Saturday 30th November 2024
Overground gets named
We begin November’s month end miscellany round up in London checking out how the orange coloured Overground has spawned six new individual identities to make it easier for passengers to work out which line they need.
As you can see it’s a work in progress with some new enamel signs having their temporary old vinyl stickers removed last week…
… including on platforms…
…but others still showing the old style orange.
Inside the trains, diagrams for all six lines are now shown individually making for a much simpler display to follow, albeit a bit small to see from the seats opposite.
The composite Overground map is now also much more clear.
If you’re wondering what’s happened to the old signs – they’re available for your living room wall from the London Transport Museum for just £750 (each).
And, if you thought it was all going to be easy to work out where delays are on TfL’s myriad network of lines, take a peek at the new look rainbow board where there are two alphabetical lists according to the status of the line’s operations.
TPE’s secret coach formation
I wish TransPennine Express would make it easier for passengers to know where to wait on the platform for a chance of sitting in your reserved seat. I made a journey from Leeds to Hull one Sunday afternoon earlier this month with a seat reservation in coach A.
Whereas some stations show the formation of the approaching train on departure boards including which marked zone on the platform to wait in for each lettered coach, in Leeds there’s no such information for TPE departures. As the packed train arrived on a busy platform 15 I could see it was formed of two separate three coach Class 185s joined together (with no passenger access between the two), but had no idea whether coach A would be at the front or the rear of the front three coaches or the front or the rear of the rear three coaches.
I’d hedged my bets and stood on the platform where I thought the middle of the train would stop and tried to see (with difficulty) the identifying letter of each coach. It’s not easy, as these are hidden when the doors open. It turned out to be confusingly formed of F-E-D=A-B-C. In the event, there were no seat reservation tickets on any of the seats and inevitably someone was sitting in my seat.
Grand Central’s blank seat reservations
A different issue arose on a journey I made with Grand Central where all the seats (in first class) had reservations tickets on them…
… but they were all blank. And as you can see there were lots of empty seats and I can’t believe so many passengers with reservations didn’t turn up, so couldn’t work out what on earth was going on.
The opposite was the case on another journey, this time with Hull Trains, where my advanced ticket omitted to stipulate a seat reservation, but everyone else’s had one and the first class section turned out to be very busy with reserved seats. Luckily, boarding at Hull I was able to commandeer one of only two unreserved seats available at the end of the first class section furthest away from the galley, so inevitably the vegan breakfast roll option had all gone by the time they got to me.
Bradford makeover
The reopening of Bradford Interchange in the new year can’t come soon enough for passengers having to put up with temporary bus stops around the city centre as I found one busy Saturday afternoon while in the city. It can’t be easy for drivers negotiating tight turns and picking up from crowded bus stops.
Changing buses from one temporary terminal point to another can also involve a very circuitous walk as work on the pedestrianisation of a large part of the city centre continues.
Prominent Leeds
I was impressed with the very prominent siting of a large information point on the recently refurbished entrance concourse at Leeds station.
And just look at all these ticket office windows with staff serving passengers too – on a Sunday lunch time. All very impressive.
A Paragon of virtue
I’ve mentioned it before but it’s worth a repetition. Hull has an excellent integrated travel shop with East Yorkshire buses on the left and TransPennine Express on the right. Pity Stagecoach pulled out but its place has been taken by Caledonian Travel.
There’s refurbishment work going on again at the toilets on the station concourse and it always puzzles me what these offices are used for.
It was good to see the electronic bus departure signs working but one of the downsides of the lack of seats and guidance as to how and where to queue for buses is that the passageway alongside the departure stands…
… soon gets blocked, negating the benefit of so many stands and so much space.
Another downside I noticed was not being able to see the destination display on buses when they’re on the stand.
And, one final Paragon observation was wondering if TransPennine Express realise its branded poster boards…
… has been purloined by FlixBus to promote its competing express services.
