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Elizabeth line testing ways of banishing its "ghosts in the walls"

ianvisits.co.uk

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Re: Elizabeth line testing ways of banishing its "ghosts in the walls"

#81

Post by wolverine876 »

ajb wrote: post #79
lhnz wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a negative outcome of the Town and Country Planning Act. We've mandated by law that all planning is done upfront and due to the possibility of construction fraud provide detailed designs to building contractors that disallow them from substituting any materials or design choices without it being explicitly requested by the employer. In theory, there can be conversation between individual subcontractors and th…

Building is not a waterfall process because of the Planning act. It's waterfall because of the cost structure of building. Every time you iterate physically, you are throwing a lot of money away in time and materials. So any iteration is pushed back to the paper part of the exercise, in which case it might just as well happen before planning approval. Also, it's possible to request a variation, especially if somethin…

> It's waterfall because of the cost structure of building. Every time you iterate physically, you are throwing a lot of money away in time and materials.

Also it's because of the financial structure. People invest a lot of money in something with a delayed, sometimes for years. Delay increases everyone's risk, increases interest expense, and defers revenue.

Re: Elizabeth line testing ways of banishing its "ghosts in the walls"

#82

Post by surfingdino »

These are Eduardo Paolozzi’s ghosts taking their revenge for the destruction of the beautiful mosaic at old Tottenham Court Road Station, obviously.

Seriously, though the Lizzie Line is an example of really grand design but poorly executed. Here are some of my observations:

a. The quality of material is poor and hinders easy maintenance.

b. The high-res information displays show train arrivals in incorrect order, e.g.

1. Abbey Wood 4 min

2. Shenfield 2 min

c. All advertising spaces are now LED displays, some with additional LED-lit frames which use a lot more energy than the old printed posters, which used none. There are hundreds of these things at each station. They heat up the air inside the stations making them unbearably hot in the summer. The solution is more AC and ventilation using even more energy. I stopped caring about saving the planet when I saw what the TfL did.

d. The western section of the line beyond Paddington basically doesn't work in any reliable fashion and should just be repainted green and given to the GWR where it would fit with the rest of the often cancelled services.

Re: Elizabeth line testing ways of banishing its "ghosts in the walls"

#83

Post by [deleted] »

lhnz wrote: post #50
bluenose69 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen similar things where I work. In a new building, the architects called for small air vents that would look nice according to some aesthetic criterion. Unfortunately, the vents were so small that, to maintain air flow, the fans inside them had to spin so fast they screamed. This made for a very unpleasant environment. This was where high-profile events tended to take place, to show off the bright new shiny th…

This is a negative outcome of the Town and Country Planning Act. We've mandated by law that all planning is done upfront and due to the possibility of construction fraud provide detailed designs to building contractors that disallow them from substituting any materials or design choices without it being explicitly requested by the employer. In theory, there can be conversation between individual subcontractors and th…

[deleted]

Re: Elizabeth line testing ways of banishing its "ghosts in the walls"

#84

Post by helboi4 »

nsteel wrote: post #53
some-human wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Londoner for 24 years. I don't know what to tell you, 'Bro'. Yes beggars walk down tube trains trying to get money, but they don't tend to set up shop on the platform which is what we're talking about here. I'm also pretty sure most of the people that have asked me for a quid on the tube were not homeless people, just chancers and drug users. Besides which, once you were past the barrier, sleeping on the tube train i…

Some of the small, outer, (above ground) tube stations I use have periods where staff leave the gates open and leave the public areas. They even do this during busy periods. It is easy to get onto the tube network at these places. There's also stations that share common areas with overground trains that don't even have gates (West Ruislip, for example). And then people also squeeze through the pram/wheelchair gates o…

Thank you for verifying that what I'm saying is not that unreasonable. I'm getting downvoted way too much for totally factual claims here.

I do see beggars at least once a week these days I'd say. They've increased a lot compared to my first years in London when I would safely call it rare. I reckon because of cost of living.

Re: Elizabeth line testing ways of banishing its "ghosts in the walls"

#85

Post by sgu999 »

I guess paying a local to put tiles as we were doing a century ago is deemed too simple and expensive at the same time? Better to use some polymer derived from Saudi Aramco's oil, printed on a machine made in China, somewhere in east Europe at the very best.

At least a couple British managers got paid a fair amount to discuss the proposed designs in a meeting room with their contractors.

Re: Elizabeth line testing ways of banishing its "ghosts in the walls"

#86

Post by RadiozRadioz »

surfingdino wrote: post #82

These are Eduardo Paolozzi’s ghosts taking their revenge for the destruction of the beautiful mosaic at old Tottenham Court Road Station, obviously. Seriously, though the Lizzie Line is an example of really grand design but poorly executed. Here are some of my observations: a. The quality of material is poor and hinders easy maintenance. b. The high-res information displays show train arrivals in incorrect order, e.g…

The heat generated by the LED ads is tiny compared to the heat generated by the actual trains and I think they handled that one very well.

Re: Elizabeth line testing ways of banishing its "ghosts in the walls"

#87

Post by shermantanktop »

gchamonlive wrote: post #70
dghughes wrote: post #56

Option C to hose down the peasants as they entered the tube station so they didn't scuff the walls was not used.

People would pay good money for that stream

Other people would pay good money to watch. Hey, this is sounding like a sustainable business model with real potential!

Re: Elizabeth line testing ways of banishing its "ghosts in the walls"

#88

Post by shermantanktop »

VBprogrammer wrote: post #30
jeroenhd wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the (quite useless) armrests weren't there to prevent the homeless from sleeping on them, people wouldn't be sitting in the exact same spot every time, causing a light smear instead of defined person-like shaped on the wall.

While it's an interesting point. I'm not sure I agree that these are here purely to stop homeless people from sleeping on them. For a start, I would give anyone on the underground about 3 minutes, if they attempted to sleep anywhere, before they were moved on. It's one of the few places where you regularly see staff on the public transport network in London. I think there is a legitimate argument that these arm rests…

I assume you mean stations/platforms/etc. — the trains themselves have dozing people in seats all the time.

And yes, I don’t recall any opportunity to sleep as I shuffled along in the massive crowds for the Waterloo and City line.

Re: Elizabeth line testing ways of banishing its "ghosts in the walls"

#89

Post by bane »

adhesive_wombat wrote: post #54
Havoc wrote: post #17

I noticed some other weird design choices in the new tube stations as well. Eg air vents that are very fine and visibly clog up. It’s like they designed it to look shiny for day one but ignored decades of practical experience

Very many older (and not even that old) tube stations have glossy tiled walls[1], presumably because they're easy to clean with just a cloth. Choosing bare concrete looks cool, and you don't need to pay a tiler to install them, but anyone who has ever done any amount of cleaning ever will tell you a smooth, porous surface like that will look grungy soon enough and be basically impossible to clean by hand. [1]: not on…

Just to note, most of the underground stations on the Washington D.C. metro system are bare concrete. The way the stations are constructed, using a low barrier wall, discourages people from touching the main station walls. The low light kind of also helps hide some of the grime. But overall they're relatively clean.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Metro

Re: Elizabeth line testing ways of banishing its "ghosts in the walls"

#90

Post by bsza »

dghughes wrote: post #56

Option C to hose down the peasants as they entered the tube station so they didn't scuff the walls was not used.

I’m pretty sure a lot of the discoloration comes from pigments/microplastics from the clothes rubbing against the wall. Look how dark the shoulders of these “ghosts” are. If it were just grease, you’d expect the head part to be darkest.
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