2012-05-07
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Oyster, Transport for London’s smart card, was introduced in July 2003, but for the first eight years of its life it was wonderfully change-free. The top row of these Oyster card images shows that the only changes were to the TfL roundel, first from red (associated with buses) to white, and then adding the old British Rail logo (now used by National Rail) once ATOC finally allowed sorted out allowing pre-pay on their services.
As early as 2007 there were Oyster visitor cards co-branded with the Tutankhamun exhibition at the O2. There are still visitor travelcards, and there was also an attempt to fuse a debit card and NFC payment system with an Oyster card, although apparently that’s no longer available.
It was last year, however, after TfL took control of the Oyster brand, that they were really able to let rip with custom designs. After the success of last year’s Royal Wedding cards, as predicted, this year sees special cards for 2012 and Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee.
Me? I’ll be happy using my 2003 vintage, red-roundel card, even if nobody gets to see the front any more. (The nice thing about NFC cards? You don’t even have to take them out of your Tube map holder.)
2011-03-21
Love Trees
In the last few weeks, I’ve noticed more and more of these cropping up in my contact’s Flickr photos:
They’re a modification of London’s standard signs, used to warn double decker drivers that they may want to avoid high branches. (I’ve been on plenty of buses that have run into them, making a disturbing but - usually not actually damaging - impact.)
They first started showing up (with a slightly different sticker design) in March 2010:
It seems they’re produced by an organisation called Climate Rush, and one of the nice things about them is that they’re subtle, and don’t actually stop the signs from performing their usual job. More like this.
Photos by Alistair Tse, Islington Now, Patrick Wilken, Alice, Quasor, Andrea Vail, and Eric Hands.
2011-02-28
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The Tube map’s depiction of the East London Line’s extension to Highbury and Islington, which opened today. There’s pictures and analysis at Londonist. As they put it, “not good news for those who favour a less cluttered approach”.
2011-01-07
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I’m not sure why the Freeing Its Data, London Turns Access Into Apps article in Time should be a photo essay, but it is. Still, some of the photos are nice, like this one. (via Dan W.)
Photograph; Dan Kitwood / Getty Images.
2010-07-27
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New Victoria line trains ‘23 times less reliable’ than the old ones says the Evening Standard.
Things they don’t mention:
- running two signalling systems alongside each other is the tricky bit of an upgrade
- trains usually need a while to “bed in”
- TfL only started running these at rush hour in the last few months; it’s no surprise they’re finding issues
Also, as the comments note, I’d like to know where the suspiciously mathematical “23 times” figure comes from.
2010-03-31
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2010-03-17
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Transport minister Lord Adonis, on how the Mayor ought to be handling the finances of Transport for London.
From London Reconnections’ dissection of the PPP Arbiter’s Final Report, via teflon.
2010-02-12
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On the left, the new(ish) Google-based bus maps from TfL. On the right, Alf Eaton’s onabus.com, as first seen last year. Both are showing the 19, Finsbury Park - Battersea Bridge (south side).
