Seen Around

Thursday 30th January 2025

Another month end; another round up of things I’ve ‘seen around’ but not blogged about.

STP takes over KGX

First up this month is my journey from London to Newcastle last Saturday which coincided with the closure of Kings Cross and the East Coast Main Line between London and Peterborough to enable the new digital signalling system to be tried out as well as an opportunity for more track, drainage and overhead line improvements. The same closure arrangements are in place this weekend and I would strongly advise any north east bound readers from London (and vice versa) to travel on anther date if possible.

East Midlands Railway staff, along with a huge army of agency staff and a few LNER staff ‘on loan’ were doing their best over at St Pancras to cope with the huge increase in passengers having to use the Midland Main Line as an alternative but with no extra trains provided and measly five coach Meridians plying their way up to Sheffield, trains were bursting at the seams with over crowded conditions on board.

A queuing system was in place at St Pancras which brought some semblance of order…

… but once the firing gun had gone off announcing the next Sheffield departure all hell broke lose, not least because for over two months EMR hasn’t had a functioning seat reservation system, so all its trains have been free seating meaning it’s the survival of the fittest when it comes to grabbing a seat on a busy train.

It was evident the gateline wasn’t coping very well with incoming passengers not least with tickets marked for LNER leading to lots of queries.

I know the trains were busy with passengers standing down the gangways but I would have thought a full ticket check could have been carried out on board, not least on EMR trains running non-stop from Leicester down to St Pancras giving ample time for the Train Manager to squeeze through.

The official alternative travel plan is for northbound passengers to take EMR’s half hourly Corby bound train as far as Bedford and then a replacement bus across to Peterborough and pick up LNER from there (and vice versa for southbound passengers). But the bus adds an hour and 48 minutes on to the journey and I found it as quick and less hassle to go via Sheffield and try my luck with a five coach Cross Country train on from there, although as readers will now realise I actually stopped off in Sheffield for some motorway service area bus riding and ended up continuing via Rotherham and Doncaster.

Lumo and Grand Central are running coach replacements between Kings Cross and Peterborough while Hull Trains are diverting two trains into St Pancras.

Doncaster’s platform signs don’t line up

Continuing my Newcastle bound journey with a change of trains in Doncaster I was impressed to see the continued improvement to LNER’s station signs indicating where to wait on the platform for the next train. I caught the 14:55 Cross Country train to York and noted coach B was unreserved and would stop in zone 7 (see above photo) but not only that, by zone 7 there was another electronic sign confirming that’s where coach B would stop. Fantastic.

Except when the train came in, the driver continued to the end of the platform and coach B ended up closer to Zone 10 and it was coach D which stopped in zone 7. What a waste of all that investment in electronics. All it does is annoy and frustrate passengers rather than help them.

However, more positively, I do like the electronic looking analogue clocks LNER have installed at its stations including Peterborough, also sporting a digital display which I guess is for those youngsters who don’t know what a clock face is.

It takes all kinds of people

When in Newcastle I spotted the North East Combined Authority’s promotional campaign to remind everyone “all kinds of people” take the bus “to all kinds of places” with bright colourful posters depicting colourful scenery and landmarks from around the area. Except it’s obviously important to also let pedestrians in Newcastle know that “DO NOT WALK ON THE ROAD” and, of course, a “WARNING CCTV cameras in operation”. You can’t be too careful when it comes to promoting bus travel.

Three cheers for Porth’s Interchange

Yes, it’s finally open. Porth’s much awaited Transport Hub is officially open today (Thursday) with the barriers taken down to allow passengers to explore the facility with the site coming into use on Sunday. It’s been a long wait as readers will recall from my blog last month. (Many thanks to Andrew for letting me know the good news.)

This green bus is a red bus

I recall a New Routemaster being on loan to First Bus in Leeds back in 2014 and am pretty certain it was the one I photographed (above) at Potters Bar earlier this month – LT2 – still in the green livery it wore for that trial. That’s over 10 years ago without a repaint! What a shame it’s not in the original London Transport Country Bus green (or even the London Country green) which would be appropriate for route 313 which the bus operates on being allocated to Arriva’s garage in Enfield.

A lesser spotted green Stagecoach livery

And talking green liveries, while in Canterbury the other day I saw a few buses sporting the ‘ocean green’ coloured version of Stagecoach’s updated livery introduced amid much fanfare in 2020. These were designed for “specialist services” such as Park and Ride and are very rare to spot. The justification for doing away with much respected and loved local liveries (such as the King’s city in Winchester) was research indicating such localism caused confusion among passengers. Like using Park & Ride liveries on local bus routes doesn’t?!

