By way of apology for yesterday's absence...

Here's a news round-up for you:

• TfL is moving forward with its plan to move the congestion charge goal posts and screw over people who bought hybrid or diesel cars to avoid the charge
• If you make use of the 24 bus between Pimlico and Hampstead Heath, you'll be looking forward to the new Boris Bus come summer - I'm afraid TfL can't be more precise than that.  Also, no word on how long before they double the fares on it, like they did for the Boris Bikes
• An update on Wi-Fi on the Underground (headline: it's no longer going to be free - big shock)

New Year, new news

As well as the delays updates, it wouldn't be Signal Failure without the occasional news round-up, so here we go:

• Leave your car at a station before travelling TfL's network?  I bet you thought the fare price hikes were extortionate, but compare them to some of the car parking charges: 18% rise?  Squeal, piggies!
• That TfL employees are the victims of verbal, and sometimes physical, abuse won't surprise any of us.  Even if we don't approve of this (and we shouldn't), we can readily understand tensions run high when faced with the appalling rudeness of both the system and its staff.  Here's where it's been worst for TfL employees.  Particularly of interest is the staff all reporting this was mostly a result of people pushing through barriers without paying and then being confronted by hard-working staff.  I find this hard to believe, having had a staff member at Waterloo verbally abuse and lay hands on my pregnant wife when she went to him to say her Oyster card wasn't working (it turned out a technical error had caused the auto top-up to cease functioning).  She didn't try to push through the gates but went voluntarily to him to try and sort out the station.  With attitudes like that, I wonder at the causes behind this violence.  Certainly, if I had been there to see someone offer physical intimidation/violence to my wife, Waterloo would have enjoyed another attack on a TfL staff member.  Incidentally, the TfL employee was acting illegally in this instance (they are allowed to detain travellers who have attempted not to pay and refused to provide on request their name and address - neither true in this case).
• More news on TfL's project to take over the world and run it like as an evil corporation: they've successfully caused Foyle's book shop's (the largest in the world) profits to drop by 25% in an effort to make us all illiterate.  The way they accomplish this is simple: keep the building works up around Tottenham Court Road Station for at least 47 years (and counting), thus making a trip to the flagship store such a pain in the arse, people just don't buy books anymore.

That's it for now, but there'll be more to come, of that you can be sure!

Some pieces in the news this morning I thought worth sharing

 With only minimal commentary as I'm busy...

1. Could public transport in the UK ever be free?  It's about to be in Tallinn.  It is in a number of other places in the UK.  TfL thinks the idea's laughable in London.  They make some fair points about the respective levels of passengers, but one gets the feeling they haven't ever actually seriously considered whether it might be possible
2. TfL continues with its plans for world domination
3. Good news for Tescos employees: Jim Connor has joined your ranks.  He was formerly in charge of TfL's employee engagement plan around the Olympics, which saw, I believe, four strikes over wanting bonuses in order to engage with the Olympic spirit.  A successful campaign for internal communications to raise the Blitz spirit, then.  More money can only be coming your way soon, my supermarket friends

News round-up

So there have been some interesting stories around TfL this week.  We'll start with this story on the upcoming recreation of the first London Underground train journey.  Despite not being an accurate recreation of the route (it includes the original stations, but is a longer journey overall), it's quite a sweet little story.  I do wonder what effect it will have on journeys for normal purposes on the day in question, but I'm sure that's been considered and discarded as unimportant.

Next up, The Guardian reports on the closure of the Hainault loop of the Central Line.  Twelve days without, commuters there will have to go for.  But TfL assures us that this action will save it £2m (in comparison to a string of weekend closures), which it will undoubtedly spend on giving its tube drivers more money.  It further assures us that this is the least disruptive way these essential maintenance works can be carried out.  As opposed to, say, the usual practise of overnight repairs.  Who knows?  There might even be a reason that overnight repairs won't work, but TfL isn't telling.

Next, we can all look forward to a game TfL has spent money on that's targeted at teenagers to help reduce the number of road casualties caused by them pissing around with phones and other mobile devices and not paying attention to the road.  A worthy goal.  The game will see players 'avoid traffic as they navigate themselves and lead a group of friends on a walk across a city'.  In a world of Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto and the like, I'm sure it will be terribly popular, but I hope no-one takes my sarcasm amiss, since this might actually be a good thing.  After all, how embarrassing would it be if even one of next year's teen road casualties was found to have been playing TfL's game at the time of the accident?

And finally, the Evening Standard tells us that tax payers bailed out LOCOG to the tune of £41m.  Why is this relevant?  Apparently, some of the total £1bn cash paid by us has been passed on to 'other public bodies such as Transport for London'.  So that's the tube and bus driver Olympic Blackmail Bonus again.

That's all for now as I'm working from home today.  Merry Thursday all!

Some transport news

First, TfL again refusing to do anything about dangerous traffic situation, this time by only leaving traffic lights working for three hours a day and insisting putting them on for 24 hours a day wouldn't help things.  Obviously public opinion, from pedestrians, cyclists and motorists, disagrees, but TfL is not their to serve the people who pay their salaries.  I have no idea of the real reason behind this refusal, so I assume that it's got to do with somehow generating signal failures elsewhere on the system.

Second, in Croyden, TfL is working with the local council to try and force children to walk to school, rather than be driven there.  While I approve of the exercise, the lessening of pollution, and the diminishing of the horror of school run traffic, something about this seems wrong, and it's the fact that we bloody well pay for the use of those roads, so being encouraged not to use them is a bloody cheek.  How about more and better bus services for the schools?

Third, Bob Crow continues with his domestic terrorism to prevent technological progress.

Fourth, check out plans for SkyCycle, in which special cycle lanes will be built above the streets of the capital in order to protect drivers from cyclists' inconsiderate and downright dangerous lack of basic road skills.

Fifth, and most importantly, in a more general rail services piece, there's some compelling evidence that our train operators are using the money they claim from Network Rail as a nice little earner for themselves.  They keep more than 90% of what they get, throwing a few crumbs their passengers' ways.  Sorry the picture is sideways (but not very).

Does anyone know how to get this to rotate the right way?