Crossing the broken Circle line

Tonight I travelled on a lesser-frequented part of the Underground network, joining the Outer Rail (or Clockwise to the layman) Circle line at Notting Hill Gate.  Despite the S7 Stock trains having been in front line service on the Circle for a good couple of years now, the platform length issues in this area have escaped my recent attention.

Notting Hill Gate Inner Road (anti-clockwise).  The end of the platform is the white barriers on the centre left of the photo, whilst the stop marking for the train is the green and yellow marking to the centre right!  Quite a considerable amount of Circle line and District line (Wimbledon-Edgware Rd service) berths outside the platform.

Notting Hill Gate station. Beautiful, love these cut & roof (rather than cut & cover) stations on the west side of the Circle.  Camera phone does not handle light very well.

On the Outer Rail the tail end of the train, the final two sets of doors, berths outside of the platform. As can be seen the doors of course remain closed.  I assume the same end of the train is used in both directions so the internal stickers, see below, are only at one end.  And I'm writing that trying desperately to think if an S7 could be turned so that the stickers could ever be at the wrong end, and I think that would only be possible is one ended up going round Watford North Curve (post script: this is a ridiculous statement, two minutes more thought and I realise it can easily happen around Cromwell Rd Jn swapping between District and C&H services) - and I think something would have gone seriously wrong for an S7 to end up there!

View from inside the train berthed outside the platform. Move along!

The rear two sets of doors (Outer Rail) - and therefore front two sets on the Inner Rail - have this notice about doors not opening at some stations - the same doors do not open at Bayswater and Paddington (District/Praed St) whilst the sign illuminates in stations.  Talk about bespoke rolling stock!

Heading to King's Cross the cross-platform interchange off the terminating Circle on to the through Circle was almost seamless.  Here's a Hammersmith to Edgware Road train passing through Edgware Road for the first time on its trip.

The S7 in my opinion parallels if not betters the finest metro style rolling stock in the world.  Spacious. clean lines, big doors, walk-through, great customer information.  Work trips with shorter ladies has established a lack of grab rails in some places but far worse exists on the fabled Far Eastern metros!

At Baker Street all three sets of doors in the rear vehicle do not open (this will be the leading three in the opposite direction).  Here's an 'arm-selfie' of what the customer sees through the door!

As an extra set of doors is problematic just at Baker Street, there is a Baker Street-only sign on this set!  There are also visual and audible announcements in this car about doors not opening.  Doesn't stop people trying to get out though!

And I had a quick look at some recent developments on the King's Cross St Pancras London Underground station.....

Memories of 2012:  mass swathes of 'Olympink' have found their way on to the network for the Rugby World Cup. The final is this weekend though so expect to see it come down pretty soon.  The Olympink has become the standard for ad-hoc event signage - it was also used for the Tour de France in 2014. 

However, genuine Olympics signage remains at two lifts (at least, that I saw) at King's Cross St Pancras - they have survived well for 3+ years.  Let's hope they never go!

The new London Underground retail and staffing model has seen many ticket offices close.  The requirement for ticketing capacity at KXSP has seen large new suites of passenger-operated ticket machines installed - the foreground of this picture used to be a conventional ticket office.  I also once spent a spectacularly dull shift assisting at this bank of ticket machines!

The new retail and staffing model has seen 'Visitor Centre' spring up to replace some of the softer functions of the ticket offices.  In bloody pink.  Eurostar trains are still arriving at St Pancras International all of 200 yards from the Visitor Centre: this is the main entrance to the Underground for Eurostar passengers.  It is all brightly lit up and welcoming but is it open? You can guess the answer to that......

Transport for London unwittingly found itself in the press earlier this week, when it installed an automated foreign exchange machine in immediate proximity to the 7/7 Memorial at King's Cross St Pancras.  The photos in the link show it does change the focus from the memorial to the exchange rates.  Well, three days later it has gone. No idea where to.

And here is evidence of it's removal.  The bags by the way were attended just I chose to not include the attendee in shot (and it was a +4 on to my Thameslink train home so I didn't hand around waiting for the bags' owners to move on).

Busworld part 2 - electricity

I went to Busworld to look at service buses. Buses for cities.  I have little interest in coaches or inter-urban services, similarly I didn't look at the vast arrays of destination displays, seats, uniforms, lifts, engines, gearboxes, cleaning fluids, oils, and all the other things that make up a bus and coach operation that were seeking buyers.

