(if you're not especially interested in buses and trains, here's a brief diversionary interlude in Enfield)
You'll know Bush Hill Gardens if you use Ridge Lane Library, get your fish and chips from Rocky Reef or leave your jackets at Landfield Dry Cleaners. You'll have passed the busy street corner with the old school signpost so typical of erstwhile Edmonton, perhaps while riding merrily up Cycleway 20. You'll have seen the metal arch glinting enticingly above the gate, maybe even stopped to read the Public Spaces Protection Order on the railings. But if you've never stepped through the entrance you've missed out on discovering what lies within this sylvan acre, and that might be a pity.
The gardens are in two parts - a mostly flat grassy space suitable for a minor kickabout and a contoured landscaped hollow. It looks very much like a big old house might have occupied the top half while the pretty bit with the big trees is their old garden, but it turns out no, this just was the corner of a field that Enfield Urban District Council transformed into a public park in 1925. The faded noticeboard inside the gates isn't quite that old but must be 1980s at the very latest with its references to Park Keepers and a list of byelaws signed by Wilfred D Day, Chief Executive & Town Clerk. Among the activities still subject to a fine of TWENTY POUNDS are beating a carpet, leading cattle to pasture, erecting any pole and letting your greyhound off its lead.
A perimeter path allows for complete circumnavigation, interrupted only by a set of rustic steps and intermittently enhanced by the pleasant smell of pines. But it's really only the landscaped half where you'll want to linger, perhaps staring into the reedy pool or crossing the decorative bridge over the pointless stream. Here you may meet some of the local hoodied teenagers, alternately vaping and making out on the bench below the shrubbery. But if they're absent this is the ideal spot to sit and eat that Steak Bake you bought from the Greggs over the road on Bush Hill Parade. Just be advised that, although separate Ladies and Gentlemen's entrances remain on Village Road, the public conveniences were demolished many years ago so maybe don't buy the Large Americano.
(if you're not especially interested in buses, trains or Enfield, my apologies)
TfL closed all their ticket offices at Underground stations in 2013 to much initial outcry.
But the Overground is a completely different kettle of fish, coming instead under the National Rail umbrella, so their ticket offices have mostly lingered on. You can still rock up at Acton Central, Dalston Junction or Penge West and buy an actual ticket from an actual human, should you so desire, so long as you rock up during the designated hours the ticket office is actually open.
So how many people are still buying tickets from ticket offices at Overground stations? Thanks to a Freedom of Information request published this week we can answer that question, and it turns out that last year just over 150,000 tickets were sold. The top performing ticket office was Walthamstow Central with total sales exceeding 300 tickets a week. But many Overground ticket offices are selling a lot less than that, and at one station the annual ticket sales equate to less than two tickets a month. We'll get to that...
A bit of background for you. TfL only operate ticket offices at 62 Overground stations. They don't have responsibility for larger National Rail stations like Richmond, Watford Junction, Barking and New Cross, or indeed smaller ones like Cheshunt and Denmark Hill. They've never sold tickets on the Gospel Oak-Barking line because those ticket offices had gone before TfL took over. Back in 2018 they proposed closing ticket offices at 51 of their Overground stations but, against the usual run of things, backed down and merely reduced the opening hours. The only Overground stations to have lost their ticket offices over the last five years are Stamford Hill, White Hart Lane and Theobalds Grove where 'temporary closures' were quietly made permanent.
The FoI request concerns ticket sales at each Overground ticket office during the period 01/01/2022 to 31/12/2022, i.e the whole of 2022. You can download the spreadsheet here, have a look at an ordered list here or just stare at this map.
Some of those numbers are very very low indeed.
The Overground stations with the highest ticket sales in 2022 1) Walthamstow Central 17381 2) West Croydon 13461 3) Norwood Junction 13097 4) Enfield Town 10056 5) Edmonton Green 8782 6) Bushey 7723 7) Forest Hill 7648 8) Crystal Palace 7536 9) Chingford 6941 10) Brockley 6925
Top of the heap, by some distance, is Walthamstow Central. It serves the Victoria line as well as the Overground so has a bit of a head start. West Croydon is also served by Southern trains, and Norwood Junction by Southern and Thameslink, and they're on this list because TfL ultimately run the station. Enfield Town is the highest placed station served solely by the Overground. A lot of these stations are at the end of the line so bridgeheads to a much wider area. The West Croydon, Crystal Palace and Chingford branches feature strongly.
But although these numbers may look strong, if you divide annual sales down into weeks or days they start to look weaker. Only Walthamstow Central, West Croydon and Norwood Junction are selling more than 200 tickets a week. Chingford and Brockley aren't even managing 20 tickets a day. The only other Overground stations selling more than 10 tickets a day are New Cross Gate, Sydenham, Willesden Junction and Highams Park. Admittedly 2022 was a tough year on the rail network, affected initially by the pandemic and later by rail strikes, but these are not especially high figures.
Typically when I dropped in at Walthamstow Central yesterday the ticket office was temporarily closed, but that may have been down to the member of staff fiddling with the innards of a ticket machine by the gateline.
Brace yourself.
The Overground stations with the lowest ticket sales in 2022 1) Caledonian Road & Barnsbury 18 2) Rotherhithe 63 3) Brondesbury 77 4) South Acton 80 5) Hoxton 86 6) Bruce Grove 89 7) South Hampstead 92 8) Brondesbury Park 104 9) Haggerston 120 10) Shadwell 132
Theses are staggeringly low totals for ticket sales during an entire calendar year. None of these stations are averaging more than three ticket sales a week. Rotherhithe is barely managing one a week. Caledonian Road & Barnsbury has rock bottom ticket sales averaging one sale every three weeks. Scroll further down the list and another dozen stations failed to sell more than 365 tickets last year.
All the stations with weak sales have reduced opening hours, introduced just before the pandemic, with the shutters up between 7.30-10am on weekdays only. That's 12½ hours a week, whereas (for example) Walthamstow Central is open more than 12½ hours a day. This suggests that, on average, staff at Brondesbury Park are selling one ticket every 6 hours, staff at Rotherhithe one ticket every 10 hours and staff at Caledonian Road & Barnsbury one ticket every 35 hours. I think it's fair to say those ticket sales aren't enough to pay the staff's wages.
