East London Life

Clive has an amazing history of the East London Line over at his site.

Its story begins in 1865 when a people involved with the first tunnel under the Thames formed the East London Railway, which purchased the second tunnel under the river to form part of an underground rail link between the GER at Liverpool Street (where through trains via the ELR would reverse) and the SER and LBSCR, at New Cross (1) and New Cross Gate respectively; a third connection ran to the LBSCR at Old Kent Road. The first part of the link, from the southern lines through the tunnel to Wapping, opened in December 1869 (the tunnel had remained in use as a footpath until July) while the remainder was opened 7 years later. Between Wapping and Shadwell the line ran through a second tunnel, this time along the bottom of a dock (which has since been filled in).

It seems that the New York City Subway (Underground) is getting a brand new line. Of course, with their dual-tunnel design and 24 hour service, Londoners will be wondering why exactly they need it.

What I’m wondering is, will it be open before the East London Line reopens… Can London extend a line faster than NYC can build a whole new one?

Yes, yes - needlessly fanning the flames of the “are we finally better than New York at something?” crowd.

Tom Morris has gone and done us a big favor; he has built a Twitter Tube Tracker:

Every fifteen minutes, my server will check the Tube status and send any delays to the relevant Twitter accounts. You can then quite easily subscribe to individual Tube lines and get updates via whatever means you deem appropriate as you would as a Twitter user.

A neat side effect of this is that there is now Atom and RSS feeds for each Tube line which you can subscribe to and get these updates sent directly to your RSS reader too. Twitter can also serve as a historical home for Tube problems from now on.

And remember - if your Tube train gets delayed, don’t get mad, get a Customer Charter complaints form from your local Tube station, fill it in and get a free Tube journey in return.

[Thanks to David Jackmanson of Brisbane Is Home for the tip]

A post peak/pre storm run thru East London from Aldgate East into Barking. In two parts. Please note long tunnel runs and stands in platforms have been edited.

This segment: Aldgate East - Whitechapel - Stepney Green - Mile end - Bow Rd - Bromley-By-Bow - West Ham.

This segment: West Ham - Plaistow - Upton Park - East Ham - Barking.

Details of the uprade and extension of the East London Line.