Belated transport news I missed reporting on several transport stories while I was away so here's a brief catch-up. 🚦 This Saturday the gyratory at St Paul's is being tweaked. The southern end of King Edward Street is being pedestrianised (to create Greyfriars Square) so traffic has to go a diffferent way and so do local buses. Precisely where the 4, 8, 25, 56, 76 and 133 stop will be altering, and route 100 has already been extended to St Bart's. TfL have produced a ridiculously complicated map to try to explain things (my head exploded), so if you need to catch a bus the City of London's vastly oversimplified version should be clearer. 🚡 It amazes me that every time I do one of these round-ups there's a new thing at the cablecar but there always is. This time it's an interactive audio guide you can listen to on the way across with different stories in either direction. It's narrated by Engi-Bear, the cablecar's lumpen mascot, and produced by an Italian software team called POPGuide. You need to bring your own headphones (and indeed your own phone). The unusual thing is that it costs £1, just £1, when they could have given it away for free or tried to make more money out of it. Upselling has never been so flaccid. 🚇 TfL have added another weekday closure of most of the Piccadilly line to their already excessive roster of downtime, specifically Wednesday 28th - Friday 30th October (immediately before a full line closure at the weekend). Whatever is wrong with the new trains must be proving intractable, given it'll be at least next spring before any member of the public gets on board, fingers crossed. 🚌 London's next dead bus is the 349 which is being withdrawn on Saturday. Expect bloggage. On the same day the latest Superloop route is being introduced, the SL12 from Gants Hill to Rainham. The good news that it'll be free to use for the first week, should you happen to live in the area. TfL have produced a route diagram and a long list of stops in both directions, but not a map because that would be too useful. I cannot overemphasise enough how remote the Rainham terminus is, so expect bloggage there too. 📽️ In mid-August TfL published their Advertising Annual Report, a glossy 49 page compilation of all the showiest campaigns of the last year. It reads like a bunch of talented professionals congratulating themselves on a job well done, but unfortunately that job is to make their advertising more and more difficult to miss. Key phrases include "empowering brands to unlock creativity and turn heads" and "innovation remains central to our shared focus". The scariest project is a "plan to deliver world-first, ten-metre-long digital corridor wraps in selected Elizabeth line stations", i.e. huge moving screens you can't take your eyes off. It's so controversial they've made a full-scale mock-up at UCL "to evaluate how digital corridor wraps might impact the experience of customers who are neurodivergent or disabled". See photo. increasing distraction, forever designing formats it's more and more impossible to take our eyes off. 📱 The report also suggests you could be seeing a lot more adverts on TfL Go in future. At present the app generates 76 million page views a month but only made £5,000 in revenue last year, thus "TfL Go represents a significant long-term growth opportunity". 🚌 If you enjoy those free heritage bus days when the London Bus Museum floods a historic route with vintage vehicles, the list of planned events has extended. Route 106: 3rd October 2026. Route 6: 20th March 2027. Route 107: 13th June 2027. Route 85: 2nd October 2027.

Slim Summer Saturday   31 underblogged things I did in July Wed 1: Malted wheats for breakfast. Thu 2: The buzzer wasn't working. Fri 3: Surrounded by school trip. Sat 4: Freezer so needed defrosting. Sun 5: Victoria didn't have any. Mon 6: Sara Cox pefectly adequate. Tue 7: It's always New Malden. Wed 8: Photo of five shoes. Thu 9: Aww, Bonnie Tyler's died. Fri 10: Lawnmower shop still trading. Sat 11: Chatted with the architect. Sun 12: Slightly overcooked pizza, meh. Mon 13: Hurrah, Only Connect's back. Tue 14: Awake much too early. Wed 15: A dry St Swithins. Thu 16: Sorry I hit you. Fri 17: 219 unread emails, sorted. Sat 18: Massive party across paddock. Sun 19: It could be Remy. Mon 20: Farewell Hot Podium Guy. Tue 21: Cider House is booked. Wed 22: To Carshalton and back. Thu 23: Flight Patterns proved hypnotic. Fri 24: Prog Rock Prom excellent. Sat 25: Much better around dogs. Sun 26: Romford got a downpour. Mon 27: Sold out of crumpets! Tue 28: Enjoyed Ben Elton's autobiography. Wed 29: Stupidly wore long sleeves. Thu 30: Met the line lady. Fri 31: It was under France.

