The Shape of Transport to come (MonoMetro etc)
 

Check out page 12 of this week's Time Out, which includes a page on future
London transports and the likelihood of them ever being built. I was
surprised that they only gave 35% chance for the CrossRiver tram,
considerably less than 45% for the Oxford Street tram.

There's also a nice picture of the MonoMetro as it passes down Liverpool
Street. But they only give 10% chance for that one, sadly.

Incidentally, in case some people here don't know about the MonoMetro
Suspended Transport, some videos are he

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOQyFYXQSEQ


At the risk of sounding like a chavvy teenager, it is totally cool. The
video is sexy - a bit repetitive but you just really wish it would happen.
This project completely passed me by. Calling it MonoMetro 2012 is I'm sure
utterly unrealistic, even if it happens at all. I see in Time Out that it
was to link Liverpool Street with the Isle of Dogs and Stratford. I wonder
whether, since there's no way it could happen by 2012, they'll still bother
about Stratford.

OK they'll miss the Olympics, but they'll still have the International
station, and they'll still have Stratford City business centre that, if our
mayor Sir Robin Wales is right, will turn Stratford into a major business
and shopping centre - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratford_City

Anyway... what's of all these projects? We've spoken at length about
CrossRiver so probably not necessary to discuss much more.

For the benefit of those not living in London, or too cheap to buy Time
Out, I'll give you their likelihood of ever being made percentages - buy
the magazine if you want to read why they give those percentages.

OFFSHORE LONDON AIRPORT: 10%
CROSSRIVER TRAM: 35%
OXFORD STREET TRAM: 45%
MONOMETRO: 10%
BATTERSEA POWER STATION RIVERBUS: 40%
EXHIBITION ROAD CLEAR-OUT: 85%
THAMESLINK 2012: 60%

The Shape of Transport to come (MonoMetro etc)
 

There's also a nice picture of the MonoMetro as it passes down Liverpool
Street. But they only give 10% chance for that one, sadly.

That's really sad.
I think nobody will deny that the only unused space left in London, is
space between house *above* roads - so such project could be very
useful and really change transport situation for the better.

The Shape of Transport to come (MonoMetro etc)
 

alex_t wrote:
There's also a nice picture of the MonoMetro as it passes down
Liverpool Street. But they only give 10% chance for that one, sadly.

That's really sad.
I think nobody will deny that the only unused space left in London, is
space between house *above* roads - so such project could be very
useful and really change transport situation for the better.

The sky isn't unused, it has amenity value. In America they have
progressively torn down the Els and replaced them with subways on the same
alignment.

The Shape of Transport to come (MonoMetro etc)
 

John Rowland wrote:
alex_t wrote:
There's also a nice picture of the MonoMetro as it passes down
Liverpool Street. But they only give 10% chance for that one, sadly.
That's really sad.
I think nobody will deny that the only unused space left in London, is
space between house *above* roads - so such project could be very
useful and really change transport situation for the better.

The sky isn't unused, it has amenity value. In America they have
progressively torn down the Els and replaced them with subways on the same
alignment.

Exactly - elevated monorails are very visually intrusive, despite the
slimmer supports and tracks. If they are intended to go down existing
streets, most streets in London would look completely closed in if an
elevated monorail were running down them. The video shows them on
Waterloo Bridge, Euston Road, at Canary Wharf - where there is a lot of
space.

A central London monorail system was proposed in the 1960s but soon
abandoned. A key sticking point was the station infrastructure. A
monorail may look slimline, but an elevated station certainly does not -
you need platforms, stairs and lifts. The station shown on Euston Road
in the video already makes the street look very enclosed - imagine what
it would look like on a narrower typical street such as Regent St or
Oxford Street. People already complain about the intrusiveness of tram
overhead power lines - imagine the reaction to a two-track monorail down
Oxford Street!

Another irritation for office workers or residents of flats and houses
next to a monorail route is that their reasonably private first or
second floor room suddenly becomes a fishbowl for thousands of people
gawping in every hour.

Pie-in-the-sky impractical idea. Nice video though.

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

The Shape of Transport to come (MonoMetro etc)
 

Pie-in-the-sky impractical idea. Nice video though.

Do you have anything better?
Redecorating old tube? Even if they will fix it, it will still be
crowded, tiny, and hot.

