Telecom news

• Tube station managers to strike on Friday and Saturday

  24-04-2024 14:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  There may be intemittent and short notice tube station closures on Friday and Saturday, as station managers who are members of the TSSA union walk out in a dispute over working conditions.Station managers who would book for a shift on Friday 26th April will not work, and that will lead to occasional station closures on Friday, and also on Saturday if station managers were due to start work late on Friday evening.
  That could affect Night Tube services on Friday night.
  TSSA Customer Service Manage
  
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• c2c railway closures offers a rare chance to travel over a disused railway track

  28-05-2024 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Network Rail is warning that the c2c railway between Barking and Fenchurch Street will be closed for six weekends in June and July due to maintenance work on the rail infrastructure.
  However, a special diversion will occur on one day during the closure, which will excite the train nerds.
  c2c train at Fenchurch Street station (c) c2c
  The diversions and closures will take place every weekend in June and the first weekend of July.
  During the closures, services on the Basildon and Rainham lines will
  
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• Former Camden Market street art doors up for sale

  27-05-2024 11:45 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Garden shed owners who love street art are in for a treat, as a load of street-art painted doors salvaged from Camden Lock Village have gone on sale.
  (c) RWB Auctions
  The village was next to the canal and used a load of “christmas market” style sheds to trade from. Then, in 2014, a group of urban artists painted the otherwise plain wooden doors as part of a project organised by The Real Art Of Street Art. The community advocacy group provides walls and other surfaces for artists to p
  
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• Crossrail’s Mark Wild takes over as HS2 boss

  24-05-2024 20:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Mark Wild, who took over the completion of the Crossrail project after it ran into trouble, is taking over as the boss of HS2 railway.
  Mark Wild (c) HS2
  Mark will join HS2 at a pivotal moment in the programme’s delivery. Civil engineering works along the route from London to the West Midlands are reaching their peak, and the focus is shifting to building the infrastructure to operate the railway.
  This new appointment forms part of a series of reforms across the project aimed at bearing dow
  
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• London stations among 50 receiving funding for Step-Free access cost evaluations

  24-05-2024 18:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The government has released funding to support step-free access at railway stations, but at this stage, only to evaluate the costs of adding step-free access in the future.
  The opening day of step-free access at East Grinstead station in Sept 2022
  The Department for Transport (DfT) says that ministers have agreed on the list of 50 additional stations selected for initial feasibility work, which, if successful, will be taken forward as part of the Access for All (AfA) programme.
  The fifty station
  
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• Elizabeth line celebrates two years of service with over 350 million journeys

  24-05-2024 14:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  On the second anniversary of the Elizabeth line’s opening, TfL revealed that it had carried more than 350 million journeys since opening on 24th May 2022.
  Opening Bond Street station (c) ianVisits
  During its first full year of operation, the Elizabeth line saw more than 150 million passenger journeys. In 2023/24, this number dramatically increased to 210 million journeys. On average, the line handles around 700,000 passenger journeys every weekday, with the busiest day recorded on 18th Apr
  
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• Birds: The Living Dinosaurs – This new NHM exhibiton tells their evolutionary tale

  24-05-2024 10:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A declaration that birds are dinosaurs is how an exhibition about birds in a museum famous for its dinosaurs opens, as it tells the story of avian evolution from the dinosaurs into your Christmas lunch.The common idea that dinosaurs died out when an asteroid hit the earth has become considerably more complicated in just the past few decades. Recent discoveries have shown that dinosaurs were already evolving into birds when the asteroid hit, and the impact opened the door for that evolution to ta
  
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• Your chance to nominate a historic figure for a Blue Plaque

  24-05-2024 07:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  If you’ve ever wanted to nominate a notable person or organisation for a Blue Plaque, then now’s your chance, as Historic England is seeking ideas from the public.
  London’s 1000th official blue plaque unveiled in 2023 (c) ianVisits
  To be eligible, the person being nominated needs to have died at least 20 years ago and have at least one building associated with them that survives from the time of their occupancy and where a plaque would be clearly visible from a public highway.
  
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• Grand Central applies to run more trains between London and Yorkshire

  23-05-2024 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The independent train company Grand Central wants to include its services between key destinations in the North East and West Yorkshire and London, and it has filed an application with the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).
  (c) Grand Central
  If the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) and consultations within the rail industry approve the plans, then Grand Central says it will be able to offer increased frequency and new direct journey opportunities.
  The train company wants to run up to two additional dail
  
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• Tickets Alert: Southbank Centre resumes architecture tours

  23-05-2024 14:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Once a semi-regular event before the pandemic, the Southbank Centre is resuming its architectural tours of its buildings.
  Royal Festival Hall
  Love it or hate it, the concrete landscape of one of Europe’s most iconic arts centres has been dividing opinion since it was built in 1967. Have you ever wondered why the Queen Elizabeth Hall is such an irregular shape? Or why it looks as though the concrete is made from wood? Now’s your chance to find out.
  The tours will take place at 11am on
  
