As anyone looking to properly understand London’s transport needs and network knows, context, background and best-practice are important. As readers might imagine, behind the scenes here at LR Towers we thus spend a lot of time sharing links and reading around the subjects we cover here.
We also occasionally share links containing good information about transport topics that we know we just don’t have time to cover. We also all, as authors, occasionally write elsewhere on this or tangentially related subjects.
This week’s reading list is below. If you’ve got something you feel we should read or include in a future list, don’t forget to email us at [email protected].
- Bundy Clocks kept Birminghams trams, then buses on time – The Beauty of Transport
- London’s Tube and Crossrail train lab – Londonist
- Madrid bus gardens, on top of the buses – Telegraph
- New Montréal Métro cars have teething problems – Globe and Mail
- New York Subway has new vacuums – CityLab
- LA Subway extension receives federal funding – LA Times
- Uber and Amtrak join forces to solve last mile problem – Railway-Technology
(Many of the original downtown train stations that Amtrak inherited from the private railroads soon became much too large for the vastly decreased ridership, so most were sold off. Amtrak replaced them with small, simple buildings outside the downtown core, quickly nicknamed Amshaks. However these cheap land locations were often in not great areas, and easier to access by car than by public transport, hence the last mile problem.)
Feels like this blog is now just a glorified mailing list…
@Dave: +1
A friend of the family was a WM bus driver and we once met him at the end of his route during a break. He let me turn the key in the Bundy clock when he was leaving. Later, when they were decommissioned I was sent a key. No idea where it is now though.
I quite like these Friday lists – Lego-based explanations of public transport issues fill the gap between LR articles rather nicely for me
Re: Dave & Beth – I don’t see why that’s actually a problem as long as the articles keep coming (and below the line the quality is maintained too).
That said, it does seem a bit odd that the reading lists and meet-up announcements get equal billing with the articles; that would be my suggestion for change.
I too rather like these ‘reading lists’ and they provide an alternative read when I have a few minutes to spare.
Without this week’s I would never have known about ‘Bundy Clocks’. Perhaps they will make an appearance in this year’s quiz?
To those that don’t like these lists then simply don’t click on them!
Could, however, I plead for a either a reversal or a re-arrangement of the article/link headers on the introductory page, so that the “Reading Lists” either do not appear first, or appear in a separate panel?
What has happened to this blog? U Thant, please come back!
Have the magazines stopped? It has been quite a while since issue 4. Is an annual subscription based on a regular quarterly issue. Apologies if I have missed anything, I’ve not been visiting quite so much but reading the comments above I too am wondering whether the reading lists are starting to drop the main site content too far down the page?
@Latecomer
The Reading List links we have to hand, so they don’t detract us from the longer articles. Worry not as there are always several pieces in various stages of writing and editing.
Just to say that, as instigator of the pub meet-ups, the announcements of those have been more prominent recently as a result of unfortunate circumstances beyond our control where we have lost or changed the venue concerned. The worst of those was the shameful loss of the Blue Posts, which had been trading since at least the 1800’s and was run by a reliable and friendly set of managers and staff.
In short, we needed to inform and remind those who can and do attend in a prominent manner just where we are meeting up because these changes have occurred more recently within weeks of each other.
Let’s hope that the Royal Oak at the Borough, our latest venue, lasts the course:
https://www.harveys.org.uk/pubs/the-royal-oak-london/
Once things settle down again, then maybe everyone just needs to be reminded that we meet on every second Thursday evening of every month, so that these bits no longer require equal billing with the main articles.
Thus don’t miss Thursday, 9th February!