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We're pleased to announce the publication of our Guide to King's Cross Mainline Station. We hope to complete our guide to St Pancras over the next few days.
We're pleased to announce the publication of our Guide to Kings' Cross Underground Station. This is the first part of our guide to the entire King's Cross ST Pancras complex. The guides to King's Cross Mainline and St Pancras Station will be published shortly.
We're pleased to announce the launch of our guide to Sight Village 2008. Please monitor this guide as it will be subject to change right up to the date of the exhibition.
Our thanks once again go to Chris Cook for providing the following:
Since the opening of Heathrow T5 on Thursday 27. March 2008, the Piccadilly Line now operates two different services to the airport. All trains begin at either Cockfosters or Arnos Grove and run via central London to either Heathrow Airport T4 or Heathrow Airport T5. The service to Terminal 4 is exactly the same as the service which ran prior to the opening of Terminal 5. i.e. Trains run in a clockwise direction around the one way loop from Hatton Cross (west bound) back to Hatton Cross (east bound) via Heathrow Airport T4 and Heathrow Airport T123. As stated above this is a one way loop and customers will not notice any change in the direction of the train, as it is changing direction whilst on the move travelling around the loop. The route is shown on the map as Piccadilly (Heathrow Terminal 4 Loop).
Trains to terminal 5 continue straight from Hatton Cross (west bound) to Heathrow Airport T123 and then proceed on to Heathrow Airport T5, where they terminate and reverse direction travelling back through Heathrow Airport T123 on their way to Hatton Cross (east bound) and on back through central London to Arnos Grove or Cockfosters. This route is shown on the map as Piccadilly (Heathrow Branch).
The Heathrow Express no longer serves Heathrow Airport T4, but instead now calls at Heathrow Airport T5 operating every 15 minutes from Paddington. Heathrow Connect trains have been extended from Heathrow Airport T123 to serve Heathrow Airport T4. Trains operate every 30 minutes from Paddington, but in addition there are two trains an hour shuttling between Heathrow Airport T123 and Heathrow Airport T4, providing T4 with a train every 15 minutes. All services serve Heathrow Airport T123 and this is still the major interchange station at Heathrow Airport.
Our London Underground and National Rail maps have been amended to accommodate these changes, as have the associated station finders.
We're pleased to report that London Underground have commissioned us to produce guides to the entire King's Cross St Pancras complex, plus the Underground portions of Liverpool Street and London Bridge stations. We hope to have these online by 30 April 2008.
London Underground have commissioned us to re-survey and update our guides to the following stations:
Watch this space. We also hope to refisit the other Underground Stations featured in our site during the current year.
On completion of this exercise, our aim is to have our information integrated into the London Underground Journey Planner. I see this as an excellent opportunity to raise the profile of this work and perhaps make a similar contribution to the National Rail network.
Our guide to this major facility is complete and is undergoing validation/assessment by the customer - watch this space!
We've received the following from Paul Bentley, Access and Integration Manager, Southwest Trains.
Southampton Central is fully accessible to Wheelchair users.
From 9th January to 31st March 2008 the lifts to all platforms will be out of use for essential maintenance work. Passengers needing to use the lifts and arriving on platforms 2&3 will need to make alternative arrangements:
Restricted platforms
Assisted passengers will be unable to board/alight at Southampton Central from the following services:
- Portsmouth Harbour - Southampton Central (calling at St Denys, Bitterne, Woolston, Sholing, Netley, Hamble, Bursledon, Swanwick, Fareham, Portchester, Cosham, Hilsea, Fratton and Portsmouth)
- Salisbury - Romsey (Dean, Mottisford, Romsey (both ways), Redbridge, Millbrook, Chandlers Ford)
- All First Great Western services for Portsmouth Harbour
- All Southern services to Brighton and Victoria via Gatwick Airport
Normal Working platforms
Services using platforms 1 and 4 will not be affected. This includes the all South West Trains Weymouth-Waterloo-Weymouth services and MOST Xcountry services and Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central and 1V94 1040 Portsmouth-Great Malvern.
For further details of exact train services not affected please contact the DSMs at Southampton or see the Southampton Station working book. Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central and Great Malvern.