Staff in ticket offices can of course perform a number of useful tasks for the public, such as being able to sort out awkward ticketing enquiries, selling unfamiliar tickets and offering complex advice. But when I dropped in at Caledonian Road & Barnsbury yesterday a second member of staff was also available by the card reader and poised to offer most of the assistance passengers might have needed, even how to use the machines to buy an off-peak return between two towns in Scotland had that been requested. Meanwhile the member of staff in the ticket office was looking down at the counter, their head at a slightly defeated angle, as they waited for the end of their morning shift to tick round. I could have asked for a ticket just to give them something to do, but I already have a chip in my pocket which enables me to travel so like everyone else I swept past, and therein lies the issue.
Looking at the overall figures, ticket sales appear to be especially low on the core Overground section between Dalston and Surrey Quays. With a few exceptions annual sales are also very low on at stations on the line between Richmond and Stratford. It would be tempting to point The Finger of Efficiency at these ticket offices and close the majority, even the lot, although it's notable that TfL haven't tried, perhaps because co-existing with National Rail regulations makes such a move harder. But if past consultations had highlighted real data like this, rather than bland weasel phrases like "to meet changing customer needs" and "to better meet demand", maybe they'd have been more successful in getting the wider public onside.
The Crossrail stations with the highest ticket sales in 2022 1) Stratford 159,584 2) Romford 101,375 3) Hayes & Harlington 81,634 4) Abbey Wood 78,213 5) Brentwood 77,811 The next 5: Ealing Broadway, Burnham, Southall, Ilford, Langley
That's more like it. All these ticket offices are selling over 200 tickets a day, very much justifying their existence.
The Crossrail stations with the lowest ticket sales in 2022 1) Acton Main Line 1818 2) Maryland 2862 3) Hanwell 3196 4) West Ealing 6001 5) Manor Park 8520 The next 5: Forest Gate, Seven Kings, Goodmayes, Iver, Taplow
But these are a bit low, even for a railway that only really kicked into action halfway through the year. It's the stations closest to central London with the lowest totals, although compared to the Overground they're doing relatively well. Look at poor old Acton Main Line though, a brand new station building, a welcoming ticket office facing the street, opening hours exceeding 27 hours a week, friendly staff waiting expectantly behind the counter... and they still only managed an average of five ticket sales a day.
Use it or lose it, or as things currently stand Don't use it but keep it.
London's next dead bus 271: Finsbury Square to Highgate Village Location: inner London north Length of journey: 5 miles, 45 minutes
The 271 has been linking the edge of the City to the heights of Highgate since 1960. It's a remarkably simple route, indeed almost a straight line, ploughing workhorselike up the Holloway Road with barely a deviation. It's well used, carrying an above average load of passengers annually. For a mile through Islington it's the only bus. But all this counts for nothing when over-capacity has been identified elsewhere along the route and so, following a consultation in 2021, the 271 will run for the very last time tomorrow. I've been for a final ride.
Finsbury Square is a large open quadrangle at the top end of Moorgate and is unusual for having a bowling green in the middle with a car park underneath. The 271 parks up round the far side where the drivers can stretch their legs and check their phones out of passengers' view. The single decker 214 parks up alongside, a service which coincidentally is also going to Highgate Village, indeed this is a rare case of two different bus routes running between identical destinations. Until tomorrow.
The 271's first stop is outside the London Metal Exchange on the west side of the square. You wouldn't know any more because The Men Who Change Tiles have already been round, indeed they came round two weeks ago so tile-wise the 271 has been dead for a fortnight. That's plainly better that turning up two weeks too late, but it does seem extraordinary that over 100 bus stops have been displaying entirely premature numbers since the middle of January. That said, anyone checking for a timetable should spot a bright yellow map confirming that the 271's being withdrawn on Saturday, and if you can decipher it then all you need to know about future arrangements is there.
We set off up the City Road, 'we' being just the driver and me so far but the bus'll be getting a lot busier later. We pass between Bunhill Fields and Wesley's Chapel, making this full-on nonconformist territory, and also pass a stack of three mattresses left incongruously by the roadside. The bus is rattling somewhat, but that won't be an issue when the route no longer runs so that's an issue solved. Ahead is the Old Street no-longer-roundabout, the first of three un-gyratoried junctions we'll be passing on our journey north. It still has temporary traffic lights, inadequate cycle lanes and a heck of a lot of ongoing works in what used to be the centre of the roundabout, but hopefully four years of messy reconstruction will be finished soon.
Ahead is the splitting point between the 214 and 271, the former continuing towards the Angel Islington and our doomed route making its one big right turn into Provost Street. Beyond the wall of glitzy skyscrapers comes a brief insulating layer of repurposed warehouses and then the flats of southwest Hackney begin with a vengeance. Whether you prefer generic postwar blocks or modern brick hutches above a Tesco Express, all options are covered. Our bus is now picking up multiple passengers at every stop, possibly because the 271 is still a popular route or possibly because there hasn't been a bus for fifteen minutes. And then the ridiculous announcement plays for the first time, and sheesh what were they thinking?
"This route will be changing from the 4th of February 2023. Please visit tfl.gov.uk/buses for more details."
Oh come on, this route won't just be changing it'll be abolished, but there's no mention of that in the recorded spiel. Instead you're expected to navigate to a website which it turns out is just an index page, where the link to 'Bus changes' is tucked underneath a big splash for another consultation which ended three weeks ago. Should you eventually make it to the right page then, because changes are listed in numerical order, you need to scroll past seven other bus routes before eventually discovering that "Route 271 will be withdrawn." I get that TfL don't want to make their announcement too complicated, or even unduly pessimistic, but this is no way to inform passengers of imminent withdrawal.
At Mintern Street the other top deck front seat is occupied by a mother and her young daughter, only one of whom is excited about being on a bus. Mum soon has her phone out while her daughter engages in happy singing and sets about investigating the contents of her pink Hello Kitty rucksack. From downstairs we hear the distinct sound of the button in the wheelchair space being pressed, followed two seconds later by a plaintive "sorry", suggesting it's got rather crowded down there. To our right is Shoreditch Park, straight ahead the Regent's Canal and beyond that the stretch of road that only the 271 covers. It's time to start talking mitigation.
Extinguishing the 271 sets off a chain of dominoes on other routes to ensure that connections are retained. The 21 is therefore being tweaked at its northern end and will now terminate at Holloway instead of Newington Green. It's been tracking us since Finsbury Square so all passengers'll need to do from Saturday is catch a 21 rather than a 271. Thus far they could also have caught a 76 or 141 as well, which is one reason TfL think this section is over-bussed, ditto the dogleg up to Newington Green. I doubt that anyone in Lewisham needs a direct bus to the Holloway Road but the 21 will now provide that opportunity.
