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25% of the 13 minute journey from Whitechapel to Paddington is spent not moving

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Re: 25% of the 13 minute journey from Whitechapel to Paddington is spent not moving

#2
The Elizabeth line (Lizzie line??) is a bit of a quandary for me...

Was so excited about it opening and I still get excited about riding it. Although the tunnels are already notably less pristine, so I'm glad to have seen them when they almost sparkled.

That all said, at least according to google maps and citymapper the Eline seems to be a little situational.

For example, if you're on the Met line and want to go to Canary Wharf, it seems to not be worth changing at Farringdon to catch the Eline or even Liverpool Street, or even a cheeky Jubilee Switch at Finchley Road/Baker St then jump on at Bond Street.

Instead they recommend just doing the boring hop onto the Jubilee line and riding out on those numerous stops.

I tried manually calculating it and it seemed roughly correct, the long change times and less frequent journeys seem to mean it's still generally better to take the old routes.

But if you're already on the Eline it really is a blast across the city.

EDIT I suppose really the game changer was the connection to Paddington. I remember when Amazon moved from Slough to Holborn/Farringdon the transit was shockingly slow for the Reading crowd... the experience was bad enough people would Boris bike or Brompton it instead... I imagine it's even better now for any of the old Reading crowd who now work at Principal Place by Shoreditch

Re: 25% of the 13 minute journey from Whitechapel to Paddington is spent not moving

#4
The percentage alone doesn’t tell much, without knowing what’s the value for regular routes.

Apparently a value below 20% is more acceptable.

> it could do the journey in 12 minutes, knocking the percentage down below 20%, if only those dwell times were a bit closer to normal.

Re: 25% of the 13 minute journey from Whitechapel to Paddington is spent not moving

#6
It’s hard not to think Londoners are entitled and ungrateful.

No other part of the country has ever had so much spent on mass transit nor will it ever. They have the finest public transport in the entire UK, and always will. I bet you can’t regularly do 1-40 mile journeys at the same speed and cost regularly anywhere else in the UK.

The media recently tried to make out the Elizabeth line was one of the worst services in the UK because it had the highest number of cancellations or something which is ridiculous because if the next train is 5 minutes away it doesn’t matter. Try living up North where hourly trains regularly get cancelled

Re: 25% of the 13 minute journey from Whitechapel to Paddington is spent not moving

#7
post #5

It's actually 33% per the end of his article. The 25% comes from his first tweet, which he states was in error.

It's not an error, it's 25% in one direction and 33% in the other. I think what he meant is that he should have tweeted the bigger number, for clickbait.

He also gives a reasonable explanation of why, but nobody who read his original tweet is going to read it.

Re: 25% of the 13 minute journey from Whitechapel to Paddington is spent not moving

#9
post #2

The Elizabeth line (Lizzie line??) is a bit of a quandary for me... Was so excited about it opening and I still get excited about riding it. Although the tunnels are already notably less pristine, so I'm glad to have seen them when they almost sparkled. That all said, at least according to google maps and citymapper the Eline seems to be a little situational. For example, if you're on the Met line and want to go to C…

Indeed, the interchanges can be quite arduous, as it tends to be very deep, and usually quite a trek from the other lines in that station. This also means it can take a good chunk of time to even get to or from the platform.

For example, if you wanted to go from Farringdon to Liverpool St, Google Maps would suggest using the Elizabeth line, but, in practice, it's usually better to use the sub-surface lines (Metropolitan etc). The time taken for the extra stops will be cancelled out because the Elizabeth line takes significantly longer to get into/out of of as it's so much deeper. Add another couple of minutes if you happen to get on the wrong end of the train, because those platforms are long!

That being said, it's a joy to ride and is the only air-conditioned train that runs through the central section of London.

Re: 25% of the 13 minute journey from Whitechapel to Paddington is spent not moving

#10
Travelling by scooter in London, about half the time is spent waiting for traffic lights. I took videos of my commute for about a year, in case of interesting events. Traffic isn't a big deal on a scooter but traffic lights add up.

Still a lot faster than the tube unless you have a direct connection and are close to a station for both ends.

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