On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 10:05:00 -0700, Nerdbird
wrote:

This web site may be of interest to the visitor to London. The
Underground and taxis are discussed.


http://hometown.aol.com/nerdbird1/LondonNYC.html

Found this site very interesting. I'm a Londoner yet know nothing of
NYC. I've never been able to find (or have someone explain) the
Uptown/Downtown concept. I mean, where exactly is Uptown New York?

Simon

On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 18:47:18 +0100, Tom Anderson wrote:

- I take it you know we do have a planetarium, but just think it's rubbish
- which is fair enough.

The Peter Harrison Planetarium, which opened this year?

--
jhk

On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 18:47:18 +0100, Tom Anderson
wrote:

- I take it you know we do have a planetarium, but just think it's rubbish
- which is fair enough.

Closed last year, was it not?

PigPOg wrote:
On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 10:05:00 -0700, Nerdbird
wrote:

This web site may be of interest to the visitor to London. The
Underground and taxis are discussed.


http://hometown.aol.com/nerdbird1/LondonNYC.html

Found this site very interesting. I'm a Londoner yet know nothing of
NYC. I've never been able to find (or have someone explain) the
Uptown/Downtown concept. I mean, where exactly is Uptown New York?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uptown%2C_Manhattan
--
Michael Hoffman

On Mon, 30 Jul 2007, Graham Harrison wrote:

"Tom Anderson" wrote in message
.li...
On Mon, 30 Jul 2007, Nerdbird wrote:

http://hometown.aol.com/nerdbird1/LondonNYC.html

- A big one - London has rail links to all its airports! Stanstead has a
rail and a tube line, City has light rail (and used to have a railway
line), and the three outside the city, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton, all
have trains. In NYC, JFK and Newark have AirTrains, but they're only
shuttles that get to you to Subway/LIRR stations, so there's no
single-seat ride anywhere useful; i don't think LaGuardia has anything at
all.

Which tube goes to Stansted? :-)

*headdesk*

Sorry. Heath Row, of course.

tom

--
I KNOW WAHT IM TALKING ABOUT SO LISTAN UP AND LISTEN GOOD BECUASE ITS
TIEM TO DROP SOME SCIENTISTS ON YUO!!! -- Jeff K

On Tue, 31 Jul 2007 10:16:36 +0100, James Farrar wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 18:47:18 +0100, Tom Anderson
wrote:

- I take it you know we do have a planetarium, but just think it's rubbish
- which is fair enough.

Closed last year, was it not?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Planetarium

But there is a new one in Greenwich:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Harrison_Planetarium

--
jhk

On Mon, 30 Jul 2007, Michael Hoffman wrote:

Peter Robinson wrote:
Michael Hoffman wrote:

Luton does not have a one-seat rail journey to the centre--you have to
take a shuttle to Luton Airport Parkway first.

Eh? Half FCC train stop at Luton Airport Parkway. Or am I missing the
point?

Graham Harrison said that all London airports have direct rail links to the
centre, as opposed to NYC where the "rail link" to two airports involves
getting a rail shuttle from the mainline rail station.

Actually, i think it was me who said that.

I was pointing out that Luton is not any better than that.

Using Google Maps' routes, Luton Airport Parkway to the terminal (well,
the bus station) is 1.5 miles, Howard Beach or Jamaica to JFK is 4.9. I
wouldn't say that was 'no better', but you're right, it's still not a
distance you'd want to walk, so it's a two-seat ride.

Recliner pointed out that "strictly speaking, therefore, Luton is no more
rail connected than Heathrow was before 1977", which is true - but even in
1977, Heathrow was only ~1.5 miles from Hatton Cross (assuming there was a
route more direct than via the A4). Hayes & Harlington and West Drayton
are both ~3.5 miles away, FWIW; Hounslow West is 4.4.

The distance at Luton is probably short enough that there's no
justification for a real rail branch into the airport, unlike at Stansted.
Unless someone decided to build a link from the MML to the Cambridge
branch of the ECML at Hitchin, in which case it would be on the way .

Speaking of Stansted, i wonder why the terminal was placed where it was;
if it had been at the southwestern corner of the airport, it would have
been close enough to Bishops Stortford station that a rail branch could
have been avoided, as at Luton. It would have been closer to the M11, too.

tom

--
I'm not quite sure how that works but I like it ...

PigPOg wrote:

Found this site very interesting. I'm a Londoner yet know nothing of
NYC. I've never been able to find (or have someone explain) the
Uptown/Downtown concept. I mean, where exactly is Uptown New York?

In general, downtown refers to the central business district. In NYC it
refers specifically to lower Manhattan (our /original/ central business
district, which has since grown quite a bit northward). The area called
downtown is alternatively referred to as lower Manhattan.

There is no location called uptown.

However, downtown and uptown are both very commonly used as directions
within Manhattan. They are essentially synonymous with south and north,
respectively. (So in about a half hour, I'll be getting on a downtown -
that is, southbound - train to go to work, since I live in Manhattan
north of where I work.) The same terminology can be extended to the
Bronx. In modern usage, it is never extended to the other boroughs,
although mosaic tiling (installed when the line was built in the 1920's)
in some of the 4th Avenue line subway stations in Brooklyn directs
passengers to the uptown (southbound!) and downtown (northbound!) platforms.
--
David of Broadway
New York, NY, USA

Michael Hoffman wrote:
PigPOg wrote:
On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 10:05:00 -0700, Nerdbird
wrote:

This web site may be of interest to the visitor to London. The
Underground and taxis are discussed.


http://hometown.aol.com/nerdbird1/LondonNYC.html

Found this site very interesting. I'm a Londoner yet know nothing of
NYC. I've never been able to find (or have someone explain) the
Uptown/Downtown concept. I mean, where exactly is Uptown New York?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uptown%2C_Manhattan

This New Yorker suspects that that page was not written by a New Yorker.
It's not accurate in the slightest. (But I'm too lazy fix it, so I
really have no right to complain.)
--
David of Broadway
New York, NY, USA

On Mon, 30 Jul 2007, David of Broadway wrote:

Paul Corfield wrote:
On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 18:47:18 +0100, Tom Anderson
wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jul 2007, Nerdbird wrote:

http://hometown.aol.com/nerdbird1/LondonNYC.html

- London has more commuter rail than New York (particularly south of
the river), and it's often this which provides a more expressish
service to the outer reaches of the city.

Yes. The statements about our lack of express services is just plain
wrong. Almost every radial line from a London terminal has a mix of all
stops, semi fast and expresses. Only the orbital lines and perhaps a
few radial lines have no difference in stopping patterns at peak and
off peak times.

The statements about your lack of express services were probably
referring to the Underground, where they're largely accurate, except on
the western Piccadilly and Metropolitan.

Strictly speaking, that're true, but my point was that NR trains act as
expresses for LU lines in some situations. For example, the Great Northern
from King's Cross, which only has stations north of Finsbury Park (if you
forget about Moorgate and all that) is the express service of the
northeastern Piccadilly. The London, Tilbury and Southend line is the
express service of the eastern District. Other lines don't have such close
correspondence to LU lines, but often serve overlapping areas at the edge
of town, providing a quicker service in.

tom

--
I'm not quite sure how that works but I like it ...