The overarching theme of the city buses on display was operation by means other than diesel.  Of these electric buses of various sorts were dominant.  This part of the blog will look at just how many different interpretations of electric and systems for charging were on offer.  Again, very little in the way of vehicles designed for the UK - being as they are all left hand drive - but I'll offer some thoughts as I go about applicability to the United Kingdom market.

In order to remember what I'd looked at (without making notes!) I also sought literature from the manufacturers' representatives on their stands.  Some of the stands were very big glossy affairs, some less so.  So were very willing to talk to anyone (especially when you told them you worked for Transport for London!), others less interested in Englishman.  Some had copious leaflets on display, many had [one suspects agency provided] young ladies manning desks behind which literature was hidden, and to some you were their new best friend!

In alphabetical order of manufacturer we start with Bodgan.  Bodgan are a Ukrainian manufacturer who rank as the most friendly, traditionally selling buses domestically and in former USSR, notably Russia and Georgia.  Their reps bemoaned the war with Russia affecting sales, but were proud of the fact they had driven their pretty solid product all the way from Kiev.  I suspect this model A70522 diesel-electric hybrid has no potential in the UK (although it is a Cummins ISB in the back so most British bus engineers will recognise it I think) but could have a 'low cost' appeal in central Europe.  Nice people, good luck to them!

Sileo is a brand that has been developed by Turkish manufacturer Bozankaya, but boy do they keep it quiet.  Everything is branded Sileo, presumably aiming a product at the western European market, which has been a difficult market for the Turks to enter in any real numbers.The Sileo vehicles (rigid and articulated) have roof mounted batteries with a range of 'over' 200km and a 4 hour charge time.  Technology probably isn't quite there for operators who put buses on the road for 20/hours a day.

The first part of this blog showed the BYD electric double decker for London.  BYD's other bus exhibit was this electric 18m articulated bus, which is offered with wither plug-in or pantograph charging.  I hadn't appreciated the pantograph element at the show but there are some other examples of this later!

 

Castrosua of Spain illustrated this 10m hybrid integral bus (they are usually a body builder) utilising Cummins and Siemens technology 'under floor'.  It looks pretty ugly!

Ebusco are a Dutch company who claim to be adapt vehicles from other manufacturers as well as start building their own.  They displayed a 12m fully electric single decker, and claim a 100% charge in 1.6 hours with a 300+km range.  The vehicle on display also carried Transdev fleet names so I assume it will be going on trial with a Trandev operation somewhere soon!

Irizar of Spain brought their i2e plug-in electric bus.  Nothing new here - one has been in service with London Central on the Red Arrow routes 507/521 for a few months now.  Reading about a 6 hour charging time suggests I don't know enough about the different types of battery technology.

Ahhhh King Long.   Forever trying to sell in volume in Europe: the Maltese bought it but otherwise too cheap even for the cheapest of British operators.  I'm not sure many UK operators will touch King Long after the issues with their previous UK agents.  Somewhat dismissive salesman, who insists they will be in the UK next year.  Nice pen and USB set from them though1  This King Long E12 is a combined plug-in and diesel-hybrid electric bus featuring a Cummins engine. 

King Long E12. How many buttons? This is the left side of the dash.  I love the diagrams on the top row.

More buttons, this is the right side of the dash.

More buttons here than on an entire Dart!  This is the side of the cab below the window.  I forgot to photograph the steering wheel, which the King Long brochure shows with an additional 12 buttons.

And two buttons worth focussing on.  Snow might be useful.  But, what single decker service bus needs a 'sport' button??

Citywide is the branding for Scania's range of Citybuses.  The LE features a chonking great 9 litre engine and a fuel capacity of 300-400 litres.  In my mind tht suggests it should run for days and days without refuelling, though the publicity is scant on detail about the eletric bits, and seems to rely a lot on bio-fuels.  Suspect they are playing catch-up and prefer to be building nice heavyweight diesel city buses!

A Solaris pure electric bus: pantograph charging is just visible.  Probably the snobbiest stand! I've no idea what this is called, and although I'm assured they will never be sold in the UK, they have gone a but 'Borismaster' with the windscreen!

But what a cab!  Or, spaceship mission control :-) I think that would do my nut driving at night and I'd prefer a nice set of rocker switches.