Barnet Hospital looks blank

I’ve noticed more and more TfL timetable cases have bland information in them these days rather than departure information for all the routes that may serve the stop, so perhaps this bus stop alongside Barnet Hospital is the latest trend to avoid providing even bland information?

Ashford’s interesting shrubbery

While passing through Ashford earlier this month my eye was caught by small frames and photographs planted in the pots containing shrubs on platforms 5/6. On closer examination they were part of a series depicting trains passing through the station. A nice touch.

Buses from Eastbourne station

I recall it took a huge effort to get real time signs showing bus departures introduced on the concourse at Brighton station back in the early 2000s when the Siemens system was first introduced at Brighton & Hove Buses. Thankfully, with improved technology, such signs are much more common place and I recently noticed the above helpful and clear sign at Eastbourne prominently displayed as you leave the station concourse. A diagram on the adjacent pillar showing where the stops are located would be the icing on the information provision cake.

Wait at the far end

I’ve reported on this before but it still annoys me, so here it is again…. alighting from a five coach LNER Azuma train at Grantham station and of course the driver takes the train right up to the far northern most end of the platform. As you can see it was a nice sunny day, but had it been raining all the waiting passengers would have got soaked waiting for the train as it completely passes the canopy. It really is time this was sorted out as even on a nice sunny day you can see how far passengers have to walk to reach the footbridge, and the exit from the station, especially if they’re in the front of the train.

Where’s the return?

Another LNER fare anomaly hit me the other day when I travelled from Hassocks to Bottesford (on the Grantham to Nottingham line served by EMR) to try out the new FoxConnect DRT in Leicestershire. The ticket office in Hassocks Station was closed, nothing unusual about that,…

… and the ticket machine by the London bound platform ticket gates was out of action.

Fortunately the ticket machine by the Brighton bound platform gates was working, but when I typed in Bottesford it would only offer me a single ticket or even a 7 Say Season or 7 Day Travelcard, whatever that would be.

As I wanted to buy a return ticket and wasn’t sure how much the price differential with a single would be, I decided there was no alternative but to board the train without a ticket having taking the above photographic evidence to show any Revenue Protection Officer I might encounter on route to St Pancras. While travelling up to London on the Thameslink train it occurred to me even though Bottesford isn’t served by LNER, nor even being located on the East Coast Main Line, it could be part of that company’s “trial” of doing away with return fares and only offering single tickets at half the price of the previously available return. Looking up the fare on the helpful brfares.com website confirmed there were no return prices available so realising that was the situation, I used my smartphone to buy a ticket using the Southern app only to find it would only sell me a ticket that had to be collected from the station.

The joys of rail ticketing. And the moral of the story is … passengers need to know what Train Company controls what fares to what station, even though that Train Company doesn’t run trains to it, and be aware of its current policies and “trials”.

That’s all clear then (not)

These seats to be found in the waiting room at Honiton station are for those with accessibility needs, including sight difficulties, so it might be an idea to make the explanatory display a bit more prominent. (Thanks to John for sending this to me.)

Has anyone got a vital part for two escalators at St Pancras

It’s not uncommon to find one of the seven escalators between the Thameslink platforms (A and B) and the main concourse at St Pancras station (via a landing) out of use these days but things have got worse this month two of the bank of three between the concourse and the landing have been out of action for at least 10 days.

While repairs are awaited it seems strange that it’s passengers climbing up who are inconvenienced and having to use the stairs rather than those coming down, although I appreciate this may be to do with the entry and exit arrangements at the gateline and there being no wish to swap those directions over during the temporary hiatus.

More space at Euston

Another retail unit has been removed at Euston to create more space for passengers to walk to and from the platforms (before, above – and after, below).

This time it’s the former Bookshop unit next to Oliver Bonas in the north east corner of the concourse. The space created provides more room for passengers to reach the toilets and platforms 1, 2 and 3. Good to see.

Cross Country’s outrageous rip off

I don’t buy many Advance tickets these days, preferring the flexibility offered by off-peak returns and super off-peak returns, but when I do, I still like the traditional method of picking up an orange printed ticket from a ticket machine by using the eight digit code provided when you complete an online booking. As the screen print from EMR below shows, “Collect your ticket at a station” appears after the eticket option.

Cross Country uses the same software as EMR and I was astounded to see it charges £1 for the privilege of passengers collecting a ticket from a ticket machine at a station. What an outrageous rip off which I understand has been its practice for many years.

It’s the last time I’ll be buying a ticket from Cross Country. I understand the justification for a charge is the company has to pay 40p to the train company that runs the station where the ticket machine is located whereas an eticket avoids that cost. Roll on Great British Railways when such ridiculous inter-company charging will be irrelevant (as it is even now with all revenue going to the Government).

