In our previous article on the cancellation of London Underground’s World Class Capacity programme we looked at the reasons for its cancellation. Now it is time to look at exactly what has been cancelled and what can be salvaged from the aborted programme.
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Third World Class Capacity: Cancelling Tube Upgrades
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 …
Continue readingFace-scanning Tube station ticketing developing (Wired)
The company behind the Oyster card is working on a face-scanning ticketing system. Cubic Transportation Systems, the US company behind London’s Oyster card technology, is working on new ticketing systems that use facial recognition, palm …
Continue readingModified mobile elevated work platforms (Rail Engineer)
Installing CBTC in the Underground means installing radio antennas in the tunnels – approximately 450 of them – all linked by cables back to the control centre. The method originally envisaged for the fixing of …
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 readingFriday Reads – July 14, 2017
If you have something you feel we should read or include in a future list, please email us at [email protected]. • How tube stations got their funny names (Beeb) • Demonyms – not what you …
Continue readingTfL Confirm Gap in Croxley Rail Link Funding
In December 2016 we wrote about the curious absence of the Metropolitan line extension to Watford (the Croxley Rail link) from the TfL Business Plan. Sources at the time suggested that the extension was facing …
Continue readingDiving into the Fleet Part 5: The Canary Wharf Years
Competition between the City and Canary Wharf, Conservative party politics and the rise and fall of one of the world’s largest property developers all helped define the Jubilee line as we know it today. Jonathan …
Continue readingStreamlined Modernity: Frank Pick’s Forgotten Bus Garages
Popular appreciation of London Underground’s 1930s Modernist Tube station buildings has kept them well in the public eye. There was an equivalent programme, however, during the same decade at remote outposts of London Transport’s empire in the counties surrounding London. Thanks to an estate of run-down bus garages, London Transport’s Country Bus department enjoyed a renewal and replacement programme which left it with some Modernist and Streamline Moderne buildings that reflect their common patron – Frank Pick. This is the story of the best London Transport buildings you’ve never heard of – London’s Country Bus garages.
Continue readingFriday Reading List – April 7
This is the next installment of our weekly Friday Reads post – listing some links and articles we’ve been reading at LR Towers. Also check out our Industry News posts, updated every weekday, with the …
Continue readingWear and Lathing in Northfields: Why the Piccadilly Line is Struggling
On 20 November 2016 Londoners awoke to find their city battered by torrential rain and winds of up to 100mph. Storm Angus, which had spent the previous day causing chaos to shipping in the Atlantic …
Continue readingDiving Into The Fleet: Getting Conservative, 1980 – 1985
When we last left the story of the Fleet line it had become the Jubilee. The GLC’s Conservative administration had been unsuccessful in their attempts to persuade the Labour Government to push forward with Jubilee …
Continue readingIt’s Good To Talk
From telegraphs to telephones, cables to Connect, over its 150-year history the London Underground has remained at the forefront of communications technology. We look at the journey from a single telegram line to an integrated …
Continue readingOn Our Line Extra: The Night Tube
To celebrate the start of the Night Tube service this evening, London Reconnections is pleased to bring you the first episode of On Our Line: Extra. On Our Line Extras are additional podcast episodes outside …
Continue readingDiving Into The Fleet: Jubilee Line Derailed, 1974-1979
The waters of the Fleet (Line) became considerably murkier in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. To recap, Fleet Line Stage 1 costs to Charing Cross had risen from an estimate of £35m in 1971 …
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