James Scantlebury

Intense writing of Local Plan examination matter papers - who knew that summarising and justifying the last 5 years of work was hard work 🤪

Oxford Street traffic diversion plan ahead of pedestrianisation

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... this is great news for Oxford Street and London!

Great news!

Brighton Main Line upgrade proposals - Network Rail In 2018, we brought forward proposals to deliver faster, more reliable services and improved connections on the Brighton Main Line and the lines that feed into it.

Also, the Brighton main line is rammed - and CARS in Croydon was estimated at £2.5 billion pre-Covid to help with this… www.networkrail.co.uk/our-work/our...

Sim city 3000 soundtrack on iPad with word document in the background

This feels too on the nose.

Nah, two piss easy questions - an inflation calculation and a question about liquidity.

Alas, joint 3rd - one point off 2nd.

There’s something particularly sleazy about having a pub quiz sponsored by [app based trading platform for stocks and crypto], especially when 2 questions in the quiz have been “provided” by the sponsor.
No discounted entry fee either!

Some are geographical or descriptive of their former use (similar to Markt) or are describing the place (Strand come from old English for shoreline). Some were two names (White Hall, Alde Wych) and become one over time

There are fair critiques of the REM - the financial model, the attitude and arrogance of CDPQ, preventing the Mont Royal tunnel from being used for high speed rail, its snow/cold weather abilities, not actually connecting to Dorval … but would having the REM be better than not? Of course!

Can’t wait to ride this the next time I’m in Montreal - $124m a kilometre is incredibly impressive build costs, shows IBX in NYC what can be done when you reuse existing rights of way…

When the northern line extension opened, I visited at 9am ish (rather than 5am) and ended up seeing the actual opening ceremony with Byford, Mayor Khan etc…
Less tiring and a nice surprise!

Roast chicken and all the trimmings

Good dog in Victoria Park

Tree avenue with orange leaves on the floor

Man with dog

What an excellent day, and an excellent Roast.

I drafted a policy for Newham with some anticipation of future technologies like this…

“Development that supports the introduction of new transportation technology will be
supported, where this new technology does not cause amenity impacts for residents or
impact the wider transport network”

Image of lower concourse at Southwark tube station, London, showing the 'ships prow' illuminated central feature in the staircases looking up from platform level towards the lower escalator landing. Pic by Luke Agbaimoni (Tubemapper)

Oh wow! A London Underground station being officially Listed is always great news - this one especially so. Southwark station, 1999 by MacCormac Jamieson Prichard, has just been Listed at Grade 2. Now for the other JLE stations. @c20society.bsky.social

historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-...

Working in markdown takes some getting used to but it’s so much nicer

“Kent residents Hannah and Paul George designed the system after estimating they spent hundreds of hours attempting to navigate the planning process when they opposed plans to convert a building near their home into a mosque.” 💀

The faster that the left learns the lessons from Zohran's very successful campaign - the better.
You can win from the left while aiming at the centre ground...

London would be a much uglier, noisier, car centric place if the Ringways had all been built…

We dodged a bullet … thanks to @roads.org.uk for this impressive resource!

Maybe there would be a use for Stratford International after all

Does this mean I can (once again) tell people that Stratford International is not going to happen?

City of London Street sign typeface

Comparison between Albertus and city of London Street sign typeface 1988 and 2025

Comparison between Albertus and city of London Street sign typeface 1988 and 2025

Albertus typeface

TIL that the City of London *technically* doesn’t use Albertus on its street signs - used since 1988 and updated in 2025

Assez vif, très rythmé (From String Quartet in F Major, M. 35) - Recomposed

Victor Le Masne - the composer who did the music for the opening ceremony of Paris 2024 - is working on a new project to recompose Ravel pieces and I’m really enjoying it spotify.link/9DkPoZaEMXb

Are we gonna need to stream this for folks?

Exactly … but SNCF don’t know anything else but squeezing passengers in!
They’d rather have 1000 passengers on 1 train every 2 hours… rather than 500 passengers on 1 train every hour!

The accessibility problems with Alstom's new TGV-M train - with implications for future Channel Tunnel operators - #CrossBorderRail There is no way to sweeten this: my original conclusion that Alstom’s Avelia Horizon (known as TGV-M with SNCF) is not legal at higher station platforms outside France was incorrect. Because transpare...

Sigh, no level boarding *again* - the Avelia Horizon trains have a complicated onboard wheelchair lift crossborderrail.trainsforeurope.eu/the-accessib...

Yes, HS1 is built to full European size - allowing double decker trains

Well, it now works for me too! :)

Policy recommendations link at the bottom of this page is broken - gives 500 server error nec.transitcosts.com/infrastructu...

I get that every local authority up and down the country is financially screwed - the report details this in depth - "it is
now expected that around one third of London boroughs will be applying for Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) over the next year."