Tube changes

Tube changes
Originally uploaded by MackenzieBlu

Here's one of my maps that I recently did showing two of the changes to the Tube network that in official plans. The Bakerloo re-extension back to Watford junction and the Circle Line being turned into a "T-cup" services, Basically it runs from hammersmith to Edgware Road via Wood Lane, Paddington, King's Cross, Victoria and the back to Edgware Road agin. This has a few issues including no direct train from the west side of the Circle to stations east of Edgware Road (I.E. Baker Street) But it will help keep the Circle Line more robust in times of service problems as well as doubling the frequency of the Hammersmith branch. Oh and if your wondering why the map looks so weird its because its the Tube network not the TfL transport network (what is currently on the Tube map).

Wood Lane (Hammersmith & City)

Wood Lane (Hammersmith & City)
Originally uploaded by MackenzieBlu

Here's a picture of the new Wood Lane station thats due to be open later this year as part of the White City development. Just 200m away from White City station on the Central line. The idea is this will be the main SSL station access to the development. The line is expected to be doubled in terms of trains by adding the Circle line to the route to Hammersmith (, although it seems this might not happen now). Its also rumored that this station will see the S stock shortly as early as next year. Time will tell but its always good to see more development on the Tube.

Metronet News

It's been announced today that as of tuesday 27th May 2008 Metronet will officially be out of administration and be put into the hands of two new companies under TfL control. This is a positive move after last years events and will hopefully see the Tube upgrade progress ahead with out further delay which all Londoners want. Just so we know the two company names of the new TfL Tube maintenance are LUL Nominee BCV Limited and LUL Nominee SSL Limited, they will be still trading as Metronet Rail BCV and Metronet Rail SSL

For press release see

Metronet Rail 

TfL

T5, what a mistake.

DSCF4233
Originally uploaded by MackenzieBlu

Well here is one of my two T5 images that I managed to take. What I can't believe is the level of security surrounding the station. During me taking this picture I was spotted by security and screamed at to not take pictures. Now as a brand new terminal that they plastered all across the papers this level of what my friend (an LU employee) called a "Nazi state". here isn't any sign either to say don't take pictures. I was going to take a look around T5 and take some pictures but after that neither of us where in the mood to stay.

Keeping going BA/BAA, shot your self's in your respective feet again and lose any help in the future. Idiots.

DLR Stratford International

And so it begins. Work has physically started on the DLR extension to Stratford International this week. there has been some work in recent weeks including putting turnstiles into the fence between the track and pavement/road. this is for worker access.

The extension from Canning Town to Stratford International is going to be the mass transit system nearest to the Olympics in 2012 as well as serving the international station there. In true DLR style most of the route is using old trackbed, this time part of the North London Line, which in turn shut once the City Airport DLR extension opened a few years ago. From the mega junction south of Canning Town trains from both Woolwich Arsenal and Beckton (and in 2017 Dagenham Dock) which branch off into different platforms at Canning Town. 

Canning Town will be an interchange point for the DLR, but unlike other DLR station, passengers from the Bank/Tower Gateway direction will require some time as you have to go down to the Jubilee Line platform level, down to basement/ticket office level, walk around and then go back up to the Stratford International platforms. I can see this creating alot of problems especially for tourists (ie from City Airport or even changing from the Jubilee Line as DLR will be both upstairs and downstairs).

Im curious what they are going to do at West Ham as there isn't much space to put the lift in as the station end of the platform (which are narrow to start with) go straight into steps to the bridge over the road (I think this might be the only part of the JLE that isn't wheelchair friendly). Time will tell. 

Around Star Lane station the road is already closed and they have begun to take apart the road barriers. This is because they are actually moving the road at this point to provide space for the DLR platforms. They had the toilets there by thursday so it seems this is going to be a major point for the workforce. I hope to get some pictures soon. 

So the extension is due for opening some point in 2010, once open the whole DLR system will spend about two years without a single change. Hopefully all the new train will also be running by this point. Then once the Olympics are over is back to building new bit for the DLR starting with Dagenham Dock. 

DLR - Western Leg

I occurred to me that the western leg of the DLR (that's Bank/Tower Gateway to Poplar) is going to be crippled this summer. Lets start with Shadwell which lost its East London Line connection and now has replacement bus services, hardly great for mass numbers. Next is Tower Gateway which closes shortly for a year, so they lose connection to Circle and District lines. Now we find that Bank/Monument is also being no interchange till august. So basically west from Limehouse the ONLY interchange the DLR has is with the Northern at Bank officially. Cue a summer of chaos on the DLR. 

B.2007 Stock

As I've been going past Beckton depot alot lately I can say there is now 4 units of the new B.2007 DLR stock. 

Sorry for the short post but its been a busy week for me!

Jubilee Line......

Well seems the Jubilee had a really bad day. In the same week the Wharf published a front page story on how last week was the worst week on the Jubilee since the JLE opened back in 1999. Now it seems this week really has got worse with a complete rush hour closure of the line.

From what I can tell there was a power failure at Neasden control tower which killed the radio over the entire line (explaining the two different reasons given for the shut down). as I type this at 23:45 the line still isn't working between Finchley Road and Stratford. Ie the busy tunnel section. Not good when this happened somewhere before 6pm. 

I myself managed to get caught up in all this when coming from Beckton to Stratford this evening. The DLR staff where on the ball announcing it quickly on the trains. So I had a trek to Poplar tonight and then had to fight to get onto a DLR to Stratford which was packed the whole way. Lets only hope tomorrow goes better for the line!

Jinx

Yes this is a long post but I've wanted to blog about this for weeks but fear of jinxing myself meant that I wouldn't do it just incase. Now Ive done this stage I feel that it is time to blog it.

