Moving on
You know when you're happily watching a TV show, and the credits roll, and out of nowhere the announcer says "That was the last in the present series..."? Well that's this post.
I'd love to continue working on this blog as I have done, but I'd also like to move on to other projects, and I've decided it's best to have a clean break rather than try to keep fingers in every pie.
Thanks to everyone who's read, contributed, linked, corrected, shared, prodded, praised, learnt from, ranted against, puzzled at and pored over the posts here. The archive will stay online, the email address is still working, but for time-being at least my work here is done.
Thank you.
145 comments:
Thank you for such an insightful look into transport goings-on in London - it's been fascinating to read. Hope you come back to it soon!
Or will someone else keep it going? To my mind it's a vital landmark on London's public transport map.
Bother, and us with the ELLX only half built - I'll just have to bore the people at Boriswatch with more transport issues instead...
Any useful contacts you can give us gratefully received.
(Couple-of-months lurker, first-time poster.)
And thank you for spending so much time and effort on it.
Somehow it seems that the job of an endeavour of this sort is too much for one person; London Connections joins the pantheon of resources we have loved and regretted their leaving behind, like Transport Plans for the London Area and Always Touch Out. Where next should we all look?
The glory is not in blogging; the glory is in having blogged. You deserve great glory for your best-of-breed endeavour, and I hope the other projects with which you fill your time turn out quite so well.
What they said. Will miss the site, thanks for it.
Thanks for all the great info. Missing you already.
Very professional - always a good read. Highly worthwhile London resource and a shame to see it stop.
Thanks, it's been great
My ritual in the morning is fairly simple. Sit down at my desk, drink my latte, read the BBC and then check out the happenings on londonconnections... My ritual is now ruined!
Thanks for a fantastic site, it's been fun.
Thanks for doing it while you did!
(Does this mean we'll actually have to read the TfL board papers ourselves? Surely not... :-|)
That's so sad! I have to say that London Connections has been a great insight into the progress that TfL is doing.
Thanks for all your hard work!
What sad news....
Life without the London Connections....Where am I going to get my fix of transport goings on now? I can't rely on TFL to do it.
Thanks for all the great updates...
From the looks of the comments, you're going to be sorely missed by hundreds of regular subscribers...
I'll keep with your blog in the hope that you reconsider your decision.
PLEASE RECONSIDER.
All the best and thanks again
Mark
Sad news. Thanks for all the great posts
This is a real shame, as your blog is full of useful information to anyone who is interested in transport news in London.
I do hope you reconsider your decision and come back to it soon.
As jiggery-pokery has said, perhaps it is a very large task for a single person - would it help with the workload if there were some volunteers?
Going to miss this! One of the most useful and insightful blogs I have ever found.
Thanks for the hard work you've put in.
rgds
Robert Speirs
I'm in shock! This site has become a staple of my must read list, too sad!
Thanks for all you've done, best of luck with whatever is next!
James
Really sorry to hear that the blog is closing. It's been a great help in the past.
If anyone has any other recommendations for decent blogs on this topic, please consider sharing them.
Caspar
Same as everyone else, thanks again for all your hard work.
This has been a great source of info. I actually work for TfL, but still read this every morning as its the best overview of everything we are doing that I've found!
As such a useful resource for knowing what is happening with transport in the city, the site will be sorely missed.
While I can respect your decision, is it not possible to find someone else, or even a group of people, to carry on the task?
Thank you for the effort you have put into doing this in the past.
NO!!!!
This has been easily the finest repository of geeky public transport material I've ever come across. Always Touch Out was superb, but it doesn't get updated nearly enough.
Great documents, great maps, great photos and extremely good writing.
Please reconsider.
I stumbled onto this blog by accident about five months ago and have been an avid reader ever since.
I am sorry to see it stop, if I could do anything to help (ie remove time consuming tasks), I'd be happy to do so as would others.
I have no idea where to get my daily dose of transport news now!
D
eek! Where will I get to see all the photos and linemaps that I need to feed my addiction to all things transport in London? I'm not sure I'll cope with going 'cold turkey' like this ;-0
I know only too well the pressure of continuing what one starts and finding time to do the quality of job one wants to do present to the world but you have, as noted above, become such a useful (and necessary!) resource it would be a great shame to see this stop dead on the rails before it reaches the buffers. I hope someone else picks up the reins and if not here then a post pointing at them gets made.