30 things we learnt from TfL FoI requests in June 2026 1) In the last 5 years no accidents have been recorded at Liverpool Street Station involving pushchairs being taken through ticket barriers. 2) During 2025 defibrillators were used on 50 occasions across the London Underground network. In each case the pads were required to be replaced. 3) Tube station poster withdrawal information: "We are moving away from posters with first & last times (with the exception of the Metropolitan line which is due to the frequencies on some parts of the line). They are being phased out and replaced with versions such as the attached, which directs customers to the online part of the website where comprehensive timetable information is available." 4) More people catch a southbound bus outside Hayes & Harlington station than catch a northbound bus (10% more, in fact). 5) Bus-related products licenced by TfL include The London Toy Company Bus Pull-along, Corgi New Routemaster Paddington set, Sun Star Models Routemaster, Bachmann EFE Road Leyland 'Seadog', London Sock Exchange socks, Uniqlo bags and Budgy Smuggler Bus Trunks. 6) The borough with the most roundabouts is Hillingdon with 99, followed by Bexley (63), Greenwich (53), Newham (52) and Brent and Enfield (50 each). The City of London has only one roundabout. Other boroughs with fewer than 10 roundabouts are Hackney (2), Islington (6), Camden and Hammersmith And Fulham (7 each) and Lambeth and Kensington And Chelsea (9 each). 7) All Elizabeth line stations have at least two ticket machines except Iver which has only one. Paddington has eight. 8) Thus far the Acoustic Rail Grinding Unit has been trialled in four locations: Epping → Debden (786m of Rail Defect Removal), West Ruislip → South Ruislip (1220m of Rail Defect Removal), Chalfont and Latimer → Chesham (4857m of Liner Rail Grinding), Hillingdon → Eastcote (1706m of Corrective Rail Grinding). 9) In January a planned safety review of bus stop bypasses was withdrawn. This is because some of the implementation dates of bus stop bypasses had been recorded incorrectly. No tenders have yet been issued for a replacement report. This will only happen after the database of bus stop bypasses has been reviewed. 10) The next tube map is due to 'go live' on 6th July 2026. 11) TfL do plan to reopen the stairs up to platform 1 at Notting Hill Gate, but as yet no maintenance has taken place as they are still trying to identify the source of the water ingress. 12) The electric buses on route 323 were requistioned to operate the Silvertown Cycle Shuttle in April last year. There are no plans for route 323 to revert to Zero Emission in the near future. 13) In September 2023 TfL adopted a staff policy which no longer allowed 5 working days to be compressed into 4 days with the same working hours. Individuals with pre-existing arrangements were unaffected. 14) Just to confirm, the Hopper hour is actually 62 minutes and the weekday peaks are actually 06:35-09:27 and 16:05-18:57. 15) TfL have been seeking a new vision for the London Cable Car. "The vision intends to see the LCC go from being a transport mode to one of London's must-do tourist attractions and, importantly, a commercialised leisure attraction." A preferred option has been outlined in a 44 page report, but alas so heavily redacted that it's impossible to guess how ghastly it will be. 16) £428,797.11 was spent installing netting across London Underground buildings between May 2025 and April 2026, including £104,847.46 to install netting at Northfields depot. 17) Bus drivers cannot talk to each other via their radios, they are only able to communicate with their specific route operator (or an emergency operator). 18) Five Central line trains have now been refurbished (up from two this time last year). It's expected that 6 further trains will enter service during this financial year, then 18 in 2027/28, 31 in 2028/29 and 25 in 2029/30. 19) Following discussions with the London Fire Brigade, community libraries have been reinstated at Acton Town, Cockfosters, Ealing Common, East Finchley, High Barnet, Kew Gardens, Kilburn, Northfields, Morden, Oakwood, Ravenscourt Park, Stamford Brook, Willesden Green and Woodside Park stations. 20) No DLR services are scheduled into Platform 3 at Mudchute in the current standard timetable, although it is occasionally used for during unusual/special service patterns (i.e. partial network closures). 