Monday’s Friday Reads – 5 October 2020

On By In Cycles, Friday Reads, Network Rail, Overground, Pollution

• Barking wants to bury a road & add an Overground station (IanVisits)

• The ‘fantastically durable’ railway network: Sir Peter Hendy (RIBAJ)

• Wherefore the colours of the Network Rail station symbols? (ProjectMapping)

• Study shows E-Bike users more than double their cycling (PriceTags)

• Best Busway in USA Award Show (Washburn is a fictional city) (BigMoodEnergy)

• LA studying free transit for entire network (CityLab)

• How SUVs conquered the world, at the expense of the planet (Guardian)

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9 comments

  2. I found the typography in the RIBA journal article quite distracting, particularly the ‘st’ ligatures — they read almost as ‘ſt’, giving a quaint old-faſhioned impreſsion. “Waterloo is the busieſt ſtation” and so on.

  3. I think the article & comments by Sir Peter Hendy should be taken with a portion of salt (!)
    The railway is only “fantasically durable” because some people have gone out & fought for it in public.
    One need look no further than one of “LR’s” own articles to see see the sort of forces ranged against the railways.

    [Snip! LBM]

  4. BB: I suspect that the St Pancras logo is not there because it isn’t a Network Rail logo, the station being owned by HS1.

  6. LBM
    A quick survey via Google Street Map shows no double-arrows anywhere noticeable on the exterior of St Pancras.

  7. The red-double pointer symbol is usually used to denote a station with more than one train operating company, rather than a property owned by Network Rail, as the Network Rail logo is the one with the three orange triangles under “Network Rail”.

    The double pointer symbol is still used by road-signs too in the form of the white out of red version as you can see in “Know Your TRAFFIC SIGNS” page 109. The mean here is a “generic rail station”.

    These days there is also a blue version of the double-pointer which is owned by National Rail Enquires, often seen cut out of a circle. This is also used by the Rail Delivery Group, without the word “Enquires”.

    I think that legally the Thameslink station under St Pancras is a separate legal entity with it’s own set of codes (STPXBOX or SPL) and it’s own platform nomenclature (A and B) separate from the above ground stations for domestic (STPX or STP) and international (STPANCI or SPX). Network rail certainly manages part of it as it says “Managed by Network Rail” on the NRE website page for the station (the official source of such information).

  8. According to https://stpancras.com/history/history-of-st-pancras, “St Pancras International is owned by HS1 Ltd”. From the content of the content of the rest of the rest of the website that appears to refer to the whole station, and all parts of it are referred to publicly, including by Network Rail and Train Operating Companies (TOCs), with the “International” suffix.

    I don’t think that station codes are any indication of the ownership of a station, or part of. As I understand it, they’re primarily there for operational purposes.

    Also as I understand it, the red double arrow is used to indicate a station served by a TOC* or TOCs, irrespective of the number of TOCs involved.

    (* London Overground appears to be an exception to this.)

  9. The former BR double arrow is not “usually used to denote a station with more than one train operating company” but any station on the national rail network. It can be found at recently opened stations such as Horden, Warrington West, Maghull North (on the Merseyrail concession), Kenilworth and Lea Bridge, as well as virtually every other station on the network. However, the HS1-owned stations – St Pancras, Stratford International and Ebbsfleet International but not Ashford International – appear to be an exception.

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