eurostar, channel tunnel, dlr, olympics 2012

It is interesting to see that the local press have picked up on the stupidity of the Stratford International Station (SIS)location.

--- it is soooo far from actual Stratford that the fat Canary-wharfers won't waddle over from International to the real station where the tube links are. What a suuurpise...........

i told the GLA this 3 years ago, but they just said "tuff".

So yet again we reluctantly spend too little public money to come up with a vaguely adequate solution, and thereby ensure that all of the public money spent on the half-hearted project is wasted. Clearly if the SIS is useless then the money spent building it is 100% wasted!

Where is the vision to create something spectacular as the Gateway to 2012 Londinium?

why not........

1. flatten central stratford
2. build a massive station with c.21 platforms on 3 levels
   
3. linked by escalators and lifts
4. all in a massive semi-open hole in the ground - a bit like the new Berlin station (see http://www.hbf-berlin.de/site/berlin__hauptbahnhof/en/rail__concept/rail__concept.html)
   
5. run through it Central Line, DLR, Jubilee Line, Eurostar, Eurotunnel Car loading, Mainline rail from everywhere, commuter lines
6. not forgetting to incorporate a fantabulous bus stazione etc..
   
7. also with a ginormous shopping centre, to one side with loads of built-in car parks far underground.
8. a hub for eurotunnel cars to load ( easing pressure on M2)
9. ditto lorries/coaches
10. fix the bottom end of m11 to link to all this so it's not a massive traffic-jam
11. also fix the A2 so it runs through to here
    
12. bin the link to lovely St. Pancras. All passengers want is to fall out of their commuter strains directly on to the tube for the final bit to where ever they pass the dreary hours until pub-tyme
13. make sure Cross-Rail terminates here
14. upgrade Central line to 4 track so it can cope with the traffic between leytonstone and marble arch. Obviously then providing a limited-stop service on half the line e.g. Stratford, Smile End, L'pool St., Bank, TCR, Ox circ, Marble A........
    
15. obviously all this is financed by the tax-payer building it and only then charging £loads to the businesses that will benefit in the shopping centre, and shopping areas in the station. Also all the restaurants/cafes it will be festooned with
16. it would instantly win an architecture prize for the UK, and the (overpaid) architect who designed it, and plaudits from the users
17. isn't it grate that the Crossrail link has been agonized over for sooooo long it won't be open in tyme for 2012 Olympix. We didn't even rush to start building it the day after we got awarded the albatross

i could go on with brilliant ideas...

DLR, docklands light railway, transport

So they're opening/building a shiny new station at Stratford for the DLR.

So far it has the following qualities:-

• A canopy that looks like it's been put up on Friday afternoon by some p155ed British builders after a looooong lunchAnd
• a canopy that is obviously designed by an architect, probably cheered on by Wolff Odious (logo shower). Why can't someone think about FUNCTION first, and poncy prize-winning look 2nd?
  
• The platforms are completely exposed so a light wind on a January morning is going make it feel like Siberia on a cold day. Oh, and the fix they have done is to put a poncy wind break down the middle of the platform, whereas what we need is walls to the station...
  
• A canopy that is going to be no use keeping rain off the poor punters when waiting eternally for trains as it is far too narrow, just like at most of the DLR stations. Why can't we be comfortable whilst hanging around waiting for public transport? u might get some drivers out of their gas guzzlers if they felt the alternative was vaguely acceptable
  
• And best of all ... guess which interchange function u r LEAST likely to do at Stratford? --> yes you guessed right, Jubilee to DLR or vv., as for the first bit to Canaryland they go to same place, yep u guessed it again --> the new station goes into the Jubilee terminus - brilliant, only an architect could have come up with it.
  
• And even better, at the moment when going in to London you get off Central Line and sprint along platform, ON SAME LEVEL, (to watch the guard shut the DLR train doors just as u get there.) In future u will have to race 2 at a time down the (too narrow) stairs, turn sharp left knocking over numerous people going other way, rush up some steps, turn left through 180deg., sprint up more stairs, turn sharp left, race along a platform, to get a DLR train into London. This design has of curse (sic) been approved by another useless bunch of numpty overheads called Health & Safety. Are they in the world i live in? Did they go to the station before the OK'd the layout?
  I bet not one of them lives in Stratford
• and how come all the ups/downs don't merit escalators, whereas Canary Wharf is festooned with them. (I wonder where the poor people live and where the rich fat overpaid bastards live?)
• there is even a set of steps that could be a ramp, but oh no. How come the ubiquitous Accessibility shower didn't make them use sensible levels and minimize steps?
  

docklands light railway

so how come when the strain ambles in to Stratford do we have to put up with uncomfortable surging - i think it slows and accelerates 4 times in its approach.
this means you have to hold tight just when you want to move near the doors - crazy.
An invention they use on the Central Line overcomes this problem completely - it's called 'having a driver'.
Also on the Victoria Line they use something called 'tried & tested software' instead of some old cobblers written by some spotty Germans about 10 years ago.

Also how come the trains sway uncomfortably in the horizontal at speed, whereas tube trains are rock solid - oh i know it's because they use something called 'tried & tested suspension' instead of some old cobblers designed by some garlicky Frenchman about 10 years ago.