Station Master App

New Entrance at Shepherd’s Bush

28th April 2015

Shepherd’s Bush Overground station got a new entrance this week – opening quietly at the weekend on Sunday afternoon, up at the northern end of the station. The platforms have been extended to to allow for longer Southern trains to stop – the Overground too is benefiting from having 5 car trains instead of 4 now.

New entrance

It was very quiet when we popped down with just one person entering in the 15 minutes that we watched – and no one coming out, all the passengers on the train that arrived seemingly oblivious to the new way out of the station.

Northern End – You can see where platforms have been extended

There are 8 barrier gates – more than the main ticket office has, and once development of Westfield happens at this end, or people just realise that that this entrance is here, we daresay it will be used more and hopefully ease some the the overcrowding you always get when many people get off the train at once, and you have to wait patiently to get through the ticker barriers.

View from new footbridge

We’ve updated the 3D map for the App already of course – and counted all the steps! – and it’ll be in the next update of the App.

New exit

This post categorised under: Infrastructure / Overground
—

In cahoots

27th April 2015

Cahoots

We spotted a little fake-station-sticker fun and games on the Bakerloo Line at the weekend!

1940’s themed bar (with heavy overtones of the London Underground) Cahoots must surely be responsible for sticking these up next to the tick for Oxford Circus station – the nearest tube to cahoots.

From their website – ‘Cahoots aims to transport guests back to the war period with themed decor, a ticket booth upon your entrance, and vintage tube seating created by using old underground carriage fabrics’.

Sounds like a good place to have my birthday party this year …

This post categorised under: Fun
—

Tube Status at a Glance on Apple Watch

24th April 2015

Your Apple Watch has finally arrived! Oh, you’re still waiting too?

But when it does finally land on your wrist, you’ll be wanting something to tell you the state of the Tube at a glance won’t you!

Well, we have just the thing! Visual Tube Status for Apple Watch!

The Apple Watch is all about (we believe) short (~5 second) interactions, called “Glances”. Swipe up from the watch face and you can see a single screen of information at a glance. We spent a long time thinking about how to quickly convey which lines were having problems and think we found the answer, with this target-cum-roundel-style graphic…

The Tube was obviously having a very bad day when we took this screenshot, but it shows the colours of the lines that were having problems. In fact it was early on Sunday 19th April 2015 – the Central, Northern and Overground lines were on weekend closure for maintenance, the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines were having Severe Delays and the Waterloo & City line was closed as usual.

But whatever’s going on, Visual Tube generates the image to show you the state of all the lines at the time you glance at it, so you’ll quickly know if there’s something you need to take into account on your commute.

Want to know more details? Tap the Glance on Apple Watch, and you’ll be taken to the lines view where you can see a more detailed list of the lines with the problem lines at the top. Tap a line that’s not showing “Good Service” to see all the details. This was Tuesday morning when the Central line had a derailment of an engineers’ train. (The Glance showed just a red symbol).

And on the (rare in the last couple of weeks) occasions when there is a “Good Service” you’ll be able to see the green tick.

Head on over to the Watch App Store in the Apple Watch App on your iPhone to get hold of Visual Tube for Apple Watch (tap the search icon and search for “Visual Tube”).

(Visual Tube works on the iPhone and iPad too, but today’s all about the Apple Watch so we’ll tell you about those features another time!)

This post categorised under: App update / Broken Tube
—

Secrets of …

21st April 2015

… the Overground, the next video in the ‘Secrets’ series produced for Londonist by Station Master is now in full swing, production wise. Here is a screenshot from the animated map giving an overview of the the current Overground network.

Expect the finished video to be completed by the end of April!

This post categorised under: Overground
—

Queensway Reversal

19th April 2015

With engineering works taking place between North Acton and Queensway on the Central line this weekend, there were obviously no trains running through that section. Station Master found itself caught up in the going-ons of it all, and noticed a few interesting things.

