Just been on bucking bronco,  - the top floor of a 277 bus from Canary Wharf to Hackney, no need to go all the way to Alton Towers.

Please Boris come for a ride, and you will feel what i mean.

Bus Heating

It's summer
i'm sweating my assets off upstairs on a 277 bus in london with HEATING on

It's winter
i'm teeth chattering here upstairs on a 277 bus in london with HEATING off

i wish i was stupid enuff to run London Transport TFL.

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.

jubilee line

so why do jubilee line trains stop in nearly north canning town, instead of stratford?
i.e. miles from end of platform. there are loads of mainline stations e.g. King X, Euston, or Tower Hill, where they get much closer to end of platform

Olympics 2012 Stratford Station

Olympics 2012

i was opposed to the bid because i thought we would never overcome our nearest friends and greatest rivals, but we did !! miracle.

so why not make it all work, and give ourselves a legacy to appreciate out of all the massive spending?

e.g. 1 --> flatten stratford shopping centre this year, and make it a centre to be proud of still in 20 years time when it has all died down

e.g. 2--> flatten the station and build a single truly integrated station for everything - DLR, Central Line, Jubilee line, overground, and Channel tunnel link, instead of the patchy piecemeal solution imposed on us by unimaginative civil servants who don't seem to give a tinkers to55 about E London......? anyone would think the way they spend our money that it comes out of their personal pockets instead of being free. IF only i had the opportunity to spend other peoples money on my pet projects.....

if you use good binoculars you can see the new international station from the real station. Oh and the moving walkway to link the 2 stations has been binned to save a few mill.

have you seen the new DLR station is being built so it ends dangling above the booking hall of the Jubilee line, thereby giving really easy access to change lines to the jubilee line - the only 2 lines at stratford that don't need it as the only time u need a link is to sprint between the 2 lines when one is 5hagged, and you rush to use the alternative. i wish i was a clever designer coming up with sensible solutions instead a boring accountant with no ideas or imagination.

blackpool

i spent 5 days there last week

the weather was great

Blackpool is a shitehole unless you are a peasant or going there for a debauched hen/stag night.....!
virtually 100% trad caffs wiht rubbish coffee/food

can't see how they will survive come 1.7.07 when fags get abolished.
even the iconic trams are run by the council 'traditionally' - in bunches of 3, secret fares, over-staffed, slow....

still it was interesting to see the last un-reconstructed British seaside resort

PS. massive business opportunity avaialbe --> open an Internet caff as they only have one very feeble offering at 50p for 10 mins with no printing as long as you buy a 1.99 coffee