Illustrated "index page" image information (starting from the top left and working clockwise):-

To be effective transport information must :-
Be provided at every stop and station,
Be accurate,
Be updated as soon as timetables and / or routes change,
Be relevant to the location,
Be easy to read,
Be understandable.

Good information is also especially appreciated by visitors who will otherwise shun the transports out of a fear of catching the wrong service and ending up somewhere they do not want to be; and, worse still, not knowing how to either retrace their steps or use alternative services to reach their intended destination. (In other words, becoming lost and stranded).

In areas where different roads are served by buses for many different destinations (but no single bus stop serves all these buses) then a bus stop identification system backed up at all the stops with maps and indexes can help passengers to find the correct bus stop(s) for their intended journey. This explains why some of the London bus stop flags seen on this page show letters (eg: "D" or "L") above them.

Subterranean railway stations often feature a labyrinth-like network of (hopefully not secret) passageways between the platforms, ticket halls and street entrances. Therefore to help prevent passengers from becoming lost in the tunnels good signage is essential!

Left: Although this type of information can often be located in the bus stop shelters another option is for the poles to which the bus stop flags are attached to include information panels displaying local maps which identify the location of other bus stops in the area (ie: bus stops for services which serve different destinations) and possibly even where there are local shops from where off-vehicle tickets can be purchased.

Centre: Often these information panels will also display timetables and other service information. The example seen here benefits from night-time illumination, which is powered by solar energy and uses soft blue LED lights.

Right: A wall-mounted enamel information display designed to help passengers find their way around what is a large and very busy subterranean station which has a veritable warren of passageways plus many street entry / exit points. Provided passengers have an idea where they wish to go (ie: know the road names) then displays such as this can be sufficient, although sometimes floor-plan style maps showing businesses near to the various street exits can be of benefit as well.
This specific information panel also features illuminated arrows for different (opposite) directions. This is because the optimal walking routes vary between weekdays and weekends, when there are fewer people passing through and one of the ticket halls plus bank of lifts down to the platforms are not used. Exit number 7 is not listed here because it is behind me - which also explains the blue (daylight) reflection.


This montage shows passenger information on a high-profile British bus system; the information includes:-
Left: real time service information,   Centre: timetables and other information,
Right: and a local area map showing an approximate walking duration from the bus stop.

Perhaps the most significant deterrent to enticing more people to use buses is the often interminable wait for one to turn up. OK, so buses get stuck in traffic, the 'pay on entry' system often causes extended delays to the journey or our fellow passengers leave a little to be desired (as once suggested by Steven Norris - former Government Transport Minister); however NOTHING bar NOTHING is worse than the period of time spent between one's arrival at the bus / tram stop (rail station, etc;) and the arrival of the transport.

Railways often equip their station platforms with electronic displays detailing the destination and anticipated minutes before the next trains are due to arrive; it is about time this feature became standard at bus stops too. Experience has shown that most people see paper timetables as nothing more than wishful thinking, whereas where electronic real time displays have been installed not only do passengers have confidence that a bus will be coming (even if there is going to be a 15 minute wait, at least there is confidence that it will eventually arrive) but that as a result patronage on the routes served has increased. Indeed, such is the importance of making a similar investment for buses that it should become a legal requirement, which - if necessary - is funded out of windfall oil revenues.

In some areas telephone information services and / or internet pages also provide passenger information, this may be fine for people setting off from home but how many people want to keep phoning information lines or internet service providers just to go out? Its far easier to take the car! Plus, apart from North America local calls are often chargeable!

Whilst at a bus exhibition in November 2016 an exhibitor told me about the added features available with the seats which they supply to the bus industry. Although not everything he said would be appropriate for urban short-distance buses, the technological advances and possibilities that he detailed certainly sounded very impressive!

• the seats have sensors which can be used to show the bus driver which seats are occupied and which are vacant - this is done via a simple seating map such as is used by airlines when passengers select seats for their flights

• the same sensors also make it possible for bus stop 'next bus' information to include the number of vacant seats in the information offered to waiting passengers - although possibly not if they are close to each other or scattered throughout the bus

• sensors in the seat belts can advise the bus driver which passengers are using seat belts and whether they have been properly fastened

Where trains do not stop at all stations (or serve many destinations from the same platform)
the passengers also need to know the approaching train's destination and stopping pattern.