Onwards, for now, past tiles that already say 21 instead of 271. By crossing the canal we've passed from Hackney into Islington and the housing stock has improved dramatically - now Georgian and Victorian terraces. An elderly man drops into the seat behind me and proceeds to breathe heavily because climbing the stairs has been an effort. To my right the small girl has dug into her rucksack and pulled out some imaginary cheese, but Mum is clearly not biting. We cross Essex Road alongside the throwback hellhole station of the same name and continue climbing, always climbing, into the heart of Canonbury. It's proper lovely here, assuming you like bijou pubs, art galleries and wine merchants with Latin names, thus well out of the reach of the majority of mortgages.
We're now approaching un-gyratory 2, the newly-forking junction at Highbury Corner. Our driver can't get into the bus stop because of upcoming queues and a badly parked van so misses our chance through the lights, then has to pull over into a cycle lane when the next set of lights don't change. I suspect it gets a lot messier in the rush hour. To our left is The Famous Cock and the ugly squat entrance to Highbury & Islington station, and to our right the orange shell of the original 1904 building. A bus lane now speeds our progress up Holloway Road, at least initially, and the mother/daughter combo are replaced by a woman muttering a torrent of Spanish into her phone.
Retail-wise Holloway Road peaks in the centre, but we're still at the sex shop, launderette and scooter showroom end. Islington Central Library brings a rare classical flourish, while the campus of London Met University is a jarring mix of redbrick, concrete, glass and jagged silver. Somewhere near the tube station the double decker Hogwarts Express passes us going the other way. Eventually we reach the supermarket cluster of Lidl, Morrisons and Waitrose (so something for everyone), plus Gibbo's Fruit And Veg (in a hut on the pavement), plus Selby's the independent department store (where the window displays are currently air-frier and Valentines themed). And as we reach the junction where the Nag's Head pub once stood, it's probably time to talk mitigation again.
The 21's come all the way from Lewisham so can't be extended too far, hence it'll be terminating here at the Nag's Head. Two other bus routes run the full length of Holloway Road, the 43 and 263, which TfL reckon is quite enough to cope with demand so the 271's loss may not be too keenly felt. Anyone waiting a few minutes longer from next week may beg to disagree.
Holloway Road still has some way to go and soon begins a steeper climb. The Odeon's shabby exterior does not match its 'Luxe' designation. Someone a few seats back is sneezing more often than seems entirely comfortable. Whittington Park contains a peculiar-looking topiary cat which, like many things round here, is Dick-related. At Upper Holloway station we wait for ages, which it turns out is due to changing drivers except nobody played the usual announcement apologising for the inconvenience. Our new driver does however kick things off with "This bus is ready to depart, hold onto the handrails when moving around the bus" and I really hoped we'd heard the last of that one.
Ahead is un-gyratory 3, the neutralised Archway roundabout, whose western flank is now a pedestrian precinct infested with pigeons. It was never a pleasant place to be, and given it remains overshadowed by a bunch of tall drab towers still isn't. Most through traffic climbs the Archway Road, essentially the Highgate bypass, which was built as a less steep toll road more than 200 years ago. This alas includes the 43 and 263, whereas the imminently-deceased 271 is the only route to continue straight ahead up Highgate Hill. And this means it's time to talk mitigation yet again.
To make up for the 271's withdrawal the 263 is to be diverted up Highgate Hill instead, eventually returning to line of route by the Esso garage. And this in turn leaves a section of Archway Road unbussed so the 234 is additionally going to be extended from Highgate Wood to Archway. This latter change is only a good thing, whereas the 263's deviation is going to peeve a few people who'll lose their direct connection to Highgate station. This is what happens when you start unpicking a long-established bus network, the repercussions multiply and a number of untidy tweaks are needed in addition to the underlying plan.
Near the foot of Highgate Hill is another of Dick's cats, this time life-size and in limestone, caged on the pavement outside the Whittington Hospital. What lies ahead is one of London's steeper ascents (signposted as a 10% gradient), so our driver's probably glad to avoid a hill start when he slips through the traffic lights at the end of Hornsey Lane. Unexpected buildings on the brow of the hill include Brendan The Navigator, an Irish pub with a copper turret, and the Ghana High Commission. Here the "This route will be changing..." message plays for a seventh and final time to a much depleted audience. It's exactly the same message aboard the 21, 234 and 263 too, I checked, so heaven help the passengers who haven't been paying attention and find themselves somewhere unexpected next week.
Highgate Village is proper lovely, a hilltop suburb perched around a throwback Middlesex high street. The 271 passes most of the cosy shops, like the florist, the grooming parlour and the microdistillery, before pulling off at South Grove and manoeuvring awkwardly into a bus stand. A nice touch is that an original London Transport timetable board has survived intact in the shelter alongside, although these days it only features local notices (Mari Wilson is playing Upstairs at the Gatehouse on the 24th). Come Saturday this focal point will never again by disfigured by terminating buses, which is both a grand decluttering and the end of an era. The 263 will merely head straight past... although the top deck view down Highgate Hill will still be as dazzling as before, which is why I made sure my very last ride on the 271 was straight back down.
The 271 lingers overnight because TfL know that a nightbus along this route is a beneficial thing. But it can't be called the 271 any more, it has to be renumbered N271, hence all the 271's existing stops now display an N271 tile. The route's also being extended all the way to North Finchley bringing a night service to the High Road for the first time, so that's a win. But during the daytime you'll now need to take two buses, the 21 followed by the 263, because nobody said this was about being convenient for passengers.
A flyover is neither a bridge nor a viaduct.
A flyover is a road carried over another road at an intersection.
To make it into my big list it's probably got a name like The Something Flyover.
Gallows Corner Flyover Where is it? Between Gidea Park and Harold Wood in Havering. [map][photo] What's the name about? This is where the Liberty of Havering had its gallows. What crosses what? The flyover links the A12 Eastern Avenue with the A127 Southend Arterial Road across the Gallows Corner roundabout. Traffic intending to stay on the A12 has to use the roundabout. When was it built?1970, by Terry and Co from prefabricated units. It was intended to be temporary but half a century later it's still here. It's not a smooth ride, there are sudden changes of gradient. Why is it still here? Plans to build the M12 between Woodford and Brentwood came to nothing. Also despite serious corrosion it's been repaired just enough to avoid being condemned. What's the weight limit? 7.5 tonnes. No buses go up and over. What's its future? TfL would like to repair it but it's expensive. A bid for government funding in early 2020 floundered because of the pandemic. They intend to submit a business case for refurbishment and strengthening to the DfT this summer.
