TV Alert: BBC 2's Documentary "15 Billion Pound Railway"

[76020]

There is a three part series starting on 16th July at 21:00 about the Crossrail construction, please see link below:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04b7h1w

Series following a team of more than 10,000 engineers and construction workers as they race to build a brand new railway under London - Crossrail - London's new Underground.

Well it makes change from the World Cup!

 

[telstarbox]

Sounds good.

 

[OxtedL]

I direct the honorable posters to
The “The North Of England Is Getting A Rough Deal” Thread
and politely request they leave this thread alone.

 

[GatwickDepress]

Can we not turn this into another "North vs South" thread?

The BBC can usually be relied on for fairly entertaining yet still educational programming, so I look forward to this.

 

[SS4]

Looks interesting, I shall set it to record in the morning (if I remember)

 

[yorkie]

I direct the honorable posters to
The “The North Of England Is Getting A Rough Deal” Thread
and politely request they leave this thread alone.

Agreed. I deleted the posts of that nature from this thread.

This thread is specifically to discuss the TV programme.

 

[jon0844]

Having looked this up on iPlayer, thinking it was on today and not tomorrow, I stumbled upon this link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00sc29t/how-they-dug-the-victoria-line

Last shown in March 1969 - 'How they dug the Victoria Line'.

About to watch it now, as it could be interesting to compare with how they did Crossrail tomorrow night!

 

[theshillito]

Looking forward to this. Last year's "The Railway: Keeping Britain On Track" was very well directed, so I'm hoping some of the staff from that will be working on this one.

 

[RailAleFan]

Not sure I'd really want to be working in Centre Point at this time!

"Hi, is it OK if we just attach a few of these reflectors to the outside of your building?"

"Sure! Something to do with the Oxford Street Christmas lights?"

"er, Yes! Lasers and everything this year...."

 

[Jona26]

Lasers have been used for the Oxford Street Christmas lights. Possibly 1977 to coincide with Star Wars but not officially linked to the film.

Oohh - 1 year out...

From Wikipedia...
"Each Christmas Oxford Street is decorated with festive lights. The Christmas lights began in 1959, five years after the neighbouring Regent Street began the tradition. The lights were abandoned in 1976 and 1977 due to economic recession, returning in 1978 when Oxford Street organised a laser display."

 

[Darandio]

Having looked this up on iPlayer, thinking it was on today and not tomorrow, I stumbled upon this link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00sc29t/how-they-dug-the-victoria-line

Last shown in March 1969 - 'How they dug the Victoria Line'.

About to watch it now, as it could be interesting to compare with how they did Crossrail tomorrow night!

I meant to post that last week after watching it, was really interesting, especially the part about the 'umbrella'.

 

[Old Hill Bank]

Agreed. I deleted the posts of that nature from this thread.

This thread is specifically to discuss the TV programme.

Very much so let's let other parts of the country have a say, will be watching with interest.

 

[455driver]

Agreed. I deleted the posts of that nature from this thread.

This thread is specifically to discuss the TV programme.

I was wondering what point OxtedL was trying to make!

 

[Lukeo2311]

I hope I can watch the program through BBC iPlayer from Australia (I use Hola Unblocker and I've watched stuff on BBC iPlayer before and it works with no problem!)

 

[ralphchadkirk]

"Building Crossrail is like doing open heart surgery while that patient is alive"

So, reckless, nigh on impossible and almost certainly going to end in complete disaster?

 

[MikeWh]

Having looked this up on iPlayer, thinking it was on today and not tomorrow, I stumbled upon this link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00sc29t/how-they-dug-the-victoria-line

Last shown in March 1969 - 'How they dug the Victoria Line'.

About to watch it now, as it could be interesting to compare with how they did Crossrail tomorrow night!

Was only half awake this morning, but they had someone on Breakfast talking about the show and he claimed that it was the first new railway (ie not an extension) for 100 years. My first thought was HS1, then purely in London the Victoria Line. Oh well.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

I'm currently doing work experience for Crossrail and some of the words I've heard from people describing their predicted thoughts are not really suitable for this forum!

It's not a bad documentary, but it is very different to what is is like in real life, but that's the case with most documentaries.

 

[Nym]

I'm currently doing work experience for Crossrail and some of the words I've heard from people describing their predicted thoughts are not really suitable for this forum!

