Getting around in London
A few thoughts today on getting around in London, things that work and things that don't ...
When you come up the escalators from the Tube at Kings Cross-St Pancras, you see a host of signs directing you to St Pancras station (some with a Eurostar symobol). Don't follow them.
For months now, anyone following the signage in the hope of catching a Midland MainLine train has found themselves in the Circle Line ticket hall, where they are further directed to a row of locked doors. What they should have done is ignore the signs, turn right instead of left at the Underground ticket barriers and access St Pancras through the side of Kings Cross main line station. This saves having to retrace your steps, and five to ten minutes if you are hurring for a train.
London Underground must have had complaints about this stupidly misleading signage, but nothing has been done. There are still two months until the Eurostar terminal opens; time for some enterprising employee to cover up the arrows with masking tape until they are needed.
Still at St Pancras, London & Continental Railways has erected an observation deck next to the Midland MainLine platforms, and while you wait for your train to Sheffield or wherever you can see groups with backpacks dieappearing through a door for a really good look at the new station.
Would it not be good PR for passengers awaiting their trains north to be able to go up and have a look? It might encourage some of them to book Eurostar tickets, and I cannot conceive there could be any health and safety issues.
You've had the imagination to put up the platform, LCR. Now let the people use it!
I wonder if anyone at Transport for London has noticed that it takes five minutes for a bus to travel down Sloane Street from Knightsbridge to Sloane Square, but anything up to an hour and a half (in my experience) in the opposite direction. And the reason is simple: the traffic lights at the corner of Basil Street.
The timing of these lights is such that when traffic is queueing back from Knightsbridge Station, just enough vehicles move in from Basil Street to prevent any of them moving up from the rest of Sloane Street. The result is a standstill (not to mention unnecessary exhaust fumes).
The solution is simple: to make the exit from Basil Street "no left turn", so that the traffic - almost all of it taxis coming from the back of Harrods - has to turn right and the queue of vehicles waiting in Sloane Street can move up. (You would of course have to watch out for them doing U-turns the moment they got into Sloane Street).
Just this simple change would transform bus punctuality on routes 19, 22, 137, 452 and C1.
Talking of route 452, is it necessary? This new route from Wandsworth Road to Kensal Rise, with gleaming and frequent buses, was brought in when the Congestion Charge was extended, and runs almost empty. The day of the Tube strike when buses on every other route were packed to the gunwales, the 452s were still running almost empty.
Time for a cull?
When you come up the escalators from the Tube at Kings Cross-St Pancras, you see a host of signs directing you to St Pancras station (some with a Eurostar symobol). Don't follow them.
For months now, anyone following the signage in the hope of catching a Midland MainLine train has found themselves in the Circle Line ticket hall, where they are further directed to a row of locked doors. What they should have done is ignore the signs, turn right instead of left at the Underground ticket barriers and access St Pancras through the side of Kings Cross main line station. This saves having to retrace your steps, and five to ten minutes if you are hurring for a train.
London Underground must have had complaints about this stupidly misleading signage, but nothing has been done. There are still two months until the Eurostar terminal opens; time for some enterprising employee to cover up the arrows with masking tape until they are needed.
Still at St Pancras, London & Continental Railways has erected an observation deck next to the Midland MainLine platforms, and while you wait for your train to Sheffield or wherever you can see groups with backpacks dieappearing through a door for a really good look at the new station.
Would it not be good PR for passengers awaiting their trains north to be able to go up and have a look? It might encourage some of them to book Eurostar tickets, and I cannot conceive there could be any health and safety issues.
You've had the imagination to put up the platform, LCR. Now let the people use it!
I wonder if anyone at Transport for London has noticed that it takes five minutes for a bus to travel down Sloane Street from Knightsbridge to Sloane Square, but anything up to an hour and a half (in my experience) in the opposite direction. And the reason is simple: the traffic lights at the corner of Basil Street.
The timing of these lights is such that when traffic is queueing back from Knightsbridge Station, just enough vehicles move in from Basil Street to prevent any of them moving up from the rest of Sloane Street. The result is a standstill (not to mention unnecessary exhaust fumes).
The solution is simple: to make the exit from Basil Street "no left turn", so that the traffic - almost all of it taxis coming from the back of Harrods - has to turn right and the queue of vehicles waiting in Sloane Street can move up. (You would of course have to watch out for them doing U-turns the moment they got into Sloane Street).
Just this simple change would transform bus punctuality on routes 19, 22, 137, 452 and C1.
Talking of route 452, is it necessary? This new route from Wandsworth Road to Kensal Rise, with gleaming and frequent buses, was brought in when the Congestion Charge was extended, and runs almost empty. The day of the Tube strike when buses on every other route were packed to the gunwales, the 452s were still running almost empty.
Time for a cull?
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