Bee Network’s accessibility overload
While in Wigan’s bus station I noticed TfGM is still using a wheelchair symbol on its Bee Network bus departure lists to show which journeys operate with wheelchair accessible buses.
Err, all of them. As per the law.
And, as always with TfGM the bus station public toilets are more secure than Wandsworth Prison.
Team Pennine wins this month’s missing vinyl award
Well done to the Team Pennine team for winning first prize in this month’s missing vinyl competition (see above in Halifax), with our old favourite, Arriva picking up second prize for this bus proudly showing its corporate image in Maidstone.
Escalating the escalator problem
It’s good to see amid all the stress of running London’s Euston railway station someone has a sense of humour. Not only the above play on words message about the escalator fault but the DISCOVER EUSTON branding! They cannot be serious.
Chatham’s heritage at Nu-Venture
Norman Kemp very kindly hosted a visit to his Nu-Venture premises in Aylesford at the end of last month where I saw this remarkable Bristol once owned and run by Chatham & District Traction Company. It’s amazing history is online and is well worth a read. It relates how the bus ran in service from June 1939 to December 1956 being preserved first time round in 1962 but in subsequent years fell into disrepair and almost went to the scrapyard before being saved at the last minute in 1991 but it took until 2007 for it to be offered a secure home when Norman stepped in and since then volunteers have been lovingly restoring it once again.
London Transport Museum’s priorities
Whenever I’m around the Covent Garden area it’s always nice to pop into the London Transport Museum and browse the book shop on the first floor. Sadly a new policy has seen the space devoted to books drastically reduced so more branded goods can be sold instead. I suspect it’s a reflection of supply and demand, but a sad situation for a museum, nevertheless.
Book Swap takes the potato
In my review of Liverpool Street station earlier this month I missed out the most important aspect – the stations Book Swap Club. Sadly it looks as though more people have been taking rather than returning though with just two left (Lean in 15 minutes by Joe Wicks and The Cook’s Potato Book by Sally Mansfield) together with a discarded ticket.
Explore the Pilgrim’s Progress
Passing through Redhill station the other day I stopped to admire this route diagram on the subway wall showing the railway lines along the the 153 miles between Farnham and Dover via Canterbury along the North Downs Way, including part of the historic Pilgrims Way.
London Country’s heritage
Nice to see a smartly turned out Arriva heritage livery marking the original London Country colours on this Wright StreetLite in Bluewater the other day. But despite how many time I see them, I just can’t get inspired by the insipid nature of the Green Line livery used on route 757 as seen (below) in Victoria.
New departure board for Euston
The ‘troubled’ Euston has recently gained a new departure board as you walk towards the eastern pedestrian entrance by M&S Simply Food. This shows the ‘Next fastest train to” by both Avanti West Coast and LNR, so you need to know Avanti West Coast are always faster than LNR. I wonder if everyone does know that? Inside the station concourse I don’t usually see a queue for the toilet but for some reason on this occasion the ladies had it bad again.
Bring your own seat
Here’s another in my occasional series of Thameslink passengers using their initiative to get a seat on busy 12 coach peak hour trains.
Kingston’s cycle parking
I was amazed to see this three floor cycle parking facility alongside Kingston railway station. It must hold the record for being the most extensive facility of its kind. And, as you can see was virtually empty.
Right side for Paddington
Good to see the escalators from the ‘old’ exit/entrance between the Underground (Bakerloo/Circle/District lines) and the concourse at Paddington are now both refurbished and working again AND even better someone at last has seen sense in having the ‘up’ escalator on the right hand side (looking up), so it’s in line with the exit gates from the Underground and the ‘down’ escalator on the left hand side (looking up) so it’s in line with the entrance gates to the Underground and there’s no longer the melee of passengers criss-crossing over in the space between the gates and the escalators.
Little things mean a lot. More miscellany next month.
Roger French
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS
Comments on today’s blog are welcome but please keep them relevant to the blog topic, avoid personal insults and add your name (or an identifier). Thank you.