Firstly, not all trains going west were terminating at Queensway as you might expect. Instead it seemed that two out of every three trains were terminating at Marble Arch instead, and then every third service going onto Queensway. This is due to there being a reversing siding to the west of March Arch, meaning one train can be turning around whilst another is in the platform.

Central Line reversing points

But at Queensway, there is merely a crossover just before the station (when heading west) leaving just a single platform to reverse trains. This meant that we got to ride the crossover and be on a westbound train that pulled into the eastbound platform.

Queensway is a station with stairs and lifts – except, oops – only one of the lifts was in operation (probably another reason to reverse the majority of trains at Marble Arch instead) meaning a LOT of people backed up on the platform trying to get out of the station.

Queensway Crush

At Covent Garden where there are 194 steps, they actively discourage you to use the stairs. At Queensway (where the sign says there are 123 steps, but actually there are 126), they were actively encouraging you to walk up, rather than wait for and use the one solitary lift that was in operation.

This post categorised under: Engineering
—

New Overground 3D Maps

17th April 2015

With the prospect of new Overground stations being added to the official Tube map next month, it kicked us into gear a little when we realised that we still hadn’t finished and published all the 3D maps for the existing Overground stations on the network. Hence, these last few days we’ve been busy designing them and will add them to the next release of Station Master – here Sydenham and its non-facing staggered platforms are clear to see!

Sydenham Station 3D Map

Quite what we’ll do when the NEW Overground lines get added to the map is not clear. Will we add this info to Station Master or not? The jury is currently out and we’ll have to decide what to do …

This post categorised under: 3D Maps / App update
—

Inside Charing Cross and Clapham South

14th April 2015

The London Transport Museum today announced that they are, for the first time ever, selling tickets for tours of the old abandoned Charing Cross station that was on the Jubilee Line, and to the tunnels at Clapham South – one of eight deep level tunnels that were built to be turned into a second ‘express’ Northern Line, which then never happened.

It runs on various dates throughout the summer – June and July (Charing Cross) and October (Clapham South) and tickets are quite pricey at £25 and £30, but we can easily see them being snapped up and rapidly selling out!

Charing Cross is here on the website, and Clapham South is here. But tickets don’t go on sale until this Friday – the 17th of April.

Charing Cross

This post categorised under: Disused Stations / London Transport Museum / Secret trains
—

Walk The Tube 2015

9th April 2015

Ok, so after the success of last years event, we are yet again doing Walk The Tube tomorrow – Friday April 10th, with 26 people going round the whole network of 270 tube stations in one day for people’s respective charities.

Keep an eye out on Twitter for the hashtag #WalkTheTube which we’ll be using extensively throughout the day, along with Audioboo and Periscope live updates from Station Master Geoff …

This post categorised under: Fun
—

Victorian One Way

7th April 2015

As the Victoria Station Upgrade works continue, the existing ticket hall still struggles to cope with the number of people coming through it – especially in the morning peak. It’s now a regular sight to see members of staff at the top of the stairs guiding people into a one-way system that they have set up – which looks semi permanent and makes sure that it segregates people coming IN and OUT of the main gateline at Victoria.

Only three more years until the upgrade is complete …

One way Victoria

This post categorised under: Upgrades
—

Zone 1 Fares

5th April 2015

Shoreditch High Street is is in Zone 1

We saw this poster at Rotherhithe Overground station the other day, and it’s always good to be reminded of what a complete lie it is.

“Please remember that fares are charged for all the zones you travel through” it says. Which is NOT the case if you get the Overground between Clapham Junction and Highbury & Islington.

Yes – you may come through Shoreditch High Street station which is in Zone 1, but as we clarified with TfL, as they don’t know which way round the Overground ‘circle’ you travelled, they have to assume that you went via Willesden Junction – which keeps you all in Zone 2, and so you pay the lower fare.

Just something worth remembering … !

This post categorised under: Fares / Oyster
—

Recent Posts

Archives