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Head to Chinatown or Trafalgar Square today and you can celebrate Chinese New Year with dancing, culture and cuisine courtesy of the London Chinatown Chinese Association and the Mayor of London. That's because the new moon on 29th January triggered the Year of the Snake (蛇), a period traditionally symbolised by wisdom, intuition and transformation. 60 years ago. I thought I'd look back and see what I was doing when the Year of the Snake came round previously, aided and abetted by the fact that I started keeping a diary when I was 11¾ so I do actually have a record of each. 2 February 1965 (Wood Snake) 18 February 1977 (Fire Snake) BAGA 4 athletics award. Today we have a debate in English on the subject of pirate radio, our history teacher allows us to play games and our music teacher fails to turn up. My diary says "Mark ran round school three times" which I have to confess means nothing to me now but if you've ever seen the film The History Boys you'll have a good idea what the course looked like. This evening sees the final performance of Haydn's Creation in the local church because I've already been drafted into the school choir and they take concerts really seriously. Tomorrow I'll be going shopping in Watford and trying to find the latest copy of Krazy comic, which I still reckon is the best comic of all time although you may disagree because 2000AD was launched the following week. We also go grocery shopping in the new Mac Market in Charter Place, which has just opened, and which I see I rated "good". Simpler times, most of which I would completely have forgotten had my 11 year-old self not diligently recorded them. 6 February 1989 (Earth Snake) that Brit Awards show and I'll be going to Penzance for the day because a ticket is only £19. 24 January 2001 (Metal Snake) text messages. Playing Sim City 3000, which I've just bought, proves rather cheaper. Then tonight an email arrives confirming that the nicest person in upper management is leaving, probably not coincidentally, and suddenly my work environment is careering off in uncomfortable directions. However by taking advice and being canny I'll have negotiated a payrise by Monday, and within months I'll be quitting for Job 4 in London which is essentially where my life turns around. It didn't look great at the time, but you'd not be reading this blog were it not for machinations at the start of the year of the Metal Snake. 10 February 2013 (Water Snake) National Libraries Day, specifically Kensal Rise and the Horniman which I visited yesterday. Tonight I'm going to write up my trip to Queen's Park, including my grandfather's grave, Daleks and the fact you can buy toilet rolls in Singhsbury's Superstore. Best of all I'm about to write two posts about the potential for a Bakerloo line extension, having walked across Burgess Park and Walworth, and 12 years later I am still writing about London's inability to kickstart this project. On this particular Sunday my fridge is empty so I walk down to the big Tesco only to discover they've shifted their opening time from 10am to noon so I have to go to the Co-op instead. Later I download a new app on my smartphone and receive disappointing feedback, make sure I've posted a golden wedding card to my brother's in-laws and watch a light sprinkling of snow fall just before midnight. The week ahead includes an appraisal meeting at work, a trip to the opticians and a big night out in Nine Elms, and looking back it feels almost recent but is actually 20% of my life ago. 29 January 2025 (Wood Snake) And here I am back in the Year of the Snake again, walking the streets of Crofton Park and having bacon and Brussels sprouts for dinner. What amazes me is how few Snakes it's taken to reach my 60th year and what unnerves me is how few I still have to go, maybe just the one. Such is wisdom, intuition and transformation.