BusAndTrainUser 
Very many thanks – I always enjoy your ‘Seen Around’ issues. Good to see those escalators at Paddington are sorted – and the right way round!
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Similar situation in Wakefield bus station, where Arriva closed their travel shop and in its place sprung up… Caledonian Travel! The message that comes across for me is you’d be better off anywhere else than Wakefield. Given how Arriva have been treating their business and customers in Yorkshire, I am inclined to agree. Also, it’s incredibly telling that East Yorkshire continue to provide paper timetables in Hull but not Stagecoach.
TheLupineOne
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I’m afraid Caledonian Travel didn’t replace Stagecoach at Hull Paragon Interchange. Caledonian’s space was previously National Holidays. Stagecoach were next to East Yorkshire, now empty and obscured by repositioned East Yorkshire timetable racks. You can just see the dark blue shutter of the former Stagecoach counter in Roger’s picture.
Also since September, Stagecoach have reintroduced paper timetable for most services in Hull, in the form of four ‘guides’ – they can be downloaded here if you want to see what they look like https://www.stagecoachbus.com/promos-and-offers/east-midlands/hull-services A couple of weeks ago picked up two guides in the Interchange travel office, but the full set were available at the Central Library (go left at the main entrance and there is a little tourist information area beneath the stairs, which is where I found them).
Humber Transport
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The Overground renaming helps to make disruption announcements rather more useful. The old “London Overground is part suspended” announcements being rather unhelpful.
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It’s an interesting choice to show Telford Central and Shrewsbury, two stations without direct Euston services, on the departure board but not LNR services to Watford Junction or Hemel Hempstead / Tring, especially as not all Leighton Buzzard services call there and it’s a lot quicker than the Overground.
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That “fastest train” board is the perfect encapsulation of the craptastic nature of Britain’s railway system. You had ONE job to do.
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How odd to see the next fastest train to Watford Jn being London Overground. Blatant misdirection
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Hurrah re Paddington escalator direction. I wrote to TfL about this some time ago.
Stephen H
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TPE 185s do follow a pattern
Front unit is always A/B/C (or rvs)
Rear unit is always E/F/G (or rvs)
First class is always C and G
So the trick is to look at each half and find first class and work it out from there
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it seems that even the RealTimeTrains app has given up on TPE, and simply presents the train pattern as Coaches 1 to 6 in the order they turn up!
John H
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I might be missing something but how can bike riders in Kingston be expected to cycle up three flights of stairs ?
Petras409
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It would appear from looking at the Architects website that the stairs are like the ones you see in Netherlands with the groove on the side that allow you to wheel a bike whilst walking the stairs.
Go Cycle:Kingston Station – Sarah Wigglesworth Architects
Jan B
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I recall waiting for a train at in the bay platform at Shrewsbury that was comprised of 2 x 158 units that would reverse there. It was announced as “The front two coaches are for Aberystwyth and the rear two for Pwllheli” with the train splitting at Machynlleth.
The announcer knew that it was the front two coaches on leaving the station that would be going to Aberystwyth, but many passengers assumed it was the front two on arrival.
Cue much confusion.
I had a seat reservation in “Coach A” so I thought I’d have no trouble, except that the coaches were lettered “A B B A”!
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I’ve travelled to Wales on a few occasions in the last few years now, and whenever I’ve booked tickets with TfW, I’ve not seen any option to reserve a seat. A few years ago, my sister booked tickets through TheTrainline and reserved seats. The problem we both had though was – what I now know is quite commonplace with this TfW service – a short-formed train!
I was waiting at Birmingham New Street, and the departure screens were showing a four-car train, front two for Pwllheli, and the rear two for Aberystwyth. So you can imagine my surprise and bewilderment when a train formed of just two carriages pulled up! “Where’s the rest of the train?” I asked of a guard, who just shrugged his shoulders.
