East London Line Extension

It was rather handy really. This morning I had to get from my home near Tower Bridge to Canary Wharf to have a meeting with the Olympic Development Authority. By the time I had finished the East London Line Extenson had opened to the public and I could get back via Wapping station for the first time since December 2007.

Only yesterday, it seems, the L T Museum took its 1938 tube stock out for a final run on the East London Line reminding us of the days when tube stock did indeed work on this branch.

Amazingly that was two and a half years ago and today for the first time we are plugged in to Dalston Junction and in due course to West Croydon and Highbury & Islington as well.

I'm very pleased to see the Overground brand in increasing use. When, as Capital Citybus, we tried (and failed) to win the franchise for the North London Line in the 1990s we chose 'Overground' as our trade name. Odd now to look back on our proposals. Well, we did not succeed in winning the franchise (National Express did), but at least the name Overground came into being and now runs around London in one form or another.

A different subject altogether. I see Trevor Wright's new book "Moving Comfortably Ahead" on Capital Citybus is out. I am sure someone will send me one (I'm happy to pay!).

"Moving Comfortably Ahead" was alredy in use at Citybus, Hong Kong, when we joined their owning group. I began to use it as we morphed from blue and silver Ensign Citybus into yellow Capital Citybus thinking it was a good idea but years later Citybus MD Lyndon Rees told me he actually didn't like it in the first place!

In time we moved onto another clever strapline (well I thought of it so thought it was clever) "here today, here tomorrow". It came to me when I heard critics of the private sector say we were here today, gone tomorrow. As we used it, we also made it clear we could be relied upon.

I've not had anything to do with the book but look forward to seeing what is says about those happy days. I think it is almost all entirely photographs - a great reminder of a varied and colourful time in London's bus history.

I believe the rules at Twitter require us to use this link when using their photographs so I am happy to oblige: http://twitpic.com/1ivrn3

...