There's nothing like a Monday morning at work, particularly when to get there you have to endure a sign that reads 'Next Central Line train: 15 minutes'. It appears to have hit the east the worst: Silent Bob was stuck in Leytonstone with "at least 1000 people milling around the bus stop I wanted to get to. They were blocking the road and generally swarming round any bus that passed." And Iced Web missed a free lunch. It's a good job that tube whore chose Saturday to visit lots of stations rather than today.
Now in order to distract us from yesterday's annoyance, TFL have today excited tube geeks everywhere by announcing the name of a new station and the renaming of another. Yes, West London BBC employees must be rubbing their hands with glee because now, not only do they have White City tube station on their doorsteps, but very soon they'll be able to arrive at Wood Lane on the Hammersmith and City. Oh, the choice!
Wood Lane has been the name of two other central and metropolitan line stations on the tube network, both opened in 1908 for the Franco-British Exhibition which were planned to be temporary but remained open until 1943 and 1959 respectively. This time round, instead of an exhibition, the station won't just be bringing commuters to work but also to shop at the, currently being built, Westfield retail development which will become the largest shopping centre in London with 269 shops, a 14 screen cinema, a library, 15 restaurants and 12 food 'pods'.
And for those of you who wonder just how many stations Shepherd's Bush can have (the answer is soon to be at least five), the H&C station will be renamed from Shepherd's Bush to Shepherd's Bush Market. This is the first station name change since 1989 when Surrey Docks on the East London line was renamed Surrey Quays. TFL is very keen to point out that "LU receives a number of requests each year for the names of Tube stations to be changed but only very rarely agrees to accept them". We think this sounds like a challenge!
Photo of old Wood Lane borrowed from Normko's flickr stream.