It's not a bad documentary, but it is very different to what is is like in real life, but that's the case with most documentaries.

So the same as 'The Tube' then in that it doesn't very well reflect the reality of the network and only shows a very singular and narrow section of it.

 

[WatcherZero]

"Building Crossrail is like doing open heart surgery while that patient is alive"

So, reckless, nigh on impossible and almost certainly going to end in complete disaster?

Youve got a point, they stop the heart when performing surgery on it.

 

[IanD]

"Building Crossrail is like doing open heart surgery while that patient is alive"

So, reckless, nigh on impossible and almost certainly going to end in complete disaster?

Do they perform open heart surgery on dead people?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Youve got a point, they stop the heart when performing surgery on it.

But the patient is kept alive. Hopefully.

 

[Squaddie]

When the programme concentrated on the engineering itself it was very interesting but, as is usual with today's dumbed-down documentaries, far too much time was spent on "characters" and human-interest stories. It also jumped around a lot, with frequent and irritating recaps of things we had seen just minutes before. The most interesting part of the entire programme was the brief segment on the construction of Ofxord Circus ticket hall in 1963.

However, at least I now know why all those lasers and prisms are attached to buildings and stations all around the city.

 

[Muzer]

Was only half awake this morning, but they had someone on Breakfast talking about the show and he claimed that it was the first new railway (ie not an extension) for 100 years. My first thought was HS1, then purely in London the Victoria Line. Oh well.

You could argue that Crossrail itself is an extension - of the Great Western, and the Great Eastern

 

[muddythefish]

You could argue that Crossrail itself is an extension - of the Great Western, and the Great Eastern

Crossrail should indeed by an extension of the above, with trains travelling direct from Bristol/Cardiff/Plymouth to Norwich and Cambridge. As such it is just another south east commuter line designed to feed the ever expanding city of London. Twas ever thus.

 

[Busaholic]

Found it very interesting and looking forward to the next two programmes. I wholeheartedly believe it to be a good scheme, not least in the funding of it i.e. none of this PFI scam. Just can't get my head around why it becomes 'all stops' on the Great Western and Great Eastern sections: would have thought the Parisian model would have been the one to adopt with stops at Slough, Ealing, Ilford and Romford on the traditional lines. Old Oak is another matter, but then I'm less than convinced about HS2 as presently planned.

 

[AM9]

Crossrail should indeed by an extension of the above, with trains travelling direct from Bristol/Cardiff/Plymouth to Norwich and Cambridge. As such it is just another south east commuter line designed to feed the ever expanding city of London. Twas ever thus.

It's what London wanted and London is paying for. The precious National assets that are under threat from the works are being carefully preserved at great expense.

 

[ModernRailways]

Just finished watching it and thought it was really interesting. The pace at the start was a bit naff, too fast between scenes and just generally didn't seem right but towards the end it slowed to a normal, acceptable pace and was a lot more pleasant.

 

[NotATrainspott]

Since it's a programme designed for the average person to watch, enjoy and become slightly more educated as a result it's not surprising that the time is filled with 'characters' and not the intricacies of how they're planning to implement ATO. If you want gory details about this sort of stuff then the IET have online videos of talks from Crossrail, HS2 Ltd, Network Rail and the like about technical things.

 

[SpacePhoenix]

Caught the first half on tv, didn't have time to watch the 2nd half so will have to watch it on iPlayer at the weekend. Anyone know if they've done that tunnel section already where it had a very, very, very tight clearance to the escalator above and I think it was Met line tunnels underneath

 

[thelem]

Anyone know if they've done that tunnel section already where it had a very, very, very tight clearance to the escalator above and I think it was Met line tunnels underneath

Yes, that was one of the stories they focused on ("the eye of the needle")
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Was only half awake this morning, but they had someone on Breakfast talking about the show and he claimed that it was the first new railway (ie not an extension) for 100 years. My first thought was HS1, then purely in London the Victoria Line. Oh well.

That's such a made up argument. Fair enough something like the St Pancras box and Heathrow Terminal 5 can be ignored as small extensions, but what about the Jubilee line? Does an 11 station railway not count, just because the trains continue onto another line at the end of their journey?

 

[Hadders]

It's interesting to compare and contrast the style of last night's programme with the one from the 1960's on the Victoria Line.

The 1960's one doesn't focus on 'characters' but does mention ATO, ticket barriers etc.