Thanks for all you have done - it has been greatly appreciated (and if you work on the 1 commenter = 100+ readers then appreciated by a *lot* of people)
i've only checked in a couple of times, wished i had checked in more now - excellent blog - good luck for the future
Noooooo!
I mean, really, noooooo!
There was a massive gap in my life after alwaystouchout went silent, and now it's going to happen again :( :(
Please reconsider!
PS: I'd be happy to help keep the blog going - I'm a dab hand with illustrator and photoshop, so line maps are no problem :)
One the one hand I thank you as I will get some of my day back which I spend checking the site but at the same time I'm sad to see the death knell of London Connections.
I'm yet to find anywhere on the internet with such detailed information but I can imagine running this place is a full time job - I am always surprised with the number of photos, diagrams, maps and everything else you present alongside a detailed commentry. You should be given a job in the TfL communications office!
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
Very sorry to hear that I'll no longer be able to get my daily fix. This has easily been the best resource available for transport news in recent times.
As jiggery-pokery was hinting at, running such a site can be pretty much a full time job so it's sad but not surprising when they close.
Anyway, thanks for the hard work and best of luck with the new projects.
Such a shame, such a great resource, but equally I can imagine how time consuming it all is! Thanks and hope you come back!
Man, that makes me very sad. A large gaping hole in the community has been left. This blog is great, though, and I beg you to reconsider.
To echo pretty much all of the above comments, I'm going to miss my fix of what's going on - please don't stop it!
Thanks all for your kind words.
I'd be delighted if some kind of sustainable replacement could be organised, and feel free to use this thread to do so. I'd be happy to advertise whatever comes of this.
But as I say, I want to be able to focus on other things, so I can't be the one to do the organising or running.
For those looking for an immediate replacement, have a scout through the "via" links in the post archive. uk.transport.london, Skyscraper City and District Dave are all message boards where you can find updates, and there are various London blogs around with decent transport coverage. Transport Briefing is a useful-but-dishonest collection of rewritten press releases masquerading as news articles.
Finally there's always the TfL news centre.
Its been a great ride. Thsnk you for all your past endeavours - hopefully like Doctor Who - we will see you in another incarnation.Good Luck in whatever you turn your hand to.
Boo!
Oh well, thanks for the many hours you've put into this - very helpful, and hopefully somebody can come up with something to replace the hole it will leave!
Good luck!
c
Really sorry to see this go, but I guess the amount of hard slog involved made it certain to happen eventually. I've only been reading it a few months, but found some great useful information here, and I'm gonna miss my daily fix.
I hope you might have a break for a couple of weeks (days!) and then reconsider. Otherwise if anyone knows of any similar site (which I doubt exists) perhaps they can let us have the details.
Very sorry to see you move on, and thanks for such an interesting blog. Now I have to find something else as informative to read in my lunch-hour (tips gratefully received).
Anyone considered a group blog? Four or five people posting a couple of times a week each?
I think this blog, and Always Touch Out before it, and John Rowland's See How They Run before _that_, have been really useful resources.
But every one of them's stopped because people don't want to dedicate their whole life to such things. So maybe a group effort would work better?
Jonn
(emphatically not volunteering for his own plan)
Cheers for all your hard work - as someone who writes myself, I can appreciate the difficulty of trying to maintain something, unpaid, as well as everything else.
Your site was a definite inspiration, and I wish you well in your future stuff.
Oh, how sad. I'll miss reading your posts! But thank you for keeping going for as long as you did.
Gutted. As jiggery-pokery said in post 4, this blog slotted right into the void left by See How They Run and alwaystouchout, and improved upon their efforts. It has been a must-read for me since I found it, so thank you Mr T for all your hard work to date. Best of luck for your future projects; see you on uk.r and uk.t.l.
THC
I particularly appreciated the high-quality diagrams you made. The updates will be sorely missed.
Still in state of shock. But I understand I have similar situation with a forum and it happens. Good luck and hope its not the last we hear from you.