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• GTR launches TfL-style weekly cap on pay as you go train tickets

  23-05-2024 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Customers travelling with Southern, Thameslink, and Great Northern are getting TfL-style caps on weekly travel, with a guarantee that pay as you go journeys will never cost more than an equivalent weekly season ticket.
  GTR Key Smartcard (c) Govia Thameslink Railway
  With people working from home at least some of the week, more people are paying for travel on the day they travel rather than buying a weekly (or more) season ticket. That can mean people unexpectedly asked to come into the office on
  
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• London’s Pocket Parks: Norfolk Square Gardens, W2

  23-05-2024 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  This square (well, long rectangle) in Paddington owes its origins to the same beginnings as nearby Talbot Square around the corner. It sits on top of a filled-in water reservoir built before the area developed with the arrival of the railways.As so much of the area was, it was laid out with tall, stocco-clad buildings surrounding a private garden. Planting aside, the garden also had a very different architectural appearance when built, as there was a large church at the far end.
  All Saints&rsquo
  
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• The Vinyl Factory’s ‘Reverb’ exhibition: A dazzling fusion of light, sound, and art

  22-05-2024 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  An industrial basement space in central London is thumping and glowing, having been filled with an exhibition exploring the intersection of art and sound.
  It also exposes you to the strangest response to Kraftwerk’s music you will ever see.Based on music released by the independent music and arts group The Vinyl Factory, the exhibition brings together musicians and artists to provide what can best be described as an “experience.”
  Filling the basement is a slightly disorienting
  
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• Two weeks to visit Colindale tube station before rebuilding work starts

  22-05-2024 15:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  You have just two weeks to visit the old Colindale tube station on the Northern line before it closes to be demolished and replaced with a new station.
  Planned new station entrance (c) TfL
  Candidly, it’d be difficult to say the 1960s-era building is particularly notable, but still, after sixty years of service, it will finally go to the great builder’s yards in the sky. That means you have a short time to see it in its current state before all those memories are lost.
  During the clos
  
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• Historic lifeboat returns to London as RNLI marks its 200th anniversary

  22-05-2024 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Two plaques celebrating the RNLI’s 200th anniversary and the lifeboats and people who use them were unveiled in London this week, along with a visit by a historic lifeboat.In the City of London, a new plaque has been placed on Furniture Makers’ Hall, which was where the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) had its first headquarters when it was founded in 1824.
  Although the RNLI is known for its lifesaving work around the coasts of the UK and Ireland, it has strong connections
  
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• Visit the atmospheric Pope’s Grotto

  22-05-2024 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  In the 1720s, the poet Alexander Pope dug a series of tunnels underneath his house in Twickenham — and 300 years later, they’re open to the public to explore.
  This is Pope’s Grotto.Alexander Pope bought a villa next to the Thames in Twickenham in 1719, and at some point shortly afterwards decided to dig a grotto underneath the house. Atmospheric grottos were a popular folly for the rich to build, but while most are little more than small shallow spaces, Pope dug a long tunnel a
  
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• Back to the Silverlink: London Overground’s past in a new photo exhibition

  21-05-2024 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Photos of London’s railways and train passengers are filling a camera shop at the moment, offering a look back at pre-Overground services. The link between the photos is that they’re all on stations that were once part of the unlamented Silverlink railway.They’ve all been taken by London-based photographer Simon Wheatley, who has become known for his raw and intimate photographic portrayal of the city and its communities. The photos almost look as if they were taken in dockland
  
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• Tickets Alert: Architecture tours of Haringey’s grade II listed Civic Centre

  21-05-2024 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Next month, you can take an architect-led tour of Haringey’s Civic Centre, a Grade II-listed modern building designed in 1938 but thanks to WWII, wasn’t built until 1958.
  (c) Haringey Council / Hawkins Brown Architects
  The Civic Centre has been home to many of Haringey’s important historical moments. In 1985 Bernie Grant was elected leader, becoming the first-ever black leader of a local authority in Europe. It is also a favourite film and TV set location featuring in season 3
  
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• TfL gets debt ratings upgrade, but need for long-term government support highlighted

  21-05-2024 12:45 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Transport for London’s finances have been given a vote of confidence after one of the debt ratings agencies upgraded the quality of TfL debt.
  When TfL borrows money by issuing debt, it is given a quality score by the ratings agencies, and that affects how much TfL has to pay in interest payments. The better the quality score, the lower the cost of servicing the debt.
  The ratings agencies periodically report on company debts. Now Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has lifted TfL’s
  
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• London’s largest FREE flower show has opened in Chelsea

  21-05-2024 11:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  This week, thousands of people will have paid eye-watering amounts to visit the Chelsea Flower Show, and yet there’s a large free flower show that anyone can enjoy.
  And it’s also in Chelsea.This is the duel Chelsea in Bloom and Belgravia in Bloom, and this year, for the first time since 1979, a local church will be open, having filled the church with flowers and vestments.
  So, three events in one.
  A tip: visit before Saturday lunchtime if you want to attend all three official events,
  
