please empty your brain below
[note to self: commuting vehicles need more capacity. Acquire tandem]

Ham | Homepage | 07.12.06 - 7:28 a.m. | #

[note to self: why do people use those drains? Suggest new term for tube commuter, troglodyter TROG-luh-dyt-er, noun:
1. A member of a primitive people that lived in caves, dens, or holes; travels by tube
2. One who is regarded as reclusive, reactionary, out of date, or brutish or moans about metronet.]

strandman | Homepage | 07.12.06 - 8:18 a.m. | #

Tube Lines must love Metronet. They're pretty incompetant themselves, but next to Metronet they're a shining star of PPP.

Chz | Homepage | 07.12.06 - 9:18 a.m. | #

Is there a report or something "erudite" produced to see where the money will be spent? I want to know if TfL will spend £2.50 on the signals at Arnos Grove on the Piccadily Line because I seem to spend half my life there waiting because of signal failure or congestion.

I wish I could apparate.

Amused | 07.12.06 - 11:51 a.m. | #

Have I mentioned how much I hate London Transport (inc. Metronet et al)?

I don't wish to repeat myself/bore anyone, but I really really do hate them.

What a load of stupid bollocks all this is!!! We need more trains not fewer seats!

Grr.

The Girl | Homepage | 07.12.06 - 1:29 p.m. | #

And where to you propose running these extra trains? You simply can't push much more than 30 trains per hour down a railway.

btw, the new trains will have exactly the same kinds of seats as existing ones (ie cushions), and at least some of the extra space is because of the wide gangways between carriages, which are being designed for people to stand in.

And yes, the plan is to extend the platforms, not selective door opening.

Graham | Homepage | 07.12.06 - 2:50 p.m. | #

And you will inevitably have to have fewer seats since all new trains have to be DDA compliant and have space for wheelchairs. We all get frustrated with TfL, LUL etc, etc but they are not always totally to blame -just the organisation that you come into contact with and the one that you therefore take your frustration out on.

Pedantic of Purley | 07.12.06 - 4:16 p.m. | #

This seems incredibly reactionary. It seems to me that DG would like to travel entirely on unattractive and unreliable museum piece transport, such as routemasters and the present sub surface stocks, which are generally dingy.

Kevinho | 07.12.06 - 4:37 p.m. | #

Pedantic - I know that adding wheelchair space for will remove some space for seating, but that alone doesn't excuse losing 141 seats from every Metropolitan line train.

Kevinho - I never said I wanted to keep the old carriages. I just think that they could have designed the new carriages better.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 07.12.06 - 5:40 p.m. | #

There might be more room for wheelchairs and luggage (and baby buggies), but I bet they don't make it any easier to get any of these things to platform level.

Alyx | 07.12.06 - 6:17 p.m. | #

If you're commuting for over an hour all the way from Amersham into town, that lack of seats is really going to hurt.

They can get proper trains instead.

Inspector Sands | Homepage | 07.12.06 - 10:32 p.m. | #

I'm very glad with this. Less seats per train, yeah, but more trains running and overall the same seating capacity, with more standing capacity. And no one will have to stand all the way to Amersham. I live along the Uxbridge Met line myself and you can always get a seat at Harrow, usually Wembley really.

I won't be living here by 2009 but I'm very happy about this anyway.

sweek | 08.12.06 - 2:57 a.m. | #

The new open-from-end-to-end trains are similar to those in countries with 'new' mass transit systems eg Singapore. I've seen them in other places too, but can't recall where.

The thought of wheelchairs and baby buggies on the tube in the rush hour is total madness. I cannot imagine how all stations are going to be made accessible (even ones that currently supposedly are according to the tube map eg Epping, aren't, if the train comes into the wrong platform), or how much it is going to cost.

Plus, knowing how the carriages lurch around, and brake suddenly, I think there are huge safety issues inherent in having wheelchairs and buggies in carriages - and suppose there is another July 7th? How will these people get out?

Let's solve the disabled access problem in a more sensible, more cost-effective way, that would make life easier for disabled people - give them taxi tokens!

Blue Witch | Homepage | 08.12.06 - 8:51 a.m. | #

Sorry to be boring, but there will be no air con on tube trains, only on sub surface trains. Nobody has yet come up with a solution for what to do with heat pumped out of tube trains into tube tunnels, so Northern, Bakerloo, Picadilly, Victoria, Jubilee, and Central will have to wait!

Ian | 08.12.06 - 3:22 p.m. | #











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