21) A charge is levied on requests to close a bus stop as well as for bus diversions where highway works are taking place. The current charge is £256 for the first day of bus stop closure and £86 a day thereafter. The bus diversion charge is a minimum of £1422. Diversion charges combine bus stop charges with consumables. 22) Last year the KSI risk rate for cyclists (Killed or Seriously Injured) was 0.980 per million km collectively travelled. Cyclists are 200 times more likely to be seriously injured than killed. 23) TfL's total advertising estate is as follows: i) at bus shelters 8382 static panels, 843 digital and 204 scrolling. b) at stations 16,479 static panels, 961 digital, 78 scrolling, 41 landmarks, 778 gatelines and 11,520 static on lifts, stairs and escalators. c) on trains 123,632 carriage panels. d) roadside 170 sites. 24) TfL's northernmost dedicated toilet facility for bus drivers is at Waltham Cross bus station, the easternmost is at Bluewater bus station, the southernmost is at Coulsdon Cane Hill Drive and the westernmost is at Uxbridge Belmont Road. 25) Since 2020 only three passengers have been fined for causing noise-based annoyance on the railway, two of them for singing. 26) Around 26% of 60+ Oyster photocard holders fail to complete the address check each year and need to reapply (if they remain eligible). 27) TfL have de-looped two gyratories (Stockwell and Archway) and four roundabouts (Elephant & Castle, Highbury, Old Street and Westminster Bridge South) since 2007. Other authorities have de-looped Aldgate, Brixton Hill, Stratford, St Paul’s, Walthamstow, Whipps Cross and the Kender Street Triangle. Gyratories under future consideration include Greenwich Town Centre, Holborn, Ilford and Shepherd's Bush. 28) There has been no left turn off the A2 Falconwood slip road into Riefield Road since 1978. 29) Mobile coverage is now available in 58% of tube stations and 45% of tunnels (and is planned to reach 100% by the end of the year). 30) TfL estimate that there are half a million mice living across the London Underground network.

31 unblogged things I did in May Fri 1: To celebrate May Day, and to make the most of the glorious weather, I went for a 10 mile walk up the Chess Valley from Rickmansworth to Chesham. Along the way I passed 16 dogs, 19 horses, 2 cows, 68 butterflies, 8 birds of prey, 5 bluebell woods and 71 people, 13 of whom said hello. Highly recommended. Sat 2: I have once again managed to ride all the TfL buses in the space of a calendar year, in this case 4 months. My last two buses were the frustratingly infrequent 399 and the Lakeside-bound 372. This is the sixth time I've achieved this feat, the quickest being 2023 when I had the whole lot ticked off by the end of January. Sun 3: Went to the South Bank because it was the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Festival of Britain. However the Royal Festival Hall was entirely closed to casual visitors having been turned into a massive artsy walkthrough experience called You Are Here, co-directed by Danny Boyle, ticket price £45. The outside section included a soul band, jazz trumpeters and a fog slalom, and the interior a lot of performative dancing. It certainly wasn't the inclusive celebration the original FoB had been, and I haven't seen one good review. [Highlights now on iPlayer] Mon 4: Another daily game that might suck you in is Clues by Sam, a grid of 20 suspects where you have to decide (by logic alone) who's innocent and who's a criminal. [Nancy is one of Sue's 3 innocent neighbors] Grids get harder during the week, so Sunday's a lot harder than Monday. Tue 5: Swanley Mini Mart has the most unnerving selection of liquids on its exterior vinyl... Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Red Bull, bottled water... vegetable oil... Fairy Liquid, Domestos. Wed 6: Hats off to the dog in Richmond who waited until he was right outside David Attenborough's house before squatting and doing a dump on the pavement. Thu 7: I managed to complete the Guardian's 30,000th crossword, and spotted the hidden clues directing solvers to the perimeter of today's Quick Crossword, and solved the nina directing solvers to today's editorial, and spotted the acrostic message referencing the last 35 primes. However I did not check the bottom row of every prime numbered crossword grid published since January 2025 to discover the final message heralding a special crossword published at noon. Hats off to an incredible creative tour de force. Fri 8: Bexley Country Market takes place every Friday morning in Freemantle Hall, a cosy circuit with tables of jams, glassware, candles, twee clocks, homemade greetings cards and unusual knitted things, almost like being in a provincial village rather than Greater London. Sat 9: The police have started doing regular speed checks at Bus Stop M, hoping to catch cars speeding up just before the limit rises from 20 to 30 at the Bow Flyover. I've spotted their snoopy lenses at least half a dozen times this month. Sun 10: Another daily game for you - dailymetro.live is yet another variant on 'guess the tube station'. The full archive is available to play. Mon 11: I unfollowed someone on social media who used to be interesting but has become a relentless hypercritical doomsayer and my timeline is much happier as a result. I have my eye on two further accounts that are alas heading the same way. Tue 12: Yesterday I walked across Ponders End Park. Today I walked over the top of Riddlesdown. Landscapewise south London beats north London hands down. Wed 13: Zack Polanski liked one of my tweets today, which is often the kind of thing that gets him into deep trouble. Thu 14: A squirrel turned up on my balcony, dug up a monkey nut and sat there brazenly watching me while chewing it. Fri 15: Tom Edwards has made a 4 minute piece for BBC London called 'Does Anyone Actually Use London’s Cable Car?', including mention of its alternative title, and blimey it's had 200,000 views on YouTube. Thanks Tom! Sat 16: I read in Tower Hamlets Slice that the stables at Bow Police station have permanently closed and the 10 horses have been retired, redeployed, or rehomed. This is part of significant budget cuts to the Met's mounted division and ends 80 years of local service. The stables are "pure Moderne in white concrete" and Grade II listed so will be hard to repurpose. On the positive side, no more brown dollops down Bow Road on match days. Sun 17: I made the mistake of coming home via Hackney Wick and emerged into the mania of the aftermath of the Hackney Half Marathon, the streets clogged with sweaty folk 'rehydrating', also no buses for hours so I had to walk home. Mon 18: Over the next two months the Radio 4 Sunday afternoon quiz slot will be filled by pilot episodes of potential new quiz series. Tonight I went along to the recording of one of them in a really tiny venue, squished in and watched the bare bones of how radio is made. I was impressed by the host's quick wit and if the show is commissioned I'll be well chuffed to have seen the first one. [31 May & 7 June Bookmarks (with Claire Balding), 14 & 21 June Déjà News (with Lucy Porter), 28 June & 5 July Your Number's Up (with Max Fosh), 12 & 19 July Around the World in 80 Ways (with Simon Reeve)] Tue 19: At Waterloo station they were giving away free Ginsters pastries which you're supposed to put in a toaster before eating. Obviously nobody has a toaster nearby at 9.30am, and most workplaces outlaw them as a fire risk, so I wonder how many other people wolfed theirs down cold too? Wed 20: I have once again managed to visit every London station in a calendar year, in this case 4½ months. Specifically I either touched in or out at every station in zones 1-9, I didn't just pass through. My last three stations were Tadworth, Chipstead and Thames Ditton. This is the second time I've achieved this feat, and four weeks quicker than last year. Thu 21: It's been over two months since scaffolding went up across the front of Bromley-by-Bow station prior to repairing the smashed glass roundel, but only this week has someone been up and taken all the glass out. It's now fully boarded-up and looks worse than before. Fri 22: It's British Sandwich Week, the theme this year 'Seven Days, Seven Sandwiches', and I don't think there's a single concoction on the list anyone from the 20th century would recognise as a sandwich. (folded pinsa bread with a twist, anyone?) Sat 23: Riding the seriously unbusy Liberty line between Upminster and Romford, I shared the back carriage with a uniformed member of staff who seemingly just shuttles back and forth all day doing bugger