Tristán White wrote:
Lintilla wrote in
:

On Sun, 07 Jan 2007 08:19:50 -0600, "Tristán White"
wrote:

If there is an H&C train on the terminus platform at Plaistow, is that
likely to leave before any H&C train going westbound leaves from the
main platform?

It's a bit like the Wembley Park problem, knowing which one to take.
How simple would it be to have a dot matrix display before you go down
the stairs, showing which one is leaving first, in these situations?

And see this interesting thread, on google 5 yrs back:

http://tinyurl.com/23fhcv




Thanks for that - never read that thread at the time as I was using Canning
Town only at that time. But thanks for the reminder, and the amusing read.

I can't remember seeing any signs lit up (I'll look tomorrow morning) so I
wonder whether it either never got fixed, or whether it's blown again.

Or most likely, it's permanently lit up as they seem hell-bent on using as
much electricity as possible without giving a toss.

If you want another example of this, look at that ridiculous exit at
Canning Town that takes you to the wonders of Bow Creek. I have never known
that exit to be open since Canning Town had a tube, yet the area is
permanently lit up like a Christmas tree and with an unused and
unaccessible (but switched-on and power-hungry) lift taking you to the
unapproachable wonders of Bow Creek.

All this coming out of my hard-earned, whether via my local council-tax or
via my season ticket.

Either way, it's a waste. If TfL AT LEAST made a few gestures by planting a
few trees to counter their carbon footprint, I could live (perhaps) with
the waste of energy. Only perhaps. But they don't. Instead they waste our
money and the environment's precious resources.

This is very unfair. One of TfL's raisons d'etre - as set out in the
Mayor's Transport Strategy - is to reduce the impact of transport on the
environment by attracting people out of cars and onto public transport,
bike and foot. There probably aren't many organisations in London
actively doing *more* to reduce carbon emissions than TfL is. Working to
achieve modal shift from car to these other modes is going to accomplish
much more than "planting a few trees" would ever do.

From the office side of things, TfL is certainly the most
environmentally-friendly organisation I have worked for - at least in my
part of the world, it has a genuinely green culture, unlike other
organisations I have worked for which like to look green to the outside
but carry on wasting on the inside. Power consumption for most floors of
most TfL offices is published on the intranet to encourage competition
in energy efficiency.

I would also point out that all parts of the station that passengers can
reach must have their lights on to avoid nasty personal security
implications for passengers. The lights are probably on at night too for
the same reason that many shops leave their lights on - to put vandals
and thieves off. You wouldn't say that a side alleyway shouldn't be lit
because very few people use it - leaving it dark would present an
unacceptable risk to the public.

Personally, I would reckon that your local council probably wastes more
of your money through energy inefficiency than TfL does - you just don't
see it. I wonder how many lights, photocopiers or computers are left on
in Newham's offices overnight? In my offices, lights switch off
automatically at night if no-one is there, computers must be switched
off overnight and security guards are instructed to turn off other
electrical equipment that has been left on unnecessarily. I may be
unfairly criticising Newham, but my experience is that TfL is at the
leading edge of energy efficiency rather than the trailing edge.

--
Dave Arquati
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London