Chiswick Flyover Where is it? Chiswick, not far from Kew Bridge. [map][photo] What crosses what? The M4 launches over the Chiswick roundabout then runs directly above the A4. When was it opened?1959, by Hollywood actress Jayne Mansfield. It was built by Alderton Construction and cost £820,000. Originally it just leapt over the (new) roundabout and back down again, but in 1964 it was extended westwards via a two mile viaduct which brought the M4 directly into inner London. What's it like? It's more a Brentford Flyover than a Chiswick Flyover these days. It still feels a bit futuristic zipping between elevated offices, glitzy billboards and shiny showrooms. It'd be less congested if it was wider. What's its future? They started essential stability works to the concrete structure last week, and these continue until May with several overnight closures.
Hogarth Flyover Where is it? Beside the Griffin brewery at the Hogarth Roundabout, less than a mile from the Chiswick Flyover. [map][photo] What's the name about? The artist William Hogarth lived very close by, in a historic house you can still visit free every day except Monday.
What crosses what? The A316 crosses the A4, northbound only. When was it opened?1971, as a temporary measure. It's strengthened with diagonal cross-braces. It's quite similar to the Gallows Corner prefabricated span. What's the weight limit? Only 3 tonnes. What's its future? The flyover underwent substantial repairs in 2014 so should be OK for now.
Marylebone Flyover Where is it? The clue's in the name. [map][photo] What crosses what? The A40 Westway crosses the A5 Edgware Road. When was it opened?1967, as part of the LCC's carving of the Westway across North Kensington. But it's separate from the rest of the Westway, which after two miles on stilts dips briefly back to street level before launching again. Look out for the commemorative plaque on the southeast flank.
Hammersmith Flyover Where is it? Bang in the middle of Hammersmith. [map][photo] What crosses what? The A4 crosses the edge of Hammersmith town centre allowing main roads and pedestrians to pass freely underneath. When was it opened?1961, at a cost of £1.2m. It was given the green light by transport minister Ernest Marples whose construction company won the contract. It's a very early example of a reinforced concrete flyover. It contained special electric cables for internal heating. What's its future? It's a bit of a money sink, having had to be closed for a prolonged period in 2012 due to water ingress. Repairs continued until 2015 which should hopefully last a few more years. Nearby Hammersmith Bridge is enough of an engineering nightmare to be getting on with.
Lodge Avenue Flyover Where is it? East of Barking. [map][photo] What crosses what? The A13 crosses a roundabout where Ripple Road meets Lodge Avenue. When was it opened?1966, as a temporary structure with a minimum design life of fifteen years. It's still operational but looks like it shouldn't be. What's the weight limit? 7.5 tonnes. What's the artwork underneath? That's HoldingPattern, an array of 76 stainless steel needles each topped by a blue airport taxiway light, part of Barking & Dagenham's A13 Artscape project.
Brent Cross Flyover Where is it? Brent Cross, just east of the shopping centre. [map][photo] What crosses what? The A41 Hendon Way crosses the A406 North Circular. When was it opened?1965, to relieve one of London's worst bottlenecks. It comprises 19 bridges, a flyover, subways, retaining walls and culverts to thread the River Brent underneath. What's its future? A 7.5 tonne weight limit was imposed last October for safety reasons. TfL are hoping for £50m from central government for extensive structural remedial works.
Bow Flyover Where is it? Between Bow and Stratford. [map][photo] What crosses what? The A12 crosses the A11 (or what was the A11) plus the River Lea. It links Bow Road to Stratford High Street. When was it opened?1967, inspired by the success of the concrete flyover at Hammersmith. Part of the East Cross Route, a Ringway scheme which would have encircled (and mutilated) many inner London suburbs. What's its future? After two cyclists died at the Bow Roundabout in 2011 TfL came up with a grand 'Vision for Bow' which might eventually have seen the flyover demolished to make way for a big crossroads. Instead we got a few pedestrian crossings underneath as part of an 'Interim Scheme' that now seems to be permanent, so the flyover's going nowhere. A rarity on today's list because it appears to have been well built so has no weight limit and is hardly ever closed.
Croydon Flyover Where is it? Just south of Croydon town centre. [map][photo] What crosses what? The A232 crosses the High Street and the A236. When was it opened?1969, as part of an unfinished ring road plan. The late 1960s/early 1970s really were peak flyover.
For twentyconsecutiveFebruaries 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. Expect to read a post of comparisons and contrasts at the end of the month. I kicked off this annual exercise way back in 2003 which means I already have two decades of thrilling historical data to analyse, and here comes a 21st. Here's my selected list of ten countables for February 2023.
Count 1: Number of visits to this blog (Feb 2022 total: 69714) Count 2: Number of comments on this blog (Feb 2022 total: 850) Count 3: Number of words I write on this blog (Feb 2022 total: 33056) Count 4: Number of hours I spend out of the house (Feb 2022 total: 113) Count 5: Number of nights I go out and am vaguely sociable (Feb 2022 total: 4) Count 6: Number of bottles of lager I drink (Feb 2022 total: 1) Count 7: Number of cups of tea I drink (Feb 2022 total: 132) Count 8: Number of trains I travel on (Feb 2022 total: 17) Count 9: Number of steps I walk (Feb 2022 total: 626817) Count 10: The Mystery Count(Feb 2022 total: 0) (again)
It's the first non-pandemic February for three years, hurrah, so let's see if some of the more atypical counts finally get back to normal. I've also tweaked count 4 so it's no longer how long I sleep but how long I spend out of the house. I'm well stocked with Becks so I'm very much ready to go.
n.b. I'm also undertaking some annual counts this year, entirely additional to my normal stats-packed February, so let's see how they're going...
• Number of London boroughs visited: all of them (at least three times each)
• Number of London postcode areas visited: 184 (which is 78% of the total already)
• Number of London bus routes ridden: 173 (32%)
• Number of Z1-3 stations used: 122 (31%)
• Number of Z4-6 stations used: 0
Sun 1: Getting off the train at Alexandra Palace I was surrounded by a large crowd of sea captains, bright yellow bananas, red and white striped Wallys and a few passengers not in fancy dress. It's a darts thing apparently. Everyone was trying to tap out on the obsolete card readers because nobody's covered them over.