all. (n.b. they may not actually stare at their phone all day, but it certainly looked like it) Sun 24: I've had a Mr Daydream glass tumbler since I was a child, regularly used. Today I filled it with lemon squash, gulped down to cool off, rested it slightly too near the edge of a table and smash, it ended up in sharp pieces on the carpet. Look after your heirlooms, folks. Mon 25: I think I was the only person at the Dorset seaside wearing jeans, or indeed any kind of long trousers. Tue 26: On today's walk I listened to Equus, a horse-stabbing play by Peter Shaffer first broadcast on Radio 4 in 1980. I can't believe my English teacher let me read it, review it and submit an essay about it for my O Level. [The play's currently being performed at the Menier Chocolate Factory] Wed 27: I know I said I wasn't going to carry on doing this but...     Enf 25      Harr 25Barn 25Hari 25WFor 25   Hill 25Eal 25Bren 25Cam 33Isl 33Hack 25Redb 25Hav 25 Hou 25H&F 25K&C 25West 33City 43Tow 144New 139B&D 25  Rich 25Wan 25Lam 33Sou 33Lew 25Grn 25Bex 25   King 25Mer 25Cro 25Bro 25      Sut 25     Thu 28: Walking through the Olympic Park I heard the sound of whistles, then spotted outrider motorbikes stopping the traffic so a Landrover Discovery with tinted windows could slip safely through. Living on Bow Road this kind of thing happens quite a lot, and I often end up wondering who it is I haven't seen. Fri 29: I worry that the unprecedented May heatwave has borked the innards of my stash of Creme Eggs. Usually you can count on getting to the Best Before Date on 31st July before the yolk solidifies. Sat 30: Arrived at Heathrow to find the Piccadilly line closed for engineering works and Crossrail closed due to flooding. The bus station was a grim scrum of folk with heavy suitcases trying to pile onto double deckers to escape, and goodness knows how many people missed flights because they were trying to find a way in. Sun 31: I dropped by the Arsenal victory parade route but six hours before the bus arrived. Nevertheless the street was already busy with milling fans in red shirts, also dubious persons selling red hats, red scarves, red flags and red vuvuzelas, also excitable fans pouring off the trains in enormous numbers, and this was just the advance guard. I don't know how they filled the intervening hours, nor how those setting off from the outer suburbs three hours later ever got close enough to find a space, and all for just 90 seconds of top deck waving. Sun 31: My post on London's Free Roof Terraces hit Hacker News today so in piled the Americans, making it the 4th busiest day ever on this blog.

30 unblogged things I did in April Wed 1: My blogpost about TfL producing a new set of bus maps may have been an April Fool but Quickmap do a truly excellent Greater London bus map which is online here. I might have saved that jpg to my phone. Thu 2: The West Ham chunk of the Greenway may be closed until (sigh) Autumn 2028 but all the lampposts are still lit after dark, illuminating absolutely nobody. Fri 3: Norfolk day 1: Damn I forgot to pack toothpaste. Hello to my nephew who's just moved out of London to the ancestral homeland. Impressed by my brother cutting £100 off the Easter shopping bill by using Nectar points. Sat 4: Norfolk day 2: My niece has to endure the rest of us discussing baby names. The first garden-cooked lunch of the year. Ah so that's what Acle looks like. Saturday Night Live is quite good but not worth getting Sky for. Sun 5: Norfolk Day 3: Blimey that was a stormy night (thanks Dave). Thankyou for my second-hand books. Maintain a family tradition by hiding cardboard eggs around the house. Crumble and custard please. Thickthorn roadworks are bad. Mon 6: Norfolk Day 4: The Classic FM top 300 feels overwhelmingly unchallenging. Find a government-issue box of hole fasteners dated October 1979. Oh, I did bring my toothpaste after all but it was hiding in a side-pocket. Tue 7: That feels like the closest the world has come to tipping into Armageddon since the last despotic madman made a lunatic threat. Thanks for letting us off with 90 minutes to go. Wed 8: I see Radio 4's Round Britain Quiz has slimmed down from six teams to four, so just eight episodes this year rather than twelve. I bet that means they can record it all in one weekend rather than two, so it's just another BBC cost-cutting measure. Thu 