Oh no :-(
This is my favourite transport-related blog - I read it everyday...
I do hope you will reconsider, but in any case:
Thank you! The amount of work you've put in it is amazing!
Noooooooooooo.
Thanks for keeping it up for so long - and do tip us off about any new projects you're working on...
Appreciate all the hard work that you've given. Superb website that will be missed, especially for the illustrations and analysis. Good luck for the next project.
Also a thank you from me on your extremely hard work into informing us with excellent detail on the transport projects around London. Really wish you kept it going.
Thanks for your great work. Have consistently found it interesting. Dood luck on the other projects.
Thanks Mr. Thant - I'm a long-time reader and your blog has been brilliant. Such a shame it's ending but it's your life to do with as you choose!
I'd definitely read any replacement anyone else set up. In my daydreams I'd like to contribute to it but in practice I don't have anything like the knowledge (or contacts) to do so.
Just one last thing - in your comment above you've linked to the antichrist of Boris-Watchers instead of us, which I assume is a mistake rather than two fingers to us ;) (They got there first with their .com URL and their love of the blond buffoon, so our founder Naadir got the next best thing with .co.uk instead.) Tom's Boris Watch transport coverage has been great so far so hopefully he'll "bore" us with more of the same as he threatens above :)
All the best - you will be sorely missed!
Wow, This is sad.
I'll miss your great diagrams the most. The Thameslink one must have taken a while so I can understand why you need a break :-).
Gosh! best of luck with whatever you move onto, your contributions will be greatly missed!
Thank you and well done for making the complicated details of some projects understandable to the man literally on the Clapham omnibus.
Good luck with whatever you're going on to.
Sad to see it go, thank you for all the pleasure you've given me with this blog
Thanks for all the hard work, your blog was essential reading.
Rob
I'm very sad this blog, one of the best on the internet, has come to an end. Thanks for all your efforts.
You turn up and meet some real life people from uk.transport.london and now look what happens! ;-)
Seriously though this is a huge shame as your blog is an excellent source of information - and I say that as someone who works for LUL. How am I going to keep up to date about the development of London Overground and the ELLX?? I shall also miss your excellent diagrams - still don't know how you do them so well.
All the very best for your new ventures and hopefully one day you will decide to pick up the mantle again and we'll see some more from London Connections. Oh and thanks!
Paul Corfield
I'm sorry you're stopping, I've been reading this site for some time now. Enjoy your new life and thanks for all the stuff you've done here.
Timothy Green
What a sad day. I've enjoyed reading your blog so much!! Thanks for all you're time and effort that has brought enjoyment to so many readers.
For anyone that's interested, another good blog I've found recently is http://londonunlocked.org/
Gutted. I love your blog, so sorry to hear this news.
Wonderful blog.
Amazing so many people value this insight into our transport to read your updates daily.
Well done and thank you.
Mark
I see absolutely no reason why you shouldn't give yourself a month or so off: judging from the comments on here you well and truly deserve it. But if you could come back to it in time for the new stations around Sheperd's Bush opening that would be great!
I live quite close to Brockley Station so the East London Line stuff has been pretty interesting as well. Good stuff!
thanks for all your hard work, and i'm afraid i was not around from the begging to have enjoyed all of it. good luck for the future
I'm yet another avid reader of this blog. It will be very, very sorely missed. Thanks for all the time and effort.
Your blog has filled in the gap left by Always Touch Out and then some - it is an absolute pleasure to read.
Many thanks and good luck with your other projects.
oh no! I only just discovered this place a week or so ago and have been thoroughly enjoying your updates. You definitely seemed to cover a realm of topics that just isn't being discussed elseewhere, and your updates will be sorely missed.
Oh gosh darn it. I only just found you a week ago, rejoiced exceedingly, put your blog straight onto the top of my igoogle page, and thought I'd never have to look back. Well... phoooey.
Thanks though, it was great while it lasted, and what an awesome resource of back-blogs to read through. Best wishes for whatever's next, although I bet you won't get as many readers/fans as this!
I have loved looking at this site since I found it in March.
