It’s that time of year again. Advent calendars are being opened, presents purchased and the tabloids are preparing their ‘outrage’ pieces about vital Christmas works. That means, of course, that is time for the London Reconnections Christmas Transport Quiz.

An annual tradition, the Christmas Quiz tests not only your transport knowledge but also your ability to think laterally. The questions are intended to vary between easy and difficult, but not impossible – or at least not impossible to have a plausible guess at (perhaps with a bit of creative searching). Don’t worry if you can’t get them all – most people won’t. The fun, however, is in the trying and the lesson from 2016 seemed to be not to be put off sending in your answers if you haven’t got everything – because it is quite likely others are in a similar position.

We try not to ask trick questions, but won’t hesitate to put you off the scent occasionally. On picture questions there may be a bit of a clue in the name of the image.

We aim to find some prizes to dish out to winners. As always though, the real prize is the opportunity to demonstrate your superiority over the LR Towers brain trust and your fellow readers. For this reason, please be aware that any answers (or clues we think are too obvious) will be deleted from the comments.

The closing time and date is 23:59 on New Year’s Eve. We aim to publish the answers at 00:01 on New Years Day. Sometime after that but, not too long we hope, we will publish the winners, identified by a suitable pseudonym agreeable to them, and an analysis of how people, in general, got on. This year we will try to avoid indulging in our own new year tradition of being slow to publish winners and sending prizes to the wrong people. No promises!

Each question or part of a question normally carries one mark. It is relatively obvious where this is the case. Please send your answers to [email protected] with the word “quiz” in the subject line. If you send multiple submissions then only the last one we receive from you will be considered. Please don’t send partials and then expect us to stitch them together. We have Christmas cake to eat.

Question 1

2017 saw Southwestern Railway take over South West Trains. Unfortunately, they produced their timetables in a bit of a hurry without proof-reading them.



As a simple starter question, what mistake is there on the front page of this timetable?

Question 2

This is in the style of the Missing Words Round in Have I got News for You?



The above could well have been a legitimate headline in October 2017 only some of it has been blanked out. What words could replace the blanked out part to make this an accurate news headline?

Question 3

What square is round and contains a park that contains no trees or grass?. If any traffic were to circumnavigate it then it would currently go around clockwise, but previously it would have gone around anti-clockwise and – if all goes to plan – in 2018 it will go around anti-clockwise again.

Question 4

Not a million miles away from question 3 name this street in which most letters have been replaced by dashes.

_ _ _ _ h h _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Question 5

And whilst we are on the subject of filling in the missing blanks, what is the surname of this railway family?. Amongst others, they produced two engineers, one who at one stage worked on the London Underground and the other was associated with the Southern Railway?

_ z _ _ _ _ _ _

Question 6

At the 1st December 2017, there was a station in London that has every single passenger train that stops at it being run by a particular Train Operating Company (TOC) yet neither this train operating company nor Network Rail manage the station. Which station is this?

Name any other station within the M25 for which this is now also true.

(For avoidance of doubt, London Underground is not a Train Operating Company)

Question 7

Vaguely connected to Question 6 in some way, we are looking for a station name of which it can be said:

if the ‘e’ were an ‘o’ then it would be the name of an engine.

As a bit of a clue, both the station and the engine are in some way related to films – just not in the same way.

Question 8

And with a very tenuous link to the loco in question 7 …

We have previously asked a question about official TfL roundels which are located many miles from London. One year we showed a picture of one we believed to be furthest from London. It had some vital information removed and we asked for you to identify the location.

This year we are asking you to locate the station at which we believe the highest official TfL roundel is located. If your answer is different to ours but is, in fact, higher then that will be a valid answer.

At which station is this?

Question 9

Identify what this list of sequences represents

1

1,2

1,2,3

1,2,3,4

1,2,3,4,5

1,3,4,5

2,3,4,5

What is expected to be the next sequence in the list according to current plans?

Question 10

This chap is about to leave Waterloo. But where is he going?

Question 11

Which station had, has or will have the following track layout?

Question 12

The one on Thameslink is elevated. The same one is on the Northern line but is closer to the Orient. The one on the DLR is an unusual shape. Name the station on the Piccadilly line that was once a green area associated with an elevated one.

Question 13

According to a source close to the TfL main offices, how many babies have been born on the Underground?

Question 14

On the subject of transport, Sutton is a liar (at least when it comes to heraldry). What’s the lie, and why did it happen?

Question 15

At stations it is common to have a display with the time of the next direct train for various destinations to be shown. At some DLR stations there is a live departure board showing destinations that can be reached with one change. What do all these destinations have in common?

Question 16

What does the wording (blanked out) describe this as?

Question 17

Which is the only Underground station on which you can reliably expect to see a man smoking?

Question 18

When Livingstone and Rhodes were at Edgware, Faraday and Newton were at Charing Cross. Brunel and Stephenson were at Morden, so who was on the Central line?

Question 19

Time for a bit of detective work: This painting is part of a pair. Which station is pictured? Where is this painting now, and where was its ‘sister’ famously located in the eighties?

Question 20

Finally, This is a sequence of questions which are in the style of the TV quiz show ‘Pointless’. To each question there is a fairly obvious answer. Needless to say, this is not the answer we want. We want a correct answer which is not the obvious one. The first question will probably make this clear to you.

Name:

a) A Tube line that connects Baker Street and Waterloo stations

b) An extension being built by TfL to the site of a former power station beginning with ‘B’

c) A London terminus named after the locality in which it is located, which itself was named after a local church which itself was named after a saint.

d) A railway line, not currently operational, that connects Whitechapel and Paddington

e) A former or existing station whose name contains or contained the following words: ‘Street’, ‘Cannon’

f) An Underground station named after a sporting venue where the FA Cup Final was played

g) The surname of a famous engineer who in the early 19th century dug a tunnel under the Thames at Rotherhithe

A very, merry Christmas to you all from everyone here at LR Towers! Don’t miss our important message about Christmas drinks!

John Bull, Editor

2017