Loughborough Junction chitter-chatter
- Thread starter teuchter
- Start date
bimble
floofy
Did anyone ask why the playground is 'now closed'?
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
No. Its difficult enough to bring the issue up with officers as it is. Council get defensive when asked about things like this. I wish more people would turn up to complain about these kinds of things.
Hundreds turn up to go on about there cars. But when it comes to Minet library, the demo on the Housing Bill and what the Council have planned for the land they own in LJ people do not turn up.
That's because they either don't know about it or think they aren't directly affected. The road thing pretty much went under the radar until people were confronted with no entry signs/roadblocks/camera cars.
Most people are too busy with their own lives to spend time keeping tabs on what the council have got up their sleeves. This is the real problem - the council have months/years to come up with these schemes and hardly anyone pays any attention until it's too late.
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
Do you not think that local government has broken down though since the cabinet system came in? (maybe 15 years ago).
It used to be the job of local councillors to inform and consult their constituents. Now local councillors don't really seem to haver a role - unless there is an almighty row blowing up.
At least in Lambeth back in the days of various committees (Amenity Services/Environmental Services/Housing etc) ward councillors had the right to address these committees, even if they were not a committee member. Added to that local people also had the right to address the committees.
Under the current system it seems to me the name of the game is for officers to cook up proposals and the cabinet to steamroller them through - fully formed and unmodified.
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
The library issue has been in all the local news for a long time.
I am busy as well. I find it difficult to take part but I do try.
You have two different arguments here. They do not think it will affect them and people hardly pay attention.
You would have opposed any proposals re car use however much planned above the "radar". So I know your position. You have got what you want. Any "improvements" to LJ have been ditched. Only a few cosmetics will happen. A few new paving stones. So the status quo will remain- cars first, pedestrians/ cyclist a poor second.
My question is why do people get angry enough about reducing car usage to turn up to meetings when this is an area of low ownership of cars. Yet on issues that directly affect them they do not- housing, libraries, adventure playgrounds.
On the car issue its getting worse in central London. Even the Evening Standard reckons something needs to be done.
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Then you are the exception.
Yes I would have opposed it. I got what I wanted, yes. Nothing. That's what I wanted. I wasn't asking for anything other than to be left alone.
Just because someone doesn't own a car doesn't mean they won't be affected by anti-car measures. What about elderly, disabled or housebound people who would see less of their relatives or carers if the latter were unable to drive there or were forced to sit in a long traffic jam every time? My mum pretty much wouldn't leave the house if people couldn't drive there to take her places.
I don't really know why people don't get more wound up, certainly about housing.
"Something must be done." The phrase sends a chill down my spine. It's usually the harbinger of a monumental fuck up.
It's hardly surprising things are getting worse when everywhere you look roads are being dug up, narrowed and micromanaged with more and more traffic lights.
Look at what they've done to elephant & castle. As far as I can see they've made things worse for pretty much everyone. Certainly for pedestrians, who now have to run the gauntlet of crossing the road at street level instead of using the pedestrian subways. And now they're planning on implementing the same mad scheme at Old Street, Highbury Corner and Archway. Except it'll be even worse, especially at Archway since the roads are narrower and there are buildings in the middle so they can't widen into the middle like they did at E&C.
teuchter
je suis teuchter
We're back to the nonsense about how those who can't drive, like the elderly and disabled, must be protected from attempts to reduce car dependency, and how we must increase space for cars on the roads so as to reduce congestion 
Oh and the response to gauntlet-esque road traffic is so obviously to do nothing about the traffic and force the pedestrians into an underground maze with steps at each end.
Welcome to the 1960s everyone!
Oh and the response to gauntlet-esque road traffic is so obviously to do nothing about the traffic and force the pedestrians into an underground maze with steps at each end.
Welcome to the 1960s everyone!
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
teuchter dealt with some of this.
Elephant & Castle is not finished yet so I dont see how you can comment on that.