I was hoping this would be the location I'd see that ELL Phase 2 had been confirmed! I agree with previous comments, the spirit of this site should live on and I'd be more than happy to help anyone who wants to continue the excellent work of this site.
Mr T, we'll all be lost without you. The blog has been great - it set a standard for accuracy and clarity that will be impossible to match. Sorry you have to call it a day.
Thanks for all your hard work - this has been my favourite blog for some time. Good luck in your other endevours.
I agree with what everyone else said. This has been an excellent source of news, and I shall be sorry to see it go.
Damn!
And thanks!
(and more 'thanks' than 'damn')
This is very sad news. Nevertheless, many thanks for your magnificent work.
Thanks for everything.
Vincent from Paris
Yes one bookmark I check even more than daily!
Good luck in your future projects.
Oh no! I've been reading your blog religiously for months. Now what will I do at work? :-)
But in all seriousness, thanks for all the time and effort you've put into this. As the comments here attest, an awful lot of people have appreciated it.
what is your Next Project?
Thanks for all your work and for managing to cram so much useful information into every post. It was great while it lasted.
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
How sad. I've enjoyed reading your blog from its early days, so will miss it greatly.
A big T H A N K S to you for all your efforts and all the very best for the future!
Please tell me it's April 1. This is really sad news. Your site is an inspiration. Please reconsider, and if not, thank you for all that you've provided.
What a shame!
This blog has been a fantastic way to find out what's going on.
Good luck with whatever you do next :-)
Yikes! By far the best blog of its kind. I can understand wishing to do something else - but you will be missed: your blog was excellent.
I had a feeling of genuine shock and sadness when reading your final post this morning!! It clearly takes time to produce a blog of this quality and for one person it must be quite hard to sustain. From the comments above you clearly have a quite a following who share in your passion for London.
All good things must come to an end
Many thanks
Marc
I had always wondered how you found time for life as well as blogging. You had the most informed, well-written specialist blog of my RSS feeds (and I only subscribe to the really good ones).
Not to mention the superb marked up Google Maps, specially created diagrams, photos that obviously took some ingenuity to take, etc.
I look forward to the fruits of your next projects.
Please take all your personal belongings with you when leaving the train :-)
Thank you so much for all the information over the past years. You have been incredibly helpful and I am grateful. So sad to hear you are leaving.
Please Please Please Please reconsider
Thanks for everything.
Very sad to see you go and would urge you to reconsider. Also would like to voice my support for any person/people who wanted to continue your work, I'd have the time to undertake the occasional reading of a tfl report or site visit if you wanted.
Come back please!!!
Hi. I'd seriously like to consider taking on the administration of the blog along with a couple of friends of mine. I'm temporarily exiled from the capital but they aren't, and I'm working on being back.
Specifically, I'd be interested in doing so on the basis that you are welcome to it back at any time.
Do be in touch if you do want to see your great, great work continued!
Jeremy
oh no! ive only just found this site. i think its absolutely superb, good luck with whats next
Sorry to see this end. I have really enjoyed reading all of the updates to TFL. As a once a year visitor to London, I have been able to better plan my travel plans.
You'll be missed! Thanks for such a cool blog.
No! Say it's not so!!!
This too is part of my online rituals.
Just wanted to add my congratulations to the really well researched, illustrated and written posts on here - it will be missed HUGELY.
If only there were some way the hundreds posting sad condolences here could take up the baton and the blog to be written by, say, ten core contributors...
There seems to be a small band of commentors who between them have specialist driver, planner, rolling stock contractor, tfl, boriswatch politics, local council knowledge etc etc etc
If only they could all somehow have access to post a phoenix from these ashes....?
Anyway - good luck on your other endeavours -- I know I'll keep checking back here in the hope you wont be able to stay away!!!!
I just wanted to say that I am so sad this blog is closing. Bleary eyed I checked it again this morning to see if it was just a bad dream. But sadly no.
Like a good many people on here this blog has been an essential part of my daily routine. I loved it because it was clear, concise and to the point. You have a skill in explaining complex issues in a simple and accessible way and I think that is what I will miss most.
Good look with you future endeavors.
Sam
I'll miss you london connections. By far the best blog i've ever come across. Thank you for keeping us all updated, we'll miss you.
what a pity!
