Mizter T wrote:

Of course the ferry offers rather better views than the
glazed white tiles of the tunnel!

Has anyone ever attempted to romanticise the journey a la Staten Island, or
would that be a task too far?

On Apr 7, 11:59*pm, "Tim Roll-Pickering" T.C.Roll-
wrote:

Mizter T wrote:
Of course the ferry offers rather better views than the
glazed white tiles of the tunnel!

Has anyone ever attempted to romanticise the journey a la Staten Island, or
would that be a task too far?

I've never come across anything like that, but I remember it feeling
quite romantic when I used it in the fresh early morning of a summer's
day a while back - the glistening Thames Barrier, the gleaming towers
of the Docklands in the distance, the seagulls swooping over the river
etc! I was glad I hadn't gone 'through the pipe' (the Blackwall
Tunnel) on that occasion. I doubt it's quite so much fun during the
rush hour!

The ferry is now operated by Serco on contract from TfL, IIRC for about
£7m a year.

There are undoubtedly longterm plans to replace both the boats and the
linkspans, in which the machinery regularly shows that it is
life-expired.

Since the linkspans were built as one-offs [or should that be
four-offs, to be strictly accurate?] in the early 60s, replacement
components are difficult to find, to say the least.

When they are replaced, the work is likely to be much easier than it
was 40 years ago for a number of reasons:

- improvements in linkspan design, construction and reliability, with
companies such as Sweden's TTS at the fore
- advances in civil engineering techniques
- huge increase in knowledge of the river, the river bed and the ground
below acquired through the building of the Thames Barrier and more
recently the DLR extension to WA

But I'm not sure of the timescale. Is there any more info?





On 2009-04-05 21:44:38 +0100, said:

The current boats are now over 45 years old, and must be coming
towards the end of their life. What is going to happen to the derry,
will new boats be built, will it be replaced by a new bridge or
tunnel, or will it simply be closed?

Also, when riding on the 180 bus, between Lewisham and Abbey Wood,
I've noticed two enclosed areas of water just to the west of the
ferry, close to where the spare boat is kept when a single boat
service is operating. Only the Easternmost of these can easily be
seen from the bus, as the other is largely hidden by a building, but
they can both be seen on Google Earth, and there is some sort of
building between them. The water in them seems to be separated from
the river by a concrete wall now, but they look rather like small dry
docks. were they used to maintain the old ferries possibly; they look
about the right size, and if so why were they walled off from the
river? Or were they something completely different?


--
Writer / editor on London's River

On Apr 5, 9:44*pm, wrote:
The current boats are now over 45 years old, and must be coming
towards the end of their life. *What is going to happen to the derry,
will new boats be built, will it be replaced by a new bridge or
tunnel, or will it simply be closed?

Also, when riding on the 180 bus, between Lewisham and Abbey Wood,
I've noticed two enclosed areas of water just to the west of the
ferry, close to where the spare boat is kept when a single boat
service is operating. *

When I last used the ferries frequently there were three boats, and
therefore always at least one parked.

(Called John Burns, Ernest Bevin and James Newman as I recall.)

Also, when riding on the 180 bus, between Lewisham and Abbey Wood,
I've noticed two enclosed areas of water just to the west of the
ferry, close to where the spare boat is kept when a single boat
service is operating. *

When I last used the ferries frequently there were three boats, and
therefore always at least one parked.

(Called John Burns, Ernest Bevin and James Newman as I recall.)

It's correct that there are three boats, but to say "just to the west
of the ferry, close to where the spare boat is kept when a single boat
service is operating" is also correct! The normal weekday service is
provided by two boats, with the third undergoing maintenance and tied
up next to the workshops EAST of the ferry. When only one boat is
operated, usually on Sundays, the spare operational boat is moored in
the river just WEST of the ferry terminal.

Peter

Peter Heather wrote:

It's correct that there are three boats

Google Maps shows 4! I can't see the join, either...

On Apr 12, 12:39*pm, Peter Heather wrote:
Also, when riding on the 180 bus, between Lewisham and Abbey Wood,
I've noticed two enclosed areas of water just to the west of the
ferry, close to where the spare boat is kept when a single boat
service is operating. *

When I last used the ferries frequently there were three boats, and
therefore always at least one parked.

(Called John Burns, Ernest Bevin and James Newman as I recall.)

It's correct that there are three boats, but to say "just to the west
of the ferry, close to where the spare boat is kept when a single boat
service is operating" is also correct! The normal weekday service is
provided by two boats, with the third undergoing maintenance and tied
up next to the workshops EAST of the ferry. When only one boat is
operated, usually on Sundays, the spare operational boat is moored in
the river just WEST of the ferry terminal.

Peter

For some reason I can't remember anything ever being parked to the
east, but it could be either that my memory is no good after twenty
years or that they have changed.

On Apr 12, 2:01*pm, "John Rowland"
wrote:

Peter Heather wrote:

It's correct that there are three boats

Google Maps shows 4! I can't see the join, either...

Definitely only three. Unless they've managed to hide one all these
years - perhaps it's part of the strategic battleplan for London
should the third world nuclear war come, where one of the boats would
sail up to central London to collect VIPs for evacuation - in days of
yore perhaps GLC bigwigs from County Hall? Maybe the annual trip up
the river with disadvantaged kids is actually cover for a training
exercise...

In which case, what's the fourth boat called then? Clem Attlee?

MIG wrote:

When I last used the ferries frequently there were three boats, and
therefore always at least one parked.

(Called John Burns, Ernest Bevin and James Newman as I recall.)

That was the situation when I took the ferry on Thursday - IIRC it was John
Burns that was dry moored on a wooden platform on the south side, in the gap
between the bank and the landing point.