It does not always follow that newer technology is 'better' than older technology. The information display seen in the image above left was of an older design and as part of an 'improvement' scheme was replaced with a 'higher-tech' display which in the image which above right can just about be seen under the 'customer information' sign. Alas, from where I was standing the information it desplayed was totally invisible! It was not even to work-out the information from the pattern of the text - even if a distance away from the sign regular passengers easily worked out station names from their length and character patterns and spacings.

These images were photographed at London's Stratford station on a platform where passengers enjoy cross-platform interchange between Underground and mainline trains - the latter serving a wide variety of destinations, often with differing stopping patterns too (especially in the rush hours 'fast' and 'slow' trains use the same platform).

Often the interchanges are made hurriedly (ie: as the underground train is arriving so the mainline train is already in the station and the station staff are blowing their whistles for it to close its doors and depart) and passengers need to know immediately whether the mainline train will be serving the station to which they are travelling. Traipsing up to the TV display is not as option - as by then the train will have left the station.

Following the introduction of the television style displays it became easier to ask other passengers already on the train where it is going, as it was only through their replies that interchanging passengers could discover whether the train would be serving the station to which they wish to travel.

Stop & Station Location

Finding the Bus Stop

Many of these comments will also apply to trams / streetcars when they are operating within the street environment.

Perhaps this will seem a trite strange, but before potential passengers even start trying to use buses they must first find that the transport exists - and usually the way to do this is by locating a bus stop! This especially applies to buses which do not use any fixed infrastructure power system (ie: fossil fuel and battery electric buses) as trolleybuses (and usually trams as well) have overhead power wires which at least inform / remind the passengers that the transport exists.

Admittedly the lack of fixed bus-stop infrastructure does provide a headache for hail & ride services which will stop "anywhere where it is safe to do so", so good local publicity is also important - in some areas the transport operators also locate timetables & publicity information on street lamp posts.

Well then, this is novel - since when did "The Red Lion" mean "bus stop"?? OK, so there IS a timetable display half way up the sign post but until the bus was seen actually calling here only well informed local people would have known that there was a bus stop here.

Usually bus stops are located next to the inside (kerbside) lane of the road, as on wider roads or where the bus has an off-road pull-in this allows other traffic to continue flowing whilst the bus is stationary.

Where the roads are equipped with bus-only traffic lanes these too are usually located on the inside (kerbside) lane as this too is convenient for calling at kerbside bus stops. However, often these bus lanes become blocked by parked vehicles, forcing buses to divert to the next lane, a process that usually causes delays to buses and other road users alike.

As a contrast trams frequently use the road centre and at stops passengers must either step out into the traffic flow or, if there is space and they are fortunate there will be a small kerbed area (like a low level railway platform) on which they can await the arrival of the transport, board / alight etc., in safety.

There is no reason why bus lanes cannot be located down the middle of the road like trams - although this will require the installation of island loading platforms and is therefore only a solution for wider roads. The first island platform illustrated here comes from the Swiss city of Geneva and is at the end of a bus lane that is located in the road centre because the stalls from a street market use the kerb lane.

The next picture comes from Market Street, San Francisco. Here trolleybuses have their wiring arranged so that they can use either the centre or kerbside lanes. As is visible in the picture there is a speed restriction of 10mph for vehicles passing the island platform on its kerbside while a vehicle is stopped with passengers boarding / alighting. This road is also used by streetcars (trams), serving the island platform only.

Road Centre - or Kerbside?

To some people the thought of always having to cross half the road to board a bus sounds might seem somewhat strange, even though no-one thinks twice of crossing all of the road if the direction of the traffic flow means the bus stop they wish to use is on the other side of the road. There is some evidence that far more passengers have accidents when they jump off a bus at a kerbside bus stop and immediately pass behind / in front of it and start crossing both traffic streams (without even thinking to look and see if it is safe) than ever happened in the days when many British cities had tram systems where the tramstops required passengers to walk out into the middle of the road.

There is more on bus lanes and illegal parking on a dedicated Parking page whilst the light rail and compatibility with street traffic page looks at more solutions for light rail stops within the street domain and how light rail and parked vehicles can happily co-exist.

Island Bus Stops

When the bus lanes on the A118 Stratford High Street in east London were converted into segregated cycle lanes (as part of Cycling Superhighway 2) it was decided that the best way to avoid conflict between cyclists and buses at bus stops would be to locate the cycle path between the bus stops and the main part of the footpath. In effect this innovative solution creates bus stop islands.