Mon 2: It took a fortnight for my walking boots to dry off after wading through what should have been a tiny stride-able stream just north of Tonbridge. Thankfully nobody mentioned the mud in the tearoom, they must be used to it. Tue 3: That's the first time I've ever been accosted for cash by an alcoholic while tying my shoelaces outside a Michelin-starred restaurant. He was not successful. Wed 4: Battersea Power Station, supposedly "London’s most exciting new shopping and leisure destination", is as dead on a weekday in January as you'd expect it to be. (Weekends though, blimey) Thu 5: I would be totally honoured if you used my photo of Gracie Fields for the cover of your debut album, Nick, thanks for asking. (It won't be out until June though because sourcing vinyl is really difficult these days) Fri 6: I watched the first 10 minutes of Our Flag Means Death but it didn't make me laugh so I stopped, and now every time I log into iPlayer it suggests I might want to 'Continue watching', and I wish there was a button to say 'I am seriously not interested never suggest this again.' Sat 7: Maybe I left it too late to go to the sales, or maybe there was nothing worth having, or maybe I have all the pillowcases and tableware I need. Sun 8:Secrets of blogging: I do a lot of my on-the-spot research by scribbling notes on the back of a folded-up envelope. Mon 9: I renewed all my library books using the Tower Hamlets app but totally missed that one of them hadn't gone through because someone had reserved it. Thankfully I checked again later, just in time to dash it back to the Idea Store and avoid a fine. Thus far all my borrowing has been free and long may it stay that way.
Tue 10: I was at Baker Street for the tube's 160thanniversarycelebrations on platform 5. I'm not sure the Mayor unveiling a heart-shaped roundel really deserved a big cheer, and by the sound of it the rest of the assembled crowd agreed. Wed 11: The volunteer at Richmond Museum told me the Poppy Factory exhibition was very good, and on the way out I had to agree with her, the Poppy Factory exhibition had indeed been very good. Thu 12: Dear Elon, nobody wants a sticky 'For you' tab, they want an uncurated chronological feed of just the users they're following. You already know this, so damn you for going ahead and doing it anyway. Fri 13: I was riding a bus through Merton when the driver received a phone call, nipped off the bus to answer it, then told all the passengers about the serious electricity supply problems he was having back at his house. Admittedly he did this on a Hail & Ride section and I did have a lot of sympathy for the guy, but I suspect that's a disciplinary offence. Sat 14: I waited for almost half an hour outside Bromley-by-Bow station before realising that no, there weren't any replacement buses despite the line being closed all weekend. I think that's a first. Sun 15: One day I will get the Woolwich Foot Tunnel entirely to myself (and I've nearly managed it several times) but today was not that day. At least the cyclist passed through quickly (but he shouldn't have been doing that). Mon 16: For no particular reason, here's a photo of a ginger cat padding past a modernist church in Yeading.
Tue 17: While getting off the train I suddenly realised the bloke alighting behind me was BBC transport correspondent Tom Edwards, so I was totally expecting a report from Barnes on the local news that evening but it never happened. Wed 18: I've finally got that new psychogeographical London book out of the library. I was chuffed to discover that this blog is referenced in chapter 6, but less chuffed to be called out for something I wrote that was plainly wrong. Thu 19: I got to the platform at Bromley-by-Bow just as the doors were closing and with an 8 minute gap until the next train, so I sarcastically saluted the driver. They then opened the doors for me so I saluted again with considerable thanks, and I fear the two distinct meanings may not have been readily apparent. Fri 20: I unexpectedly bumped into Tim Dunn and Siddy Holloway standing in the middle of a ticket hall so stopped to say hello, and only then spotted two camera crews down a passageway preparing to film them from a distance. I am therefore able to exclusively reveal one of the stations that'll be featuring in the next series of Secrets of The Underground. Sat 21: It's been a while since my landlord raised my rent so I've been steeling myself for an unpleasant email, but when the news actually arrived it was a text message at 8am on a Saturday morning and that jolted me awake somewhat. Could have been a lot worse, thankfully. Sun 22: The boss of Tesco told Laura Kuenssberg that "some food manufacturers might be using inflation as an excuse to hike prices", and I yelled back at the TV that 18 months ago Tesco own-brand choc ices were eight for £1 and now they're six for £1.30 and that's a 73% price increase which is a totally unjustified price hike, but I fear he never heard me. Mon 23: I got as far as Hounslow before realising I wasn't wearing my watch, and I feared it'd fallen off like it nearly did at King's Cross at Christmas, which'd be a bummer because it's going to be 30 years old next month. I then spent an agonising three hours before I got home where I confirmed no, I just hadn't put it on that morning. Tue 24: My Chiltern train journey started out under heavy cloud which lingered over London all day. The frost started at Denham, the clouds cleared by High Wycombe, the fog descended through Princes Risborough and hurrah, Banbury had crystal clear blue skies all day. So that was a win.
Wed 25: While researching lists for the blog I came across this very very long list of Unusual Wikipedia Articles, and if you're ever bored I recommend it as the perfect time-sink. Thu 26: BestMate loves planes, indeed we've been on a day trip to Duxford together and been for a walk following the Heathrow flightpath, so I was gobsmacked when he said he'd never been to the RAF museum in Colindale. Maybe it was just somewhere cub packs to the northwest of London went. It's now very much on our to-do list. Fri 27: That is unexpectedly tempting and I would totally get a kick out of it but I'd better not. If only you'd asked five years ago. Sat 28: The day started with the flat downstairs holding a banging party, and ended with them holding another banging party with pulsing bass that went on until 5am. They'd better not try that again next weekend. I did however get more sleep than I was expecting. Sun 29: Outside New Eltham Library I came across a rather large lady sitting uncomfortably on the pavement. She asked if I could help her stand back up again, except she was holding a frisky alsatian on a lead in one hand and that was quite the moral dilemma I can tell you. Mon 30: In 2021 my local Tesco stopped stocking Becks, other than the pointless non-alcoholic version, so I was amazed to spot a single box all by itself in the wrong location with no price on it. It's now all mine, hurrah, effectively at 65p a bottle and just in time with February coming up! Tue 31: Yesterday's tales of your experiences with natural hazards were fascinating, thanks, and well worth a read. I have lived a very cushy life phenomenon-wise. The highest score came from MartinG (who's lived in China and Japan) with 7 out of 10 (E2 V2 H2 T1). Mary and a nameless person scored 6. As of 7am this morning earthquakes are by far the most commonly experienced hazard, with volcanic activity in second place and hurricanes and tornadoes some way behind.
Some natural events are so rare that we may experience them only once in a lifetime (or, depending on where we live, frequently or never).
So today I'm asking you to consider how many of the big natural events you've experienced and award yourself a score out of 10.
