Septuagenarian's Silly Signal Box
At the moment it is, indeed, a right mess! But it should look better with some retouching, some mortar between the stonework and a few applique details.
Peterville Quarry Railway's house colours are blue and white ; but there may be too much white. fbb will see after the mortar courses treatment.
London's Bus Services : A Right Mess
Once upon a time you could obtain, free of charge, a London bus network map. They are still available, still a really useful overview, and in the hands of enthusiast Mike Harris.
Even if you never travel by bus in London, this map offers hours of fabulous fun.
It is a paeon of cartographic pulchritude! Excellent value - buy on-line and download to your device OR buy a paper copy from Mr Harris or at the London Transport Museum.
For more detail you used to be able to obtain four so-called quadrant maps from LT enquiry offices.
But, according to TfL, no one wants them any more! Snort of derision.
However, if you are lucky (and it's a big "if") you might be able to have a spider map on-line.
There is a spider map for London Bridge. so it was easy for fbb yo find buses between there and Kings Cross/St Pancras.
Remember that, according to the National Rail journey planner, you could travel by Underground for £6.70 or by Thameslink for £3.70, choosing which ever journey suited you on London's integrated system.
The spider map tells fbb that there is a through bus!
Once upon a time the spider maps had a detailed enlargement of complex areas, i.e. London Bridge Station itself, which is just off the map extract bottom right.
But at London Bridge, what stops where is a closely guarded secret. The guide to the lettered stops no longer appears.
Of course in many towns way back you could take out your timetable book, OR open up your service 17 printed leaflet. Even today you can go on line and download a timetable.
But not in London. TfL offers a straight line diagram of the route ...
... or a geographical computer driven version ...
But TfL seems to think everyone will have the skill; and commitment to use their journey planner.
... plus a list of departures - but no timetables.
So let's do just that.
Journey Planner : A Right Mess
Make sure you guess the right locations to enter fbb!
And remember those instant cycle rides!
But don't forget he walking option.
Hmmm : that extra one minute puts fbb off straight away!
There are plenty of options using the Northern Line (expensive if you are stupid enough to pay money!) ...
Does fbb just wander round London Bridge Station for ten minutes before going to the platform?
And there is a six minute wander at Kings Cross St Pancras Underground station to get to Kings Cross St Pancras Underground station.
Why the clutter?
Surely most people with a brain will understand that they may take a little longer that just the train ride. But an extra 16 minutes?
Crackpot!
Worse; you don't even know which bits of the stations you might wander from or to.
THERE IS NO MENTION OF THAMESLINK!
INTEGRATION AGAIN.
There is a good selection of other options:-
bus and Underground journeys ...
... two-bus journeys ...
... and even THREE-bus journeys!
But there is absolutely NO MENTION of the one-bus journey using service 17.
Maybe there is some dark and impenetrable secret about the 17 timetable that makes it anathema to TfL's journey planner.
But you would never know as TfL will not make a timetable available for you.
Enthusiast and jolly good egg Robert Munster will.
Every ten minutes Monday to Saturday and ...
... every 15 on a Sunday.
fbb cannot fathom why the only one-bus route from London Bridge to Kings Cross does not feature in the Journey Planner. One possible reason is that it serves the very eastern edge of Kings Cross and is less than ideal for onwards interchange.
Despite this, fbb avers that most folk would be happier with one through bus, rather than changing at some mystifying road junction in between the two.
Tomorrow we conclude this thumbnail review of the London integrated system as admired by Andy Burnham and we look at the beginnings (and they are only trivial beginnings) of the promised improvements in Manchester.
Nope : Still Doesn't Look "Right"!
Too much light colour as hinted earlier. fbb will see how it looks with mortar added.
Andy's Manchester Integration : Friday 6th Oct
Preferences: All journey planners have a menu where you can select your preferences. They default to: travel now, fastest journey by any mode with un-limited changes including 15(?) mins walking at normal speed.
ReplyDeleteIf you select edit preferences and select bus only and fewest changes, then the TfL journey planner for London Bridge to Kings Cross, gives you get only the 17 bus as expected.
For that journey then approximately, cycling is 18 mins, train 27 mins (+50%), bus 17, 36 mins (+100%). So use your bike, if time matters.
Journey planners are not intended for armchair study, but for real and specific journeys. If a tourist comes out of a venue they can ask it to tell them how to get back to their hotel from where they are standing. They don't need a transport map, a street map, a knowledge of local geography, a pile of timetables, paper, pencil, desk, etc. and travel news to know what is temporarily closed. The journey planner tells them what to do now.
I don't know when you perused the journey planner. But if it was yesterday then it's no surprise that Thameslink wasn't mentioned - there were no trains due to the strike!
ReplyDelete