Hammersmith and City Line Departures from platform 6 at Barking

Most H&C trains use platform 3 at Barking (the "bay road" further west than all the other platform faces). There's a poster on the bridge listing which departures are from platform . I haven't been able to find this poster on the web, so I took a photo of it. I have also updated the Wikipedia article about Barking Station with the info from the poster.

The information is a bit ambiguous, because it isn't clear whether there are departures from platform 3 intermingled with these. Some are so close together that it seems unlikely, but others are more spaced apart.

If you're planning a journey this information could help - the TfL journey planner doesn't currently tell you which platform to use.

If c2c get their act together they will start to integrate dynamic LUL train information with their own. It would be extremely useful to know the departure times from platform 3 from information displayed near the steps from the bridge.

Cycle4All change of meeting day

The cycle4all.com group meeting will be held on Thursdays instead of Wednesdays starting from 27 September. The sunday meetings will continue as usual. www.stibasa.org.uk for further details.

How long before we can spend a penny?

An undated sign on sign on the door of the gents' toilets at Barking Station says that the toilets will be out of use "for the next few weeks". I hope you noted when the sign went up; otherwise not only will you have only the vaguest idea of the length of the closure ("a few weeks") but you will not know when this vaguely determined period started.

Thank you, c2c for this almost entirely useless information.

Ticket Machines

All 3 Shere Fastticket machines at Barking Station were out of action on Sunday when I called in to collect a ticket I'd ordered on line. There were queues for the Scheidt & Bachman machines:  They are Oyster compatible, so more people use them, but a Shere machine would have been OK for me.

When I called in today, the three Shere machines were out of action. The c2c man on the gateline said he had no idea why the machines ween't working and that it was something to do with a satellite. so I e-mailed Shere, as I have done before.

Update on 14/9. Shere tell me that "The three machines were turned off, by the staff, due to a printer issues. An engineer has attended site, and has resolved the fault. All three machine are now back in service."

So it seems that the staff didn't report the fault to Shere, but just turned off the machines. Not impressive.

The cost (price) of motoring

I got involved in a discussion on an internet group about the substantial increase in Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) fees and the differentiation of them acording to the CO2 emission rate of the vehicle.

As this conversation was continuing, the new IPPR report came out - see http://stibasa.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/motoring-taxes-need-to-triple-to-cover.html - having the conclusion that (in essence) the £ motorists pay out does not cover the cost of externalities and therefore is too low.

I introduced the IPPR report into the discussion, but the whole thing got bogged down. My opponent took the view that the CPZ charges were too high and unfair. I tried to make the point that if the £ paid out by motorists in total does not cover the total costs of what motorist should pay for, the fact that one element of the total cost is too high doesn't especially matter.

Of course there would be some disagreement about what motorists should pay for, but the principle still holds. Even if my opponent could show that the price of the CPZ permit was really too high, he couldn't simply ignore the fact that other prices are too low.

The list of things that motorists pay out for, and how much they pay, ought to be fairly easy to make, at least for an individual motorist, though I expect many don't keep a note and would have no idea of the total. This could help explain the focus on pump prices for fuel and parking prices, which are easy to see.

In her book "Cutting Your Car Use", Anna Semlyen gives, in chapter 6, a comprehensive breakdown of the elements of running a car that cost money. (She gives cost estimates, too; Even if these weren't at 1999 prices, there are lots of assumptions, but nevertheless, it gives a clue). It is complicated, and it's no surprise that people don't know.

Reasons against cycle tracks

The new DfT Local Transport Note on Shared Use Routes for Pedestrians and Cyclists is quite succinct in explaining this problem:

"A common reason for taking cyclists off the carriageway is the perception that it will improve safety. However, it is important to understand that a shared use route will not necessarily be safer than an on-carriageway alternative. In particular, careful consideration is needed where a cycle track running alongside a road crosses side a road [sc: a side road]... At these locations, there is significant potential for conflict, which can sometimes negate the safety benefits of segregating cyclists from motor vehicles."

Hybrid Cycle Tracks, and other animals

The UK Department for Transport have released a new Local Transport guidance note entitled 'Shared Use Routes for Pedestrians and Cyclists'.It includes guidance on hybrid cycle tracks, which are raised from the carriageway but lower than the footway. These are common in Copenhagen, but rare elsewhere.