Score 2 if you've properly experienced one of these...
• earthquake
• volcanic activity
• hurricane/typhoon
• tornado (or 1 if you sort-of have)
...then add 1 if you've experienced one of these...
• tsunami
• avalanche/landslide
...to get a score out of 10.
If you're not sure whether your experience counts as 2 or 1, give it a 1.
If you're not sure whether your experience counts as 1 or 0, give it a 0.
Here's a special comments box for your scores. your scores
Please read the rest of the post before you commit to a total.
And please keep it brief - there are separate comments boxes further down the post for your memorable experiences.
My score is 3.
That's E1 V1 H0 T1 (t0 a0) =3
And here's how I calculated it.
EARTHQUAKE: 1
I have experienced an earthquake and what's more I was at home in London when it happened. It was 12.56am on 27th February 2008, I was in bed and most importantly I was wide awake with the light on. All was quiet when suddenly a metal rail at the foot of the bed started to vibrate. I watched the coathangers on the rail start to sway, I felt my bed shake a little and I heard the walls of my building creak. It only lasted for a few seconds. These events could have occurred for all sorts of reasons but I had a hunch it might have been an earthquake. Twitter was already a thing back then so it was possible to get wider confirmation pretty quickly rather than being left wondering, and I had indeed experienced my first earthquake.
This was the Market Rasen earthquake of 2008 which at 5.2 on the Richter scale was the strongest earthquake in theUK since 1984. Only four other earthquakes have exceeded 5.0 in the last 100 years, that's Dogger Bank 1931 (6.1), Derby 1957 (5.3), Llŷn Peninsula 1984 (5.4) and Bishop's Castle 1990 (5.1). London last saw earthquake damage in 1580 and before that 1382 because being distant from plate boundaries has its benefits. Other countries face far more serious risks and experience much larger quakes, indeed you'll almost certainly have to have been outside the UK to score a 2 in today's challenge. My coathanger-shaking experience was piddly by comparison but I have experienced an earthquake and for that I score 1.
n.b. I was lucky to be awake at 1am. I'd had a very long day at work because others weren't pulling their weight and major deadlines were approaching so I was late home, and then with stuff to do I was still up writing my diary at the end of the shipping forecast. Had the earthquake happened one day later I'd have been fast asleep and scored 0. As it happened my annoying work overload scored me 1.
n.b. I was in San Francisco exactly 100 years after the Big One standing by Lotta's Fountain for the big centenary commemoration at 5:12am, but that (thankfully) scores 0.
n.b. I can't tell you precisely where the dividing line between a 2 and a 1 is, but if you thought "eek, it's an earthquake" it might be a 2 and if you thought "oh, it's an earthquake" it's probably a 1.
VOLCANO: 1
I've never been up to the crater of a big volcano and I have never seen a volcano erupting so I can't have a 2. I'm awarding myself a 1 because I went part of the way up Eyjafjallajökull shortly after it erupted and stood on a thick layer of ash that had previously been a meltwater lake. It was 2010 when Eyjafjallajökull brought European air traffic to a halt and 2011 when I went on holiday to Iceland and plumped for the volcanic jeep tour option. We zipped up the Markarfljot valley to the snout of the glacier which used to be sparkling and white but was now grey and impregnated with ash. It was quite a sight.
"Don't go too far away," said our tour guide. "This grey volcanic landscape is highly unstable as you can see from those deep pits over there, which before long are going to grow and coalesce. Hopefully that won't happen while we're standing nearby but driving a jeep onto the ash layer can't have helped, indeed maybe we shouldn't be up here at all." It was a cracking experience, though thankfully not catastrophically so. I keep a chunk of ash from Eyjafjallajökull on a table in my hallway.
n.b. If I'd only seen Eyjafjallajökull from a distance that would have been a 0.
n.b. Going up Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh is also a 0 - extinct volcanoes are too easy.
n.b. If you've seen glowing magma fresh from the bowels of the earth that's got to be a 2.
HURRICANE: 0
I have never been in, under or near a hurricane. The only time I went to Florida the weather was mercifully calm, although we were asked to descend the LC-39 Observation Gantry at the Kennedy Space Center because a thunderstorm was approaching. The only designated hurricane at the time, Alberto, was busy pootling around the mid-Atlantic and Debby wasn't due to hit until a week later. I dodged a bullet there because a nasty windstorm would have totally messed up my Disney World plans, and that's why I'm still a 0 on the hurricane front.
n.b. The Great Storm of 1987 was not a hurricane so that scores 0.
n.b. hurricanes, typhoons... the only difference is the ocean so they both count.
n.b. I can't tell you precisely where the dividing line between a 2 and a 1 is, but if you thought "blimey it's wet and windy" it might be a 1 and if you thought "sheesh this is frightening" it's probably a 2.
TORNADO: 1
I spotted my first and only tornado in June 2021 while walking along the Greenway near West Ham station, because a raised path across a flat landscape is a good place to get a great view of the sky. Storms had been forecast but I hoped I'd dodge the nearest and get to my destination before getting soaked. But that cloud looks odd, I thought, I swear I can see it changing shape in a bubbly swelling manner and maybe poking down a bit. You don't normally see clouds changing that fast so something must be up. I still regret not taking a photo.
I didn't see a funnel of cloud reach the ground and I was three miles away so experienced no ill effects other than it looking weird. Only later did I discover that a tornado touched down around the same time in Barking's backstreets so I had in fact been watching the evolution of a tornado. I watched all sorts of shaky phone footage with interest (that would have been a 2), but my observation of explosive convection only scores me 1.
n.b. If you judge by density of phenomena the UK is supposedly the tornado capital of the world with an average of 30 tornadoes recorded each year, but most are pretty weak.
n.b. The continental USA suffers the strongest tornadoes so that's where you'll find the most 2s.
TSUNAMI: 0
Very few people, thankfully, experience a proper tsunami and I am not one of them. A few measly ripples on a beach probably doesn't count. If you have seen one though then it's a maximum of 1 point (unless it was Boxing Day 2004 in which case sure, have a 2). AVALANCHE/LANDSLIDE: 0
There's only 1 point available here too and it's for actually seeing an avalanche or landslide, not for coming upon a pile of debris afterwards. I've seen plenty of crumbled cliffs but I have never seen it happen.
And that's how I score a total of 3.
3 out of 10 is a bit poor, or perhaps unlucky, or arguably lucky because nobody wants to experience too many of these natural hazards.
If you've worked out your own total please add it to the first comments box several screens further up the page.