9: Gail's have opened a bakery branch in Stratford, admittedly in Westfield, but blimey! I remember being similarly blindsided when a Starbucks opened in Stratford in 2007. Fri 10: I forgot the freezer compartment door was open and bashed my head on it, ouch. Best not do that too often. Sat 11: A guided ramble was gathering at Knockholt station, and this woman who'd arrived early was wondering if there was a cafe nearby. You couldn't have picked a remoter station, I said. She didn't stop talking, or worrying, so I felt sorry for the other lady who'd arrived early and was her sole audience. And this is why I don't like going on group walks. Sun 12: You'll be glad to hear that the family tortoise is getting a new run, that is unless you're my brother and you've got to make it and bolt it together before she wakes up. Mon 13: Would you like to watch tube trains moving around the network like pulsing worms? Try londonunderground.live. Tue 14: I hate it when my laptop restarts overnight and casually deletes some of the files I have open. I'd mind less if it warned me in advance. Wed 15: I do not necessarily endorse Mr Dweeb in Crouch End, but it is a great name for a tech repair business. Thu 16: Anyone could see who this year's Apprentice winner was going to be from the very early episodes, and I suspect so could Lord Sugar, but he still trooped through twelve episodes to get there. Fri 17: Amongst the unexpected travel delays I've suffered this week a) a fire on the Westway b) a police cordon in Thornton Heath c) a logjam of traffic at Canada Water. Also innumberable bloody temporary traffic lights. Sat 18: Gah, the newspaper's gone up again, last week £4.20, now £4.50. It was only £1.30 twenty years ago. Sun 19: Six things I didn't mention in Bishop's Stortford: i) adverts for lawnmowers on the station platform, ii) a barber shop called Hairy Wolves, iii) the relocated water fountain iv) Baron Dimsdale's memorial v) the Stortford Shuttle vi) the night in 1967 when Cream were supported by the Teapots. Mon 20: In partnership with On London, this analysis of local election prospects in all 32 boroughs is phenomenally detailed and a fascinating read. We'll see next week if it was correct. Tue 21: Had a 25th anniversary night out on the town with BestMate which kicked off at the restaurant where we used to eat in 2002, then moved on to the pub where we used to drink. We ended up at the theatre to watch the Yes Prime Minister finale, which was good but nowhere near sharp enough. Wed 22: Every time I cross Hammersmith Bridge I see three 72 buses parked at the bus stand on the north side, which suggests this recently rejigged route is substantially over-bussed. Thu 23: Twelve days ago the tree outside my window was blazing with white blossom. Today that's all shrivelled and the branches are teeming with green leaves. The spring transition is so brief. Fri 24: In Muswell Hill I was approached by a downbeat man who told me the buses weren't running, also it's too dangerous to sit upstairs after dark, and had I heard this Irish lad got stabbed, and basically you can't go out safely because London's so dangerous these days. I told him I lived in Tower Hamlets and it wasn't edgy it was absolutely fine, but I don't think I shifted his negative worldview. Sat 25: Today I went to Chessington South, and I am very pleased with the consequences of this decision. Sun 26: I was reminded that I don't have the football gene when a rowdy phalanx of chanting Leeds United fans boarded the train at Ruislip, absolutely pumped for the upcoming Wembley semi-final, and imagine believing in something as fervently as that. Mon 27: If you enjoyed my 2020 post about low bridge signs, Matt Parker's made a much better video in which (with the aid of an Oxbridge maths professor) he reveals how many possible signs there are and which of the 65 nobody can find. Tue 28: Yesterday I saw a pack of 12 pens I wanted to buy, normally £20 but reduced to £13. But postage added another fiver so I thought I'd go to Covent Garden and buy it in person. Alas when I got there today a) the price was now £27 b) they'd sold out. Seize the day! Wed 29: I don't suffer from hayfever but today I was snuffling and sneezing, just for a few hours, peaking in Kennington Park. Looks like the oaks were to blame. Thu 30: How can it be a decade? Well done.