I’m going on personal experience walking between Whitechapel and Aldgate twice a day from 2013 to 2015. Also blogs from Diamond Geezer and London Reconnections.
Construction of the segregated lanes, like all roadworks, slowed traffic down. Short term, the segregated lanes led to congestion as it took vehicles time to adapt. Long term, segregated lanes are beneficial to bus journey reliability as private vehicle traffic evaporates.
(although the expansion of Uber has meant that that effect hasn’t been as great as predicted)
Either way, cycle lanes prioritise the most efficient and cheapest way of getting around a city. Stopping their construction isn’t the way to improve bus ridership.
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Ah, the Silverstink. Seemed archaic, even at the time. Those stations were all so bleak.
Our local rail line has the cast off trains from Silverlink. They’ve made literally no effort to improve them at all.
I heard that following the transfer to London Overground, they were upgraded by an extremely talented and attractive team of designers.
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Oh yeah. The trains were appalling. Used to get the bus which took at least twice as long into Islington just to avoid it. (277 4 lyf)
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They also used to run the Bedford (where I grew up) - Bletchley line, which was the last part of the old Oxford - Cambridge and soon to be subsumed into that as it’s re-opened.
Really weird, bleak route - often just a dirty and old single car crossing fields, stopping in stations named after villages they were near. I have no idea how it stayed open.
They had also that other London line that went from Barking too. Used to use it to go from Harringay back to my Mums in Southend. Another bleak route, and always full of oddballs. Probably because it was effectively free to use.
I went on that line on Tuesday for the first time. Some of the stations are realyl nicely appointed now - just having a smart coat of paint and some flowers make a hell of a difference.
The trains are still rank though and it’s not uncommon for a unit to fail two or three times a week. Shitty, noisy, rank 35 year old diesel units.
I think they’re being replaced next year by ex-LUL Met Line 2-car units that have been refurbed are bi-modal - either running on diesel or battery.
I once got the Silverlink from Euston to Birmingham to visit a mate at university. Man that journey was a slog - something like 35 stops. Cheap though - think it was £7.50 return…
Yeah that was a laugh. Half an hour on that fucker and you’ve only just got to Tring or wherever.
This is the main one that’s going to irritate me tbh, I take it practically every week on the way back from the gym.
The 45 is my main man and I’m glad it’s getting changed as it’s wildly inconsistent. No one in their right mind would use it to get from Brixton to King’s Cross anyway.
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More than happy for cycles to take priority over taxis, cars and commercial traffic, but not to the detriment of buses, bus lanes and bus passengers.
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Glad to see the back of the RV1.
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Badly, almost certainly.