If this story in the Evening Standard is true it looks like a the Port
of London Authority are going to ruin all the improvements Thames
Clippers have made recently. I cant believe there are that many craft
that these safety restrictions are needed.


http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...ved/article.do

On Thu, 2008-01-03 at 03:34 -0800, Rob wrote:
If this story in the Evening Standard is true it looks like a the Port
of London Authority are going to ruin all the improvements Thames

I wasn't aware that there was a speed limit on the lower part of the
Thames - remember the recent Top Gear challenge to get to London City.
As far as I knew there was a wash limit - to prevent damage to banks
etc. I used to take the Clipper to work and it is a great way to
travel.

However, the picture there is of a RIB, and the article also mentions
RIB trips. The tourist trip RIB boat often turns just beside where I
live, and they tear around at high speed doing carving turns in the
middle of the river. I've often thought it is an accident waiting to
happen. Pity that the Clipper service seems to have been caught up in
the rules aimed at restricting the RIB (that's my reading of this).

On 3 Jan, 11:34, Rob wrote:
If this story in the Evening Standard is true it looks like a the Port
of London Authority are going to ruin all the improvements Thames
Clippers have made recently. I cant believe there are that many craft
that these safety restrictions are needed.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...-details/Commu...

Isn't the person quoted in the article just a commuter? I can't see
why halving the speed limit would double the journey time on a trip
with lots of stops, unless you're making up numbers off the top of
your head.

U

--
http://londonconnections.blogspot.com/
A blog about transport projects in London

Rob wrote:
If this story in the Evening Standard is true it looks like a the Port
of London Authority are going to ruin all the improvements Thames
Clippers have made recently. I cant believe there are that many craft
that these safety restrictions are needed.


http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...ved/article.do

There are IMO two big problems with commuting by boat. One is the price.
I wish it would all be travelcard-related. The other is the stoppins at
each stop time, especially in bad weather. It takes quite a while to get
one of these boats properly moored up. I don't have a solution for that
- but I suppose people have been thinking about that for 10,000 years.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

On Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:34:35 -0000, Rob wrote:

If this story in the Evening Standard is true it looks like a the Port
of London Authority are going to ruin all the improvements Thames
Clippers have made recently. I cant believe there are that many craft
that these safety restrictions are needed.


http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...ved/article.do

Can't find anything on the Port of London Authority website refering to a
24 knot speed limit, let alone a 12 knot limit.

--
Fig

On 3 Jan, 11:34, Rob wrote:
If this story in the Evening Standard is true it looks like a the Port
of London Authority are going to ruin all the improvements Thames
Clippers have made recently. I cant believe there are that many craft
that these safety restrictions are needed.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...-details/Commu...

Interesting to note that when I looked at that story earlier there was
an instant readers comments section below the story, with a somewhat
inane anti "Red Ken" comment followed up by a far more substantive
comment in defence of Livingstone. The whole instant comment section
has now disappeared - the Evening Standard webmasters couldn't
possible be under orders to ensure any comments that are remotely pro-
Ken don't see the light of day in the lead up to the election could
they! ;-)

On 3 Jan, 16:13, Mizter T wrote:
On 3 Jan, 11:34, Rob wrote:

If this story in the Evening Standard is true it looks like a the Port
of London Authority are going to ruin all the improvements Thames
Clippers have made recently. I cant believe there are that many craft
that these safety restrictions are needed.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...-details/Commu...

Interesting to note that when I looked at that story earlier there was
an instant readers comments section below the story, with a somewhat
inane anti "Red Ken" comment followed up by a far more substantive
comment in defence of Livingstone. The whole instant comment section
has now disappeared - the Evening Standard webmasters couldn't
possible be under orders to ensure any comments that are remotely pro-
Ken don't see the light of day in the lead up to the election could
they! ;-)


Said comment section has now reappeared - perhaps it was just a
temporary server glitch.

On Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:26:40 +0000, Offramp
wrote:
There are IMO two big problems with commuting by boat. One is the price.
I wish it would all be travelcard-related. The other is the stoppins at
each stop time, especially in bad weather. It takes quite a while to get
one of these boats properly moored up. I don't have a solution for that
- but I suppose people have been thinking about that for 10,000 years.

Perhaps there are other examples but I'm always amazed about the
services on Lake Zurich. Both problems you mention are solved there,
although is a lake less affected by weather than a tidal river? Or
are they mooring in a way that some other countries wouldn't allow in
passenger service? (Not suggesting that they are.)

I didn't think a ship could leave anywhere, even Switzerland, at
exactly 1341 - I was wrong (and so were the people running for it!).

Richard.

In message , Richard
writes

Perhaps there are other examples but I'm always amazed about the
services on Lake Zurich. Both problems you mention are solved there,
although is a lake less affected by weather than a tidal river? Or
are they mooring in a way that some other countries wouldn't allow in
passenger service? (Not suggesting that they are.)

The big difference on the Thames is the tide: both the rise and fall,
and the strength of the tidal flow.

In somewhere like Venice, where there is normally very little difference
between high and low tide, and only very gentle tidal flows, water buses
can dock in seconds and are held by a single rope in a double
figure-of-eight. The total time at most landing stages, including
docking, is often no more than one minute (i.e. comparable to tube
stops).

--
Paul Terry

"Paul Terry" wrote in message
...
In message , Richard
writes

Perhaps there are other examples but I'm always amazed about the
services on Lake Zurich. Both problems you mention are solved there,
although is a lake less affected by weather than a tidal river? Or
are they mooring in a way that some other countries wouldn't allow in
passenger service? (Not suggesting that they are.)

The big difference on the Thames is the tide: both the rise and fall, and
the strength of the tidal flow.

In somewhere like Venice, where there is normally very little difference
between high and low tide, and only very gentle tidal flows, water buses
can dock in seconds and are held by a single rope in a double
figure-of-eight. The total time at most landing stages, including docking,
is often no more than one minute (i.e. comparable to tube stops).


It'll be all right by 2012 though, Ken is going to re-arrange the tides so
that high water slack always occurs in the morning & evening peaks, so that
berthing is much easier...

If that is succesful, one man operated bendy-ferries will be introduced,
these will stretch right across the river, from bank to bank, but won't have
any effect at all on other traffic...

Paul S