LJC56

Buses running but slow. The Walworth Road has not been gritted, which I would have thought was a priority in this area.

In my experience the adult carol services, usually the Nine Lessons and Carols, are the Sunday before Christmas, in this case the 17th. That's when St. Johns Goose Green's is this year.

It has been part of the Terroirs group since it stopped being Green and Blue. Whatever happens is a win-win for me since I love ToastED as it is (they get their croissants from Little Bread Pedlar which makes it the best in Lordship Lane for breakfast, in my view). And Terroirs is one of my favourite restaurants in town especially for pre theatre.

The lovely folk in the Grove Vale library

I work near Covent Garden and take the Thameslink to City Thameslink, then 15 minute walk, or if feeling lazy, 23 bus right outside City Thameslink station.

Sumner Road, Burgess Park, Portland Street, Rodney Road, Meadow Row and the EC bypass for me. I join the segregated cycle paths towards Blackfriars at Webber Street. I tried following the cycle way across EC once, and it was fine, but in the end, I didn't feel it was any quicker from Rodney Road than using the bypass. The cycle lanes to Blackfriars and along the Embankment are fantastic.

DulwichLondoner Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > What is idiotic is giving priority to a private > form of transport, which can only be used by a > minority of the population, over public transport > (like busses), which can be used by everyone. All > the more so because cycle lanes are used much less > in the winter, when it rains, and outside of the > 8-9am / 5-6.30pm commuting times: outside of those > times, I see semi-empty cycle lanes, and > incredibly congested public roads. Bus lanes have > been removed all over London to make way for these > cycle lanes; getting by bus to Vauxhall now takes > forever thanks to this enlightened decision, > because busses no longer have their own lane for a > significant part of the journey. > I've spent the last year commuting to Vauxhall by bus from East Dulwich and it is often quick and reliable. I don't understand the comment about the segregated cycle lanes causing congestion as these cover just a small part of the journey for the Oval to Vauxhall - where I have occasionally got off and walked from the Oval (it's not far). The real problem with buses to Vauxhall and Victoria is the lack of a bus lane in the first part of the Camberwell New Road. Extending the bus lane back to Camberwell would make a real difference but presumably would impede cars too much.....

Also saw Travesties this week. Really funny, excellent performances especially Tom Hollander.

I saw American in Paris in NY and is was excellent - and I gather pretty much the whole cast is coming over for the London version. Pirates of Penzance at the ENO is also excellent. And if you haven't seen Les Miserables, I would suggest that too.

They are going because of a huge rent hike. So even if this shop isn't your thing (I will miss it personally) then it could be one you like going next, if this pattern continues. In relation to what replaces it, the council are allowed to limit the different types of stall in the market so there is not too much of the same thing, but seem not to be able to do so for the main shopping streets.

I think everyone missed the memo, especially the bus drivers. Elsie Road is not a request stop, yet you still have to stick your hand out to get a bus to stop! Especially annoying if you only just get to the stop in time and turn to find a bus sailing by. (185 driver, Thursday morning, I'm looking at you).

And the Grove Vale Library. Felt sure we would lose this in the library consultation a few years ago, yet it's still there, and still providing great service and up to date, new books.

I don't know just how fancy is fancy (!) but if it is open at its new home (in the next few weeks) the Union Square Cafe gets my vote every time. Great food, sourced from the local market. I also like the Gramercy tavern, although I haven't eaten in the main restaurant, just the bar. But it was excellent. If you are on your own, I have found the bar great for eavesdropping! Definitely walk the Highline north to south, at sunset. Amazing views and the walk takes about as long as the sun takes to sink properly. While you are down in the Chelsea area, Murray's Cheese bar is a great place for snack of local cheeses and wine. And take the East River ferry from midtown to Brooklyn, really cheap, stunning views of Manhattan.

