Bakerloo Study – at last

For a few years I’ve been banging on about Southwark Council funding a study about extending the Bakerloo line http://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/mgIssueHistoryHome.aspx?IId=21396&Opt=0

This approach by Greenwich Council about extending the DLR resulted in the Woolwich Arsenal extension. Funding such a report – not cheap at £50,000 – ensures some real depth occurs and hopefully will push the Bakerloo extension along by several years.

It is brilliant in opposition to push policies and actions you want and see them adopted. Happy day.

 

The Millennium Link or Connect 2 Partially Completed

Great news that the bridge is finally open. HOORAY.

Alastair Hanton, Michael Bridgeland and I originally proposed this in 1998. Please see attached graphic and map we used in our Southwark Cyclists report.The Millennium Link Graphic

It was meant to be a The Millennium Link a project linking northern Southwark to the Millennium Dome. We met so many people so many times – everyone from Network Rail, TfL, Southwark Council – officers and councillors, Southwark Police, Lewisham Police, British Transport Police, Sustrans….

Lots of hurdles. Walking the route to double check our assumption, site meetings with the great and good. Simon Hughes MP was very supportive. Things like arranging for the Blue Belle Railway to remove the redundant tracks – which were of a very old heritage railway design avoiding a major project costs while helping a charity.

Eventually Sustrans agreed to take it forward by which time it was 2002.

Not quite sure how so much of the project became side tracked linking Peckham to Rotherhithe but either way this off-road key link is in place and things can be added onto it.

I really recommend trying it and dreaming of what it will eventually lead onto.

And a particular well done to Alastair Hanton and his extreme long lasting tenacity – 15 years to make this project happen. I’m halfway through raising a family in the time it has taken.

But roll on the next phase…

Shocking London Bus Crashes

Very sad article about two buses a day on average crahsing with pedestrians and cyclists.

During the last six years 145,533 bus crashes. With 3,591 pedestrians and 1,219 cyclists injured or killed during that period. Injuries such as little Pollyanna Hope tragically losing a leg while on a pavement.

With London having 8,500 buses that means every year on average each London bus will have nearly 3 crashes (2.85). Even with their very high bus mileage it still seems an outrageous number.

But what I find shocking is that late in 2005 TfL with the First bus group deployed a $700,000 fully immersive Bus simulator to train bus drivers of off the roads. In the US they’ve been shown to help reduce crashes by 43%.

I had the good fortune to spend a day on it trying it out representing the London Cycling Campaign. You can really create a lot of tough driving quickly and repeatedly. Drivers can have what happened played back to them and really learn a lot quikcly. It got wrapped up in a light TV show but that didnt deter me from having a good go on the bus simulator. They threw sleet, storms, throngs of suicidal cyclists. First still say theyre operating it.

What was really surprising was the large insurance claims office at the other end of the bus simulator corridor. Never forgotten that. And with the stats revealed it’s not surprising they need such offices.

But the bus simulators proposed have never been rolled out across London as planned. And we still have an unacceptably high crash rate for fulltime professional drivers.

If you think London Buses need to do better and deploy bus simulators tell London Mayor Boris Johnson at mayor@london.gov.uk and copy me  james.barber@southwark.gov.uk

East Dulwich highways renewal

The plans for Southwark highway and street lighting maintenance have been issued pending a cabinet councillor decision:

http://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/mgIssueHistoryHome.aspx?IId=50000667&Opt=0

For East Dulwich it’s proposed to:

– Barry Road resurface between Lordship Lane and Goodrich Road 22m costing £32,460

– Peckham Rye resurface and renew pavement between Barry Road and East Dulwich Road 400m costing £89,931

– Landcroft Road resurface 400m costs £57,912 – this appears to have been rolled over from this financial year with no explanation.

– Silvester Road resurfaced between Landcroft Road and Crystal Palace Road 200m costing £70,671

– Goodrich Road resurfaced between Landcroft Road and Hillcourt 418m costing £91,375

– Worlingham footway renewed 280m costing £12,930

– Dunstans and Goodrich Road replace defective lamp posts

– Install Pigeon mesh at various bridges across the borough to control pigeon mess.

Do you think this makes sense for East Dulwich and Southwark – let us know what you think?

Electric Cars for East Dulwich

The Coalition Government has just announced £400M of support for electric car charging points between now and April 2015.

For East Dulwich it means that any resident who orders an electric car 75% of the installation cost of providing a public charging point will be paid for by the government. The remaining 25% by the council. The cost per charging point is typically £2,400.

In East Dulwich ward we, as ward councillors, would look to find this money from somewhere. Either Cleaner, Greener, Safer capital or revenue funding streams.

So let us know if you order an electric vehicle and we will try and ensure you can have a charging point on the public highway as close to your home as practical.

Road Works Online Mapping

143 of the 174 English and Welsh Highway Authorities have signed up to an initiative t0 make all roadworks details available online through one website:

www.roadworks.org

You can set-up email alerts to warn of roadworks. View online road works Southwark plans. What the main utilities are working on.

