Monday 21 July 2008

Our railways have great tradition - it's a shame TfL fails it so often...

This is the wooden edging at Hampstead Heath Overground station (North London Line) and it's a charming reminder of the quality of work and the strength of the London railway tradition in quality.

The effect of the railway upon Britain was dramatic and still the lines they cut across our landscape are deep and significant.

And literally hundreds of us use them every day.

Within that useage are a series of 'givens': we know where to stand on the platform in order to get off at the other end, we know our colour of line (orange, purple, yellow etc), we often see the same pople every day in the same place and equally often don't talk to them over the weeks, months and weeks. Further, we know the weakesses (crime, poor lighting etc)...

So for all of these bits of knowledge what is it about the Transport for London arrangements that makes them so resistant to having and supporting a user group?

The frequency with which staff leave, don't respond or don't have a cultural tradition of working with users is scary. So from 1st September (just before schools come back) they are closing the North London Line Gospel Oak to Willesden Junction and the bus replacement arrangements are... currently undefined! And the refurbishment of Brondesbury station? No consultation plans.

To my mind it's shambolic and an insult to the railway tradition. Several of us have tried to help but frankly I'm at a bit of a loss and think that on this occasion the responsibility lies with Transport for London to show some committment and lead the debate in a way that is inclusive and sincere. It's a high bar and they have failed todate but this a chance to turn a new leaf over...

http://www.urban75.org/photos/london/index.html

http://www.architecture.com/HowWeBuiltBritain/HistoricalPeriods/Victorian/RailwayArchitecture/Introduction.aspx

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's not "undefined":

http://www.lorol.co.uk/lorol/News/Planned-Engineering-Works-Affecting-London-Overground-Services-1-Sep--16-Nov-08/

Ed Fordham said...

Sadly it is undefined when you ask where but buses are running

Sending 4 buses an house, seven days a week for 10 weeks down residential streets that don;t normally have them is a reasonable level of knowledge to ask about...

Ed Fordham

Anonymous said...

Bus routes change depending on roadworks, congestion etc & so long as the buses use main routes (and I believe that's the plan) to link stations according to the 'defined' plan (see first post) then there shouldn't be a problem.

In any case, what's the alternative - NO buses ? Imagine how much more of a problem THAT would be for everyone.

I also understand that all relevant local authorities & passenger user groups (inc the local West Hampstead group) were extensively consulted on the bus routes from the outset. See also the comments from the not-so-shrinking-violets of the Barking - Gospel Oak User Gp: http://www.barking-gospeloak.org.uk/news.htm