Coloured Overground – A P.S.
The whole Overground network in London is coloured orange. Mr Khan wants to name each line but, apparently, wants the colour to remain the same.
The cry goes out “too many colours to distinguish!”
But, if you use “cased” lines (with a hollow middle) two things are apparent. The Overground “family” likeness is obvious but the line differences are also very clear. Add in line names and comprehension is surely improved.
This particular version of a suggested Underground map is like this:-
Jazz service to Enfield, Chingford and Cheshunt
Goblin (Gospel Oak to Barking)
It doen’t matter if the colour is too much like the District Line because the “shape” is distinctive.
East & South London Lines
These keep the Overground orange!!
West London & North London Lines
Again, confusion with the red Central Line is avoided by using the different line style. Maybe more contrast with the orange would be better?
Watford Electrics
Actually, if you were both innovative and brave, you could merge this line with the Bakerloo and colour the short “branch” from Queens Park to Euston solid brown!
And we must not forget …
…
Lovely But Lonely Emerson Park.
What colour should be used for …
… a properly integrated Thameslink. fbb would vote for a Jubilee line grey (“cased”, of course).
Colours AND names would be really good good.
Learning It Might Finnish You!
You might expect the three Nordic languages to be similar and, mostly Norwegian and Swedish have a great affinity. But Finnish is, like, crazy man, by comparison. Here are a few public transport examples.
BUS
Sw buss
Nor buss
Fin linja auto
TRAIN
Sw tag
Nor tag
Fin koulotta
TICKET
Sw biljett
Nor billet
Fin lippu
TIMETABLE
Sw tidtabell
Nor rutetabell
Fin aikataulu
TROLLEYBUS
Sw trolleybuss
Nor trolleybuss
Fin johadinauto
BUT …
TRAM
Sw sparvagn
Nor trikk
Fin raitiovauni
Apologies if any of these words has been wrongly copied from Google Translate!
With the exception of “tram” the Swedish and Norwegian words are recognisably similar but the Finnish words are radically different.
Why?
Finnish is a Uralic language whose origin can be traced to the Ural Mountains in Russia. It is possible to speculate how this linguistic oddity arrived in Finland …
… tracking along the northern coast of Russia; but harder to understand how a Uralic language made it to Hungary (
GREEN) where it exists in total isolation from neighbouring speakers.
Whatever, Finnish is tricky.
It was an on-line news item that drew fbb’s attention to a country about which he knows almost nothing except that it shares a border with Russia!
For obvious Ukrainian reasons this border is now a very sensitive area.
Here is that news item.
A bit more …
But fdbb had no idea where Tanpere was.
Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 252,872; the urban area has a population of 341,696; and the metropolitan area, also known as the Tampere sub-region, has a population of 414,274 in an area of 1,920 sq miles. Tampere is the second largest urban area and the third most populous single municipality in Finland, after the cities of Helsinki and Espoo, and the most populous Finnish city outside the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. Today, Tampere is one of the most important urban, economic and cultural centres in the entire inland region.
Population statistics are notoriously difficult to compare because of the different administrative systems and boundaries; but Leicester is a similar size.
And here is Tampere …
… on the edge of Finland’s Lake District and about a 100 mile flight from capital Helsinki.
Fortunately the Tampere tram web site is available in English so it is all quite straightforward …
… as is Tampere’s tram network. It consist of two lines …
… which effectively make one long line with a short branch.
The Tampere light rail is a public transport system in Tampere, Finland. In November 2016, the Tampere city council approved plans to construct a 330-million-euro light rail system on the route from the city centre to Hervanta and to the Tampere University Hospital. Traffic on the first two lines of the route (lines 1 and 3 BLUE/GREEN) began on 9 August 2021.
An extension from the city centre to Lentävänniemi is also under construction. It is aimed to be finished in 2024. Along the route to Lentävänniemi (ORANGE), an artificial island called Näsisaari (“Näsi Island”) near the shore of Lake Näsijärvi is also under construction, and it is planned to be mainly serve the structure of light rail. The first phase of the extension from Pyynikintori to Santalahti was scheduled to open this year.
The Island is due to be served by the “orange” tram, see the dotted circle in the lake on the map above.
But there is no “history” of Tampere trams, the system being a totally new-build with no previous tramway in the city.
For that we need to go to Helsinki.
Next Finland tram blog :Wednesday 18th October
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