Friday Reads – 6 November 2020

On By In COVID, Design, Friday Reads, Infrastructure, TfL

• A 20/20 perspective of TfL at 20 (LondonFirst)

• Dutch Metro driver has a whale of a stop (Guardian)

• National lockdown delays Blue Pullman launch (RailwayMag)

• Hiding transport (& other) infrastructure stylishly in plain site (FastCompany)

• The other US votes: how transit initiatives fared (RailwayAge)

• Philadelphia’s SEPTA network needs a wayfinding redesign (MarthaConnell)

• Covid is forcing cruise ships to be broken up & recycled (PriceTags)

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7 comments

  3. The train caught by the whale sculpture is the most amazing piece of good luck. I cannot conceive of a risk assessment that would have included this as a control. Indeed, if it had, I imagine that the sculptor would have had an interesting challenge complying with load cases imposed by a train carriage partly supported in the tail.

    Failing to stop in time at buffer stop ends is reasonably foreseeable, and the signalling system should have controlled the speed and then the buffer stop should have have managed any residual risk.

    I hope that the investigation report is published and that some kind soul translates it from Dutch

  4. CXXX
    Following up on your comment, I looked at that terminal from the air … the driver went through a set of resisting buffer-stops, over the concrete blocks at the end of the actual tracks & then over/through the concrete parapet, before being “held in a catch” by the whale!
    Methinks Rotterdam Metro has neither “Moorgate Control”, nor tripcocks, nor even a TPWS-equivalent.
    “Oops” doesn’t really cover it, does it?
    Like you, I await the Dutch equivalent of the RAIB report with some interest.

  5. GregT…interesting that the shape of the whale’s tail on the right is different from that on the left. I had assumed that the train had distorted it to that shape – a further unexpected testament to the sculptor’s work!. In my view, the buffers look far too close to the concrete blocks. I also think that they may act as pole vaulting poles if they were to hit the blocks and then the connections to the track fail.

    It is also important to make sure that the bolts are properly tightened on the buffer friction blocks!

  6. Interesting to read that Caltrain has similar dependence on farebox for income as TfL, and therefore is needing a similar taxpayer bailout.

    Caltrain is not just for commuters…useful for tourists and conference attendees heading for San Francisco needing a cheaper place to stay out of town e.g. Redwood City (which also has bus connection to SFO airport)

  7. I’ve seen a suggestion that the train might have been propelled/driven from the rear.

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