My sister and her partner were due to join us at Wolverhampton, however the train was rammed as it was full of football fans heading to Shrewsbury. She was equally bewildered as they had (supposedly) seat reservations in a coach that didn’t exist!
Anyway, the train emptied at Shrewsbury, and we were both able to move into seats near each other. The answer to my earlier question came when we arrived at Machynlleth and had to leave this train to get on another one in front in order to continue towards Aberystwyth.
Same thing happened earlier this year, only this time I was going to Tywyn (by myself). Arrived at New Street expecting a four-car train, but only half turned up again. Managed to get myself a nice table seat, shared with some strangers. Was almost settled in comfortably, expecting most people going to Aberystwyth having to change trains at Machynlleth. Haha, how wrong was I, after leaving Shrewsbury, the conductor checking tickets was telling us that passengers heading towards Pwllheli will have to change at Machynlleth onto another train, that would arrive very shortly after this one departed.
I do love heading off to the west coast of Wales on holiday, and the unpredictable TfW train service just adds to the excitement!
Stu – West Midlands Bus Users
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I would have expected a train labelled ‘ABBA’ to be heading to Waterloo.
Roger G
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It sounds very much a case of TfW saying Take a Chance on Me.
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Is that Arriva StreetLite really supposed to be commemorating London Country pre-NBC green? It looks more like Wolverhampton green in that light!
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ah yes but coming from the Bakerloo line at Paddington the signage now tells you turn left at the escalators and presumably go on a million mile hike via the new retail facility before getting to the mainline station. If however you follow the Elizabeth Line signage it takes you the old route to these escalators. TfL active travel policy – walk more than you need to?
steve
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rather liking the London Country colours interpretation on a modern bus
perhaps Green Line should revisit the late NBC Venetian Blind colours
I am not sure how long it will take for Overground names to sink in, the names of tube lines of course were introduced one by one virtually over a range of times, the old “names”-SLL/WLL/NLL still seemed to be in memory when name suggestions were going in, but it will end confusion mainly for tourists as to which overground line connects in the interior tube line carriage vinyls.
JBC Prestatyn
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It is annoying that Stagecoach in Hull don’t display their guides in the actual Interchange where passengers might actually see them. And it is high time the City Council re-introduced the once excellent Map showing all services.
Dare one ask the cost of re-signing the entire London Overground? As with the Underground, which to the horror of the old Metropolitan Railway line staff, Everyone simply calls “the Tube”, Regulars know their lines, and Strangers simply consult a map or ask. If lines did have to be named, why not give a clue as to their location (presumably Mildmay serves an area of the same name?) rather than abstract names laced in several cases with political correctness which are meaningless to most travellers.
Terence Uden
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The Hull City Council map still exists (or maybe reintroduced, can’t remember the specifics), albeit not in the form of a leaflet
Digital version to download (doesn’t reflect the most recent changes though) https://www.hull.gov.uk/travel/buses
Also on display at Paragon Interchange and at certain bus stops around the city.
Humber Transport
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That Hull bus map is very annoying, its laid out in a top/bottom format, rather then left/right format [it should have been laid out in a left/right format] meaning it’s very disorientating, as you think East Hull is South Hull, when i first looked at it, it looked like a map of Liverpool not Hull
SM
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Yes, Terence. The Gospel Oak to Barking line has long been known as the Goblin Line, which gives much more of a clue to its route than Suffragette, which could be Anywhere.
Peter Murnaghan
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The Suffragette Line name should have been saved until TfL add more lines in ths south and terminate at Epsom Downs.
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@Terence Uden – it is not particularly helpful when travel bulletins announce “and there are delays on the London Overground”. Which bit of the Overground is affected?
Would a journey from, say, Euston to Hatch End be affected? Or is it on the Overground between, say, Liverpool Street and Edmonton Green? Or from Denmark Hill to Canada Water?
“and there are delays on the Liberty Line” tells intending passengers that none of these journeys is affected.