I have enjoy your Blog
I've just checked all your suggestions for alternatives and none are as good as this blog. NOT EVEN CLOSE. Boooo
It's really unfortunate that you're no longer going to be updating.
This is probably the most informative blog I've come across - a wide variety of topics all explained cleary and your diagrams have been really helpful.
This is the only one I check first thing in the morning, in the evening and at night.
Hope you enjoy whatever you've got planned instead.
I know I am only adding to the coment numbers here, but I really *must* say how much I enjoyed London Connections.
I stumbled on it trying to find out what London Overground was all about, and uncovered the greatest secret in London!
Your ability to untangle some of the most complex schemes into complete sense is legendary.
Good Luck!
Just wanted to add my thanks to this long list of comments. This was one of London's more informative blogs - always a great read, which will be sadly missed.
Best wishes for your new ventures.
M@ from Londonist
Just wanted to add my thanks. This has been a fascinating blog and a pleasure to read. I'm sorry to see it go. Thanks for all your hard work and good luck with whatever you get up to next.
Thanks for all the effort you have put into London Connections. Good luck too.
Lorenzo.
Many thanks, I'm going to miss your blog
Like many others I found your blog while searching for a replacement for AlwaysTouchOut. I can only hope that some enterprising bloggers will continue the cause!
Many thanks for all your hard work and for giving me something fascinating to read every day.
It's a real shame - you'd become an authority on the subject.
I remember reading about the ELL bridge that broke and *knowing* that only this blog would say *actually* what happened, in detail!
You will be missed.
Thank you so much for all your hard work on this blog. Like so many others, this is always the first site I go to when I go online and will miss the updates enormously. All the best for the future, and I really do hope you change your mind!! :) The transport geeks of London salute you Mr Thant!!
I just want to thank you for this information about Transport in London on the highest level I have ever seen. This Blog just was phantastic. You always presented the information clearly, short and used good photots and graphics to illustrate it. For me it was the best way to understand whats going on in London because forums like District Dave's are not as clear as this blog, especially when you are German.
It would be glad to be informed, if anything new will be started. I want to whish you the best of luck for your new project and hope to read something here again in some time.
YOU CAN'T GO!
This was the perfect site for transport. It's just like transport for london without having to bang your head against a brick wall to get some kind of logic out of it.
Thank you so much.
Oh bum
Thanks for all the hard work, have really appreciated everything you have done here, its a shame the people actually spending our money can't be bothered to provide the same level of detail.
Thanks again
this is terrible,you must continue
its been brilliant. an invaluable resource.
Just like when you wake up one morning and find yet another historic pier has burnt down. You feel like you just didn't appreciate what was there until it was gone. And not even five bucks will allow you to see it again.
It's ironic that this news should come on the day that BBC FOUR repeated its "Tube Night", which included mostly old documentaries, such as a 1987 "Design Classics" about the Tube Map, and referring to the 'latest addition' as the Docklands Light Railway, "due to open next month" - cue clip of DLR train driving through the snow past the OLD Heron Quays station - with some tugboats still sailing around in the squall.
I always used to enthuse about "London Connections" (as I did with "alwaystouchout" before it) that it was the ONE place you could find out what was REALLY going on in the London transport sector - something valuable even to people working IN it, as even those of us who do find it damned difficult to get "the facts" from any official channels!
Tremendous whilst it lasted!
Really sad to hear the blog is stopping. Like many others here I stumbled on this a few months ago and have really enjoyed getting down and geeky with London's transport infrastructure news. Thanks for taking the time to write such an entertaining blog.
tom
Oh what a great pity. It will be sadly missed. Perhaps someone could start a voluntary association to continue the work and to share it out.
Oh dear! I loved London Connections, such great information, photos and diagrams. Good luck with whatever's next Mr Thant.
Trains, tracks, and stations, a lot of people take them for granted as if they just appear out of thin air, I did too until my local station closed (Rotherthithe, ELLX). I wanted to know exactly what was going on then came across this site, and became hooked ever since. I'll be visiting here long after you've stopped.
Well that was a surprise! Thanks so much for all the great work you have done. I, like many others, am very appreciative of your efforts, insight, generosity and perseverance.
