lengthened by
bringing back into service the extremes. Others can't - you're looking at
stations in cuttings or on embankments/viaducts where a lot of demolition
and construction would be needed, with all the planning permissions and
other hassles that involves.

3. Get all the mile long goods trains to run at night. No exceptions.
During the day it's for carrying Londoners, not bags of cement.

Yes but there's not much time at night and then the freight has to run on
other lines as well. How about that freight link bypass for London that's
been proposed on this group?

4. Get the staff trained in how to deal with the public. I see the
problems the Tube got rid of years ago. Not a huge moan about obviously
tired and harassed staff.... they just need training.

No comment - I either hardly ever see staff or the main stations I use
(Stratford, Highbury & Islington, Richmond) have other company staff so it's
hard to know who's who.

Edward Cowling London UK wrote:
In message , David of Broadway
writes
Edward Cowling London UK wrote:
In message , Richard
J. writes

The problem is that despite raising the congestion charge and
enlarging the area, all most of us can see from Ken in the way of
transport improvement is buses.... buses the numbers of which even
God hasn't seen before :-) Then Ken made it 2 quid to get on them
!

Don't be silly; it's £1 with Oyster.

I know it's away from the thread, but I really think Oyster isn't the
solution for many people who Ken should be helping. The out of work
off to the odd interview, granny on a special trip.... they just
aren't catered for, and of course it can hit tourists hard if they
aren't prepared for it.

Prepared for what? I had no trouble obtaining an Oyster card at
Heathrow.

And I can't understand why anyone who lives in the London area or ever
visits the London area wouldn't have an Oyster card.

Can you name the Paris Metro similar system ? Are you aware where you
buy it ? How about New York, or maybe Moscow ?

See my sig. I live in New York. (I visited London the past two summers.)

I think you're being a might near sighted about this. I'm sure a great
many tourists arrive here without a clue about Oyster and (to their
mind) get ripped off for expensive fares.

It's always a good idea to do a bit of research before traveling.

Still, for those who haven't done research, Oyster is advertised all
over the place, and the ads make it quite clear that Oyster fares are
cheaper than cash fares.

Perhaps the solution is to stop offering individual tickets entirely. I
wouldn't be surprised if that's the ultimate plan. New York gave up its
traditional tokens in 2002 or 2003.

Ken needs to stop inflating cash paid fares and return to the old system
that worked well since.... well forever !

You like to stand in line to buy a ticket each time you travel?

You like to have to pay extension fares in advance, once per trip?

You don't see the value in daily capping?

You don't see the vastly reduced costs in cash collection?

Oyster may not be perfect but it's a lot better than what you'll find in
most cities.
--
David of Broadway
New York, NY, USA