Looking at London Underground lines, there are quite a few whose names give little clue as to their location.
Central – true, it does go to Central London, but so do all the others
Circle – isn’t a circle and hasn’t been for about 15 years
District – serves some districts (which ones?) but so do all the others
Jubilee – named after an event 47 years ago, when the line wasn’t even open
Metropolitan – the least metropolitan of all the LU lines, stretching out into leafy Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire
Northern – as its name doesn’t suggest, the southernmost of the LU lines but not the northernmost (three others stretch further north)
Malc M
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| “and there are delays on the Liberty Line” tells intending
| passengers that none of these journeys is affected.”
Assuming those passengers have any idea what the Liberty Line is, of course.
The underground lines are named what they are for historic reasons. I’m not sure that the overground lines can claim the same.
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@ A Nony Mouse
Do passengers using the Lioness, Weaver or Windrush Lines need to know where the Liberty Line goes?
“Delays on the Liberty Line” informs those passengers that the delays are on a different line to the one they use, therefore their journey is not going to be affected. “Delays on the Overground”, on the other hand, is far less specific.
Malc M
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| Do passengers using the Lioness, Weaver or Windrush Lines
| need to know where the Liberty Line goes?
So here I am, a non-Londoner, travelling on my cheap LNWR ticket from Birmingham to London. I’m going to connecting into an Overground train to end up somewhere on what I would call the North London Line (because I’m old and I don’t keep up with the changing brands).
The screens on the train tell me that in London the Liberty Line is part-suspended. Which line is that? How does that help me? My ticket says nothing about Liberty Line, my app journey plan says nothing about Liberty Line. Is it part of my journey?
Names are great – as long as people understand them and as long as there is enough information to reassure those who don’t.
In the public transport industry we have a long history of doing things for ourselves or to impress outside stakeholders without fully considering the impact on our passengers, and then getting huffy when the passengers inevitably get confused.
To me, this is another example of that.
As a mere ground level career public transport employee I’d suggest simply adding the route termini (where realistically possible) to the display under the new name – so, in our case above, “Liberty Line / (Romford-Upminster)” – for a year or so to give people time to get used to the change and to learn those new names.
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@ A Nony Mouse – OK, let’s try the Underground lines, which are already referred to by line name.
Does your ticket mention District Line?
Does your app journey plan mention the District Line?
If not, does “District Line part suspended” help you?
Or would it be more helpful if it said “Underground (Upminster/Edgware Road to Wimbledon/Richmond/Ealing Broadway line) part suspended”?
Malc M
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The Overground renaming cost £6.3m. I don’t know if that includes the cost of the new Tube map introduced with the new line names on it. However.that was produced with a mistake on it so they are all being withdrawn. No doubt that won’t affect TfL Director bonuses
Martin W
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Just to clarify I was referring to the Tube pocket map
Martin W
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If anyone gets an original map it will be worth something as they say as Mildmay is missing ‘line’ after it.
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Re the LT Museum Shop, when I was last there about 6 weeks ago I queried the lack of books, especially new titles that they would be expected to stock (and which I wanted to buy!), and was told that the TfL cyber attack had prevented them from ordering from regular suppliers like Capital Transport. So perhaps they have simply put other stock on the former bookshelves as a temporary measure to avoid empty spaces? Let’s hope they get back to normal stocking of transport titles soon!
Richard Delahoy
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Yes that seems to be holding up the Buses of London’s New Towns book which I’ve been waiting for.
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Look closer at Arriva’s “smartly turned out heritage livery” and even that has part of the vinyl strap line missing where the window above the rear wheel has been replaced. Maybe they only ordered two vinyls?
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I don’t think any of the text is missing – there are two separate sections to the text. The first is “Proud of our heritage…” and the second is “1986 London Country…”.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/east_lancs/52226720816
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At least, it wasn’t missing when the above photo was taken! But on checking again, I think you’re right about Roger’s photo!
