Station Master App

Station Master 1.7.1 released

3rd January 2014

iOS 7 icon

We released the new iOS 7 version of Station Master on the last day before the App Store shut down for its Christmas break, which means it’s taken us until now to put through a small revision to fix a couple of minor issues.

During the time we’ve added another and updated a couple more maps again, so that’s now 84% of tube stations mapped out in 3D.

Either way, make sure you download the update today to get the latest version, or if you’ve not bought it at all yet, head over to the App Store and buy it now!

We’ve also been experimenting with the design on the 3D Map ‘Info Box’ which each one has – by incorporating the tile design that that station has into the background box … here’s the one for Belsize Park for example.

This post categorised under: 3D Maps / App update
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Piccadilly to Ealing Broadway … permanently?

2nd January 2014

Piccadilly Line to Ealing Broadway

A thought that’s been discussed before but one worth mentioning again here on the blog is what happens when the S7 stock trains are rolled out onto the District Line.

Let’s look at a couple of things that have been in previous posts here on this blog. We know that 1973 stock Piccadilly trains can run to Ealing Broadway ok, and we know that S7 District trains are running in and out of Olympia in a regular hourly service.

So what happens when all the D-Stock trains are replaced? When the current District trains are all replaced by S-Stock (by 2015) it raises up an interesting thought – why not swap round the western end of the District and Piccadilly Lines.

The Piccadilly could then concentrate on going to Heathrow, with a smaller ‘spur’ off to Ealing Broadway. If there’s any disruption in service, Ealing Broadway could almost be considered an reversing siding for Picc trains to turn and come back again.

The District – using S-Stock – would then go on up to Rayners Lane and Uxbridge meaning that the same style stock would be used on the stretch of the line – rather than mixed height (as we have at the moment), meaning that it would be so much easier to make that stretch of the tube map have step-free from platform to the train, with just one type of train.

But running a District service from Upminster to Uxbridge is a loooong way, which is where Olympia comes into play. You could have a District Line service that runs from Uxbridge to High Street Kensington, and an Upminster service that runs into Olympia, thus replacing the odd ‘shuttle’ that used to/still does take place between these two stations.

You might therefore see the District Line completely changing its service patterns to look like this:

Uxbridge to High Street Kensington
Wimbledon to Upminster
Wimbledon to Edgware Road
Uxbridge to Mansion House
Richmond to Upminster
Olympia to Plaistow

This post categorised under: Future services / Map / Tube
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Piccadilly to Ealing Broadway

1st January 2014

With some large scale maintenance work taking place on the District tracks between the 27th and 30th December, there were no District services for a few days west of South Kensington. Edgware Road, Wimbledon, Richmond and Ealing Broadway were all without service … almost.

The regular rail replacment bus services ran, but an extra fun thing happened out west .. where at Ealing Broadway, some Piccadilly Line trains were diverted to run in and out of Ealing Broadway instead, meaning the rare chance to see a 1973 stock train where you wouldn’t normally.

Normal Piccadilly services ran too, but the trains coming out of Ealing Broadway then additionally made the stops that District trains would, meaning that trains also irregularly stopped at Chiswick Park, Stamford Brook and Ravenscourt Park too. A sign up gave departure times as being 00, 18, 29 and 48 minutes past the hour, but the train we got in left 3 minutes early at a quarter-past, just as we were about to snap a few more photos.

At South Kensington, confusion reigned a little as the platform that normally serves westbound trains only, saw District Line train arrive .. and then reverse heading out eastbound instead.

This was of course a little confusing for passengers waiting on the regular eastbound platform … where no trains were running at all. A frustrated member of platform staff stood on the westbound side announcing into a PA that no trains would be leaving from the regular eastbound side … but almost everyone ignored her. Made we wonder why they didn’t just have that person stand over the regular eastbound platform, actually talking and telling people instead.

This post categorised under: Secret trains / Tube
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Bonus Olympia Trains

31st December 2013

S7 at Olympia

So with TfL/LU trying to run down Olympia by stealth, by hardly running any regular trains to it, and making it very confusing to passengers and even train operators when the service is running, it’s intriguing to see some bonus services running there.

Normally there are just 9 trains to/from Olympia, a few services before 7am in the morning, and then two trains in the evening that arrive and then depart.

Until that is, the new S7 stock turned up, and now it seems that Olympia is being used as the turning point for two trains (making regular trips throughout the day) for driver training purposes.

