• TfL closer to takeover of Northern City Line (IanVisits)
• Silvertown Tunnel not compatible with GLA’s Net Zero goal (ArchJ)
• Thameslink Brent Cross West station approved (IanVisits)
• Belgium govt offering citizens 12 ride free rail pass (IntlRailJ)
• The road taken by Black railway porters in North America (NatlFilmBoard)
• Uber & Lyft algorithms hike price in non-white areas (NewScientist)
• Transit agencies weigh security amid calls to defund police (SmartCitiesDive)
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TfL could make the Silvertown tunnels zero emissions vehicle only the same as Beech Street,London,which runs in a short tunnel under the Barbican Estate,this will encourage drivers and firms to buy electric vehicles and will allow bike lanes to be installed in the tunnels without cyclists breathing in toxic fumes from petrol and diesel vehicles,which is the reason for the Beech Street ban,hybrid cars like the new London taxis can be allowed if geofencing is used,the petrol engines automatically turns off when approaching the tunnel.Hackney and Islington Councils also have ultra low emissions roads but newer hybrid cars are allowed.
It is suggested that the peak hour trains between King’s Cross and Welwyn Garden City will be withdrawn if/when TfL takes over the GN inner suburban service. These provide the only services between King’s Cross and New Barnet, Oakleigh Park and New Southgate. The likely consequence of the trains not running is more people interchanging at Finsbury Park or Highbury and more people using the Victoria Line. I doubt if either is good outcome.
@LiS
The peak-hour trains between Welwyn and King’s Cross are run as Thameslink services and will eventually be diverted to run through the Thameslink core. As such, they are not covered by this takeover proposal and would presumably run alongside the TfL services as a separate operation.
The one plus point for the Silvertown Tunnel is that it introduces tolls both for this and for Blackwall Tunnel. This inevitably makes it easier to introduce road pricing elsewhere.
Hi, for the Northern City Line article you have linked a specific comment instead of the article itself. Consider removing the anchor “#comment-185706” from the URL.
[Fixed, cheers Albert. LBM]
Silvertown Tunnel: Can an authority promote road projects while saying it is reducing emissions at the same time?
When a local authority says it intends to become carbon neutral by some fairly short date like 2030, they display similarities to Lewis Carroll’s Humpty Dumpty. He said “a word means what I say it means”. The GLA gets to say what “carbon neutrality” means in this case, as it is a purely voluntary policy. They will have to be very picky about what they include to have a chance of achieving such a target, but then they can be as picky as they like. They must surely exclude general road traffic.
The government has less discretion about what it means by carbon reduction, because it has passed various acts and signed various treaties, but at least these are somewhat longer dated. The more general argument of whether a government can promote road building and achieve substantial carbon reduction at the same time will be tested by a court case being brought by https://transportactionnetwork.org.uk/ It has some similarities to, but also some important differences from, the recent Heathrow case.