Mizter T wrote:
On 17 Mar, 22:21, Arthur Figgis wrote:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/medi...ntre/7741.aspx

17 March 2008

Transport for London (TfL) has announced that it intends to take direct
control of Tramlink services this year.

Tramlink is a vital part of the south London transport network and last
year carried 25 million passengers.

TfL's offer of £98m to acquire Tramtrack Croydon Ltd, the Private
Finance Initiative (PFI) Concession holder which runs Tramlink, was
accepted today.


Sounds like good news.

Tramtrack Croydon Ltd (TCL) was never a very buoyant business - thus
far has it not been loss making? Anyway, it has certainly been
struggling for a good deal of the time since the Tramlink system
opened.

The Mayor and TfL regularly criticised TCL,

Though some of that was probably political grandstanding. TCL got blamed
for holes in the road which were apparently a Croydon council issue.
There were often rumours that TfL was conspiring to "do a Railtrack" on
Tramlink...

and it does seem like the
original PFI deal signed in 1996 between the then London Regional
Transport (controlled by central government back then) and TCL was
somewhat flawed.

Everyone seemed to agree on that!

A court case last year illustrates the tempestuous relationship
between TfL and TCL, and also perhaps demonstrates how the PFI
contract wasn't that well drawn up...
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/medi...ntre/3319.aspx

It seems evident that TCL's shareholders have decided that selling up
to TfL will net them a better return than struggling on trying to keep
TCL up and running.

It'll be interesting to see how TfL decide to run the Tramlink
operation. I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear that they plan on
having a company come in and operate it as a concession, ala Serco
Docklands with the DLR and LOROL with the London Overground network.


--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

On 18 Mar, 12:41, "Michael R N Dolbear" wrote:
Looks OK on the London Connections map, but I agree the pocket size
tube map is already very crowded.

And I would like to add a grey line to show SWT Wimbledon-Clapham
Junction-Vauxhall-Waterloo rather than leaving these stations in
apparent isolation.

Tramlink would have an even bigger problem, only being connected to
the existing map at Wimbledon. The ELL and the Southern takeover would
fix this, of course.

What should be done when everywhere within the zones accepts PAYG ?

It'd be good if they added routes with frequent regular services to
the map - FCC's inner suburbans north of the river and the Shenfield
Metro would be good places to start. Never gonna happen though.

U

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

On Tue, 18 Mar 2008, Michael R N Dolbear wrote:

alex_t wrote

Good news! I just hope that they won't be adding it to the Tube map,
like they did with Overground - it is already overcrowded.

Looks OK on the London Connections map, but I agree the pocket size
tube map is already very crowded.

And I would like to add a grey line to show SWT Wimbledon-Clapham
Junction-Vauxhall-Waterloo rather than leaving these stations in
apparent isolation.

What should be done when everywhere within the zones accepts PAYG ?

The London Connections map, or possibly the High Frequency Services one,
replaces the tube map.

Although this would make for a rather crowded pocket map. How about
showing central London (almost entirely tubes anyway) on one side, and
then the local sector of the periphery on the other?

tom

--
Any problem in computer science can be solved with another layer of
indirection. But that usually will create another problem. -- David
Wheeler

Mr Thant wrote:

Tramlink would have an even bigger problem, only being connected to
the existing map at Wimbledon. The ELL and the Southern takeover would
fix this, of course.

Hasn't the ELL extension been added as "work in progress" to the most recent
version of the map?

Mind you West Croydon isn't a good interchange - has anyone thought of using
the platform 4 entrance (was that the original?) as a second to provide
better interchange with the Tram stop and bus station?

Tim Roll-Pickering wrote:

Hasn't the ELL extension been added as "work in progress" to the most recent
version of the map?

They did, but it's disappeared from the March edition of the pocket
map (I have a whole blog entry on it if you're interested). I haven't
seen a March poster map yet - they might be waiting until the 27th (T5
opening).

U

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

On Mar 19, 1:54 am, Mr Thant
wrote:
Tim Roll-Pickering wrote:
Hasn't the ELL extension been added as "work in progress" to the most recent
version of the map?

They did, but it's disappeared from the March edition of the pocket
map (I have a whole blog entry on it if you're interested). I haven't
seen a March poster map yet - they might be waiting until the 27th (T5
opening).

U

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

I wouldn't worry. If Boris Johnson becomes London Mayor, he'll rip up
the tram system and replace it with horsedrawn coaches. The route will
then be marked on the map with drawings of piles of horse manure. :-)

Neill

On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 03:20:49AM -0700, alex_t wrote:

Good news! I just hope that they won't be adding it to the Tube map,
like they did with Overground - it is already overcrowded.

South of the river it's nigh-on empty, so you needn't worry on that
score.

--
David Cantrell | Enforcer, South London Linguistic Massive

PERL: Politely Expressed Racoon Love

Tim Roll-Pickering wrote:
Mr Thant wrote:

Tramlink would have an even bigger problem, only being connected to
the existing map at Wimbledon. The ELL and the Southern takeover would
fix this, of course.

Hasn't the ELL extension been added as "work in progress" to the most recent
version of the map?

Mind you West Croydon isn't a good interchange - has anyone thought of using
the platform 4 entrance (was that the original?) as a second to provide
better interchange with the Tram stop and bus station?

The explanation I've heard - which is so bonkers it could just be true -
is that if they did open another gate, the whole station would need to
be made "accessible". As it is, there are steps to every platform, but
that is okay because it has always been like that. If they created a new
(presumably step free) access to platform 4, they would need to rebuild
the footbridge to give access from the "new" door to the other platforms.

Of course this could be complete cobblers...

They do open the door when there are replacement buses running.

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK