You are looking at all the articles by John Bull

The Life, Death and Rebirth of Lea Bridge Station

20 May, 2013 by John Bull

Somewhat buried amongst a number of railway-related announcements from the DfT this month was final confirmation of something that Waltham Forest council have been pushing for some time – the reopening of Lea Bridge Station. The station (as “Lea Bridge Road”) was one of the original stations on the Northern & Eastern Railway, which opened in 1840. At the time, Walthamstow was a relatively popular retreat for London’s businessmen and the station was in part intended for their use. In … Continued

Case Closes on Crossrail at Kensal

3 May, 2013 by John Bull

For a number of years now, we have covered Kensington and Chelsea’s push to have a Crossrail station approved. The campaign arguably began in earnest back in 2008, when the Borough began to work towards the redevelopment of the Kensal Gasworks site. Their proposal argued that the turnback facilities planned for Crossrail just west of Paddington should be turned into a full Kensal Crossrail Station, providing a connection to the line in the area. From the beginning it was clear … Continued

Acid on the Jubilee: A Major Challenge, not a Soundbite

30 April, 2013 by John Bull

Yesterday saw a plethora of headlines hit both the London papers and the web about the Jubilee Line, as it was revealed that closures would be required in order to allow work to address problems of acid damage to the tunnel wall segments along a 90m section of the line. This is not a new issue, with the need for repair work having been identified for some time now. Indeed the “Baker Street to Bond Street Tunnel Reconstruction” project has … Continued

In Pictures: Crossrail Beyond the Main Drives

23 April, 2013 by John Bull

Crossrail have released another batch of photos related to their current tunnelling operations. Interestingly, these seem to focus more on activites beyond the main tunnel drives than the previous batch. It includes, for example, photos of Sophia – the first of Crossrail’s Slurry TBMs – and both Crossrail’s Thames Tunnel and Cable Tunnels at Liverpool Street. The pick of these images are included below. Tunnel Segments at Plumstead Sophia, one of two Slurry TBMs, at Plumstead Crossrail’s Thames Tunnel Digging … Continued

Beyond the Barriers: The Future for TfL’s Non-Fare Income

18 April, 2013 by John Bull

Given the amount of money generated by the fare box, it is easy sometimes to forget that this is not the only source of revenue for TfL. One of the more interesting things lurking in the last TfL Board Papers was the suggestion that the opportunity was there to radically increase TfL’s non-fare income. Currently, the organisation draws in approximately £233m a year from various sponsorships, advertising and retail activities, but TfL have indicated that they wish to increase total … Continued

FirstGroup Announces Sale of Eight London Bus Garages

10 April, 2013 by John Bull

Somewhat out of the blue FirstGroup have announced the sale of eight of their bus garages in the capital. First began a rationalisation of their bus operations last year, and further sales had been expected, but eight garages is more than many expected. The full press release is below. As part of FirstGroup’s stated strategy to reposition its UK Bus division to focus on those areas that offer the greatest potential for growth, it has today announced the sale of … Continued

A Beeching Epilogue: The Curious Case of the Clapham Junction Ghost Train

5 April, 2013 by John Bull

In Part 2 of our piece on The Beeching Report’s impact on London, Pedantic of Purley highlighted that the report called for the closure of the Clapham Junction – Kensington Olympia service. As Pedantic pointed out, this was unusual less for the fact that the service was deemed ripe for closure, as it was almost certainly unprofitable, but because it acknowledged that the service existed at all. The Clapham Junction – Kensington Olympia service (the “Kenny Belle” to its friends) … Continued

In Pictures: Catching up with Crossrail

4 April, 2013 by John Bull

As readers will no doubt have noticed, we have been somewhat quiet lately. This is, in part, because both Lemmo and I have been involved in the process of moving houses (an exercise at which he has so far proved more successful than I). It largely fell to Pedantic to “mind the fort,” a task he accomplished admirably. To begin the return to normality, it seems worth highlighting a number of Crossrail photos which have emerged over the last month. … Continued

Crossrail Gets Its Roundel

12 March, 2013 by John Bull

For some time now we’ve known, roughly, what Crossrail’s stations will look like on the inside, thanks to a visit to their mockup station back in 2011. One key design question has, however, remained – will Crossrail get a roundel? The image at the top of this article represents the answer. It will, and it will be purple, with a blue bar. Crossrail will also use TfL New Johnston as its primary typeface.

A Glimpse Into the Past

8 March, 2013 guest post by Greg Tingey

Recently, the Financial Times celebrated 125 years of publication and reproduced, by way of remembrance, a copy of its first front page, of 13th February, 1888. The front page makes interesting reading for LR readers, as there were no less than three references to the railways serving London, copies of which can be seen below. The first article is a preliminary glimpse of the half-yearly report of the Great Northern Railway. This is largely self explanatory. It gives a good … Continued