Access between the main part of the footpath and the island bus stops is facilitated by a short section of raised cycle path. For people with less than 20-20 vision these feature tactile footpaths and they also offer full accessibility for people who use personal wheeled transports such as pushchairs / buggies / strollers and wheelchairs. Whilst aimed at all bus passengers the reality is that most tend to cross the cycle path at locations which are convenient to them.

A short video showing one of these island bus stops has been placed on the ‘YouTube’ film / video website and can be watched (in a new window) by clicking either the projector icon or this link - http://www.youtube.com/watch? .

Finding Railway Stations

Because railways (usually) operate away from the street environment their stops & stations can sometimes be more discreetly located, making finding them more of an art.

In the past many railway companies have sought to make their stations easier to locate by making them (large), opulent looking buildings as per the fashions of the day, often built to a distinctive "corporate" architectural style which would be applied to multiple stations. The ideas being to make them stand out / more easily recognised for what they are and be noticed. Other options to make them easier to find would (and sometimes still do) include the fixing of signposts pointing to the station on lamp-posts, and, especially in the modern era, on road direction signs. The latter is frequently done for park+ride services, whether operated by bus or rail.

Sometimes in cities where the railway travels below ground the stations will not have any significant surface buildings - instead the entrances (usually but not always to the ticket selling area) will be via the public subways (ie: subterranean walkway / passageway systems - NOT the American meaning of "subway") which can also be used by pedestrians solely to cross the roads. Similar can apply to elevated railway systems, although of course by being elevated it is usually possible to see that the transport "is there".

To help advertise that these public subways are also the access routes to the public transport many cities locate distinctive symbols at the entrances. Typically these symbols will be used on surface buildings too.

Railway (NOT Train) Station Terminology

For many years the word station rarely needed a transport type to be stated as well. It was simply understood that the word station referred to the location on the railways where trains stopped to allow passengers to board and alight. Stations were often grand buildings with elevated platforms which (in the UK) were almost the same height of the passenger carriage floors, had shelters over the platform to keep passengers dry in inclement weather, facilities for selling tickets, waiting rooms, goods facilities, etc. Busier stations also had tea rooms and even restaurants. Conversely very quiet stations which only offered simple platforms and waiting rooms were often known as halts. Trams, which usually located some or all of their route in urban streets called at stops which usually offered minimal facilities, if any. Especially when in the public highway. When running on segregated tracks they too sometimes used the term halt.

Bus stopping points were also known as bus stops, except perhaps at large city centre buildings served by many bus services which were known as bus stations.

Alas nowadays people insist on referring to all railway stations as train stations, which is a term that has been lifted from North America where many other transport (transit) terminologies are also different (see below. What is even worse is that people do not even know that they are speaking a foreign dialect.

This irksome malady mostly afflicts younger people.

Platform Or Track? More North American 'English' Terminology

As the saying goes...

Two nations divided by a common language

In North America things are often done and named differently than here in the UK. For instance, they do not number platforms, instead they number the tracks that the trains will use whilst at the station. Therefore their passenger information refers to track numbers whilst here in the UK our passenger information actually refers to the platform face (or edge) next to which the train will stop.

Also, the American concept of a platform is different to that which is found in the UK, as often in America the station platforms are at or not raised very much above the height of the track. With these very low level platforms passengers entering or leaving the trains need to negotiate the steps which form an integral part of the train's underframe. Small children, the elderly and the 'less able' must find doing this to be very difficult!

Perhaps because of the low height platforms, sometimes departing passengers are only allowed to enter the platform after the arriving train has come to a complete stop. This can be very inconvenient if the passenger wishes to board the train at a location that is remote from the platform entrance (perhaps because that is where their reserved seat is to be found) and they would rather walk along the length of the entire platform so as to be ready to board when the train has arrived.

NB: Not all of these comments apply to American urban subways and new-build light rail services which are designed to be fully accessible.

Keeping Railway Stations 'Lout'-free

Very occasionally there are problems with people (usually teen-agers / twentysomethings) who like to gather - on station platforms, concourses, ticket halls etc., - in large groups, talking loudly, and sometimes behaving in a "loutish" way which can seem intimidating to many passengers. It is to be regretted that what effectively is a small minority have so little sense of social responsibility that they cause distress to the majority in this way.

When The Station Is A Ferry Boat!

On the railways it is usual that passengers only board / alight trains at 'stations', which are pre-designated stopping points. Stations can of course be almost anywhere, but perhaps the single most common feature is that they are always on dry land. However every rule needs an exception - and in this instance the station is on a ferry boat!