Well it happened so I can finally talk about my Jinx. Its abit plain and boring once you actually find out what it is but hey every little bit helps. Basically awhile back I applied to be a Tube Train Driver or Train Op as they call it. I got the phone interview on the 3rd March. I did stressed abit as I was told that the interview should last for 20-25mins. The total length was less than 12mins. Thinking Id blown it I waited and waited to hear back. In the end I had to ring them up for the details. They sent the email out within a few hours and it was good news, I passed. Now I had to choose an "assestment" date. This is basically a 2.5hrs in Ashfield House in West London sitting down doing tests. So I arranged my assestment and started looking at the guidance and practice materials. Even when I was away on my residental I took the practice stuff and read through them a few times at night to help me get the hang of it. Not that I really needed to as I got the general idea straight away when I got them. Having a mate print them off for me and then handing em over to me on the Tube, then watching me do them without alot of stress showed that. The saturday before my assestment I got a call which I missed from an unknown number. Turns out (I found out the sunday) that they had rung me up to comfirm I was attending and that I had all the paperwork as I was told I couldn't sit it without the paperwork. As I was in the process of moving I couldn't find my birth cerificate so I had to cancel the day before my assetment. Cue a mad rush to try and get a new birth certificate before I can re-book my assestment. Turns out I had it all along so book a new date and keep reading my materials.

The day finally arrived for my assestment. Didn't get much sleep before hand combined with a late night and early get up meant I had about 3hrs restless sleep. I also had to wear a shirt and tie for the first time since jan 2005 and I hate ties, especially when I have to do the top button up! Cue me at Stratford station at 7am, 90mins before Im due there. Luckly one of my housemates works in Hammersmith so I dont make the journey on my own. The whole time we're chatting about stuff and how I feeling. Then we arrive at West Kensington and I get off and feel very panicky. Got some water and walked down to the start of the road leading up, its only 8.05am. Damm. So after killing 10mins and likely looking very dodgy, I set off to the building. Now for those of you that have seen "The Tube", Ashfield House is where they did the track walking stuff (and actually people were going for one as I left!). I went in the building and waiting for security to give me a pass. The werid thing is that they take a picture and print your guest pass out with your nice pretty picture on it. I have got a picture but Im not going to show it as I don't wanta annoy TfL, especially at this point. So I get my pass and am told to go to the 7th floor. Now this is where I made a boo boo. I got in the lift with one of the guys who was doing the assestments and actually asked how you put the passes on. yes I know now how stupid that was but I was trying to move the wrong part. Maybe I was nervous but boy did I look and feel stupid when he barely touched it and open it. (That point I really felt stressed and out of my depth.) So once on the 7th floor I get to the room and get about 12 people looking at me as I enter and sit down. I also realise that I must be at least 10yrs younger than everyone else. In the end we are called for to produce our evidence by a really nice lady, sorry I didnt catch your name (too nervous) but thank you as you made me relax abit and got me smiling. As we were doing this a large group of people entered and filled the place up. I realised then that there must have been 40 of us doing this assestment in one go. Now seeing as they run 3 time slots thats maybe 120 people a day for 3-4 weeks. Thats maybe 800 people in a month, maybe more or less. Thats a hell of alot of people! Then the ones who had done there paperwork were called into a room for our test to start, 21 of us. Me still being the youngest. We were talking to a room that can only remind me of my G.C.S.E.'s. A small desk, chair, two pencils, one brio (red) and a rubber. This was now going to be home for the next two hours. Shit. I hate exams.

The exams are spilt up into three groups. The first is reading and understanding infomation from passages. Second is problem solving/fault finding. Then its a repeat of the first again but long and more complex. The last part of the exam is what they call SCAAT testing and is bloody hard! For anyone whose never do SCAAT, its basically a page of smallest shapes and you have to look for shapes in it. It does get more complex but its all about time as you aren't giving long before you have to change. Now I haven't gone into detail on this part as people are still being testing and Im only talking about the same stuff as my pack that I was sent as meantion above.

After the exam we are let out and I breath a sigh of relief as it wasn't easy and Ive had to push myself during the whole thing. I also got put off by one of the practice questions in the 3rd part and struggled to work through the rest of the test. I finally got through and completed the round shortly before time was up. On the whole it was a stressful experience but I feel I did well with it, now Ive jinxed myself! We were told at the end that normally we'd heard back in 5 days due due to numbers we likely have to wait two weeks before hearing anything but afther this point we should ring up to check whats going on. That means that by the 9th of April I should have heard something. The clocks started ticking again! But Im living in hope!

DLR Closures

Well I have recently come across some closure information for the DLR. Basically theres alot of work being done over the next few years to provide 3 car trains as well as too extensions and some capatity works. In 2007 there were 2 weekend closures, this year there is 24 and a futher 16 in 2009. There is also some major station closures -

Tower Gateway closed June 2008 until Aprill 2009.

Bank closed Christmas 2009- Christmas 2010.

The Tower Gateway closure is more a pain for the DLR users but closing Bank station for an entire year is going to cause chaos. The DLR will lose its major interchange station with the Tube network. I can only hope that the newly rebuilt Gateway station can cope with the extra pressure on it, but the Jubilee will be alot busier as a result.

We should also hear from the DLR over Dagenham Dock extension as the TWA act to start is due to be placed this month. Hopefully I can follow this up soon. Just to remind of the time scale this extension is due to open late 2017.

Stations getting a rebuild include Poplar, Limehouse, West India Quays and South Quays. Tho the latter two are for the 3 car project.

Oh the DLR will be creating its own Platform for Art program.