20 things we learnt from TfL FoI requests in January 2025 1) 21% of applicants for a Train Operator role are female, 74% are BAME and 11% are over 50. At last count only 5% were successful. 2) Last year TfL spent £39.75 on numberplates, equivalent to two replacements. 3) If customers are waiting at a bus stop, buses should stop. Drivers should not ‘rebuke’ customers for not holding out their hand as some customers may not be able to do so. 4) During the first nine months of 2024, 100 pre-booked passenger assistance requests were recorded at West Drayton station. 5) From the launch of the ULEZ until 20 December 2024 TfL received £618,021,900 from daily ULEZ charge payments. 6) During the financial year 2022/2023, TfL recorded 945 potholes. 7) The three organisations who ran the most campaigns on TfL rail services last year were Islamic Relief UK, Government CCS and Newham College of Further Education. 8) In December Banksy's three monkeys were cleaned off the Overground bridge above Brick Lane because "unauthorised art can attract more graffiti, which encourages trespassing and anti-social activity that poses a danger to the operational railway and customers. This piece therefore had to be removed to prevent possible disruption." 9) The Next Train Indicator on the southbound platform at Northwood Hills has not functioned since November 2023, despite the unit being replaced, due to water ingress. 10 Customers need to be in possession of a valid ticket when using any rail replacement bus service, even though fares are not normally charged. 11) The Central Line Improvement Programme involves the complete refurbishment of all existing Central line trains including more reliable motors, better accessibility, improved customer information and a new moquette. It began ten years ago. So far £160m has been spent and two trains have been upgraded and entered into passenger service. Three more should enter service this year. 12) During the design stage of the September 2024 pocket tube map an unfortunate error was not spotted which led to the printed map including a mistake. This oversight led to a decision being made to reprint the map because "the accuracy of customer information is really important". The cost of replacing the maps was £94,000. 13) There is no exemption for driving in bus lanes on Christmas Day, even though there are no buses. 14) There have been 18 flooding incidents on the Elizabeth line since it opened, half of them at Gidea Park. 15) Pdf copies of pocket tube maps from 2004, 2005, 2011 and 2013 have been made available. 16) A new 'bus view' in the TfL Go app will go live in the first half of 2025, including the ability to move the map around to find different bus stops. 17) When renaming the Overground lines was proposed in 2015, the chosen names were North London Line, East London line, Barking line, Lea Valley line, Watford Local line and Emerson Park line. (I have blogged about this) 18) Since 2022 only one customer incident on the tube has involved paranormal activity (a distressed 15 year-old-boy at King’s Cross on the Metropolitan line in December 2023 mentioned that he had seen ghosts). 19) Trams are running to a reduced timetable due to the declining reliability of the tram fleet (and yes you can see a copy). 20) TfL does not currently have any Tesla vehicles and has not leased or hired any previously. The five worst questions TfL were asked 1) Over 75% Dial a ride journeys are for solo passengers HOW LONG MUST THIS WASTAGE OF RESOURCES CONTINUE? 2) Again and again I have sent emails re lights on in broad daylight and unnecessary lighting Under The FOI act how many stations had their lighting on today and what was the electric costs never mind the light bulbs loss of life It is time TFL was split up and the bonuses paid were returned for all the fares lost and overspending and journeys which are so uncomfortable because of the grinding noises and speed of the trains Please see my previous email 3) Just inquiring to see if there is any information about the sound that plays when a bus terminates. It sounds almost like a gong. Just interested to know why that selection, it's quite an ominous sound and a weird way to end a journey, after sticking out a bus journey to termination I feel like you've earned the right to a positive noise that can help you push on to your home. I'm also interested to know the file name of the sound. 4) There was an ad it was an image of a lion I was wondering where I can find this or you could tell me what it was I’ve been looking all over the internet for it. Please could you help me find it? I would be really grateful as I require this for business purposes and art. 5) Hello. I’m sorry to bother you for this question but I am not native to the area. I was wondering if there is information in regard to the color of the mice. Is it simply genetic markings or are they that dark due to the conditions/being dirty. If so, what in the underground system is causing it to keep them this dark? Thank you for your time. I promise this is a legitimate question.
