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.
It's particularly symbolic for me because I was born in the Year of the Snake and they don't come round very often, only every twelve years, a rare marker of the inexorable passage of time. It's even more symbolic because officially it's the year of the Wood Snake, an elemental prefix based on a five-yearly cycle, just as it was the year of the Wood Snake 5×12=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)
I've not been born yet, I'm somewhere around 33 weeks and kicking occasionally.
18 February 1977(Fire Snake)
I'm in my first year of secondary school and it's the day before half term. Writing a diary is new to me and I'm only penning about 30 words a day. Last week we all had our BCG injections (I still have the scar), my Dad failed to pass his driving test and I proved incapable of making progress towards my 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)
I have passed through school and university and am at work doing my first job. It's an unusually mild day for early February (15°C) so I'm not wearing a coat. Even in 1989 the news was suggesting that the greenhouse effect might have contributed. Today is my grandmother's 84th birthday and I have forgotten to send her a card, which is remiss but I will attempt to make amends at the weekend by dropping in with a basket of mini roses. Kashaf is back at work after having been abroad for three months and he's brought us a present from the Punjab. Lunch is spaghetti bolognaise. In the afternoon I am mildly rebuked for copyright reasons, sorry Wendy, but I have learned an important lesson. Workmen from a cable TV company are busy digging up the pavement down our street which is appropriate because Sky TV started broadcasting yesterday. At present barely 60,000 homes can access it and there's no indication its four channel offering (entertainment/news/movies/sport) will be successful. On terrestrial TV tonight Wogan launches plans for Red Nose Day 2 and ITV are heavily previewing Home and Away which they hope will compete with uber-popular Neighbours. Next week Mick Fleetwood and Sam Fox will be hosting 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)
I'm in the last months of Job 3 and yesterday I met the new boss who's about to inspire me to leave for Job 4. He's breezed in smiling but before long we'll deduce he's all mouth and lazy self-promotion. The office is full of gossip. Scott Mills is sitting in on the Radio 1 Breakfast show this week, which just goes to show how little things change. I'm not feeling 100%, I have a bubbly cough and a discoloured tongue. My work today involves driving to a hub on the A143 and attempting to be more helpful than the usual manager, including a lot of photocopier action. When I get home I open my Orange phone bill and it's quite high because I've sent a lot of 6p 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)
I'm blogging now so you'll know all about this. Today's post is about 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 ad 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.
...and a new subcategory...
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.
The plan is to introduce a fleet of 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.
It's been a long time coming. 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.
We have a proposed route.
Waterloo → Elephant & Castle → Burgess Park → Old Kent Road → New Cross Gate → Lewisham
It's not going to stop much because plenty of other buses fill the gaps. Effectively it mirrors what a Bakerloo line train would do, but skipping Lambeth North because that would slow the route down. There'll be two stops at Elephant & Castle and 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.
The intention is for the BL1 to run every 12 minutes, which is what most other Superloop routes do, creating connections unavailable by train. It'll help fill one of the largest transport black holes in central London, the Burgess Parkgap, 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.
There's also now a separate consultation page for 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
The eleventh Superloop route will be an express version of route 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
The twelfth Superloop route is out east because Sadiq's keen to finally gift a bauble to the borough of Havering. Its western end looks like an express version of route 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.
The SL11 and SL12 won't be arriving before next year and the 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-twoconsecutiveFebruaries 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)
I've also been counting something in January, not February, because it was important I didn't tell you I was doing it. I've been counting all the times I made a mistake on the blog and you pointed it out and you were correct.
Error Count:(Jan 2025 total: 33)
Last month there were 33 occasions when I wrote something incorrect and it was pointed out, an average of just over one error a day. Arguably that's not many, arguably it's too many. Most corrections were in the comments but some came direct via email, which was appreciated. 20 were incorrect facts ("no, it opened in 1856", "I think you'll find Westminster School don't play rugby", "but Upminster platform 6 has no step-free access", etc) and 13 were typos (e.g. "until until?", "Clay Tye Rpad", "it's Powis Street, not Powis Road", "Edmund has become Edward").
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.
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.