So if you see roadworks you can zero in on the location on a map and see who’s doing it and why.

Try it out.

Breathing Airtrack Back To Life

Heathrow_airtrack_logoThe London Borough of Wandsworth is commissioning a study by Arup of options for a rail link between Waterloo, Clapham Junction and Heathrow Airport.

Such a rail link would be great for Southwark residents whether they live in the north of the borough not so far from Waterloo or equally near the East London Line 2 which means residents with one train change could use such a new rail route to Heathrow.

Importantly it would take just four years once given the go ahead to open. Exactly the sort of infrastructure project thE London but especially London needs.

Wandsworth also agree there is a strong demand for better rail links to Heathrow from south London and that this will be strengthened by the redevelopment of Nine Elms and the relocation if the US Embassy to the area from central London.

BAA’s former plans for a £673m direct link between Heathrow and London Waterloo – known as Airtrack – were canned in 2011. The airport were unable to resolve concerns about the impact or more trains on level crossing delays in Surrey. This must be solvable. Egham with a cut and cover track would actually make the current situation better.

The new three-month study, expected to cost around £25,000, will examine options and come up with a preferred scheme.

As a Southwark Lib Dem I say well done Wandsworth.

Tower Subway fails the grade

Southwark is often said to be the most historic London borough. Part of this evidence in the Tower Subway. It was the world’s first ever tube railway in 1869.

Today English Heritage decided not to award it Grade II listing.

See the report why:  report_165456

Tower subwayThe tower subway has historical significance as one of the earliest tunnels to be dug using the tunnel shield method.  Marc and Isambard Brunel pioneered the use of a tunnelling shield in the digging of the Thames Tunnel between Wapping and Rotherhithe (now part of the London Overground Network) and Peter Barlow and James Greathead significantly improved on this work in constructing an iron shield that was circular in cross section (the Brunel’s shield was rectangular) that laid the foundations for the tunnel boring machines that are used today. The Tower Subway is also significant in being the first to use a segmental cast-iron lining, a system still in common use today.  The Tower Subway is thus London’s second oldest tunnel beneath the River Thames and pre-dates the next oldest – the City and South London Railway (now the Northern Line) – by some 14 years. Tunnel’s are not normally listed (the Thames Tunnel, at grade II*, is a rare exception) the historic significance  of the Tower Subway suggests that it would make  a worthy candidate for listing.

It was built in less than one year in 1869 which is a great example of how great an engineer Peter Barlow was designing his shield etc and how James Greathead delivered the project. It originally had a mini tube train which failed commercially. Once this subway train was removed in 1870 it became a 1/2 penny toll foot tunnel and was hugely successful in getting one million people a year from Tooley Street to outside the Tower of London. But this commercially died when Tower Bridge was opened as a free way of crossing the River Thames in 1894.

The tunnel was then bought by the London Hydraulic Power Company housing high pressured water pipes, later Thames Water pipes and more recently fibre optic cables for Cable&Wireless Worldwide.

Is it safe for the future?

Making Lordship Lane 20mph

Since being elected in 2006 East Dulwich councillors have been working hard to make our high street Lordship Lane safer. It’s a particularly busy high street.  We’ve been successful having two new crossing installed early last year, enhanced Goose Green roundabout with all arms having Zebra crossings, most side roads with raised entry treatments. These are the types of measures that the Mary Portas Review recommended “focus on making high streets accessible, attractive and safe”.

2223576497_3520d6c0af_mThe latest progress towards making Lordship Lane safer is to introduce a 20mph speed limit on Lordship Lane between Goose Green and the Police Station at Whateley Road . We applied and awarded £15,000 towards this from the 2012/13 Cleaner, Greener, Safer capital funding. After a year of working with officers they’ve now agreed that physical measures are not required. This is partly from the governments change in national policy january this year making 20mph easier via its new guidance – Setting Local Speed Limits.

As part of the process we’ve had speed surveys done at two points along Lordship Lane – just south of Frogley Road and just south of Hansler Road. They were done during term time in the Autumn.

The surveys were carried out just south of Frogley Road which had a mean speed of 17.9mph and an 85th percentile speed of 23.9mph and also just south of Hansler Road where the mean speed was 22.1mph with an 85th percentile speed of 28.2mph.

The new guidance says that if the mean average speed is below 24mph 20mph speed limits can be introduced. It also suggests that  if a large variation exists between the mean average and 85th percentile speeds then drivers are likely to be confused about what speed to drive at and introducing 20mph speed limits should help reduce this confusion.

The next step is for officers to formally consult on making this happen. Assuming no hiccups I’m hopeful it can be introduced within three months.

 

 

How long to… remove guard railings

In 1994 St.Clement’s School moved from Archdale Road in East Dulwich to Ady’s Road in The Lane ward. Nineteen years ago. The old school has been turned into 6 amazingly different apartments and homes.

Before ArchdaleAfter Archdale

 

 

 

 

 

But the guard railings were left and left and left. Eventually I spotted them and after 19 years they were removed.

So how long does it take to remove guard railings… 19 years!