Best wishes for the future!
Drat, that's a shame.
Thanks for all the past insight and hope to see some more posts in the not too distant future...
Thanks for your work to date and it's much appreciated.
I really can't find anything that touches london connections - feel a bit lost now when idling some time away on the net!
Thanks for all the great info, pics and diagrams.
Is anyone going to carry it on?
If anybody is interested in keeping something like London Connections going, I'm happy to provide the server space and design expertise. Anybody who's interested, please e-mail me at alevy [at] electricorange [dot] com
real pitty your going; by far the best site of its kind. Quite brilliant ! Very sad; farewell but not for long we hope !
by far the best site of its kind; brilliant; well done.
Vey sad your going x
It is an utter, utter tragedy that this blog is closing (although i fully respect your desire to move on).
We CANNOT let the brilliance that this blog has become - both as a resource and a guilty reading pleasure - disappear.
With that in mind, and because I'd hate to see the goodwill to getting something else going die for lack of focus, I've created a potential option for continuing things here:
http://londonreconnections.blogspot.com
Please take a look, and if people are interested in getting it going then let me know on there.
If someone has a better idea, obviously, then I'll happily divert my efforts towards that instead!
Like everyone else, I will miss this site. It was almost the only site I looked at every day and only came across it a couple of months ago. Such a shame it is coming to a close, it seems even employees directly involved in these projects get 'project status' details from your site.
Good Luck with whatever you move onto.
As Above, great blog, will missed. Will be checking in the future to see if you change your mind.
I was hoping to log on this morning to see a change of heart given the many kind comments on here. :(
Thank you "Mr Thant" for your hard work is giving Londoners a chance to find out what is happening transport-wise in the capital.
Well done for all your work and keeping Londoners informed of transport in the capital!
Mate the amount of work you put into this blog speaks for itself. I understand it's a big burden to carry it on. Perhaps others could put themselves forward to monitor things in the future? Would be a shame not to carry on the good work you started.
Thanks for your effors.
Lee
Stunned and dismayed I was upon reading you are to push back from the keyboard on this site.
Thanks for the massive amount of superb work that has have gone into a truely excellent site. It was very informative and enjoyable to read.
Good luck for the future.
It would be nice to see some kind of group effort keep this going. I wish I had the time to help but sadly do not.
What about the people at the London Underground Railway Society? (http://www.lurs.org.uk) Their site is sparse yet they can put together a magazine once a month full of this kind of stuff.
Where are you going? Can we follow you and get the same buzz?
Seriously, well done for this site
Ok - I'm signed on for london reconnections. Who's with me? :)
Stu said:
Damn, i had only discovered this fairly recently, and found it a fascinating resource.
Thanks for your hard work nonetheless.
I will miss this blog great deal. It was my first check of the day!
London Reconnections is a great idea. Maybe Mr Thant can contribute without having to do all the legwork himself?
I would PAY to read this blog.
Please come back.
A sad passing.
If you're every poking about a post regarding London politics (especially transport) then we'll be delighted to put it up here:
boriswatch.co.uk
Stumbled across this site a couple of months ago and realised it was by far the most comprehensive website for transport projects in London. Have been visiting almost daily since then.
Thanks for all your hard work and also for keeping the archive online when you move on. Good luck with your other projects.
Will keep an eye on the alternative "London Re-connections" blog from now on.
All the best - the man done good. Got me thinking about getting more involved in the local planning / developing decisions being made in my area (ELL heartland), so for getting this lazy geezer off the couch and down the council chambers, big up.
Just to add my thanks to all those already posted, I have found all your efforts and explanations fascinating to read. Good luck with your next projects!
Discoverd this blog too late.
Mee too!
me three!
me four! is there anything similar out there?
Yes http://londonreconnections.blogspot.com
I was born and brought up in and around London and I used to visit your excellent site regularly.
Then I moved round the country for a few years, and have only just come back to the area...only to find that you've gone. What a shame!
However, I just wanted to stop by and say thank you for all the years you ran it, and I hope whatever you've moved onto is doing well.
Off now to LondonReconnections...thanks again...
wonderful,intelligent site.
well done & thanks.
s neave.
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