Tag: stratford

Central Line doors now go both ways at Stratford

File under “minor improvements to life”. The doors on westbound Central Line trains now open on both sides at Stratford, following the opening of the Harry Potter-ish Platform 3a. For people travelling with prams or buggies, or for those with restricted mobility, it should make changing lines at the station more straightforward. TFL says there is also a new lift for step-free access.

A statement from TFL says:

“When facing the direction of travel, you should exit via the right side of the train to change onto London Overground and National Rail services or via the left side of the train to change onto the Jubilee line, DLR or to leave the station. A lift for step-free access and new signage, to help you plan your route through the station, are also being introduced.”

The potential downside is for visitors, those lacking in confidence, or for the tired and emotional, any of whom might find themselves not quite where they want to be. But generally for those travelling from Snaresbrook or Wanstead this development should be a good thing.

Olympic sculpture to hit Freeview in Snaresbrook

[picappgallerysingle id=”8382660″]The massive 120m Anish Kapoor sculpture to be built at the Olympic Park is going to cause disruption to the reception of Freeview TV signal to parts of Snaresbrook and South Woodford, Wansteadium can reveal.

The disruption is not expected to be massive – but could cause “ghosting” – and it doesn’t seem there is much that can be done to correct it, other than affected residents upgrading aeriels or switching to cable or satellite TV. There is no plan at the moment to fund those upgrades – they will have to be paid for by affected households.

The expected disturbance is revealed in a planning document published by the Olympic Delivery Authority. It says:

[the proposed sculpture] is likely to have a slight adverse impact on terrestrial TV services, due to shadowing of terrestrial TV signals caused by signal shadowing to Crystal Palace and Croydon transmitters, in a number of households to the north east of the development.  The affected locations may be able to have terrestrial television services restored by using one of the following methods as appropriate: installing a higher gain antenna or re-locating the existing antenna or re-pointing the existing antenna to another transmitter where possible or, if any of these solutions are unable to restore service, by installing satellite or cable TV services;

The affected areas, as detailed in this report, TV Reception Report and Appendix A – The construction of a Sculpture for the Olympic & Paralympic Games and Legacy phases, include parts of Stratford, Leyton, Leytonstone, Snaresbrook, South Woodford, Woodford Green and Buckhurst Hill. The areas are shown below, with the red line indicating disturbance from the Crystal Palace transmitter, the blue one Croydon.Comments on the application can be submitted via this page.


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