Things are getting worse as congestion charge now longer works and increase in population of London is leading to greater pressure on transport. Its also increasing pollution.
You have no answers to that as all you want is to be left alone ( with your car).
As for LJ the promised new consultation is no better than the last one. As I have already posted. Its a farce. Council would have been better to say car drivers have won we are now changing our policy to put them first. They are not doing this. They are pretending to say they have the original one of pedestrians, cycling and buses first but doing the opposite.
Also posters here were going on about how they did not want this scheme but wanted a different one that reduced traffic. Thats all be shown to be meaningless. It was a tactic to make those who supported the scheme or would give it a chance look unreasonable. Those here who opposed the LJ scheme never wanted a different one in reality. As was shown by LJ Madness opposing mild measure to slow down traffic around LJ at the one and only recent meeting I went to as I accidentally got the time for it- I never got invite to next one despite leaving my email. The new consultation meetings on "improvements" are invite only. Hardly a step forward in consultation. But I dont see those who opposed the original scheme complaining.
The same "mad scheme" at Old street looks good to me.
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Gramsci
Well-Known Member
We're back to the nonsense about how those who can't drive, like the elderly and disabled, must be protected from attempts to reduce car dependency, and how we must increase space for cars on the roads so as to reduce congestion
Oh and the response to gauntlet-esque road traffic is so obviously to do nothing about the traffic and force the pedestrians into an underground maze with steps at each end.
Welcome to the 1960s everyone!
Annoys me that those who want to be "left alone" with there cars use the line of being concerned about the disadvantaged. Its just self serving.
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
Loughborough Junction Neighbourhood Planning Forum Wednesday 30 March at 8pm at the Woolley House undercroft meeting room.
Agenda, minutes etc here:
LJ Neighbourhood Planning Forum Wednesday 30 March at 8pm
Agenda, minutes etc here:
LJ Neighbourhood Planning Forum Wednesday 30 March at 8pm
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
ChrisSouth
Well-Known Member
Is this the one that used to be the Met Police battered women's refuge? If so, it's been a police station place for a few years, but it's clearly been rebranded.
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
Good to see squatters are still around. Took this on day of library march and they are still there.
for those who don’t know- Olive Morris
for those who don’t know- Olive Morris
stdP
One Swiss dinosaur in Polly Gosling's anorak hood
Slight necrobump but given my journey in this morning I felt compelled to reply...
The 12-car upgrade thing has been floated for years as the answer to the thameslink's rampant capacity problem, but as I understood it it was only the Bedford/Blackfriars/Brighton and London Bridge routes that were getting the 12-car platforms; all of the trains on the sutton/wimbledon loop were still going to be limited to 8. Has something changed...? From wikipedia:
The vast bulk of the commuters currently cramming themselves into the thameslink from the wimbleton loop won't have access to any of the 12-car stations so I think this'll only turn stations like elephant into less of a scrum... but I somehow doubt it. Been taking these trains for over a decade now and all they ever get is worse. If anything they've actually reduced the number of trains going through my station (TUH) during rush hour.
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
No, nothing's changed.
But when the 12-cars do come, it'll mean more space on tunnel-bound trains at bfriars. It would make terminating the loop trains more palatable because you'd only add a few minutes onto the journey, whilst doubling the frequency.
But when the 12-cars do come, it'll mean more space on tunnel-bound trains at bfriars. It would make terminating the loop trains more palatable because you'd only add a few minutes onto the journey, whilst doubling the frequency.
teuchter
je suis teuchter
We'll not be getting 12-car trains on the Loop but we will be getting the new trains - they'll still be 8 coaches max but are supposed to have a higher capacity. This is mainly achieved by having fewer seats (reduced to something like 75% of current) and more standing space (as far as I can make out, something like twice as much as at present).
They'll appear on the main line services first - I think we get them in 2018. But you can see them already as they are doing testing runs on them, which are now passing along the line between Blackfriars and Tulse Hill quite frequently.
