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

The 13th train line colour for London

When does a bench mean more than just the bench itself...?

Well here at Hampstead Heath Station (now in zone 2 - hurrah!) the benches have been repainted this orange (ish) colour for the new Overground livery colours.

It got me thinking about the other colours of the map and a bit of research (not tricky research you understand) yielded that the London Underground map has twleve colour coded lines and this makes a 13th on the famous TfL map of London:

• Bakerloo Line (Brown)
• Central Line (Red)
• Circle Line (Yellow)
• District Line (Green)
• East London Line* (Orange)
• Hammersmith & City Line (Pink)
• Jubilee Line (Silver)
• Metropolitan Line (Purple)
• Northern Line (Black)
• Piccadilly Line (Dark Blue)
• Victoria Line (Light Blue)
• Waterloo & City Line (Pale Blue)

Harry Beck famously takes the credit for the first meaningful diagramtic map of the transport system in 1933. There are all sorts of little features that might go un-noticed at first glance. For example the Thames is either a straight line or at 45 degrees. There is a direct differentiation between stops and interchanges. The map itself at concept was very controversial and within London Transport management structures quite political and laden with personal relationships.

The reality however is the impressive map we have today and one of the results is that the benches at Hampstead Heath station have been repainted as part of the livery coding that started with Harry Beck working in his spare time to design a better map...

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/projectsandschemes/communityandeducation/2443.aspx

http://www.design-technology.info/alevelsubsite/page5.htm

http://www.harrybeck.co.uk/

Following the train theme...

Following on the railway theme here is the North London Line looking east:
http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/03/perspectives-on-railway-line.html

The picture was taken the other day from the top of Weston House on Winchester Avenue, Queen's Park.

I think there has been a significant clearance of trees making this view possible, but it also made me realise just how wide a piece of land was necessary for the rail line to exist at all...

The bridge here is the bridge under Willesden Lane between the junctions with Winchester Avenue and The Avenue.

My grandfather was a major train advocate and indeed train buff... he used to make model steam trains for Walt Disney when at Bassett Lowke workshops and my love of trains and transport modes has, I'm sure, come from him.

Why Overground need to listen to a Users Group for the North London Line

The North London Line (I assume it is still called the North London Line even though it's part of Overground) is being gradually tidied up - or at least new signs are going up and handrails are being painted.

But frankly I'm looking for a bigger shift than just the paint colour. Now we do have the security guards, but there's a bit of work needed on some of the customer service based on my experience - and I'm using about 4-5 different stations a week - and some fixture repairs are going on.

My picture here is of a dumping area at Kensal Rise that needs cleaning up - it's pretty grim, use an area used for putting full bin bags and is generally being used as a storage space for rubbish and becoming an eyesore. it's not the only one - it is just one example I saw when i had the camera.

But there is a still a further catalogue of repairs and enhancements that are needed:

- the graffiti at Brondesbury

- the awful awful wire security fence at Finchley Road and Frognal

- the bike rack in the wrong place at Hampstead Heath

- the lack of screens in the various ticket halls which mean you have to swipe your oyster card to go in and find out if a train is due (yes, I know there is a printed timetable, but trains on this line are frequently late and the screen is the only way of finding out actually likely departure times).

Oh, and when the trains are cancelled I hope that there is a better system in future than this one I caught on a recent sunday...

Yes, the piece of flip chart paper says "NO TRAINS FROM THIS STATION 12.30 TODAY

02/12/07 Sunday"

And the even more amusing piece of tape over the Oyster swipe card point says "NO TRAINS TODAY."

To be fair these were put up by a member of staff who 'happened to be there' and who was trying to be helpful - but it didn't feel very professional and did nothing to assist the people who had bought tickets cos the machine is separate from the swipe point or the stairs to the platforms...

For these reasons and more I'm very keen to accelerate setting up a Users Group for the 6 affected stations - please do get in touch. I'm hoping to get a meeting sorted in the next week or so and will let everyone know.

ed.fordham@hampsteadandkilburn.org.uk

A Users Group for the North London Line?

For too long the North London Line has sat neglected and tatty. It is without a doubt one of the most useful lines of transport in London - for starters it goes across London (east west) rather than the perennial north south, second it stops in places people live in rather than just shopping centres (such as Brondesbury Park) and third it goes to really useful places (connecting at Willesden Junction, down to both Stratford and Kew).

However, for a long time now it has felt low grade - unstaffed at night, poorly lit, subject to a lot of graffiti - a general air of neglect.

The North London Line is now being transformed in reputation as part of Overground - there are staff (albeit a bit security led - there's some need for some customer service training in places) and ticket barriers and with these elements the re-paint jobs.

The effect is to restore some confidence and tackle the back-log of works.

With that end in mind there has been an ongoing conversation with the regional station manager about setting up a users group for the 6 stattions along the bit of the line that runs from Kensal Rise to Hampstead Heath (Kensal Rise, Brondesbury Park, Brondesbury, West Hampstead, Finchley Road & Frognal, Hampstead Heath). If you're intersted and up for this then please do drop me a line ed.fordham@hampsteadandkilburn.org.uk - it's hoped to have a a meeting in the next few weeks to get a group going - it's not rocket science, we don't want to to make it too onerous, but just a chance to be the eyes and ears on the line, making things better, giving suggestions and where useful working with TfL and Overground to push forward enhancements.

Please do get in touch.

Overground improvements needed and quickly

The North London Line (now Overground) is for me one of the most impressive bits of London transport links - it goes across London (everything else runs up and down, in and out of the City), it stops in useful places (residential as well as shopping and commercial), it's pretty quick and efficient and for me [sentimental] it feels like a good old fashioned railway line. (Pic of Brondesbury Park station to right)

This is not to say that it is without problems - tatty, neglected, poorly staffed, vulnerable to graffiti and slightly shambolic. But it needs investment and attention and we 'users' need it to work better.

I'm especially keen that the anomaly that is Hampstead Heath in zone 3 should be removed and placed back into zone 2 - Mayor Ken Livingstone has promised it but is now enforcing zone 3 fares (another broken promise?)...

Most of all I think we users need a sustained dialogue with Overground (used to be Silverlink) and so if anyone wants to help with that then drop me a line at ed.fordham@hampsteadandkilburn.org.uk or start the debate below in the coments section.