A consultation is now open for proposals to the extension of the Bakerloo Line to head further into south east London, the BBC ran a story this morning.
Whilst there’s a nice graphic of the proposed stations, none of them were in ‘tube map’ style, so we put something together as to how it may look on the tube map.
New Bakerloo Map?
We love this! Except … for one small caveat. Following on from Race the Tube the other week where someone ran between Mansion House and Cannon Street station and made the same train, Anthony in this video in his wheelchair attempts the same thing – the obvious thing being that the stairs make it not possible for him to make the train. Watch the video …
Except that is shows him unable to get down the stairs at Cannon Street station, for some reason avoiding the fact that he wouldn’t have been able to get out of Mansion House station in the first place where there are 24 steps up from the platform to ticket hall area, and then 24 steps again to get from the ticket hall to street level.
We know the point it’s making, but it could have been made sooner! And much more accurate if it had shown him not being able to even get out of the starting station in the first place …
From today’s Guardian. One “tube” station you’ve never heard of before!
Union Street
Celebrating the fact that it’s been 20 years since the Epping to Ongar line closed at the end of the Central Line, a tube train returned to the rails today on this part of the network. Today and all weekend, a 3-car 1960 stock Craven set will travel back on the line as part of the Epping to Ongar “End of tube” special event.
We popped up today, and although we went to see the tube stock, it’s always nice to see Met 1 and bit of steam – here at North Weald, where they have installed classic LU roundels just for this special event – this signs will disappear at the end of Sunday! So go now for photo opportunities if you want one …
North Weald Steam
Did you miss this? It seems there is a consultation running on whether there should be a new Overground station as part of the redevelopment of Old Oak Common.
“A number of proposals are being developed in the Old Oak Common area which impact on local transport needs and strengthen the case for a new Overground Station in the area” – says the website, and basically they are asking local people whether they would like an new Overground station on this stretch of track or not.
You can read the full proposals and consultation on this website.
Old Oak Overground
A TfL press release today has confirmed the plans to start the new ‘Night Tube’ service next year on the 12th September.
TfL are being upbeat and optimistic about it, the RMT union has come back highlighting issues and problems which are yet to be resolved. The BBC reports on the story here.
Night tube
Jay Foreman’s all stations tube song is now somewhat legendary already, but yesterday we heard from a lovely chap, Joseph Moëd, who pointed us in the direction of a similar thing he’d done a year before, but featuring just the stations of Zone 1…
(Joseph has since moved to Toronto in Canada, where he’s made a similar video for their subway system there…)
Another video we stumbled just recently but from the past – a posh dinner party on board a tube train? Yeah … that’s been done as these people show from a few years back on board a Jubilee Line train.
A visit to the LT Museum Acton Depot last weekend is always an enjoyable thing and never a waste of time. We always make sure we head for the mezzanine at somepoint which has all the tube maps and signs, and gawp as we go back in time to how the transport network used to be. In particular this time, a pre-Beck map for 1926 had us comparing differences between what used to be, and how it is now…
1926 Map
Here’s where Clapham North was called “Clapham Road”, and what we know as Clapham South was almost called Nightingale Lane – but this never appeared in a printed tube map, just this poster. Green Park was of course Dover Street, but on this map labelled as “Dover Street (St. James)” which we had never seen before.
Another bit of 1926
in 1926 the Hounslow Barrack to South Acton service (and Acton Town to South Acton one-carriage shuttle) was in operation – look though also at the curve of track that goes just to the right of Turnham Green – an old non-tube railway that used to run. And the lovely curve of track (when the Central Line was blue) and Wood Lane was referred to as ‘Exhibition Station’ instead.
Last bit of 1926
And out east .. when Limehouse was called Stepney East, and you can also see plenty of remnants of the railway that existed in the Docklands area before the DLR came to be, including a station at Connaught Road – now the site for a major tunnel for Crossrail.
It’s amazing what a little Googling can do for you! After we dug out the old (15 years!) Evening Standard article from yesterday about the original ‘Beat the tube’ runners, it appears that that event is still taking place – and we think with maybe some of the same people?
The run from South Kensington to Fulham Broadway took place back in May of this year – and yes, the Evening Standard covered it!