The story is that some Hamburg (Germany) - Copenhagen (Denmark) trains include through carriages that use the car / lorry / passenger ferry between the ports of Puttgarden and Rødby. And if passengers want to join or leave the train at Rødby then they must do so via the boat.

During the crossing the rail passengers have the choice of either staying on the train or walking around the ferry, perhaps visiting one of the restaurants or if the weather is pleasant sitting on an outside deck.

Transport Punctuality And Stop Dwell Times

An all too common occurence is a passenger running to catch a transport which is already at the stop / station. Often the driver will wait for them to arrive, and be thanked for this.

Whilst this is a nice thing to do it is not always good for the overall service. If the average wait is 10 seconds then by the sixth stop / station the transport will be running a minute late.

Sometimes it is possible to drive a little faster to make up for the lost seconds, but this is not always so and especially where the transport has a recording device which monitors how the driver is performing then if a speed limit is breached, even slightly, whilst the chances of danger to the passengers will usually be zero the driver might end up being disciplined.

Passengers expect transports to be punctual - late running is very rarely welcomed whilst early running is only appreciated at the end of line / terminal station, as before that a passenger who arrives at the stop slightly before the transport's scheduled time of arrival will be most annoyed if it has already come and gone!

In an effort to improve punctuality on its suburban trains in January 2014 Auckland, New Zealand instituted a new policy of blowing whistles and not waiting for last-minute runners. Experience showed that this helped to raise punctuality (which was defined as arriving within 5 minutes of scheduled time) from 80% to 91.7%. This was the first time that their trains had exceeded 90% and although the new policy will not please the passengers who are not waited for, the new way of doing things is seen as being for the greater good.

Ticket Sales

Most transport systems expect passengers to buy their tickets (ie: pay for their journey) in advance of travelling and to encourage this roving ticket inspectors will require every passenger they encounter to provide proof that they have complied with this requirement. Passengers who have not paid in advance are usually required to pay a "standard" or "penalty" fare that is much higher than they would have been charged had they paid at the correct time. Repeat offenders are sometimes prosecuted in a court of law which can impose large fines and perhaps in the most serious of circumstances imprison the offenders.

Generally with buses it is possible to pay the driver when boarding - although some urban systems use an off vehicle ticketing system where passengers must be in possession of a valid ticket before boarding, whilst for railways the arrangements can include buying tickets from a staffed ticket window or a station ticket machine. An ever increasing number of locations also allow payment of fares by means of an electronic token which was bought over the Internet and stored on a smartphone or from contactless ticketing solutions where passengers use radio frequency card readers at the start and sometimes also the end of their journeys so that the cost of the travel can be deducted from either a bank / credit card account, the electronic purse of a smartcard or some other means.

For longer distance travel and season (period) tickets the purchase options can also include telesales or via the internet.

Frequently European conurbations have integrated ticketing schemes which charge the same fare no matter the transport operator or type of transport the passenger uses, with one ticket covering the entire journey, no matter how many changes are required.

This means that tickets bought from newsagents / confectionary shops or machines located at street-based tram & bus stops are also valid on local urban mainline railway (ie: heavy rail) services as well. It also usually possible to purchase tickets in advance of travel, with tickets for multiple journeys being sold at discounted rates, and then each ticket being validated at the start of the journey.

Often conurbations which have adopted this ticketing system also price tickets bought from bus drivers slightly higher than those bought from other sources. This is done to encourage passengers to avoid buying from bus drivers as this slows the services.

There are no "technical" reasons why a similar ticketing system could not apply to British conurbations - perhaps the primary reason why it tends to only exist in the bigger cities is that the government's 'Office of Fair Trading' (sic) uses its anti-cartel regulations to prohibit independently owned transport (especially bus) companies from introducing proper integrated ticketing systems. The fact that such may be in the passengers' best interest does not seem to concern them - political dogma and their own sense of self-importance reign supreme.

Ticketing systems are fully explored on the Fares & Ticketing Systems page.

Shopping and Refreshment Facilities

Refreshment facilities provide a welcoming way for hungry and thirsty passengers to pass their time whilst waiting for their train. At some stations these will comprise of a 'tea room' or kiosk located on the platform (or on several platforms), perhaps next to the general waiting room, whilst at other stations they will be located in or near the booking hall / ticket sales area / on the main concourse (lobby area) so that they can be used by people who are not travelling too. In North America some local transport systems have by-laws prohibiting the consumption of food or drink on their trains or station platforms and intending passengers must be careful to make sure that before even entering the platform / waiting area they have fully consumed any food or drink (even ice cream!) bought at shops nearby.

