In praise of Transport for London
Provided that I’ve got enough done by then, I’m planning to go to the MacExpo on Friday. I was in two minds about whether to bother, because I felt that it was a bit lacklustre last year. Now that I’m living in Birmingham, it involves a lot more time, effort and money to get to London, so I want it to be worthwhile. However, this year the show is at Olympia rather than the Design Centre in Islington as it has been in former years, so I’m hoping that they might have beefed it up a bit. I’m very keen to see the new iMacs and Aperture, as well as the new iView MediaPro, so there should be a fair amount to see.
Being a cheapskate, I found a cheap, off-peak deal with Chiltern trains, but the train comes into Marylebone, which isn’t the easiest location for getting to Olympia. I perused the Underground map, but even the most straightforward journey involved a couple of changes and a longish walk. Just as I was beginning to think that it might not be worth the hassle, I decided to look for bus timetables.
Transport for London has some really wonderfully designed bus maps and timetables. The spider maps for different areas are a really clear way to visualise how different bus routes pass through the location you’re interested in. From the map for Kensington Olympia, I could immediately see that the number 27 bus passes through both Olympia and Marylebone, and it even had an expanded view to show the detailed locations of bus stops for both directions at Olympia—-no more wondering which side of the road you should be on when you know nothing about the geography of the area.
If you search the Journey Planner, you can get detailed timetables for a particular route, centred around your chosen stop. The layout is admirably clear, with a simple line linking all the stops, and figures at each stop showing the estimated journey time from your starting point. I’ve always been put off taking buses in London because of the complication of working out which route you want and where the stops are. Now they seem to have got the information provision sorted out, but it remains to be seen whether the 27 really does come at 10-12 minute intervals as they claim, or that the journey should take about 24 minutes.
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It's easy to get round London nowadays because nobody goes there if they can help it. I haven't been to central London for a couple of years. I've found other places to do my buying and we've moved the business out of town; customers and suppliers didn't want to visit because of the Congestion Charge and we weren't even in the area; parking meters and P&Ds;chargin as much as £1 for 4 minutes are driving all but visitors and drug dealers out of London. A to B to C to D & E, collecting and dropping off journeys, are now too expensive and difficult, and undo-able by public transport without having a fortune to spend on taxis, and that's only if you keep north of the river.----- "Itâs easy to get round London nowadays because nobody goes there if they can help it."
I suspect you maybe talking about a different London to the rest of us. It's still as packed as it ever was. But don't worry about getting around by bus, bsag, it's easier than you'd think. (They can still take ages and turn up in threes though.)
by Ant @ 27/10/2005 4:10 pm • Permalink •
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Arse, it missed the </sick_joke> off the end of that...
by Lyle @ 28/10/2005 7:10 am • Permalink •
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I've never had problems getting round London - although every time I go I find myself amazed at the way Tube maps seem to confuse so many people.
As for "no-one goes there if they can help it", I'd be forced to agree with Ant - the place is still as rigid as ever. Perhaps people are more aware now than they were pre-July, but in some ways that's no bad thing.
In fact, if you take a nice bulky rucksack on the Tube now, you're almost guaranteed to have some space around you...
by Lyle @ 28/10/2005 7:11 am • Permalink •
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