Our visit to Partick Station on 21 August confirmed that the new ticket office is open and the subway Under Beith Street can be reached via Beith Lane. Please visit our guide for further details.
Our visit to Cowcaddens Station on 24 August confirmed that the pedestrian routes around the station are now available. Please visit this guide for further details.
We're pleased to report that we've enlisted the services of Chris Cook, who has offered to help us resolve errors and ambiguities in our National Rail map and station finder.
As a result, the information in our National Rail pages will be subject to change over the coming months, in that some stations will appear on different lines. This will also cause changes within the station finder. Please bear with us.
The following was received from SPT on 1 June 2007.
We hope to transfer our staff to the new booking office at Partick on the 2nd July. This will mean that the booking office will be on your right as you go into the station. The old booking office will be demolished.
Unfortunately we won't be able to preview this facility before it opens, however, we are assured that extra signage and staff will be provided to ensure minimum confusion during the first few days after the opening of the new booking office. We also understand that the first ticket window will be for Subway ticket sales, whilst the last will be for First Scotrail. The middle two windows will not open until completion of the project.
We hope to visit the station during the week of 2 July 2007 so we can make appropriate amendments to this guide.
Please visit our guide to Partick Station to follow the progress of this project.
Our online guide to Sight Village 2007 is nearing completion, though there are still some significant details to be added. Please monitor our online guide to Sight Village 2007 to plan your visit.
Following advice from Chris Cook, we're updating our online maps and station finders to the National Rail and London Underground networks. These changes bring the networks up to date and correct some errors which have come to light.
Please visit our National Rail and London Underground information.
Our thanks go to Chris for his valuable assistance in this work.
We're pleased to announce the launch of our online guides to Sight Village 2007 and Carlisle Rail Station.
We're also about to publish details of Glasgow's Sound Site exhibition, which we'll be attending in conjunction with the British Computer Association of the Blind (BCAB).
After a quiet period, we're proud to announce the release of the following guides:
Thanks to sponsorship from Sight Village 2006, we will soon publish our guide to Carlisle Station. We look forward to launching our online guide to Sight Village 2007 shortly.
We're proud to announce that Glasgow City Council has asked us to develop a text guide to the famous Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery. This guide will explain how to reach the Kelvingrove building and locate the 22 galleries and other features of the building. This project is commissioned for completion by the end of this financial year.
Once again, we intend to develop our online guide to Sight Village 2007. We're pleased to announce that, thanks to funds raised by our guide to Sight Village 2006, we're developing guides to Carlisle and Preston rail stations, two busy stations on the West Coast Mainline.
Our guide to Glasgow's Yoker - Renfrew Ferry has been submitted to the customer (SPT) for approval and should be published shortly. Our Guide to Yoker Station is now published.
We've just published the latest London Underground Service Closures Forecast. Note that this page is derived from a London Underground Ltd. spreadsheet and does not necessarily conform to our standards and practices.
London Underground Six Month Ahead Service Closure Plan now published.
In line with changes announced by TFL, we've amended our information on Chigwell, Grange Hill and Roding Valley to indicate that these stations are now in zone 4, rather than 5.
Our guide to Yoker Rail Station and the Renfrew Ferry will be published by Xmas 2006, our thanks go to Strathclyde Partnership for Transport for funding this project.
The London Underground Six Month Ahead Service Closure Forecast is now available.
Our top 100 files for November 2006 are now published.
Our Top 100 Files for October 2006 are now published. We're pleased to report a significant increase in interest in our London Underground information following the recent coverage of our collaborative efforts with RNIB regarding Earl's Court, Old Street and Westminster stations.
Following advice from London Underground, we've removed our guide to Wembley Park Station as this has become out of date in view of the Wembley Stadium development. We hope to re-survey and replace this guide when resources permit.
Following advice from Nexus, we've updated our online guide to Newcastle Central Station.
Our top 100 files for September 2006 are now published.
Top 100 Files for August 2006 now published.
Thanks to helpful information from David Taylir, we've provided information on our Birmingham Stations and Preston pages about new link bus services.
London Underground Service Closures, Six Months Ahead Report is now published.
We're pleased to announce the publication of our Guide to the Vistech 2006 exhibition. As usual, we're inviting exhibitors to buy links and advertising space within this guide so we know what they plan to show us during the event.