Bookstalls are also frequently found at stations, these also selling magazines, newspapers, confectionary and soft drinks.

Large, busy stations where there is a continuous flow of passengers often feature a wider range of shops as might be found in a neighbourhood shopping centre. In rural areas some stations feature 24/7 type convenience stores which attract non-travellers too, thereby helping to keep the station 'alive'. In some instances the sales staff will also sell train tickets. The locating of shops at stations in this way is usually seen as being a considerably more attractive alternative to 'unstaffed' stations.

Although relatively rare on urban transit type systems many mainline railway stations also feature public conveniences (toilets \ washrooms), which might be free at point of use or might charge a small fee to cover the cost of their upkeep. Providing these facilities is important and despite the cost of upkeep these should be seen as part of the public service ethos under which public transport operates. The need for these is in addition to similar facilities which are often to be found on longer-distance trains.

Litter

Station Platform Safety

As a general theme railway station platforms are very safe places to be, but over the years a few hazards have been identified.

Two of these relate to people standing too near the edge of the platform. Even when a platform is not very crowded people sometimes like to stand near the edge and look around. Sometimes they look at other platforms nearby, or down at the track, or along the track - perhaps in the hope of seeing their train approaching - and when doing this very occasionally they accidentally fall off and on to the track. This is a different issue from when people want to commit suicide and jump in front of an approaching train. Another safety hazard - and one where the danger is often is only fully understood when it is too late to do anything about - is that because trains travelling at high speed often create localised air turbulence so when they pass through the rushing air can pull them in towards the train and in the most severe instances result in being fatally sucked under it. From personal experience when a teenager it is possible to confirm that one does not even need to be very close to the edge for the air turbulence from a train travelling at about 80mph (130km/h) to become an issue. Many modern trains travel much faster than this.

One solution which many railways have adopted is to paint a line (usually yellow in colour) a set distance from the platform edge which passengers are asked to stay behind - except of course when a train is calling at the station.

The yellow lines behind which passengers should stand can vary in distance from the platform edge depending on the transport providor and the services it operates at that platform. As a general theme the faster the trains pass through without stopping so the further away the yellow line needs to be from the platform edge.

In some places passengers can even be fined for being in front of the yellow line when there is not a train actually at the station.

Platform Edge Doors

In some towns and cities the transport operators have advanced on the use of yellow lines (as seen above) and fitted physical barriers with opening doorways along the platform edge. The purpose of this is to increase safety by physically preventing people from falling (or being pushed / jumping) in front of trains entering the station and reduce trespassing incidents by making it much more difficult to reach the tracks.

Platform edge doors (also sometimes also known as platform screen doors) typically reach from the ground all the way to the ceiling (or platform canopy at outdoor stations). Similar in theme are platform edge gates, which are also known as automatic platform gates or half-height platform screen doors. The significant difference between doors and gates is that the gates are normally only about chest-high, and therefore as they require less metallic framework, glass, etc are usually cheaper to install. However, by not reaching up to the ceiling / platform canopy platform gates are potentially less effective in preventing people from jumping onto the tracks.

Whether gates or doors, their installation is easiest and least costly when done as part of a new transport system - although for reasons of safety some cities are retrofitting them on pre-existing systems too, a process which can be disruptive - both during the works and if there are any 'teething' issues once they are brought into service.

Whether half or full height one important issue is that the trains stop accurately that both the train's and platform's doors are correctly aligned to each other. One enterprising door manufacturer has designed a system whereby the platform doors will adjust how they open to match the exact stopping point of the train. Another important issue is that platform doors will only be suitable for platforms which are used by trains with the same door configurations - as otherwise the train and platform doors will not always align in a way which allows passengers to pass between the train and the platform.

In January 2008 the Singaporean Minister for Transport announced that to improve safety by 2012 all the elevated stations would be retrofitted with half-height automatic platform gates. Previously this action had been ruled out for reasons of prohibitively high costs, but due to the global popularity of such gates their costs had fallen sufficiently to make this financially feasible.

Another city which is retrofitting stations with platform doors is Paris, France. So far this is being done place on métro line 1, as part of a process which also includes converting it to fully automatically operated trains, as this will allow service frequencies on this very busy line to be increased to a train every 85 seconds.

Who says that platform doors and gates must only be dull metallic grey / gray (or silver) in colour?

