One of the disappointments of the Olympic’s construction phase has been the failure to spark a revival of water borne freight promised by the works on the Bow Back River and the River Lea. However, it would appear that all is not lost. In London, Crossrail has put out to tender a contract involving the construction of new river wharves. Elsewhere in the United Kingdom, a feeder container barge service now operates between Liverpool and Manchester. Are there lessons to be learnt here? Our ...

Network Rail has announced the award of the, £32 million, Thameslink core area resignalling contract to Invensys Rail. The project is designed to provide a significant increase in route capacity, allowing 24 trains per hour to run from Loughborough Junction in the south, through central London, and onto Kentish Town in the north. Our thanks and copyright acknowledgements to Flickrist Bob Lear for this picture of a class 319 EMU, approaching Loughborough Junction station from the south on route ...

Our thanks and copyright acknowledgements to Richard Marks for this “Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness” view of Northolt Junction taken in 2009 looking south from South Ruislip station. The facing point to the left, with the 30/60 limit, is the up Marylebone which currently runs on the north side of the West London Refuse Transfer Station and via Northolt Park and South Harrow to Marylebone. The track going straight ahead forms the bi-directional “Up and Down Greenford” whilst translates ...

A recurring topic at Mayor’s Question Time is the Quality of London’s Air. The threat of EU penalties hangs over the City as a result of the failure to meet emissions standards. London Assembly member, Darren Johnson representing the Green Party raises the issue at every opportunity. Esther Alarcon, writing in World Wise Resources, reports that Transport for London have added four Mitsubishi i-MiEVs ((innovative Mitsubishi Electric Vehicle) to its fleet as a part of the Mayor’s programme ...

The Secretary of State for Transport has approved Network Rail’s Nuneaton North chord application. Our thanks and copyright acknowledgements to Flickrist – Stephen Rees for his picture of a Felixstowe bound Freightliner emerging from the NLL’s Down Channelsea Curve on to the GEML at Stratford. Note that the first container of the train is built to the 9 feet ISO height standard whilst second container is built to the newer and larger ISO 9 feet 6 inch standard. The latter requies W10 ...

The Mayor, an erudite and eclectic author, is no doubt familiar with the context of remarks made by both Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Juvenal. “S’ils n’ont plus de pain, qu’ils mangent de la brioche” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau “Panem et circenses” – Juvenal If LR readers will indulge me in a spot of Mwmbwlian metaphor mangling – Is the Thames Cable Car proposal destined to become just a “Brioche et Circenses”, (Cake and Circuses) feature of the coming ...

Our friends at Travel Mole, specialist purveyors of information to the travel trade for a number of years, report on BAA’s next moves now that the Government has turned off the light at the end of their tunnel leading to the third runway. Utilising a lot of existing infrastructure, including an embarrassingly mothballed Railway Terminal, BAA might have found some opportune “low hanging fruit.” Publishing their capital expenditure programme for the period from 2013 to 2020,BAA ...

Take one London Assembly member and add a television news channel looking for an example of frivolous government expenditure. Use FOI – the modern day “Open Sesame” and shake thoroughly (but not long enough to think through the implications) and this is the TV piece you get: http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//ITN/2010/06/09/T09061024/ Luckily, this heady combination became somewhat toned down by Mayor’s Question Time, but by that time the perception of a cock up was out there: ...

On Thursday 17th June, the new Ministerial team at the DfT faced their first parliamentary question time. Falling in the midst of spending review and budget statements there were several holding answers. A number of questions of local interest came up, however. Our comments are in italics. Dartford Crossing 2. Mr John Whittingdale (Maldon) (Con): If he will take steps to reduce congestion at the Dartford crossing. [2711] The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mike Penning): ...

The New Hammersmith & City station at Paddington Amid the atmosphere of speculation about the future of Crossrail – the company is getting on with getting on. In late April, Crossrail announced the shortlist of bidders invited to tender for the Paddington Integrated Project. The following companies have been invited to tender for the C272 – Paddington Integrated Project: BAM Nutall Ltd Bovis Lend Lease Carillion Capital Projects Ltd Laing O’Rourke Morgan Est VINCI Construction ...

One in five Londoners now lives within 15 minutes’ walk of a London Overground station.Orbital Links are examined by the London Assembly Transport Committee. On the 26th May 2010, the London Assembly Transport Committee chaired by Val Shawcross, welcomed Mike Brown – back after an absence of two years – as Managing Director of London Underground. He briefed them about the recent developments with the PPP agreements for upgrading the London Underground, but more on this in another ...

We have commented previously on the vexed question of toilet facilities being included in the new station complex at Farringdon. The Islington Gazette carries a story of continued intransigence by Crossrail whilst Thameslink appears to propose a minimalist revamping approach as their contribution. Conspicuous by their absence, there is no mention of any response from TfL or LUL: A project to turn Farringdon station into one of London’s busiest transport hubs will not include any new ...

We have been following with interest the arguments concerning the development of the new depot being built by Network Rail for Thameslink at Hornsey (see here and here). After objections by the local council to the project being built using Network Rail’s permitted development rights, the project has now been called in by the DCLG for review. South of the river, a similar dispute has arisen at Streatham Hill and – thanks to the well laid out Lambeth Council website – we are able to ...

Listen carefully. The sound you can hear is the Whiplash Lawyers Association rubbing their hands together as they drool over TfL keeping them in the manner to which they have become so accustomed. In April 2010, Michael Cockerill, in his excellent programme for BBC on the Great Offices of State, found out that in the Treasury a repetition of mistakes in policy occurred with alarming regularity as soon as the last senior person in the department who had been scorched by the previous fiasco had ...

We have previously reported on the tangled political blame storm that has enmeshed the London Brighton and South Coast Railway’s South London Line. A “who said what?” row broke out between the Mayor of London and the DfT’s then Rail Minister, Sadiq Khan, during the Summer of 2009. A study group was set up in November 2009 to evaluate options. They were expected to report in the Spring of 2010. Lindsay Burns writing in South London Press Today reports that campaigners ...