Our guide to Camelon Rail Station is now published. This guide includes directions to the Forth Valley Sensory Resource Centre, the guide to which will be published shortly.
The Tyne & Wear Metro lines have been rerouted so that the Green Line runs between Airport and South Hylton, whilst the Yellow Line runs between St James' and South Shields. A new station, Northumberland Park, has been introduced in the Yellow Line.
Visit
Tyne & Wear Metro Green Line and
Tyne & Wear Metro Yellow Line for more details.
Top 100 Files for June and
July 2006 now published.
Top 100 Files for May 2006 now published.
Our London Underground Station Finder has now been updated in line with that for National Rail. Station names are defined as headers with those for the first occurrence of a second letter being at level 5 and the remainder at level 6.
Our Guide to Partick Station has been updated in line with the findings of our visit of 26 April 2006.
Our Guides to Sound Site and Sight Village continue to attract considerable interest. Visit our stand in the Kintyre Suite on Thursday and Friday 4 - 5 May. We'll also be selling Guide Cats for the Blind and Missing Persians File CD's as well as distributing literature on behalf of BCAB and the Glasgow Access Panel.
Our Top 100 Files for April 2006 are now published.
LUL Six Month Ahead Closure Forecast now published.
We're compiling a guide to Glasgow's Sound Site Exhibition, which is to be held in the Quality Central Hotel, attached to Glasgow Central Station, on 4 and 5 May. Watch this space over the next few days.
We've enhanced our National Rail Station Finder so that station names are generally assigned heading level 6, whilst the first name of each second letter is assigned level 5.
This should enable quicker movement between names using the 6 key and between second letter changes using the 5 key when using the JAWS screen reader.
We shall extend this practice to our London Underground Station Finder when time permits.
In response to user feedback, we have attempted to improve the navigability of our station finder by including more headings in the table. We have modified the B page of our National Rail Station Finder,(the biggest) as a trial to seek users' views on how it works for you.
We have generally assigned the station names to heading level 6. Additionally, we have assigned the first station name of each second letter to heading level 5. This should enable users to quickly skip from "BA" to "BE", "BI", "BL", "BO", "BR", "BU" and "BY".
We think this is generally a good idea, so unless anyone shouts "horrible" or something similar for good reason, we will eventually extend this practice to other pages in our National Rail and London Underground station finders. Please feel free to let us know your thoughts.
Our guide to Brunstane Station, together with the route to the RNIB Employment and Learning Centre in the Jewel and Esk College is now published. The guide to the RNIB Scotland Employment and Learning Centre has been forwarded to RNIB for publishing on its site. We'll link to this from the station guide when it becomes available.
Our guide to Sight Village 2006 is about to be published. Watch this space!
Top 100 Files for March 2006 are now published. Note that, owing to circumstances beyond our control, we've lost data for the first six days of the month. Nevertheless, these figures still show a significant and sustained growth of interest in our site.
Our guide to York Rail Station is now published.
We've completed our survey of the RNIB Jewel and Esk College plus Brunstane Station and the route between it and the College. We hope to publish this information shortly.
Our pilot project with Glasgow City Council, including Buchanan Bus Station, The City Chambers and The Burrell Building is complete and has been deemed a great success. We look forward to progressing this work soon.
Our Top 100 Files for February 2006 are now published.
We've completed our survey of York Station and intend to publish our guide within the next few days.
Our attention has been drawn to a missing line in our National Rail map, that from Newcraighall Edinburgh. This will be included in our map and station finder soon.
Our Top 100 Files for January 2006 are now published.
We're pleased to announce that our proposal for the online guide to Glasgow's Pollok Park has been accepted in principle and work is expected to start later this month.
Our proposal to track the redevelopment of Glasgow Partick Station has been accepted. We will resurvey the station on completion of each of five stages of the project. We'll also visit the station during intervening months to keep track of changes which may affect customers. Our guide has been updated to reflect changes to the Environs we noted during our visit of 8 December.
We're going to use the proceeds from our online guide to Sight Village 2005 to publish an online guide to York Rail Station - watch this space!
Six Month Ahead Report of LUL Station Closures from 1 Jan 2006 now published.
Our top 100 files for December 2005 are now published.
© 2007, Terry Robinson