On 24th March 2015 there was a surprise announcement from the Mayor and TfL about the re-signalling of the Subsurface Railway (SSR). It is largely a re-announcement of what has already been announced numerous times, …
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The New Tube For London: The Driverless Train With A Driver
On the 9th October, at Kings Cross, TfL unveiled the latest concept for the New Tube for London (NTfL) – the rolling stock design that will serve the majority of the “Deep Tube” lines, beginning …
Continue readingThe (Caledonian) Sleeper Awakes
It may not have attracted the attention of most London Reconnections readers but recently a new rail franchise that serves London was announced – one with a start date of 1st April 2015. This is …
Continue readingIn Pictures: Growing Oranges
Whilst attention has begun to switch to TfL’s plans for West Anglia (a topic which we will cover in more detail later in the month) it is worth remembering that taking over control of that …
Continue readingMore Than Politics: Bombardier Gets Crossrail Rolling Stock
As had been widely anticipated for some time, this morning the winner of the Crossrail rolling stock and depot contract was announced. The (approximately) £1bn contract covers the supply of 65 nine car trains (which …
Continue readingUpgrading the Piccadilly: Calling Time on Mind the Gap?
In recent months on London Reconnections we have looked at the future of most of the tube lines, with articles on the Metropolitan Line, the other Sub-Surface Railway (SSR) Lines and the deep tube lines. …
Continue readingRIP the Tube Improvement Plan, Long Live New Tube for London
As the new year looms, it seems an appropriate time to look at where, in upgrade terms, the Tube goes next. We will shortly look at the upgrading of the Sub-surface Railway and how the …
Continue readingThameslink and the NAO: Part 2 – Wherefore Art Thou Siemens Rolling Stock?
In part one we looked at the verdict of the National Audit Office report on Thameslink and more specifically on the infrastructure work done so far. In part two we look in detail at the …
Continue readingIn Pictures: Refurbishing the 95 Stock
Whilst debate continues over Deep Tube and the S-Stock rollout pushes forward, other rolling stock changes are still happening quietly elsewhere. Below are thus several pictures of the newly refurbished 95 stock on the Northern …
Continue readingCatching Up With The Committee: Part 1
A month is a short time in Transport Politics. Whilst today’s Transport Committee is set to look at Crossrail 2 (a topic to which John Bull will be turning his eye shortly), last month’s meeting …
Continue readingWe Need To Talk About Camden: The Future of the Northern Line
A very strange thing has happened in the past year or so regarding London Underground and the Northern Line – senior managers have actually wanted to talk about it. This comes as quite a surprise. …
Continue readingWhat’s it all about, Thameslink?
The intention was to hold off from writing another article about Thameslink until the routes involved were finally decided. Our article in 2011 was rather speculative due to lack of decision making and definite information …
Continue readingRoundtable: The TfL Draft Business Plan
Transport news, like London buses, often seems to come in clumps. With the various recent announcements it would thus be easy to miss that TfL have published their draft Business Plan for the next decade. …
Continue readingTransport Committee Part 1: Underground Reliability & Driverless Trains
Thursday saw the latest meeting of the London Assembly Transport Committee take place at City Hall. As usual, it provided some interesting context and updates on things at TfL with this month’s guests being Mike …
Continue readingOverground Electrification and Longer Trains
As several spotters have helpfully pointed out, this week saw a rather interesting article appear in Rail Engineer on the topic of Rail Electrification. The article provides thorough coverage of the discussion of electrification at …
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