Air Rail Today

The new King's Cross

I had a quick look round the new Western Concourse area at King's Cross station today, and was impressed.

Its dramatic roof has been much photographed: certainly it is a nice match between Victorian and contemporary architecture.

At 10:30 on a Friday morning, the new concourse area was quite full both upstairs and down. However, there was still an impression of space: there was still room to move around and to wait in comfort.

The area has plenty of catering, but relatively little retail, although there appears to be lettable space awaiting development.

Access from the upper concourse to the main platforms is unimpressive - although only a minority of passengers is likely to use this route. You go from the wide open spaces of the new upper concourse into a relatively narrow brick entrance, with a first-class lounge on one side and ticket gates straight in front leading to the new overbridge.

The main entrance area to the main platforms, from the ground floor, is much more impressive.

Platform 8 used to be very cluttered and crowded: it was a working platform with catering outlets on one side and at the same time was the main route between main line and suburban platforms. The catering outlets have been removed: it is no longer on a through route. Now it is clear, spacious and uncluttered - a complete transformation.

The station is not yet completely finished. In particular, the 1970s ticketing area is still there - low profile but not beautiful. This will be cleared away to reveal the 1852 architecture and to create a new square in front of the station.

Generally the station is much improved: I was impressed.

Good information good, bad information bad

I was on a non stop train from Waterloo to Woking, in south west London, yesterday. The train was continuing on to Portsmouth.

As it reached Woking, there was an announcement telling passengers that they could change at Woking for a range of destinations - Southampton, Basingstoke, Salisbury, Reading and the like.

This was true, accurate and correct - but a waste of time.

Anyone going to those places would be on a different train - one going direct from Waterloo to Southampton, Basingstoke, Salisbury, Reading and the like.

So why bother?

We already have information overload. We see the results every time we fly - as people are told for the 114th time how to fasten their seat belt, they don't even pretend to listen.

Can we do things a bit more sensibly?

South West Trains - Quiet Cars?

I have blogged before about the Quiet Cars on South West Trains, serving a swathe of South West London as well as Southampton Airport (and, by bus connections, Heathrow too).

My concern was that the signs weren't obvious enough. They have to be good, and users have to be aggessive, or the whole thing's a waste of time.

That rare commodity common sense also helps too!

The 10:30 Waterloo to Woking yesterday was a good example. As I got in there was a group of about a dozen pre-teen kids in the Quiet Car. If they (or the adults with them) could read, there was no immediate sign of it! And I counted at least three mobile phones in use for conversation (as well as, acceptably, text messages). Someone came through checking tickets, but made no comment on the breaches of Quiet Car etiquette.

Sad.

Cable theft - serious preventative measures

The signalling system on 38km of railway has been upgraded on South Africa's Johannesburg - Durban route at Pietermaritzburg.

Part of the upgrade was to protect signalling cables from vandalism and theft.

Reportedly they have been buried 8 metres underground and covered in concrete.

A dramatic illustration of the lengths railway authorities are having to go to protect their installations - and the costs they are having to incur.

A rare outbreak of common sense?

A report on a speech made by the head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) showed some of that uncommon commodity, common sense.

Mr. Pistole said that the TSA is not in the business of eliminating all travel risk. He is quoted as saying, 'Risk is inherent in virtually everything we do. Our objective is to mitigate risk and reduce, as much as possible, the potential for anyone to comit a deliberate attack against our transportation system.'

Wow. An acceptance that risk is out there and cannot be eliminated.

Would that a few more people would recognise that uncomfortable fact and start acting accordingly.

He also said that TSA found 1306 guns in carry-on luggage in 2011!