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On checking again, I think you’re right – but it was OK when the other photo was taken! Roger’s photo is clearly more recent!
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Most interesting. I had exactly the same trouble with TPE from Sheffield to Manchester. I had a reserved seat but, like your train, it was two Desiros coupled together, hopelessly inadequate for the crowds on Sheffield station. Needless to say I stood for much of the journey till someone kindly stood up for me! It would have been so much nicer, and scenic, to ride on a double-deck comfortable bus, if such a service exists.
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No such service exists, Hulley’s having tried and failed to make a go of it. They only ran single-deckers, though.
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Inadequate stock: A friend of mine boarded a 2 car from Barnstaple to Exeter this morning, the 0935 on a Saturday morning a few weeks before Xmas that you might predict would probably be busy… You, I, the passengers, and anyone with half a CLUE would predict it could be busy… but the train planners and managers could not, of course, and passengers were turned away from the first and each subsequent stop south. It’s an embarrassment! When are the people who are supposed to be in charge EVER going to get a grip and sort this mess out?!
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I’m sure both train planners and managers are well aware of over crowding. The problem is that the Dft/treasury are holding the purse strings and have left GWR with a chronic shortage of stock. I recall a similar trip from Barnstaple in the mid 90’s where just a single car class 153 turned up so unfortunately it isn’t a new problem.
GWR have now been allowed to lease the former TfW class 175 fleet which should hopefully ease things a bit. However given that most of their regional fleet is getting on for 30 years plus a longer term solution is desperately needed.
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In regards to the next fastest trains screens; it’s programmable and flexible. I suspect the Watford using Overground / Lioness Line is there to deter and influx of local journeys on LNR and AWC to avert overcrowding so there is actually some method in madness.
Telford Central and Shrewsbury will be removed in due course to allow more space, and the need to include Western Regions destinations on 27, 28 and 29 December so it is likely some others will also be removed on these days.
These fastest trains boards in many places are set historically on popular destinations, but sometimes they can actually cause more confusion then the normal departure screens…mind then again we can not legislat for people looking at the Arrivals board for departures!
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Grand Central have never had a printer to do the reservations so they just place blank slips in however in fairness in the Southbound once past York or Doncaster all empty seats become available
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Even with the reopening of Bradford’s Interchange, of which the lower concourse is now open again to access to toilets / rail stations / retail outlets – they’ll still be a number of cross city buses which will not serve the interchange and serve the alternative locations given the interchange since it was rebuilt in early 2000’s can not handle all the services for Bradford except in the evening and Sundays.
In fairness the new, and ridiculous layout of Bradford City Centre does no help at all for the operations of bus services. I equate its similar to Wolverhampton but at least there buses still pass through the centre for users, whilst in Bradford bus users are now permalloy relegated to the outskirts of the Centre, and at night i.e. behind ‘The Broadway Centre’ not in very ‘safe’ area at night unlike the old layout where at least people were always passing by, alas not.
The new look Bradford City Centre will haunt the City’s Fathers for years to come….all done for the Vanity Project of City/Capital of Culture (of which Bradford failed a number of times in the past to be a winner)
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Ive written to Bee Network feedback regarding pushchairs on timetables.
Bus timetable departure lists include a wheelchair symbol to donate they are pushchair and wheelchair accessible.
Is there any need for this as all buses are low floor nowadays?
There is a large set of changes on January 5th where this could be removed to provide clearer departure information.
Are you willing to do this as it would simply require require bulk removal of the wheelchair data or data field that is contained in.
If not what is the justification for it’s retention?
Case reference number instantly provided by Bee Network is 1124-26YUVY-16622
Will keep you updated
John Nicholas
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A bike park that big would be better placed at Oxford or Cambridge.
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At least Bradford will have an interchange for most services. I hope that it’s changed since, but the last time I was in Birmingham the terminating services seemed to do so at the nearesr part of the city centre to their direction of in/out, so changing from in from Stourbridge, to out to Lichfield was a pain in the proverbial. Leeds has a central BS, so should every city of comparable size.
