You need to know little about urban railways’ cartography to know the name Harry Beck, …
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Diving Into The Fleet: A Look At London’s Lost Tube
A major river used by the Romans, the Fleet is the largest of London’s lost subterranean rivers. Flanked by great wharves, for centuries it was a gateway to the City. By the end of the …
Continue readingThe Warehouse
The squealing of machinery comes to a halt and the large red light on the operator’s panel turns green. A buzzer sounds and he steps forward, opening a salt-encrusted gate to reveal a small miner’s …
Continue readingLight (Rail) Reading: Why the DLR Timetable is Changing
In many ways the DLR’s story so far is one of five stages – expansion, stagnation, Olympic revival, further stagnation and consolidation. We are now in the transient stage between the last of those two. …
Continue readingIntroducing… London Reconnections Magazine
Those of you who have attended our meetups will know that for some time now we have been working on something new and special behind the scenes. Something that we’re now finally able to publicly launch – London Reconnections Magazine.
Continue readingTramalot: Enhancing Croydon’s Tramlink
We recently looked at Croydon Tramlink up to around 2020. With surprisingly detailed plans available we look a bit further ahead now to the decade after, when considerable expansion is planned. Where we left off …
Continue readingReminder: LR Meetup This Week
In recent months it may have seemed at times as if the Tube Unions had a dispute with LR as much as TfL, given the timing of strikes to coincide with LR monthly meetups. We …
Continue readingBlue Monday: Why the Victoria Line to Walthamstow is Closed
“Once again,” the BBC correspondent says wryly to camera, “They – with a capital T – are sorry that we have been troubled. But for once, can the inconvenience have been worthwhile?” “The Tube is …
Continue readingMaking the Grade (Separation): The Bermondsey Diveunder
In the past we have resisted the temptation to write too much about the Bermondsey Diveunder as work had not really started in earnest and it was very hard to visualise what was planned. With …
Continue readingThe Surprise Contender: Sutton Tramlink
Our look at how Croydon Tramlink is expected to develop by 2030 needs to take a bit of a diversion. In the early 2020s it is proposed to add a new short branch. To understand …
Continue readingThe Light (Rail) Fantastic: A Look At the Croydon Tramlink
We haven’t looked at what is happening in the world of trams, as seen from a London perspective, for a long time now. With work on the ground advancing for the next capacity increase and …
Continue readingA Game Of Zones: Sir Peter Hendy to Leave TfL
To begin with, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin’s statement on Network Rail in front of Parliament this morning contained no surprises – at least not to those familiar with the works delays and escalating project costs …
Continue readingThird Time Lucky: A Look At The New Sub-Surface Signalling Plan
We have reported previously on the ongoing problems with the resignalling contract for the Subsurface Railway (the Circle, District, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines). The contract is an important one, for it underpins much …
Continue readingBike To The Future Part 3: The Board Meeting That Wasn’t
On Wednesday 4th February 2015 TfL held a board meeting. It was one quite different in nature from most, for in essence there was really only one important item to be discussed: Item 7 – …
Continue readingCrossrail: The End of The Beginning
It is said that one of the problems of Channel Tunnel construction was that the British thought they were building a tunnel that just happened to contain a railway. The French, thinking more realistically, saw …
Continue readingOrange Invades: All Change for London’s New Overground Lines
This weekend saw the addition of 28 new stations to TfL’s hugely successful Overground network. Rail services running from Liverpool Street to Enfield Town, Cheshunt and Chingford in North East London, as well as the …
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