On Friday, 13 October 2017 TfL officially announced a ‘pause’ to its Jubilee and Northern lines World Class Capacity programme. This harked back to a similar statement made by Patrick McLoughlin, then Transport Minister, about …
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More Trains for London Overground: A Bargain Never to be Repeated
One of the rules of LR is that the more innocuous the title, the more interesting a TfL committee paper is likely to be. Additional New Rolling Stock for London Overground for the October 2017 …
Continue readingCrossrail: Finishing The Job
On 14 September 2017 a formal ceremony took place to install the final four rail sleeper clips on Crossrail. As reported by Crossrail themselves, this marked completion of the installation of all the track that Crossrail …
Continue readingThe Ninety Second Railway: Making the Victoria line the Most Frequent Metro in the World
Back in the 1990s, John Self, the general manager of the Victoria line at the time, gave a talk about his vision for its future. From the outset he pulled no punches. It was time, …
Continue readingThe Kent Route Study (Part 4): Victoria – Dartford, the Forgotten Southeast Service
For our final look at passenger suburban services considered in the draft Kent Route Study we look at a route which is, in many ways, a bit of an oddball – not least because it …
Continue readingWhy capacity won’t increase on Southeastern Metro any time soon
Way back in 2011 we wrote a piece called Two Of Our Carriages Are Missing. It was about the long term failure to provide 12-car trains on Southeastern Metro services via London Bridge to Charing …
Continue readingThe Final Result: Crossrail Heads to Terminal 5
July 4th 2017 saw the surprise announcement that the Elizabeth line would serve Terminal 5 at Heathrow. Heathrow Media Centre, the public relations department of Heathrow Airport Ltd, let the world know of this Crossrail …
Continue readingHow Can You Mend A Broken Railway? Thameslink and the Gibb Report
Last summer the Secretary of State for Transport, Chris Grayling, commissioned a report from an experienced and well-respected railwayman, Chris Gibb. The goal was a framework to enable much-needed improvements to railway services across the …
Continue readingBakerloo Déjà Vu: Buying New Trains for the DLR
With tight curves and other unique features. Buying trains for the DLR means buying bespoke. We look at TfL’s current plans to renew the rolling stock and the timescales involved.
Continue readingKent Route Study (Part 3): Victoria Metro Services
As part of our series on the recent Kent Route Study, we look at what it refers to as the ‘Victoria Metro Services.’ It is nearly impossible to do so, however, without also looking at …
Continue readingThe Kent Route Study (Part 2): Crossrail to Gravesend
Much has been written about Crossrail in recent years. One topic that has largely slipped through the net, however, is the revival of the originally planned route from Abbey Wood to Ebbsfleet. This was to …
Continue readingThe Kent Route Study (Part 1): London Bridge Metro Services
On 14 March 2017 Network Rail finally published its draft Kent Area Route Study Report. On the same day, quite deliberately, the DfT published its consultation document for the requirements of the next South East …
Continue readingOne of the Family: Crossrail’s Transition to Being a Tube
In June 2015 we reported that Crossrail was well on the path to becoming a functioning railway in the making rather than a construction project nearing completion. The man whose job it is to create …
Continue readingThe Lonely Life of Birkbeck: South London’s Bellwether Station
Last August one London station saw trains stop there on just two days in the entire month. Indeed in the end for 34 consecutive days no trains called at the station. We take a look …
Continue reading2016 Christmas Quiz – The Winners
Finally, we have got around to analysing the answers to the 2016 Christmas Quiz. The way the questions were marked was basically one mark per question – except for the Denis Thatcher question (Q15) and …
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