So if you want to get a rare service into Olympia, and on the new S Stock trains as a bonus, the times are (Monday to Fridays only) as follows:

Westbound from Earl’s Court to Olympia at:
11:00, 12:00, 13:00, 14:00, 15:00, 16:00, 19:37, 21:00, 21:33, 22:59

All trains leave from Platform 3, having come from either Plaistow or Barking, and are scheduled to arrive at Olympia three minutes later. They then wait a few minutes and leave as follows:

Eastbound from Olympia to either Plaistow or Barking at:
10:21, 11:12, 12:21, 13:12, 14:21, 15:21, 19:12, 19:49, 21:21, 21:52

S7 at Olympia

This post categorised under: Secret trains / Tube
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Olympia Map

30th December 2013

As Olympia has had quite a re-vamp with the gateline and the new segregated footbridge, we’ve updated the 3D Station Map for the station which now reflects all of this. It will be included in the next version (1.7.1) of Station Master which we submitted to Apple today.

Here’s a sneak preview of what the new Olympia map looks like – Click on the image below for a larger/full size version.

3D Kensington (Olympia) Map

Whilst we were there, we spotted some irregular train service patterns too, but more on that in tomorrow’s post…

This post categorised under: 3D Maps / Overground / Tube
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Olympia access

29th December 2013

New steps at Olympia

Station Master paid a visit to Kensington (Olympia) the other day which we’ve been meaning to for ages since it’s had a facelift, so we’ll have a few posts over the next few days about the station.

The big news from Olympia is that it’s now got a gateline on both exit/entrances! No more ‘we trust you’ touch in oyster pads, but proper gates to control access to the station.

But because people used to use the station as a means of just crossing the line (and not getting on a train), TfL have built a new staircase, and segregated the footbridge over, meaning that if you’re not wanting to jump on a train, you can still ‘access’ the station just to get from one side to the other.

Olympia Footbridge

This post categorised under: Accessibility
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New Edgware Road Lifts

28th December 2013

Inside Edgware Road Lift

Edgware Road on the Bakerloo Line has been closed for the majority of the year having its lifts refurbished, and with little fanfare the station re-opened on Saturday 21st December.

There are two new modern lifts installed which are clean, fast, and almost noise-less! They’re set to last for at least forty years.

Edgware Road Lifts

This post categorised under: Accessibility / Lifts
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Next train indicators on the Piccadilly

27th December 2013

This appears to be new … for many months (going into years now), there have been ‘Next train’ Dot Matrix Indicators on the Piccadilly Line up to Rayners Lane, but since the day they were installed they have either never been activated, or just never worked.

(The situation at Ealing Common remains the same – on the eastbound platform, you can hear and then see the train pulling into the station before it even flashes up on the board, and on the westbound platform it often gets out of sync so a District train pulls in and says it’s going to Rayners Lane…)

Until recently, we spotted that the ones at North Ealing are now working! And travelling up the line a little it appears the ones at Park Royal and Alperton are now also in use, but at Sudbury Town and and Hill they are not – still, having them now working at three stations is better than having them not work at all, and maybe it’s a sign that the others will be activated shortly …

North Ealing Dot Matrix Indicator

This post categorised under: Good Service / Tube
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New step free access at Paddington

24th December 2013

Hammersmith Lift

TfLAccess tweeted yesterday that the new lift at Paddington station (H&C branch) had opened early, so we popped down to go and see where it was.

The lift that takes you down from the canal entrance to ticket hall level has been open for a while, but this is the lift that takes you down to platfom level, and is at the western end of the platform.

Whilst there, we also noticed that all the temporary ‘quick ticket’ ticket machines have now been replaced with more regular/permanent ticketing machines.

Hammersmith Lift SIgn

This lift adds an important step-free station in the north west area of Zone 1 which is otherwise devoid, and with Paddington H&C now being almost totally serviced by S-Stock trains, means that level boarding is now possible too. It therefore should be a blue blob on the tube map, but the latest edition (showing no interchange at Embankment with the Northern and Bakerloo there) does not show it yet.

This post categorised under: Accessibility / Lifts / Map
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Secrets of the H&C Line …

23rd December 2013

Station Master Geoff has been out making videos for Londonist again, and brings us his seventh (out of the eleven lines) instalment of the ‘Secrets of … ‘ tube videos.

This post categorised under: Tube / Video
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