Penguin68 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > a plea for more cyclists to thank drivers who they > make way for them? > > A couple of weeks ago I was thanked (twice, by > different cyclists) for giving way in my car in a > narrow passing place, where surging forward would > have put the cyclist in jeopardy. I was really > pleased that what I had done had both been noticed > and acknowledged. It further encouraged me to > continue driving considerately. I couldn't agree > more with rendelharris about this. Totally in favour of more courtesy on the roads, just can't entirely see why only cyclists should be courteous! I (middle aged female cyclist) regularly pull over for cars, and it's really nice and rare to be thanked! In Sumner Road this week, I pulled over for a car coming in the other direction on the narrow bit where there are lots of parked cars, and he and the three cars that tailgated him didn't even look in my direction let alone wave. So, more courtesy all round I think.

The full route isn't yet on the countdown system which won't help uptake. Great to have it. Used it last night!

Have you looked at the City Farms? They often offer sessional work, which could dovetail in with your job and give you some experience and contact with animals. Spittalfields has a rolling programme of recruitment.

Went to this exhibition yesterday. A lack of business plan is just one symptom of the holes in this plan. No traffic management plan has yet been developed but talking with the folk at the exhibition, they are not planning on providing parking but encouraging fans to attend by public transport. Given ED is on the same line as a another football club, Millwall, how will that work? Will schedules of games be coordinated so the Millwall and ED are not playing the same day? What about the many weekends of engineering work or is everyone assuming that will stop when London Bridge is complete? There seems to be some provision for away fans coaches but also someone said that coaches would wait 'somewhere etc' unspecified. No detail on how much affordable housing or what size units will be offered as affordable housing. It depends evidently on the business plan. I can just imagine that once it comes down to it "regretfully " Hadley will find that it can't provide as many affordable units as it hoped. Secondly, will the affordable units be all the least desirable ones as happens as so many other developments?

Lazero's experience echoes my own. For the last year I have been going Peckham Rye to Farringdon, travelling after 9.00 with very few problems. I also found the overground OK after 9.00, which was an alternative for me (working about 15 minutes walk from Hoxton or Farringdon). In the evening I found the overground completely unproblematic compared to the London Bridge route. The great thing about living so near to Peckham Rye is having travel options, especially if you're willing to do a small walk at your destination.

Workshop coffee in Clerkenwell doesn't have wifi and is always packed....

Monkey Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Here's the answer I have had from Charles Horton's > assistant. Horton is CEO of Govia Thameslink > Railway. > > Thank you for your emails dated 01st September > 2015 and 03rd September 2015 to Charles Horton, > CEO of Govia Thameslink Railway. Charles has > reviewed your complaint and asked me to reply. > > I am sorry to hear that you have noticed a down > turn in the performance of your regular service > and I can understand this is deeply frustrating. > To offer some background, we have had some > challenges with our Driver numbers, and we still > have some work to do in terms of recruiting to > establishment levels across all our depots and > then getting Driver?s fully productive across a > range of routes. By April 2016 we expect to be > over establishment at all depots in the metro area > taking into account forecasted attrition and > planned recruitment. Currently we have 76 Driver?s > in training - however because Driver's take 18 > months to train, there is no quicker fix to this. > > > In addition to this we have experienced some very > short notice sickness in both Driver and Conductor > grades. On a daily basis our operations team are > working to mitigate the impact of any known gaps > in the roster, for example daily conference calls > are held to identify duties that are not covered, > the impact of this and then solutions are > identified. This approach enables us to reduce the > number of cancellations through a range of > approaches. > > We do expect the situation to improve as we move > out of the holiday season when there are a higher > number of staff on annual leave. We are committed > to improving our performance for customers. This is exactly the same response I got when I posed the question about the ED services to one of the managers at the meet the managers session last year. He said then that they were short of drivers, so many in training etc, etc (see above). He expected things to be better by this year. We are still all waiting! This reply incidentally, doesn't explain why it's often the same services that get cancelled, and why stopping services suddenly become nonstop services.

Always happens this time of year, spookily within a week or so of the middle of July. Ugh!

Tonight two consecutive East Dulwich trains either greatly delayed or cancelled due to staff shortages. Ended up getting train to New Cross Gate and then bus.

New lows tonight , several trains cancelled, different reasons (staff shortages, train faults). It was no better later on when I tried to go out to meet a friend. Sigh.

I can't see why one of the bell bollards couldn't be used. I agree that we need something different to the present bollard but certainly some form of bollard is needed.