It's time to extend the Superloop, on this occasion with a rail replacement bus. Welcome to the Bakerloop, an express route shadowing the unbuilt Bakerloo line extension. brown double deckers between Waterloo and Lewisham, essentially only stopping at places with a Bakerloo line station or where a Bakerloo line station might be. The route'll be numbered BL1 and should be introduced in the autumn, subject to a consultation which launched yesterday. Last April Sadiq announced he'd introduce the Bakerloop if he was re-elected Mayor (which he was, so he is). Way back in 2019 he launched a consultation for a proper Bakerloo line extension to Lewisham, seeking views on stations, worksites and tunnel alignment. This followed a previous consultation in 2017 asking where the stations and ventilation shafts should go, and that followed an initial consultation launched by Boris in 2014 asking what route the proposed extension should take. Alas ten years later the extension remains fundamentally unfunded so we're getting a bus instead, possibly as a long-term temporary measure, probably as a replacement. Waterloo → Elephant & Castle → Burgess Park → Old Kent Road → New Cross Gate → Lewisham lots in Lewisham, some near the station and some near the shops, assuming this is what's eventually agreed. Whoever designs the route diagrams on the side of Superloop buses should stop being so literal about including every single stop because this is not a helpful way to depict the route. Burgess Park gap, in the absence of the tram Ken Livingstone wanted to send here but Boris cancelled. Instead of being red and white the buses will be brown and white, so a striking presence on the street, plus they'll have the same moquette as Bakerloo line trains because everyone loves a seating gimmick. There is essentially no downside, other than that it's a bus route rather than a tube train capable of reaching Lewisham in minutes. expanding the Superloop network further. Sadiq teased this as part of his re-election campaign last year suggesting ten more routes might be introduced. The Bakerloop is one of these and we now have tantalising details about two more. SL11: North Greenwich → Woolwich → Thamesmead → Abbey Wood 472. It will in fact replace route 472 but only stop in select locations, with other routes picking up the slack at unserved stops inbetween. The 180 can mop up everything west of Plumstead. I think this souped-up 472 is intended to be the bus transit scheme the government agreed to fund in the 2023 Autumn Statement, in which case that'll help pay for improved highway infrastructure. It's not yet clear how many stops there'll need to be on the circuitous loop round Thamesmead, but expect all to become clearer when a proper consultation is launched later in the year. SL12: Gants Hill → Romford → Elm Park → Rainham 66, which from experience is already pretty speedy as it hurtles along the A12. The eastern end will be a very welcome north-south link in a borough whose railways run west-east and where existing bus routes have a tendency to meander rather than run direct, so this half looks like a winner. Again a proper consultation will follow. I see we've abandoned all pretence that Superloop routes are numbered in a logical way. The first ten were supposedly numbered clockwise starting in the north, whereas these two are numbered anti-clockwise starting in the east. BL1 not before the autumn. But look out for the brown bus rumbling down the Old Kent Road because there's no expectation a brown train will ever rumble underneath.
For twenty-two consecutive Februaries on diamond geezer I've kept myself busy by counting things. Ten different counts, to be precise, in a stats-tastic 28-day feature called The Count. You therefore won't be surprised to hear that I intend to do exactly the same again this year, indeed you'd be more surprised if I didn't. Expect to read a post of comparisons and contrasts at the end of the month. I kicked off this annual exercise back in 2003 which means I already have over two decades of thrilling historical data to analyse and this'll be a 23rd datapoint. Here's my selected list of ten countables for February 2025. Count 1: Number of visits to this blog (Feb 2024 total: 93789) Count 2: Number of comments on this blog (Feb 2024 total: 861) Count 3: Number of words I write on this blog (Feb 2024 total: 38040) Count 4: Number of hours I spend out of the house (Feb 2024 total: 150) Count 5: Number of nights I go out and am vaguely sociable (Feb 2024 total: 3) Count 6: Number of bottles of lager I drink (Feb 2024 total: 0) Count 7: Number of cups of tea I drink (Feb 2024 total: 123) Count 8: Number of trains I travel on (Feb 2024 total: 265) Count 9: Number of steps I walk (Feb 2024 total: 452000) Count 10: The Mystery Count (Feb 2024 total: 0) (again) Error Count: (Jan 2025 total: 33) I can't promise February will be better but I won't be counting because once you know I'm counting you might get deliberately pernickety. Also if you are going to point out an error please try not to phrase it as a question ("don't you mean Andersen?"), don't be patronising ("I really enjoyed this but...") and never risk a surely, thanks.
