Aeronautical designers have a saying, ‘Pretty works’. That is to say, an elegant and aerodynamic aircraft generally has excellent handling characteristics and good speed (the Spitfire and Concorde come to mind). London Transport’s Lord Ashfield …
Continue readingCategory: Long reads
Reconnections’ Transport Miscellany – May 2021
Tube Map Footnote Symbol Hierarchy Where footnotes are required, the hierarchy is in descending order as follows: † – dagger ‡ – double dagger § – section mark || – parallels # – number or …
Continue readingThe Paths to Public Transport Enlightenment
Advocating public transport improvements is often an exercise in long term frustration. Decades can go by with only poorer service and line closures. But there is a way to work through these feelings. A lot …
Continue readingHydrail Breezes in the UK (Hydrogen Part 2)
We last looked at London’s hydrogen bus experiments, and this part of the series analyses current hydrail development. Regular operation of the world’s first hydrogen train started in September 2018 with two Alstom Coradia iLints …
Continue readingLondon’s First Highway: Part 3 – Evolution of River Passenger Transport Policy
Its roads and trains clogged, London has made a strong effort to bring passengers back to the Thames over the last two decades, as a return to its future past. TfL’s 2013 River Action Plan …
Continue readingUber Loses Appeal against ruling on UK Worker rights
Uber has lost its Supreme Court Appeal on whether drivers are self-employed or workers, directly employed by Uber itself. The appeal was Uber’s fourth, and final attempt to overturn the judgement. That it took the …
Continue readingCovenants, Easements & Wayleaves: Transport asset interface register (Part 2)
We now delve deeper into evolution of railway infrastructure knowledge that we started in Part 1 of this series. We look at some more recent examples of how underground railway infrastructure interfaces with its environment …
Continue readingThe Second Coming of Hydrogen? London’s Hydrogen Buses (Hydrogen Part 1)
Despite impressive advances, bus battery technology is still not optimal – poor range, and reduced energy storage in cold weather. So to avoid putting all their clean energy buses in one basket, TfL has consistently …
Continue readingMilan Part 2: Tram City to Metropolitana City
The post-war tramway shrinks but holds The war years brought severe destruction upon the city, as tracks and thousands of tram cars were destroyed in the bombings. When the city was finally liberated the 25th …
Continue readingThe Empires Return – London and New York City Part 2
The rise of London and New York City as major global cities can be traced in part to investment in high quality transport networks, as we described in Part 1, which helped enable each city …
Continue readingMilan: Medieval City to Metropolitana City
As with many other modern cities, the history of Milan, the economic capital of Italy, is tightly tied with the development of its far-reaching and increasingly sophisticated rail networks. And as in many early rail …
Continue readingThe Incredible Lightness of Being – Cable Cars, A Legitimate Urban Transport Mode
After the Emirates Air Line fiasco, most people in the UK had written off cable cars as a valid public transport mode. But reading about the official gondola proposal for Vancouver’s Burnaby Mountain university campus …
Continue readingThe 2020 London Reconnections Christmas Quiz
2020 has been a year like no other, when it comes to transport writing. But there is one thing that doesn’t change: It is time for the London Reconnections Christmas Quiz! The year 2020 has …
Continue readingCovenants, Easements & Wayleaves: The Hidden Urban Interfaces Which Shape London Part 1
The Underground isn’t just defined by its infrastructure, but by its interfaces too. We look at the hidden world of asset interface management, and how it affects, and is affected by, urban railway management, and …
Continue readingSlavery and the Railways, Part 1: Acknowledging the Past
Britain’s railway exists as a legacy of slavery. In this short series we look at this under-explored aspect of railway history, and talk to Network Rail about how we acknowledge that past and build a better present.
Continue reading