On Thursday 26th July 2018 a meeting took place at City Hall. The subject was Crossrail – the Elizabeth line – and whether it would open on time. Up front were Simon Wright, Crossrail’s then-CEO, and Sir Terry Morgan, its Chairman. To the assembled senior officials from TfL and City Hall, their presentation would have left little room for doubt: Crossrail would not be ready to open in December.
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TfL’s plan for carbon neutral 2050 Tube (Wired)
From using excess heat to warm homes to installing trackside solar panels, here’s how Transport for London is turning the Tube green. Transport for London uses more electricity than anything else in the city. The …
Continue readingFriday Reads – 30 November 2018
Welcome to Reconnections’ Friday Reads: • Walking & cycling could help save high streets (TfL) • Wayfinding Barbican’s hidden high walks (CityWayfinding) • Colour intersections for safety & fun (Guardian) • Pitfalls of technical utopias …
Continue readingFriday Reads – 2 November 2018
Welcome to Reconnections’ Friday Reads: • Station sponsorships and TfL (Reconnections thread) • King’s Cross Coal Drops Yard history & photos (HydeParkNow) • Vacant underpass now useful public space (PopUpCity) • The Millennials improving Boston’s …
Continue readingFare Whom The Bell Tolls: The end of the TfL Ticket Office?
Recently, with minimal publicity, there has been a proposal made that would close the vast majority of ticket offices at London Overground stations. If the proposal is fully acted upon the total number of TfL ticket offices remaining will probably number fewer than thirty and that total will inevitably only go down. This makes it a suitable time to look at what future – if any – there is for TfL-run ticket offices.
Continue readingCS11 London: City of Westminster v TfL
With things not going well for the Mayor and TfL on the railway front, they could have probably obtained some solace in the thought that the Mayor’s ambitious Healthy Streets policy was making good progress. …
Continue readingCrossrail: A Hole New World
At the beginning of August 2018, seven Crossrail core stations were due to be handed over to TfL. Instead, all remain in some state of construction. For Crossrail, this is a problem. For the Elizabeth line it is an even bigger one.
Continue readingTfL’s commercial arm eases pain of £1bn deficit (FT)
Profits from build-to-rent schemes help offset shortfalls in transport revenues The head of Transport for London’s commercial arm has said he expects the division to generate more than £300m this year for the transport body, …
Continue readingCities’ challenges to move masses in 3 dimensions (TheConversation)
Cities are growing vertically as well as horizontally, so infrastructure needs to ensure people can move up and down as well as across the city. Cities worldwide face the problems and possibilities of “volume”: the …
Continue readingBeyond Thameslink and Crossrail: A London Transport Update
Accounts of what is happening in the world of transport in London in the past few months have largely been focused on Crossrail and Thameslink. Whilst these two major construction projects (together totalling over £22billion) …
Continue readingFriday Reads – 15 June 2018
Welcome to Reconnections’ Friday Reads: • TfL bidding to run Buenos Aires Metro (Guardian) • London black cabs to take on Uber (Wired) • Montréal’s iconic old Métro cars becoming creative spaces (NextCity) • How …
Continue readingCrossrail: The Western Approach?
At the beginning of the year it seemed that Crossrail was experiencing something of an information blackout. At a TfL board meeting in late January, the Mayor, its chairman, moved all further discussion about the …
Continue readingLeasing Lizzie: Finding the Funds for Deep Tube
On 3 January 2018, the London Assembly Budget and Performance Committee sat down with TfL to go through their current budget. Discussion largely focused on the various pressures on TfL’s finances – from the removal …
Continue readingThe Metropolitan Line Extension: Deadline Day
On 26 March 2015, outgoing London Mayor and current Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson issued Mayoral Decision MD1478. Based on a cost estimate only 50% likely to be correct, London agreed to fund a transport project, with no cost ceiling, that primarily benefitted a Conservative marginal seat outside of the capital. This is the story of the troubled Metropolitan Line Extension to Watford.
Continue readingTfL eyes digital innovation as funding salvation (Infrastructure Intel)
TfL commissioner Mike Brown has highlighted how digital innovation is the “salvation” for the capital’s transport network and has urged those working in the industry to come forward with ideas that will keep the TfL …
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