The Solaris electric bus also featured a simulator. Clearly for children, but I didn't crash in my brief play!

The VDL Citea Electric offers a choice of electric hub motors or an electric driveline alongside a 4.5L Cummins diesel engine on a rigid or articulated chassis. I wonder if the electrics will make it to the UK with Arriva?

The VDL Citea Electric also offers a pantograph charging option.

Volvo also offer pantograph charging in their 7900 battery bus.

Volvo also offer a diesel-electric hybrid version of their 7900m shown here in articulated form.

The last electric is the Yutong E12.  Yutong are apparently the world's biggest bus manufacturer, and this left hand drive diesel/battery hybrid is for trial service in Paris.  Of every Chinese bus I have been in this felt the most western, solid feeling interior, cab without a million buttons or blind strings and relatively modest looks.  Yep the UK salesman is from Yorkshire and a right hand drive version is on the cards......

Athens Metro and the Economic Meltdown

July 2015 took me to down town Athens for the first time.  In the aftermath of financial meltdown and a never ending round of elections, who knew what I'd find?

I started with the train service (operated by Trainosem, Greek national railways) from the new international airport, to connect to the Metro Line 1 at Nerantziotissa.  The service winds it way round northern Athens every 20-30 minutes, and shares track with the half hourly service on Metro line 3 as far as Douk.Plekantias.  This was the most convenient route for my hotel, but as becanme evident not the way many tourists go or are advised to go.

There is a staffed ticket office at Athens airport.  There is basically only one ticket, which at 8 euros is a significant fare premium  to get to/from the airport (usual single fare is 1.20 euros).

Map of Athens Metro also showing the Trainose heavy rail line, in yellow.  Borrowed from Wikipedia.

Rolling stock used on the Trainose service from the airport looks decent - from a distance.  Memory escapes me as to what it was other than definitely being German!

Up close it is a lot rougher, lots of evidence of graffiti removal.

The Trainose Athens-Kiato railway from the airport is running in the median of the motorway network for much of its length.

Interchange to Metro Line 1 (dating from 1860s) is at Nerantziotissa.  There are separate ticket offices for the main line railway and the Metro - or were.  This is the main line ticket office now closed and plastered in notices of various sorts.

The whole station at Narantziotissa has a very unkept feel.  Here some ticket validators are missing on entry to the southbound metro platform.

A whiteboard serving no use whatsoever!

Rolling stock on Line 1 dates from the 1980s and 1990s and is in very poor visual condition.

Interiors and particularly windows on line 1 have a lot of graffiti.

Bodysides of line 1 trains are also heavily graffitied.

The station at Larissa is nicely decorated on several walls with images of Greek railways of days gone by.

Quite a simple range of tickets for travel outside of the airport premium. 60 cents child single, 1.20 euros adult single or a 4 euro day ticket.  With the option of buying up to 5 tickets.  Normally I'd admonish for such a poor range but at such low fares it seems entirely appropriate to be simple.  There are also weekly and longer season tickets availabke which i assume you'd need to use a ticket office for.

Not all Athens Metro stations are graffitied and grotty: this is Syntagma in central Athens.

Athens Metro lines 2 and 3 operate independantly from line 1, with different signalling systems and rolling stock.  Whilst some older style rolling stock. similar to line 1, is used, the majority of line 2 and 3 trains are modern smart units built by Hyundai-Rotem.

A different (older, early 2000s) style of Hyundai-Rotem train for Athens Metro lines 2 and 3.

The newest line 2/3 cars have illuminated car line diagrams showing the next stop.

  

The car line diagrams extenuate the fact that different stock operates on lines 2 and 3.  Note also the use of the Olympic rings on the tube map: I assume they have an exemption to do this as they are very closely protected trademark!

The usual interchange station for airport customers using the Trainosel service is at Douk. Plekantias, where you change from line 3 (not withstanding the half hourly through service on line 3 to the airport!).  As can be seen it is much more modern and welcoming at concourse level.

The waiting environment for the Trainose service is just as grim as everywhere else: a concrete box surrounded by motorway!

My visit was at the height of the Greek financial crisis.  However here is a cash machine with no queue, proving what the TV news reports show - long queues etc - is not reflected in reality.

Another ATM with no queue. Loadsamoney!

Pro- and anti- osterity protests outside parliament at Syntagma Square.

Graffiti though is everywhere in Athens!