ELT wins an award

The East London Transit is widely mocked for its name and the insistence that it's not a bus, even though it stops at bus stops, charges bus fares, is shown as a bus on maps and in journey planners as a bus, runs over the route of a bus that hasn't run since it was introduced, and - above all - uses the same vehicles as a bus. Writing "transit" on the side of a bus doesn't stop it being a bus, writing "Rolls Royce" on a Datsun Cherry would achieve the same - nothing except a laugh.

It was going to be  a tram, and at one point monorail plans were if not drawn up, given the artist's impression treatment.

Anyway, to crown it all it's now won an award, partly because it serves Barking Town Centre, from where buses were excluded in the early 1990s.

So that's divert buses away from a town centre and 15 or so years later undo your work, but calling a spade a material extraction device, and get an award for it. Hmm.

Blakes Corner Abuse

The roadway from Station Pde to Ripple Rd is open again, mainly to let East London Transit (ELT) buses through. Each end of the newly re-opened stretch sports "no motor vehicles" signs with "except buses" qualifications or similar). Sadly, even before ELT starts to run, motorists are ignoring the signs and driving into / through the area.

If this were "cyclists" there would be calls for some cruel and unusual punishment to be inflicted, but motorists - despite their claims that they are put upon - can apparently get away with illegality such as this, even whilst driving past the police station.