More in travel
There are enough people who don’t like how software has evolved, don’t need all of the bells and whistles (and don’t want to pay for it), and remember how much simpler software used to be. It’s how I feel about the music app, Doppler. I don’t know the team at Good Enough, but it seems […] The post Good Enough appeared first on Herbert Lui.
I made this graph to show how busy I was yesterday. 12-1am: In bed preparing to sleep [1] 1-4am: zzzzz [0] 4-5am: No, no need to wake up yet [1] 5-7am: zzzzz [0] 7-8am: Ah there's the alarm, wash, dress, breakfast, pack rucksack [3] 8-9am: Ooh Thames Water are coning off Bus Stop M, I could probably write about that later, buy newspaper, travel to central London terminus, flash my Rail Sale ticket, sit on train. [4] 9-10am: Watch the world go by, looks like I picked a lovely sunny day to go travelling [2] 10-11am: Approaching my destination an argument breaks out at the end of the carriage. A young couple, a beardy boy and a made-up girl, both maybe 17, he insisting he takes her phone, she crying that she didn't delete any messages and he should phone Terry to check, he increasingly suspicious, she increasingly anxious, louder and louder, an underlying vibe of menace/panic. Damn I'm going to have to walk past them to get off the train. The lady who gets to the door first turns to the girl and says "you should leave him", and this triggers the boy to further fury, "what business is that of yours?" Then he turns to me, eyes glinting, "are you her husband cos I'll punch you!" Oh bugger, I think, not again. I agree with the lady that she should leave him but I don't say this, I say "we're not even related", and he turns back to her and the doors open and the argument continues just as angrily as I head down the platform, shaken. [8] 11am-12: I've done the shopping centre, the viewpoint and the A road, now onwards on my chosen walk past the rescue centre, the sewage works and the over-regimented housing estate [6] 12-1pm: It's a lot quieter out here, take the high route, take the low route, properly remote now, lovely, this is why I came [5] 1-2pm: I only allowed myself five hours for this walk, I should get to the station on time, I need to get to the station in time, it's tough underfoot, keep walking [6] 2-3pm: Might have to speed up, will have to speed up, no time to dawdle, just time for a quick dash up the best staircase in town, my feet are complaining now, 12½ miles, phew [8] 3-4pm: Slump onto my appointed train, nice and empty, pour a cuppa from my thermos, look out at all I just walked, do the crossword. [2] 4-5pm: It always gets busier later, sigh, the guy in the seat in front is making phone calls then watching naff videos with the sound up, I daren't say something, the bloke opposite eventually says something. [3] 5-6pm: London's much busier now, hordes and streams flooding home, big crowds on the tube platform. A woman with a smart coat and a bag of gifts dashes for the train and her phone tumbles out onto the track below, a passer-by has to point it out, she's very grateful then absolutely aghast. Don't worry they have grabber things these days says her companion, he goes off to find a member of staff, she stands there utterly lost, even more so when he returns with bad news. She retrieves a card from her bag which says 'Happy 30th birthday' on the front, poor lass, her big day ruined. My second train is absolutely rammed, rush-hour crowding, Saturdays are the new peak time, long gaps in service aren't helping, I expect the sniffling student I'm scrunched up against will have gifted me some winter bug. Canary Wharf is ridiculously busy, huge crowds come to see the Winter Lights, the queue to see the big one in the dock oppressively long, seething walkways, thousands walking round like sheep, where's the fun in this, a sparse selection of artworks this year too, an increasingly blatant attempt to lure suburban families into local restaurants, stuff this I'm off home. [10] 6-7pm: DLR is busy, Bus Stop M is still coned off. Cup of tea, oven on, chicken and a lot of pasta in a mushroom sauce. [4] 7-11pm: Feet up, it's OK I know what I'm writing about tonight, tap away. [2] 11pm-12: Mug of hot milk, head to bed, I shall sleep well tonight. [1]
When I was a teenager, I spent hours trying to improve my computer’s interface. I can’t tell you how many times I changed my Windows XP interface to try to look like a Mac. When Windows Longhorn was out in beta, I spent many afternoons trying to get it to work too—even partitioning my hard […] The post Teenage years, interfaces, and classic technology appeared first on Herbert Lui.