The only other real long-term solution is to dig a new underground with
at least the same scope as the current tube (and preferably even
larger, including south). But I'm sure it won't happen in our
lifetimes.

The Shape of Transport to come (MonoMetro etc)
 

On Thu, 16 Nov 2006, Tristán White wrote:

Check out page 12 of this week's Time Out, which includes a page on
future London transports and the likelihood of them ever being built. I
was surprised that they only gave 35% chance for the CrossRiver tram,
considerably less than 45% for the Oxford Street tram.

Rings a bell:

http://www.newlondonarchitecture.org/exhibitions.php

OFFSHORE LONDON AIRPORT: 10%
CROSSRIVER TRAM: 35%
OXFORD STREET TRAM: 45%
MONOMETRO: 10%
BATTERSEA POWER STATION RIVERBUS: 40%
EXHIBITION ROAD CLEAR-OUT: 85%
THAMESLINK 2012: 60%

Now that *really* rings a bell:

http://www.newlondonarchitecture.org...donsMoving.pdf

Bar rounding to the nearest 5%, and knocking the riverbus down a few
points, the scores are exactly as given in the NLA exhibition!

Did they claim this was their own work, or do they mention the NLA?

Given that the NLA gallery is all of 300 metres walk from Time Out's
offices, this is probably the laziest journalism i've seen in a while.

tom

--
It's worth remembering that if you chain a thousand monkeys to a
thousand typewriters, they will all eventually die of starvation. --
themanwhofellasleep

The Shape of Transport to come (MonoMetro etc)
 

Dave Arquati wrote:

Another irritation for office workers or residents of flats and houses
next to a monorail route is that their reasonably private first or
second floor room suddenly becomes a fishbowl for thousands of people
gawping in every hour.

Singapore has an interesting solution to that; their residential-zone
"mini-metros" have LCD windows, which are automatically blacked out at
predefined locations where privacy might be an issue.

Neil

The Shape of Transport to come (MonoMetro etc)
 

"Neil Williams" wrote in message
oups.com...
Dave Arquati wrote:

Another irritation for office workers or residents of flats and houses
next to a monorail route is that their reasonably private first or
second floor room suddenly becomes a fishbowl for thousands of people
gawping in every hour.

Singapore has an interesting solution to that; their residential-zone
"mini-metros" have LCD windows, which are automatically blacked out at
predefined locations where privacy might be an issue.

Neil


I live on the (raised) first floor and I'd love a monorail gliding past
every 5 minutes - and if the passengers get the occasional eyeful, good for
them!

x

The Shape of Transport to come (MonoMetro etc)
 

Dave Arquati wrote in
:

SNIP
A central London monorail system was proposed in the 1960s but soon
abandoned. A key sticking point was the station infrastructure. A
monorail may look slimline, but an elevated station certainly does not
- you need platforms, stairs and lifts. The station shown on Euston
Road in the video already makes the street look very enclosed -
imagine what it would look like on a narrower typical street such as
Regent St or Oxford Street. People already complain about the
intrusiveness of tram overhead power lines - imagine the reaction to a
two-track monorail down Oxford Street!
SNIP


I know the video has other parts of London such as Euston Road and various
bridges with a MonoMetro, but as far as I know, the plan is just for a
connection between Liverpool Street, Isle of Dogs and Stratford City, isn't
it? So it shouldn't be too intrusive.

The Shape of Transport to come (MonoMetro etc)
 

Tom Anderson wrote in
h.li:

SNIP
Bar rounding to the nearest 5%, and knocking the riverbus down a few
points, the scores are exactly as given in the NLA exhibition!

Riverbus is knocked down because of the recent worrying news about the
future (or not) of the Power Station itself.


Did they claim this was their own work, or do they mention the NLA?


They mention the NLA, and at the end of the article they plug the
exhibition and give the website reference.


Given that the NLA gallery is all of 300 metres walk from Time Out's
offices, this is probably the laziest journalism i've seen in a while.


Not really - I guess a deal was struck: we plug your exhibition, if we can
use your facts and figures to make a page up. I for one am delighted they
did as I may not have heard of this exhibition otherwise. And it's good
that the public are more informed of what's going on. I for one would have
loved more information when they considered stopping the NLL south of
Stratford, as you know.