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 readingAuthor: Pedantic of Purley
The 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 …
Continue reading2016 Quiz: The Answers
As always it seems amazing how much effort some people put into the answers. What has also come across is our inability to assess the difficulty of questions. One or two that we thought would …
Continue readingThe 2016 London Reconnections Christmas Quiz
It’s that time of year again. 2016 has been quite a busy year transport-wise with plenty of opportunities for questions. In case some are new to the Christmas quiz here is a bit of background: …
Continue readingGovia go via Greenwich: GTR and the Thameslink Timetable
There are probably Southern commuters who would claim that nothing Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR – Southern’s parent company) said or did would surprise them. Many industry insiders would probably agree. When rumours spread rapidly about …
Continue readingThe New London Bridge Station: First Impressions
It will probably not have escaped most readers attention that the main portion of the new London Bridge station concourse opened on August Bank Holiday Monday. Impressions are invariably subjective and so London Reconnections breaks …
Continue readingMeltdown Monday: How Southern’s Problems Run Deeper Than Disputes
For those living and working in London and the South East it has become almost impossible to be unaffected, either directly or indirectly, by the trouble-hit GTR franchise. Understandably there is anger and frustration at …
Continue readingA Study In Sussex part 13: Norwood Junction
Seemingly illogically, now is the time to look at Norwood Junction and its future importance in enabling an upgrade to the Brighton Main Line. Initially this station was not intended to form part of this …
Continue readingThe Last Stand of the Old Guard?
The role of the railway guard has been in the news recently due to various industrial disputes in London and beyond. With debate set to continue over the role in the coming months, this seems …
Continue readingCrossrail: Making Concrete Progress
With Crossrail well into the phase of building the railway infrastructure we look at progress in the tunnel section and what is being done to push forward ahead of schedule Not just a real railway …
Continue readingSSR Signalling And The New Tube For London
We have looked at the New Tube for London (NTfL) before but, with very little officially announced, it has been hard to pin down the details. Thanks to the a presentation to the Rail and …
Continue readingNot Quite World Class Capacity
Very logically, and very conveniently for us, TfL’s Finance and Policy panel has now published details of the proposed infrastructure upgrade to the Jubilee and Northern lines. So as a nice follow up to our …
Continue readingMind The (Train) Gap? A Look at the World Class Capacity Upgrades
Some TfL panels are always worth keeping an eye on for unexpected developments, and the most recently announced Rail and Underground Panel meeting set antennae twitching at LR Towers with notable indications that something significant …
Continue readingc2c: The Timetables, They Are A-Changin’
On Monday 14 December 2015 c2c introduced a new weekday timetable between Fenchurch Street and Shoeburyness. By the next day they had already made their first changes and those changes have continued, with the latest …
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