They'll appear on the main line services first - I think we get them in 2018. But you can see them already as they are doing testing runs on them, which are now passing along the line between Blackfriars and Tulse Hill quite frequently.
stdP
One Swiss dinosaur in Polly Gosling's anorak hood
Not sure how much time at the blackfriars bottleneck would be saved just by terminating some or all of the wimbelton loop trains there... by my reckoning it's "only" about 30% of the people on my train who disembark permanently at blackfriars so that's still a helluva lot of commuter churn if they expect half the south-west to get off one train and then spread out evenly on an adjacent platform to board the next train in 10 5 1 Arrived Arrived Arrived Delayed minutes.
Similarly, the 12-car Brighton trains I've seen still seem to have plenty of people standing up on them. I don't see anything that makes me think a doubling in train frequency is in the pipeline or even possible <source: I've played a lot of OpenTTD
> but then I've probably not been following it that closely.
Yup I've seen quite a few of the new rolling stock trundling past at TUH. Hurrah for more standing space, I don't know why they don't just get rid of all the seats completely. If they'd just get rid of the stupid pantograph people would be able to sit on the roof too...
Similarly, the 12-car Brighton trains I've seen still seem to have plenty of people standing up on them. I don't see anything that makes me think a doubling in train frequency is in the pipeline or even possible <source: I've played a lot of OpenTTD
> but then I've probably not been following it that closely.Yup I've seen quite a few of the new rolling stock trundling past at TUH. Hurrah for more standing space, I don't know why they don't just get rid of all the seats completely. If they'd just get rid of the stupid pantograph people would be able to sit on the roof too...
teuchter
je suis teuchter
Yes, the tunnel frequency will double to something that's basically like the Underground - just turn up and go.
Of course, the real frequency for people travelling to destinations outwith the core will be lower because those 24tph fan out to various destinations at each end, but for the purposes of people coming off the Wimbledon Loop and carrying on to destinations within London, it will be a tube-like frequency and I agree with Crispy that it would be preferable to change at Blackfriars if it made the Loop service more reliable.
Of course, the real frequency for people travelling to destinations outwith the core will be lower because those 24tph fan out to various destinations at each end, but for the purposes of people coming off the Wimbledon Loop and carrying on to destinations within London, it will be a tube-like frequency and I agree with Crispy that it would be preferable to change at Blackfriars if it made the Loop service more reliable.
teuchter
je suis teuchter
Signalling the Thameslink Programme
The re-signalling is a major project. They've even pretty much invented a new type of signal ("POSA") which allows drivers to continue at slow speed past red lights in the event of certain faults in the system which previously woud mean everything having to come to a halt.
teuchter
je suis teuchter
The railways?Is there something about the Loughborough Junction area that particularly attracts railway enthusiasts?
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
Is there something about the Loughborough Junction area that particularly attracts railway enthusiasts?
That and jobs are located in central London.
Reminds me I was chatting to one of the people who volunteer for the much maligned Loughborough Farm. He was into "Green" politics.
Made the point that the problem with the transport system, including the new cycle highways, is that its about getting people to work in central London. His view was that work need to be changed so that its local.
All the efforts to increase trains is about getting people to work. Its not really about making life more pleasant for us. Its about helping business.
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
Another way to reduce this transport problem is to get rid of work. At the demo on Sat there was a "No Jobs Bloc".
All the ingenuity, organisation and labour thats into going to increasing the number of trains that can be used on the railway network could be put into doing the above. Im not being facetious here. If one looks at it its a tremendous achievement to to run a railway network. Its done as a collective process that involves a lot of people working together.Its just a pity its not under our control.
All the ingenuity, organisation and labour thats into going to increasing the number of trains that can be used on the railway network could be put into doing the above. Im not being facetious here. If one looks at it its a tremendous achievement to to run a railway network. Its done as a collective process that involves a lot of people working together.Its just a pity its not under our control.
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SpamMisery
Pretty comfortable here right under your skin
Is that real? Sounds like a Chris Morris sketch
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