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Meanwhile in Paris

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  1. amir
    Member

    Reclaiming Paris's River Seine quayside

    The quays alongside the River Seine in Paris were once used by boats unloading deliveries but 50 years ago they began to be taken over by the motor car. Now the process has been put into reverse, with a mile-and-a-half (2.4km) of quayside reclaimed this year for fun-seekers and pedestrians.

    The latest place to be in Paris requires a short walk down a curving staircase in front of parliament, the Assemblee Nationale.

    Up until a few weeks ago, this ended on a busy city thoroughfare - 2,000 vehicles every hour speeding along the Seine and heading for the western suburbs.

    Today, it is transformed. Along a mile-and-a-half of riverfront, there is not a car in sight. Just Parisians at play.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  2. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Wonderful.

    The Shore, take note.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  3. gembo
    Member

    The south bank of the Thames in central London is like this and quite chilled for London, you do have to watch out for jiggers and cyclists but no cars.

    I can also catch trains to where I need to go from Waterloo Station. This has triggered a thought in my head. In Edinburgh the competing 19 th century train companies all folded and stations became disused, leaving only Haymarket and Waverely which are also joined. However, in London, lots of the competing companies terminal stations all still exist and operate to different places. This might not be as interesting as I thought it was. However, are there any other towns or cities that have more than two terminal stations apart from London? I don't mean branch stations like Aedinburgh Park or Crossmyloof in Glasgow, but more than two end points like Central and Queen St in Glasgow.??

    Posted 10 years ago #

  4. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    France seems to have a habit of putting cars along both banks of a river in her cities. Lyon is the same, any walk along the pavement overlooking both banks of both the Rhone and the Saone is accompanied by motor traffic - always wondered why they didn't shut off one bank on either or both rivers to make it more pleasant, but they might follow the lead from Paris. Sounds fab.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  5. kaputnik
    Moderator

    @Gembo

    Dundee used to have two main stations, British Rail rationalised them into 1.

    Stirling and Perth had "joint" stations where the old railway companies had agreed to share the stations.

    Dolphington in the Borders had two terminus stations, one for each railway. Peebles too (one through, one terminus). Although these stations were almost back to back, and were actually connected by the permanent way, the through journey generally involved getting off 1 train and walking over to another which would undoubtedly be inconveniently timed to inconvenience the traveller.

    What is now Waverley was originally 3 stations; one for the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway through Haymarket, one for the North British Railway from the east coast and the third for the Edinburgh, Leith & Granton route through Scotland Street tunnel.

    There were only 2 connections between the North British and Caledonian systems in Edinburgh; one at Granton Square and the other at Haymarket. I believe these were for the routing of freight traffic mainly. Some industrial customers would connect themselves to both systems through their internal networks.

    There are a few more examples which I can look out later.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  6. amir
    Member

    "you do have to watch out for jiggers and cyclists but no cars."

    I was tempted by this to look up a definition of "jiggers":

    The chigoe flea or jigger (Tunga penetrans) is a parasitic arthropod found in most tropical and sub-tropical climates, not to be confused with the larval form of Trombiculidae (called chiggers) found in more temperate climates.

    Also:

    The Jiggers are a Scottish ceilidh band based in Glasgow & Edinburgh. Energetic and fun, fiddle-led and with a ceilidh dance caller and DJ, they play functions all over the UK.

    So be careful out there

    Posted 10 years ago #

  7. gembo
    Member

    Jiggers are very dangerous on foot mugger types drenching you in sweat then running off.

    Kaps - Paisley still has two terminal stations Gilmour St and Canal St. Not bad for town of maybe 60,000. Nice abbey, museum and Kay's Fish and Chip Shop/Restaurant near the museum. Neither station anywhere near ABBOTSINCH, where they have an airport.

    Any advance on two terminal railway stations in Any other conurbation other than London Town?

    Posted 10 years ago #

  8. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Glasgow had 4 main stations at 1 point.

    St. Enoch (Glasgow & South Western), Buchanan Street (Caledonian, from north and east), Central (Caledonian, from south and west), Queen Street (North British).

    I can't think off the top of my head of any other Scottish town/city served by more than 3 main pre-1923 grouping Railway companies.

    Both Tyndrum and Crainlarich previously had 2 stations served by 2 different railways. Crainlarich was rationalised when line from Callendar up Glen Ogle was cut back. Tyndrum I think holds claim to fame of being smallest settlement in UK still with 2 separate stations on 2 different lines.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  9. AKen
    Member

    Leith must have had about four terminal stations? Anybody know?

    Posted 10 years ago #

  10. fimm
    Member

    Birmingham has Moor Street (which I thought was a terminal but 30 seconds looking at Google maps leasves me not sure) and New Street (which isn't).

    Posted 10 years ago #

  11. amir
    Member

    Also Brum has Snow Hill

    Posted 10 years ago #

  12. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Leith must have had about four terminal stations? Anybody know?

    It's CCE, so of course!

    Leith Central - North British Railway
    South Leith - North British Railway
    North Leith or Leith Citadel - North British Railway
    Leith North - Caledonian Railway

    Caledonian Railway had also intended to run passengers to South Leith (maybe they would have called it Leith South?) but that line only ever carried freight, despite some stations being partially built.

    For those who are interested, the Railway Clearing House junction diagram is here

    Posted 10 years ago #

  13. chdot
    Admin

    "
    Leith Citadel station is a Grade B listed building and is one of the remaining structures from the original line. It is now a youth centre.

    "

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leith_Citadel_railway_station

    Don't now how much evidence of the others there is - apart from the Central Bar.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  14. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Leith North (CR) lies somewhere under here, so nothing lest

    The retaining walls for Leith Central (NB), which had the platforms at 1st floor height, are now the Tesco car park.

    This view shows the original boundary wall* for South Leith (NB). It was a large site, mainly goods / dock traffic, but there was a passenger platform. Timetabled services were withdrawn fairly early on (1905). There's a photo of the platform here. This was the original station for Leith, and was called initially just that. It was at the end of a branch of the Innocent (Edinburgh & Dalkeith) Railway.

    * actually it's been rebuilt slightly, the station building was were the road now is (Tower Street did not extend beyond Constitution Street) and the trackbed was paralell to Tower Street running E-W. The coal depot was underneath where the modern shed premises are.

    Dalton Scrapyard and the Keyline builders merchants are the site of the original Leith Corporation Gasworks.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  15. Coxy
    Member

    'Trainspotting' was named after Leith Central station, wasn't it?

    Posted 10 years ago #

  16. Focus
    Member

    I like the setup in Dublin, whereby there is decking by the side of the Liffey, below road level:

    Very nice on a sunny day.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  17. bdellar
    Member

    "Trainspotting" was a pun on the abandoned Leith Central station (as a metaphor for the decline of the city) and the fact that heroin junkies get "track marks" up their arms as they search out veins.

    Posted 10 years ago #

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