A perennial and fairly meaningless question that is often asked is ‘what are the origins …
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A Familiar Fear: Flooding & The Underground
If New York and London are twinned as cities, then it is only a small leap to think of the London Underground and the New York Subway as sister networks. They may differ in many …
Continue readingLU150: Steam On the Underground Timetable and Prices
No. 30587 Steaming at Baker Street, copyright/credit Leon Daniels It has been something of an open secret that the London Transport Museum has been preparing for a limited number of Steam runs on the Metropolitan …
Continue readingTransport Committee Intermission: The Elephant in the Committee Room
Part One of the above article generated a lot of interest and a lot of comments based around the issue of driverless trains. This certainly was the issue that seemed to interest the politicians and …
Continue readingToo High A Fare: The Decline and Fall of the London Taxi Company
Manganese Bronze, better known as “The London Taxi Company” and maker of the iconic London’s black cab, has called in the administrators. By most accounts, the company has had problems for some time, with the …
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 …
Continue readingARCHIVE: Angels and Errors: How the Harrow & Wealdstone Disaster Helped Shape Modern Britain
Today is the 60th Anniversary of the Harrow & Wealdstone Disaster. In remembrance of the tragedy that occured that day, below you will find the article about the disaster that first appeared on this website …
Continue readingTaxi! – The new Cab Rank at Paddington
Other than to report on GLA meetings we don’t normally mention taxis on London Reconnections. The reason for this is simple. They are boring. It was quite a surprise therefore when the conversation at an …
Continue readingA look at Cannon Street Underground Station
Regular readers who use Cannon Street station will be aware of the massive changes that have been taking place over the past few years. What was left if the original station frontage was replaced as …
Continue readingIn Pictures: A Goodbye to the A-Stock
Wednesday 26th September saw the last unit of A-Stock run in passenger service on the Metropolitan Line. The last service was worked by 5063, and Ianvists has an excellent write up here. Some photos to commemorate the end of an era on the Underground are below.
Continue readingObituary: Colin Curtis OBE, BSc (Eng), CEng, MIMechE, MIRTE
It is with great sadness that London Reconnections has learned of the death of Colin Curtis, at the age of 86. Colin was a key figure in the history of London Buses, and his book …
Continue readingNew Trains, Buses and Complaints: A Look at the TfL Board Papers
With the Olympics and Paralympics over, September brings something of a return to normal for London’s Transport network. On the Underground, this means the unfortunate (but sadly necessary) return to weekend closures. In the corporate …
Continue readingThe (Croydon) Tramlink: Part 2
Following on from part 1 which looked at the past, we now concentrate on the recent Tramlink update and look to the future. A new tram at Wimbledon heading for Elmers End on a training …
Continue readingThe (Croydon) Tramlink: Part 1
With the recent introduction of six more trams and a new service pattern, the time seems right to look both back at, and forward to, changes to Tramlink. In the first part of this article …
Continue readingLast Metropolitan A Stock Tour 29th September
Tickets have gone on sale for the final A-Stock Tour, which will take place on the 29th September. They can be purchased via the LTM website, although they are quite hard to find. Those looking …
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