Rail Sale bargain basement

I eagerly clicked on this month’s Rail Sale website to see what great bargains would be available for me to grab for travel over the next few weeks. As you can see from the screen print above I entered my local station – Hassocks – and rather than click no end of possible destinations to see if there was a bargain to be had, thought I’d go with the “*Inspire me” option. Wow, look what great destinations I could reach for just £3.50.

Among the delights on offer for just £3.50 were a whole raft of stations on the Mildmay and Windrush Overground lines and even Victoria which I hadn’t been to for at least a couple of days. Suitably inspired and deciding to pay a visit to Canada Water, I clicked on “Show Retailers” which took me to a long list of train companies (in fact, all of them) and a host of online retailers, some of which I’d never heard of as shown in the small extract of the first screen below – there were many more….

… including Southern itself, and as my proposed journey to Canada Water was under a Southern logo I clicked on that to be taken to the Southern website with no information about the Rail Sale.

I gave up.

Bakerloo Line fades away

The Bakerloo line is famed for running vintage trains which wouldn’t be out of place in the London Transport Museum and despite the urgent need for their replacement as they soon celebrate their 53rd anniversary, staff do their best to keep them serviceable, but one train I travelled on recently could usefully have its Tube maps replaced as they were looking somewhat faded.

I hear the Mayor is in need of some media coverage at the beginning of February so tomorrow morning will be launching new bus route BL1 to run limited stop (Superloop style) between Elephant & Castle and Lewisham making the point that’s what he’d like the Bakerloo line to do.

The route won’t actually begin until later in the year, and it’s rumoured the seat moquette on the buses will be as used on the Bakerloo line. Which will be a nice touch.

Maybe the line diagrams on stations and inside the trains should have the BL1’s bus stops added to really make the point.

DfT staff getting on a bus

I was interested to see in Reading Buses’ weekly staff bulletin earlier this month an item explaining how “a large delegation from the Department for Transport” visited the company “to see how we do it”. I’m sure they were impressed with what they saw and heard and I see it was reported “they were very impressed by the specification of our buses” which did make me think these civil servants advising politicians really do need to get out of London more often to see just how good things are in many towns and cities and realise “London style” buses are good, but others are even better.

Rotherham’s Interchange

My visit to Rotherham Interchange last Saturday was the first time I’d been there since its £12 million refurbishment in 2019 and I must say how greatly improved the facilities are for passengers including a customer services desk…

… smartcard dispensers and bus map displays…

… and each of the 24 stands has helpful information showing where to catch buses as well as departure times.

There was even a map showing rail and tram lines across the region.

Well done to SYT.

Integrated information continues in the Lakes

It’s great to see Northern Rail continues with its twice-a-year timetable booklet showing both its own train times and principal bus routes operated by Stagecoach throughout the Lake District. The latest edition from 15th December to 17th May is now out.

Avanti’s seat availability

I see Avanti West Coast’s new class 807 seven coach trains can now display the actual number of seats available in each coach – hopefully the technology can detect when a bag occupies a seat so the information is as helpful as it can be. It certainly saves wandering all through the train hoping it’ll be quieter further along.

Farewell to the number 118

And finally for this month it’s farewell to another London bus route number – this time the long standing 118 (Brixton to Morden) which runs in that form for the last time tomorrow (Friday) after 80-90 years.

From Saturday the 118 becomes a 45 by virtue of an extension of that latter route so instead of terminating at Clapham Park just west of Streatham, the 45 will instead head south from Streatham over the existing 118 to Morden. The small section of route between Streatham and Clapham Park will be covered by a diversion and short extension to route 59.

The downside for passengers between Brixton and Morden is having to get used to looking out for the number 45 instead of a 118 and TfL rather strangely (and somewhat alarmist) has posted notices saying the route is withdrawn rather than more accurately saying it’s being renumbered.

The upside for TfL is by chopping off the northern end of the 45 and changing it’s northern terminus from Elephant & Castle to Camberwell Green, it’ll save the cost of running six buses an hour over a 15 minute journey time which must mean an economy of at least three buses and getting on for 500 miles a day and associated driver time.

Oddly, with the 45 being withdrawn north of Camberwell Green, the bus stop poster advising about that on the affected bus stops doesn’t use the word “withdrawn”, but just advises buses on the route “will not stop here” leaving passengers to read the small print.

Passengers between Elephant & Castle and Camberwell Green won’t suffer unduly through the loss of the 45 though as they’ll still have around 47 buses an hour on routes 12, 35, 40, 68, 148, 171, 176 and 468 to choose from, with the usual encouragement from TfL to use the hopper fare if making a through journey that’s no longer possible.

More miscellany at the end of next month.

Roger French

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