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• There’s a model railway at Hounslow West tube station

  21-05-2024 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Hounslow West tube station’s ticket hall recently gained a large model railway, sitting inside the old passimeter box where station staff used to check tickets.It was installed last year to mark the double whammy of the 160th anniversary of the London Underground and the 90th anniversary of the rebuilding of Hounslow West tube station.
  Drawing from 1930s art deco posters, designer Dan Maier created a looped background for two trains to run around. The two trains, an early steam train and a
  
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• Royal Portraits: A century of evolution in style and technique at the King’s Gallery

  20-05-2024 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A century of royal portraits have gone on display at the King’s Gallery, showing how royal portraiture has changed in both style and technique.The exhibition brings together 150 photos, some of which haven’t been seen before, from austere Edwardian family photos designed to show off the majesty of the royal family to more intimate family snaps. Many are by noted photographers of their time, and much of the exhibition is actually about the photographer than the photographed, broadly d
  
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• c2c’s oldest trains to get major refurbishement

  20-05-2024 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The fleet of c2c’s oldest trains, which run between Essex and London, are to be refurbished as part of a major overhaul.
  c2c Class 357 train (c) Alstom
  The trains that need refurbishing are the Class 357 Electrostars, ordered by c2c in 1997 to replace the older slam-door trains it inherited from British Rail during the privatisation of the railways. The trains were built at Alstom’s Derby Litchurch Lane site between 1999 and 2002, and need a major overhaul to keep them in service.
  To
  
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• London’s Alleys: Ham Yard, W1

  20-05-2024 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  This upmarket looking Soho passageway lined with posh shops and a hotel is a far cry from what it looked like just a decade ago — as one of the last remaining WWII bomb sites in central London.
  Indeed, the run-down site with the empty plot of land fenced off in otherwise busy Soho was a curious relic and people of a curious mind, almost a tourist attraction to seek out and explore.
  Now, it’s just another posh yard with expensive shops.Originally though, Ham Yard was a square courtyar
  
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• Up to third off tickets for the Tina Turner musical

  17-05-2024 19:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The musical, based on the life of Tina Turner, made a huge splash in the UK during its West End premiere. It is based on the often tumultuous life and legendary music of international recording artist Tina Turner.
  Ticket prices currently start from just £20 for mid-week performances.Tina Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock and raised in Nutbush, Tennessee. From humble beginnings, she rose to fame as the Queen of Rock n Roll and sold more concert tickets than any other solo artist. After her a
  
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• Charing Cross Road’s restored Welsh Chapel opens for Nan Goldin’s exhibition

  17-05-2024 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  There will be a chance to step inside Charing Cross Road’s gothic-looking former Welsh Chapel later this month as it opens its doors for an art exhibition.
  Welsh Chapel (c) ianVisits
  The Welsh Chapel, built in 1888 by James Cubitt on Charing Cross Road, was a busy place of worship until the 1950s, when urban populations drifted to the suburbs. In the 1980s, it became the Limelight nightclub, an Australian-themed pub, and eventually ended up as a squat.
  It was recently restored for use as a
  
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• The City of London’s Leadenhall Market is to open at weekends

  17-05-2024 15:45 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Situated in the heart of the City of London, Leadenhall Market is usually closed at the weekends, but for a couple of months, it will be open as a craft fair marketplace.The weekend series will see the grand Victorian marketplace return to its roots as a trading ground, but instead of selling meat, poultry and game, stalls will be filled with furniture, fashion and crafts.
  A number of the market’s restaurants, cafes and bars will also be open, serving food and drink.
  Judy’s Vintage F
  
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• Demolition of the old Museum of London will go ahead

  17-05-2024 14:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The old Museum of London site on London Wall will be demolished after the government decided not to call in the planning application for review.Last month, the City of London approved the plans, which will see the 1970s Museum of London building and the monolithic Bastion House office block that sits next to it demolished to be replaced with new public spaces and offices.
  At the very last minute, though, Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, issued an Ar
  
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• Lumo applies to run trains between Manchester and London

  17-05-2024 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Low-cost train operator Lumo has applied for permission to run services between Manchester and London, adding to its existing Edinburgh to London services. It is also in talks to run services to Glasgow.
  (c) Lumo
  FirstGroup, which owns Lumo, says that it plans to offer six return journeys a day, restoring the direct Rochdale to London link via Manchester, which last ran in 2000.
  The trains will run from Rochdale to London Euston, calling at Manchester Victoria, Eccles, Newton-le-Willows and Warr
  
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• America’s ‘cable cowboy’ lost out in infrastructure boom

  16-05-2024 22:00 via ft.com
  Wrangling media and telecoms products into business models that produce durable profits has proved to be tough going
  
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