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May 24, 2022 10 tweets 5 min read Read on X
And so the day arrives, and Woolwich now has a ‘Woolwich Arsenal’ station that isn’t in the Arsenal, and a ‘Woolwich’ station that is in the Arsenal. (Yes, and a ‘Woolwich Dockyard’ station whose dockyard closed 150 years ago.) #ElizabethLine ImageImage
Going down…
The TfL powers that be will be delighted that the stations/trains is already swarming with people who look like this is already part of their daily routine, rather than obsessively videoing everything… 🚈
Under the Thames, up again, down again through the cleverly-repurposed 150-yr old Connaught Tunnel, built to replace a railway swing bridge over the docks, and into Custom House. RB Greenwich to LB Newham faster than you can say ‘This is quicker than the DLR’. #elizabethline
Just casually comparing Tottenham Court Road station to the last time I was down here. #ElizabethLine ImageImage
In ‘This is exactly what we didn’t want to happen’ news, Paddington is closed due to a fire alarm. Getting to admire more of Tottenham Court Road. Image
Having had to divert to more normal routes, I will say Crossrail is fantastic, particularly the incredible stations, but it’s a shame none of them have the exciting feature of a boarded up staff letter box in a fake medieval mural. Only on the Northern Line. Image
Just as a mini counterpoint to the ‘London’s rails are paved with gold’ narrative, am off to connect with the #elizabethline this evening on this 50-year old train, I think the oldest stock in frontline use anywhere in the UK, for which there is no timetable or cash to replace.
That said, damn it, back to boasting. Paddington is lovely. The lighting design and levels make it feel like a living room. #elizabethline
Round-ling off Crossrail day with the compulsory selfie at Britain’s newest station. Image

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More from @politic_animal

Apr 25
I need to be in Lisboa for family reasons, and I couldn’t pass an opportunity to do another #TurtleTravels adventure. So tomorrow, we’re going to try to get to mainland Europe’s westerly extreme, Cabo da Roca (Promontorium Magnum if you are Roman) in 24hrs from London.#Atlantic24 Image
What’s it to be, Mrs Turtle? Corby, or Paris? #Atlantic24
A bright spring afternoon at the temple of trains. Cabo da Roca is quite a bit closer to the buffer stops at St Pancras than Calabria where I got to on #Train24. But our Iberian cousins are allergic to cross-border trains, so multi-modality will make this a challenge…#Atlantic24
Read 98 tweets
Apr 8
I’m in Baltimore - County Cork, not Maryland - to start another Turtle Travels adventure. This is a lovely village set amongst a stunning and complex sound and archipelago. It’s a jumping off point for ferries to numerous little islands. But it has something else too… #ireland24
…Ireland’s most southerly bus stop, here on Baltimore Pier. So that means, of course, that Mrs Turtle and I are - at 5:30pm - about to try to travel from here, in 24 hours, to Ireland’s most northerly bus stop, by any means of scheduled public transport. #ireland24
Now this Baltimore may not be the lawless metropolis of Omar Little. But it’s past is quite something. It was a base for judicially-backed English pirates until 1631, when Barbary pirates sacked the town to get rid of competition and took 200+ residents into slavery. #Ireland24

Read 68 tweets
Feb 15
As you’ve spent a day chatting public transport, I can segue into news that tomorrow is the next Turtle Travels 🐢🚌 adventure. Join me mid-afternoon for a challenge I was originally going to call #CountyLines but then decided I didn’t want the police interest, so it’s #County24. Image
For anyone wondering what this is all about, here’s an index post of all my Turtle Travels Twitter adventures so far. And this is where you can find the video documentaries that come afterwards: youtube.com/@travelling_tu…
I’m going to court controversy with this one. Because if I am going to see how many 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 counties I can visit by bus in 24hrs, I need a definition of a county. And no-one agrees on that. So I’m picking the 48 ceremonial counties, as defined by the Lieutenancies Act 1997… #County24 Image
Read 17 tweets
Jun 18, 2023
An hour before I need to be at the Eurostar, so hopped off a stop early at Brussels Central. Is there any station on earth (and there is some stiff competition) with such a discrepancy between the dire platform levels… Image
…and the superlative architecture upstairs? Night and day, however figuratively appropriate, doesn’t cover it. ImageImageImageImage
More importantly, it is literally next door to the Mont des Arts, for a picnic salad and beer. ImageImage
Read 5 tweets
Jun 18, 2023
I am on a bus (shock! No, let me continue…) which goes from Aachen (in Germany) to Monschau (also in Germany) but during the journey will cross the German/Belgian border no fewer than eight times (I think, it is quite hard to count). Now, six of those are due to the Vennbann… Image
Now, if Vennbahn means nothing to you, do give &TheTimTraveller’s excellent video a watch. Basically, a key freight railway partly in Germany was transferred to Belgium by Versailles. The railway closed in 1989 but neither country cared to change anything.
But it was only ever the railway itself that was transferred. So it created a Belgian corridor a few meters wide cutting through several corners of Germany. And that bizarre corridor, the right-hand red line in the loops on this map, is now the world’s oddest cycle path. Image
Read 16 tweets
Jun 18, 2023
But have you actually *used* your multi-modal Deutschlandticket unless you have used it to travel on this…thing?
Wuppertal’s Schwebebahn is almost certainly the most fun you can have in an upside down train. I think my conclusion would be that in 99.99% of places it would be an expensive joke, but in Wuppertal’s very specific circumstances and geography, it probably works. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Traffic lights are for losers.
Read 5 tweets

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