Phenomenon-specific anecdotes in the relevant boxes lower down, thanks.
And any general comments below. Let's see who's the most disaster prone of all.
NEWS FOOTBALL CRIME TV GOSSIP BASE SPECULATION VOUCHER CODES
Do you live in the popular London street named after an unexpected creature where houses built by a murder victim sell for £3m? By Aleecia McVitie, News Reporter
Not many London streets are named after reptiles - we can only think of Snakes Lane and Lizard Street. But nestling in the heart of Balham is a street with a properly surprising reptilian name and that's Terrapin Road. None of the adjacent streets have even vaguely animalistic names, let alone a direct connection to small aquatic turtles, so Terrapin Road really stands out.
At first sight Terrapin Road looks like a perfectly normal terraced street, indeed you could scoot up and down it on Google Streetview and not find anything to say. But look more closely and you'll see the houses are extremely wide with staggeringly decorative front doors inlaid with stained glass in full-on Queen Anne style, often with chequerboard-tiled paths out front. The word 'desirable' doesn't even begin to cut it.
Terrapin Road is part of the Heaver estate laid out by Alfred Heaver in the 1890s. According to Wikipedia he was a shady developer responsible for over 4000 houses across south London, mainly subcontracted out to other builders. But in 1888 he married Fanny Tutt and in 1901 her brother David shot him twice while walking to church near Dorking and that was the end of Alfred Heaver.
The terraced houses in Terrapin Road are so wide that, according to Zoopla, they contain no fewer than seven bedrooms. This helps to explain the £3.1m pricetag on one recent purchase, with several other undivided properties thought to be worth a similar amount. It must look amazing if you're allowed to go there in real life, but one thing's for sure, house prices in Terrapin Road are something snappy!
Do you live in a street named after an unusual animal or have you been shot by your brother? Tell us in the comments.
Revealed - the affordable commuter town less than five minutes from London where the bacon rolls only have one rasher By Verdana Trench, Crime Reporter
Housing may be incredibly expensive but millennials are finding more bang for their buck by living outside the capital in towns previously described on Tripadvisor as 'rank'. Top of the heap in a definitive survey compiled by a Kuwaiti finance company is Dartford in Kent, which is literally one millimetre away from Greater London because the boundary crosses the main street.
"Dartford is home to 4.68 things to do per 10,000 people," according to text literally copied from their press release, "including visiting Saint Edmund's Pleasance Park and watching shows at the Orchard Theatre." The Saturday market also brings the crowds flocking and is the place to come if you want orange rugs, omelettes or diabetic wide-topped socks, otherwise you can always hop on the bus to Bluewater.
According to Rightmove house prices are incredibly affordable. Properties in Dartford sold for an average price of £426,856 over the last year with flats fetching a rock bottom £241,346. But Dartford may not be the place for you if haute cuisine is a dealbreaker. At Esquires Coffee in the High Street, according to Tripadvisor critic Matt361, "one dish had poached eggs that were solid, another had a hash brown that was still frozen."
ChrisDW70 agreed, saying "We ordered a smashed avocado sandwich which arrived with chilli flakes on it. I took it back saying it I can't eat spicy." And JanMc60 won't be back any time soon, saying "coffee is OK but bacon roll had 1 rasher of bacon - at £3 I think this is a rip off." If you can stomach buying your pork-based breakfast snacks from Gregg's, Dartford may still be the affordable town for you.
Have you ever eaten in Dartford? Tell us all about it in the comments so we can harvest your email address.
I visited London's only bright red signpost hiding in plain sight and the free biscuits were amazing By Henrietta Dipole, Entertainment Reporter
You could live in London for years and never spot the signpost at the top of Herne Hill, despite it being bright red, which would be a shame because it's London's only entirely red signpost. Also it's not positioned beside the road, it's set back within the grounds of a church and this conceals it somewhat if approaching from Denmark Hill.
A red painted signpost is known to have existed here in 1768 but may have been even older. It was such an important landmark that in 1834 the name of Ashpole Hill, which also starts here, was changed to Red Post Hill. A few red signposts still exist in the West Country but there are none anywhere else in the southeast. Conveniently all these facts can be freely copied off a plaque erected here by The Dulwich Society - no time-consuming research is required.
The red post has a sign on top saying The Red Post. The place names listed on the sign are CAMBERWELL 1 LONDON 4 to the northeast, DULWICH VILLAGE 1 SYDENHAM 3 to the southeast, HERNE HILL ½ TULSE HILL 1½ to the southwest and BRIXTON 1 to the northwest. It would be even more amazing if it were the original red post but this incarnation only dates back to 2010.
As a bonus, if you visit on Fridays between 10am and 1pm then the doors to Herne Hill United Church are open and you can go inside for a warm space out of the cold, plus free tea, coffee and biscuits. This generous offer is only for the duration of the energy crisis but wow, you turn up for a red post and end up with a free digestive, now that's amazing.
What's your favourite free biscuit? Please get stuck in and kick off the conversation.
Kate Middleton's reaction to a sudden change in how London's bus timetables are printed may surprise you By Lenticula Claude, Transport Reporter
Shocked Londoners have taken to Twitter to express surprise at a change to London's bus timetables none of them had previously noticed. "I literally couldn't speak," said anonymous user @grilledpanda, "they are almost unrecognisable."
The new style bus timetables have a red stripe across the top saying 'London Buses' and copious use of blue ink below where previously there was none. "It looks so different," said south London influencer @thebigfridge, "and I'm unconvinced the colour contrast in the headings is suitable for passengers with a range of visual impairments."
But the biggest change is to the route diagram which now only shows the route ahead rather than the entire route as was the case before. "This will inconvenience me every time I want to know where a bus has come from," said mum-to-be @lickmytoblerone, "which really matters if I'm accidentally standing on the wrong side of the road."
The transformation is believed to have come into effect in June 2022 which just goes to show how unobservant everyone is. Kate Middleton has so far maintained a discreet silence regarding the change.
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But unusually only the headline increases were given. It's taken another eight days for the full list of new fares to be issued... silently, without any kind of press release, as part of a Mayoral decision paper. You can read the full details here, download the signed version here or see tables of all the new train fares here. As far as I know no major news providers have noticed yet, or thought it worth reporting.
What follows is my annual summary of TfL's fare rises, with highlighted text for bad news Sadiq hadn't announced before. It's particularly grim if you travel within Zone 1, avoid central London off-peak or plan to ride the cablecar.