Londoners are only just coming to terms with having different names for the six Overground lines, a change introduced just two months ago. But they could have been renamed ten years ago, indeed plans reached an advanced stage only to hit the buffers when Mayor Boris Johnson decreed everything had to stay orange. This was confirmed this week in an FoI response which revealed three official documents from 2015 detailing why the new names were needed, what they'd be called and how they'd look on maps and signage. You can find that FoI response here, or you can read on. Document 1: London Overground Line Naming approved line names Jan 15 v2.pdf "From the 31st May 2015, when London Overground takes over the West Anglia service we will be introducing a new approach to wayfinding on the network with each line on the network adopting a line name and colour. The overarching name London Overground will be retained. This is the same approach that we take for London Underground." TfL's intention was to rename all the Overground lines to coincide with their takeover of the suburban lines out of Liverpool Street towards Enfield, Cheshunt and Chingford. They recognised that adding a lot more orange to the network might be confusing so were preparing to press ahead and rename things, indeed they'd already confirmed names and colours. "After some consideration, it has been agreed that we will adopt a more traditional route and in the majority of cases use the historic names. Where this is not possible new names have developed or enhanced to ensure customer understand the route that is served." And here are those names. A total of 895 face-to-face interviews were conducted at 11 stations, the chief outcome being that "Overall there was broad support for line names with many expressing ‘strong support’". The report also notes "A minority already spontaneously call the line names by the names we will be using", because that's what happens when you randomly interview nerdier members of the public. The document also included draft signage. Document 2: LONDON OVERGROUND LINE DIFFERENTIATION Sept2015.pdf • The London Overground is rapidly expanding. May 2015 tube map, freshly splurged with orange, and I was fascinated to see whose reactions they'd included. He makes a very salient point, that fourth gentleman. More relevantly, the report included a tube map using the new colours to show what the effect of separating out the lines might be. Also it wasn't yet 100% certain how the line out of Liverpool Street should be rebranded. POTENTAL ALTERNATIVE NAMES FOR THE LEA VALLEY LINE (Branch lines converge at Hackney) (famous English Artisan associated with the Arts and Crafts movement. Born in Walthamstow) (Historical reference to the 1920 services from Liverpool Street high frequency suburban service) (Geographical reference) (Historical reference to the line linking Edmonton Green to Cheshunt) Of those Hackney possibly makes the most sense, River Lea is worse than Lea Valley, Jazz would have baffled most passengers and Southbury didn't have a hope. William Morris probably came closest to making the cut, and committee-friendly Weaver is what we've eventually ended up with. pair of colours to depict each line, which brings us to the next document... Document 3: London Overground line differentiation proposal - October 2015_Redacted.pdf Option 1 is what we eventually ended up with nine years later. Options 2 and 3 reflected a perceived need to retain Overground orange alongside the new colours for overall branding reasons. They look very odd to our eyes now, and when you see them on a tube map they look odder still. believe happened is that when these four options were placed in front of the Mayor he chose option 4, i.e. the status quo, and the entire renaming project bit the dust. three documents from 2015 therefore exist only to show what might have been, indeed confirmation that if Boris had grasped the nettle we wouldn't have ended up with the six inclusive names Sadiq chose instead. Windrush, not East London Mildmay, not North London Suffragette, not Barking Weaver, not Lea Valley Lioness, not Watford Local Liberty, not Emerson Park It's been a very long journey.
