Sustrans needs your vote for £50M to be spent on walking and cycling

Sustrans' Connect2 project www.sustransconnect2.org.uk needs your vote at www.thepeoples50million.org.uk
to get money to spend on the project from the lottery. The People's £50 million projects will be shown on ITV1 and telephone voting will be open from Friday 7 - Monday 10 December.

National Rail and London Overground

The London Overground (LO) is a National Rail Line but is not under the National Rail branding. TfL's journey planner has accommodated the new name, as has National Rail's, but National Rail hasn't yet published an ATOC London Connections Map with this and the other changes. They're also going to have to update the Oyster PAYG in National Rail map - a copy of which (it's not a link) is published on TfL's website. I'm sure the mappers at FWT are on the case.

TfL disappoints with maps for the London Overground

Silverlink Metro had London Connections maps displayed in the trains. Admittedly they were dated back in 2001, but it was something. Ready for Sunday's takeover, TfL have put in their own maps. They're attractive and good for establishing the London Overground brand, but there's no sign of a "London Connections map" - neither the TfL version nor the ATOC version.

The map showing the London Overground network is attractive, as I say, but there's no way this is a network. It's too small and there aren't through trains through several of its nodes. No-one would use it exclusively for a rail journey where other rail routes were quicker or cheaper; it doesn't make any sense out of the context of the other rail lines and can't be used for any realistic journey planning.

A line diagram like the ones on the Underground (above train windows) would make sense, but we know, say, that a B&GO train will never go to Richmond, or Watford (at least not on a passenger service). Showing a diagram of those parts of the "network" on trains that never do on it is rather odd. It wouldn't matter if there were plenty of space, but there isn't and a London Connections map (preferably the ATOC type) should be a priority.

London Overground

The new ticket machine at Harringay Green Lanes (and I presume others on the B&GO) now has its new London Overground home screen, Oyster ticketing options and Oyster card reader/writer. The Oystercard validator on the Barking bound platform was on, looking like it would work normally (not tested).

Royal Mail redelivery

No show from the Royal Mail at "Loughton PDO". A search for "Loughton PDO" on Royal Mail's website finds nothing, and I can't find an entry in the online BT phone book. So to Google, where I find the phone number buried away - (020) 8508 2682.