Sadiq froze fares for four years before the pandemic but has since been forced to raise them by government-approved amounts. That's 1% above inflation in 2021 (2.6%) and 2022 (4.8%), and a thankfully much-lower-than-inflation rise in 2023 (5.9%). To put that in context, fares rose 7% in 2011, 7% in 2012, 3% in 2014, 2.5% in 2015 and 1% in 2016, because Boris Johnson wasn't afraid of an above-inflation hike.
Here are some of the new fares in historical perspective, with Boris's years in blue and Sadiq's in red.
Cost of a single central London tube journey
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
Peak
£2.10
£2.20
£2.30
£2.40
£2.40
£2.40
£2.40
£2.40
£2.40
£2.50
£2.80
Off peak
£2.10
£2.20
£2.30
£2.40
£2.40
£2.40
£2.40
£2.40
£2.40
£2.50
£2.70
After six years at £2.40 and two years at £2.50 the Zone 1 PAYG tube fare suddenly takes a hike. In 2021 it was deliberately left unchanged "to support the wider economic recovery of London" but in 2023 it's leaping 12% because "journeys solely within Zone 1 are more likely to be made for tourism or leisure". Contradictory reasons bring contradictory outcomes.
For the first time ever, a Zone 1 fare will cost more at peak times than off-peak. The peak fare will be £2.80, a 30p increase, while the off-peak fare will be £2.70. These are increases of 12% and 8% respectively, well above the 5.9% headline figure.
n.b. These are PAYG fares for Oyster or contactless users. Those who insist on paying cash will now pay £6.70 rather than £6.30.
Cost of a tube journey from Green Park to Heathrow
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
Peak
£5.00
£5.00
£5.10
£5.10
£5.10
£5.10
£5.10
£5.10
£5.30
£5.50
£5.60
Off peak
£3.00
£3.00
£3.10
£3.10
£3.10
£3.10
£3.10
£3.10
£3.30
£3.50
£5.60
Ouch. A Z1-6 fare rises only 10p this year, one of the very lowest increases, but fares to Heathrow are now a special case. In September last year the Mayor announced that travel from Z1 to Heathrow would always be charged at peak rates, hiking prices on the Piccadilly line by £2 overnight. The new tube fare from central London to Heathrow will be £5.60 at all times. This is £2.10 more than it was twelve months ago and a higher fare than any other off-peak journey, even Amersham to Upminster.
But it's still a bargain compared to Crossrail, indeed less than half the purple fare. That's currently £11.50 and will be going even higher in March, although the Mayoral papers don't explicitly state what the new fare will be. What they do say is "The TfL-set additional fare supplements to the Heathrow fares will increase by 40p" and "The Elizabeth line Heathrow supplements for travel via Zone 1 are set at £7.70", so I suspect it'll be breaking the £12 barrier for the first time. If you choose to take Crossrail to the airport you are being milked for the convenience.
For many years all off-peak tube journeys in Z2-6 cost £1.50. In 2021 the Mayor disrupted that by making longer journeys cost more, and this year he distorts the scale again.
Tube (off-peak), journey does not include Z1
1 zone
was £1.60, will be £1.80
2 zones
was £1.70, will be £1.90
3 zones
was £1.80, will be £1.90
4 zones
was £1.90, will be £2.00
5 zones
was £1.90, will be £2.10
Most off-peak outer London journeys are seeing significant hikes. The increases to 1-zone journeys (e.g. Kennington → Brixton), 2-zone journeys (e.g. Finchley Road → Wembley Park) and 5-zone journeys (e.g. Whitechapel → Upminster) are all over 10%. What's more if you consider 2020→2023 the increases are 20% for 1 zone, 27% for 2 or 3 zones, 33% for 4 zones and a massive 40% for 5 zones. Posters across the network used to delight in saying 'Travel off-peak within zones 2-6 for just £1.50', but that's currently £1.90 and I suspect £2.10 isn't going to look as good.
Daily caps for journeys in London are all increasing by the requisite 6%, but you have to be going some across zones 2-6 to ever hit one.
Cost of a single central London bus journey
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
£1.35
£1.40
£1.45
£1.50
£1.50
£1.50
£1.50
£1.50
£1.55
£1.65
£1.75
TfL are often kinder to bus passengers because they include the poorest amongst the electorate, but not this year which sees another 10p rise. This takes the daily cap for bus journeys over £5 for the first time, specifically £5.25. The anomaly whereby a one zone tube ride (e.g Whitechapel to Stratford) was 5p cheaper than taking the bus will no longer apply.
Cost of an annual Z1-3 Travelcard
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
£1424
£1472
£1508
£1520
£1548
£1600
£1648
£1696
£1740
£1808
£1916
No matter what the Mayor decides, Travelcards rise in price in line with National Rail fares which are set by the government. That's also 5.9% which is much lower than inflation but still a fair whack. It also means the price of an annual Z1-3 Travelcard is going to increase by over £100 for the first time.
Finally to the means of transport seeing the sharpest fare increase.
Cost of a single Dangle
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
PAYG
£3.20
£3.30
£3.40
£3.50
£3.50
£3.50
£3.50
£3.50
£4.00
£5.00
£6.00
Walk-up
£4.30
£4.00
£4.40
£4.50
£4.50
£4.50
£4.50
£4.50
£5.00
£6.00
£6.00
Cablecar fares will now be the same however you pay at £6 per crossing. It's already £6 if you rock up at the terminal and buy a boarding pass, like foolish tourists do, but previously Oyster and contactless users got a £1 discount and now they won't. The key phrase hidden away in the Mayoral Decision is "Discounted fares will no longer be available." They're also removing return tickets "to simplify the ticket offering".
This shunts the Dangleway even further into sightseeing territory, assuming it was ever anything but. It also means that if you just want to cross the river then a Thames Clipper ride should be £2 cheaper. Regular Dangleway users should however be delighted that a carnet of 10 tickets remains at the rockbottom price of £17 - a mere £1.70 per crossing - the same as it was ten years ago. Don't expect to see this advertised anywhere, you have to ask at the ticket window, but it is the best bargain in the 2023 fares package.
So brace yourself because all these daily increases soon add up, especially if you're one of those people who just taps their way round the capital and blindly lets TfL charge the going rate. Balancing the books when fewer people are travelling is a tough ask, and if the government won't help foot the bill then you and I are going to have to.
For twenty 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. Expect to read a post of comparisons and contrasts at the end of the month. I kicked off this annual exercise way back in 2003 which means I already have two decades of thrilling historical data to analyse, and here comes a 21st. Here's my selected list of ten countables for February 2023.