Also seen in these two images below are some different ideas for the use of platform edge 'keep behind' yellow lines. By way of contrast it may be noted that these yellow lines are missing from most of the other images seen here. Perhaps some transport operators take the view that platform doors / gates render platform edge lines as being superfluous?

A different type of platform gate system can be found on some platforms which are on the routes of the Japanese very high speed Shinkansen trains. Trains travelling at high speed often create localised air turbulence, and when passing through stations this can create a safety hazard for any passengers standing too near the platform edge. Quite literally they can be pulled in towards the train and in the most severe instances fatally sucked under it.

Therefore where possible railway systems will try to keep tracks used by high speed trains a safe distance from station platforms, but where this is not possible physical barriers such as these which are set back from the platform edge keep passengers a safe distance away from passing trains. Sliding openings in the barriers allow passengers to reach the platform edge at stations where trains sometimes also call at the platform. In the example seen here it could be asked whether there are enough openings in the barrier to prevent passengers from being delayed whilst passing the barrier, but that is another issue.

Don't become trapped between the doors!

Platform doors help protect against
Human Stupidity.

When Waiting In The Street For Buses Or Trams Is A Criminal Offence

On Croydon's tramlink the footpath at the West Croydon stop is so narrow that it is wholly incorporated into the tram stop's platform / waiting area. So even innocent pedestrians who just happen to be walking by could conceivably become innocent victims of this awful legislation. Think it cannot happen in Britain? - it already has - for instance on 1st May 2001 in London's Oxford Circus when (to prevent a May-day protest) the police ruthlessly held 3,000 people (including innocent passers-by who just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time) prisoner for as long as 8 hours! No food, no drink - even visits to the toilet were denied. Innocent until proven otherwise? R.I.P Habeas Corpus? R.I.P. the Bill of Rights (of 1689)? R.I.P. Dictatorial rule by unelected, unaccountable petty officials? The new order! ...and then there is the EU's Amsterdam Treaty which requires that the legal system known as Corpus Juris be introduced - setting up a European Public Prosecutor with over-riding criminal law jurisdiction throughout Europe, and explicitly abolishing Habeas Corpus and Trial by Jury - which date from Magna Carta, of 1215.

Traitors Gate and the Tower of London as seen from across the River Thames. In medieval times enemies of the state were sometimes kept here - the Civil Contingency Legislation which passed through Parliament in autumn 2004 will let politicians (on the merest whim) tear up 1000 years of human rights, Magna Carta etc., - so it is possible that it will soon revert back to that use. Politicians do not waste time & money on introducing laws they do not intend to use. In your naïvety you probably thought that our political leaders work for the betterment of the British people? The reality is that this is NOT so - indeed against the British people would be more accurate.

Strange as it may seem, in Britain a healthy crowd waiting at a street-based bus or tram stop is actually an illegal gathering for which all the participants could face arrest and imprisonment!

This is because under the Criminal Justice legislation introduced under Mrs Thatcher's premiership any gathering of more than six people requires a pre-arranged licence which has to be obtained from the police.

This awful legislation was introduced at a time when it was common for large groups of people to descend en masse upon warehouses (which did not have fire safety certification) for all-night - or longer - 'acid house / rave' parties where extremely loud 'music' (sic), drunkenness and the use of illegal drugs were commonplace.
Around the same time there were also problems with various anarchist and other anti-everything Luddite organisations using anti-poll tax (a type of local government funding) demonstrations as excuses for causing riots where they would revel in using weapons such as baseball bats embedded with razor blades and 6 inch nails to commit as many acts of wanton violence against the police & members of the general public as possible. They also rejoiced in much destruction to property - with a specific target of a certain globally known US based fast er, um, 'food' (sic) chain.

(Surely a far better way to show their disapproval of global trading systems would have been to follow Gandhi's example of peaceful non-violent protest)?

Although the poll tax is no more and this legislation totally failed to stop either the riots or the warehouse parties we have been left with an unfortunate legacy of draconian 'catch-all' regulations that in their own way do far more to undermine everyone's civil liberties than the rioters ever did.

As if that legislation is not bad enough Mr Blair's government has (now) introduced a new law designed to throw the clock back 1000 years by scrapping ALL human rights and effectively reducing us back to the slavery of serfdom.

The following information comes from a weblog at this webpage (http://www.spy.org.uk/spyblog/archives/2004/11/civil_contingen_3.html), and is dated 8th November 2004.