Saturday, 20 March 2010
Cycle parking removed at Vicarage Field?
Why have the cycle parking stands that used to be in Ripple Road not been replaced? It would perhaps have been fair enough to remove them while the East London Transit works were going on, but now only informal locking sites are available.
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
Cycle Friendly Local Shopping Parades?
Page 7 of council newspaper the news says that 5 shopping parades in the borough (Andrew's Corner, Broad St, Chadwell Heath, Martin's Corner and Reede Road) are being upgraded. The article mentions additional [car] parking, but not cycle parking or any other improvements to encourage cycling.
The funding is coming from TfL and B&D council, so should in theory help improve cycle accessibility. Watch this space.
The funding is coming from TfL and B&D council, so should in theory help improve cycle accessibility. Watch this space.
Special pleading at Thames View
The council newspaper, 'the news', has printed a letter from someone apparently complaining that his colleague has been fined for turning into Bastable Avenue at the Renwick Road end between 6am and 10am when it is banned.
The rising bollards that would prevent this are not working and currently the ban is enforced by CCTV followed up by a penalty charge notice. The writer protests that "nobody knew [the CCTV] was operational", but so what? If you do something wrong, protesting you didn't know you'd get caught is no defence. Neither for that matter is blaming the failure of someone or something to physically prevent you from doing the wrong thing.
To crown it all, the writer points out (he estimates) the council will get an income of £9000 a day from 150 infringements at £60 each. Well why not? If you don't want to pay the fine, don't break the rules.
The rising bollards that would prevent this are not working and currently the ban is enforced by CCTV followed up by a penalty charge notice. The writer protests that "nobody knew [the CCTV] was operational", but so what? If you do something wrong, protesting you didn't know you'd get caught is no defence. Neither for that matter is blaming the failure of someone or something to physically prevent you from doing the wrong thing.
To crown it all, the writer points out (he estimates) the council will get an income of £9000 a day from 150 infringements at £60 each. Well why not? If you don't want to pay the fine, don't break the rules.
Consultation on Barking station
http://www.lbbd.gov.uk/2-press-release/press-release-menu.cfm?item_code=3660
Consultation sessions at the station with designers Atkins and council staff, from 8.30am to 7.30pm on Thursday & Friday 25 & 26 March.
Consultation sessions at the station with designers Atkins and council staff, from 8.30am to 7.30pm on Thursday & Friday 25 & 26 March.
Monday, 15 March 2010
Bizarre B&GO lateness announcements
I've always been intrigued as to why when we can put the proverbial man on the moon, the railways can't keep track of 3 or 4 trains going up and down between Baking & Gospel Oak, or make sensible announcements.
The lateness shown on the platform indicator rarely ties up with the audio announcements and a couple of times recently the audio announcements have worked up to being 13 minutes late and then reverted to less than half that time. Other announcements have opined that the train is x minutes late, when it's already more than x minutes past the time it should have left.
After a cancelled train, the audio announcement a couple of times has been "The next train to arrive at platform 1 will be the xx.xx from Gospel Oak", giving the departure time from Gospel Oak over half an hour before.
As to the on line information, it's pretty useless. Unless the information is available in time to be used to plan an alternative journey, it is no good. In practice, we finish up going to the station to find out what's going on. It's not impressive.
With a simple route like the B&GO, they should be able to predict problems fairly well. If a train service to Barking is cancelled, they know the return journey will be as well. If a train's running 10 minutes late one way, whilst there is some recovery time at each end, it is a useful prediction of lateness in the other direction.
The lateness shown on the platform indicator rarely ties up with the audio announcements and a couple of times recently the audio announcements have worked up to being 13 minutes late and then reverted to less than half that time. Other announcements have opined that the train is x minutes late, when it's already more than x minutes past the time it should have left.
After a cancelled train, the audio announcement a couple of times has been "The next train to arrive at platform 1 will be the xx.xx from Gospel Oak", giving the departure time from Gospel Oak over half an hour before.
As to the on line information, it's pretty useless. Unless the information is available in time to be used to plan an alternative journey, it is no good. In practice, we finish up going to the station to find out what's going on. It's not impressive.
With a simple route like the B&GO, they should be able to predict problems fairly well. If a train service to Barking is cancelled, they know the return journey will be as well. If a train's running 10 minutes late one way, whilst there is some recovery time at each end, it is a useful prediction of lateness in the other direction.
c2c wifi
Regular users of c2c (London, Tilbury & Southend) Railway will know that the trains (don't know if some or all) now have Wifi hotspots.
The road to nowhere
It's all built, signs in place (no entry except buses, still!), but blocked by big concrete blocks at Jenkins Lane, and the gate approx across the Newham / B&D border, under which is a heap of broken bricks to stop people getting underneath.
Years of waiting will come to an end soon - ?
Years of waiting will come to an end soon - ?
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