Garry Brown
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Birmingham city centre doesn’t really lend well to having a central interchange terminus, not with three major rail stations (Moor Street, New Street and Snow Hill) and a multitude of bus services having to use crazy road layouts.
Most interchange points are within a short walking distance of each other, which is fine for able-bodied persons like myself, but I get that it can be challenging for the less able-bodied and elderly to navigate.
Stu – West Midlands Bus Users
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Brum used to have Midland Red’s Bull Ring Bus Station, of course, and the windswept horror that was Paradise Circus “bus station”, but BCT and subsequently WMPTE never saw the need for a city centre bus station.
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I’m not loving the new Overground line names, they seem too political and dare I say it “woke” and make me feel queezy every time I see them. I can imagine certain tabloids must hate them. Geographic names would be far better IMO.
Anyway, now it’s time to sort out line identities for the DLR.
Peter Brown
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Khan’s vanity project. It’s nonsense.
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The Liverpool Street overground lines are generally known as the Lea Valley lines a more sensible name in my view, Even that covers 4 different lines
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| queezy
I think you mean ‘queasy’.
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I think you’re right!
Peter Brown
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Boris had an idea in 2014💡
New lines should be named after greats of English society.
Crossrail 2 should be the Churchill line after his idol.
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Windrush sounds like the after effects of a bad curry!
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Going back to TfW Rail, a couple of weeks I travelled from Cardiff to Shrewsbury and back. I must say that it was a delight – I went First Class for less than £1 more and it was superb – immaculate mk4 coaches, complimentary coffee and biscuits served at my seat in proper china cups (even a milk jug on the way home). I could have had a cooked meal but didn’t, however the gentleman across the aisle outbound said that his porridge was the best he’d ever had.
Only problem is that there can be problems with train formations, especially on Mondays – you may get a “Sprinter” instead!
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What is the reason for the triple decker bike shed at Kingston?
I used to use Marylebone which has lots of cycles and maybe could benefit from this.
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I must have walked past that new departure board at Euston twice in the least week and not noticed it. I must pay more attention!
Steven Saunders
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The Kingston-upon-Thames Cycle Hub is an absolute monstrosity! I theorise that the security guards there are more to protect it, than any bicycles stored there. Can anyone supply its cost to me please? As to the new Bus Station at Cromwell Road – an architectural monstrosity being made of rusty ironwork but the seats at the terminal stands are better than at the previous bus station which stood on the same site. Sadly, the new arrangements do not include public toilets. As to Peter Wetherall named on a plaque inside the inspector’s office – who was this man? As to the signage at Stand A11! The signwriters needed a second attempt to detail Falcon’s work on Route 461 but at the second attempt a “1” is missing from the signage facing the bus parking area. I know two Route 46s: the TfL one and the one which takes me to football at Charterhouse School from Guildford. In my opinion there are still grammatical errors in the description of Falcon Route 461 at Stand A11!!!!! At the first attempt, mention of Hallmark was made: Hallmark surrendering its journeys to Falcon years ago.
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The above description of Falcon Route 461 on the TfL website is a complete mess, when relating to Stand A11 at the new Cromwell Road Bus Station. No mention is made of the Chertsey journeys on Sundays.
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Unfortunately Tfl seem to have no interest in ensuring other operators services are correctly described. Heathrow airport is an absolute mess of out of date, incomplete & inaccurate information. At least it’s not likely anyone unfamiliar with the network will be traveling from there!
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24 Articulated Hydrogen Bendibuses have finally be ordered today by West Midlands Combined Authority for operation on the SWIFT Network in Birmingham & The Black Country with funding from Department of Transport
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The Overground for me will always be the East London Line, North London Line, Watford Line, the Goblin and the Lea Valley. So although differentiation within the Overground brand is worthwhile I think it’s gone a bit counterintuitive.
MikeC
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