Some free advertising for Camilla
As you know, in the event of a good cause, I’ll do some free advertising, and so here is some free advertising. The lovely Camilla Quance, of Babestation fame, is going to do a skydive to raise money for Help for Heroes, a worthy cause I think you’ll all agree. Now, I know that skydiving has little if anything to do with railways, but hey, I don’t care. So, if you’d like to pay money for Camilla to jump out of an aeroplane, you’ll see the link along the sidebar. Go on, give a little.
Seeing that Camilla is doing this led me to some thought as to what other things people could do to raise money that might involve railways. Of course, the most obvious one I can think of is the Tube Challenge. I reckon that Daryl Morgan would be ideal to lead a team on that little adventure? Or how about a straight race from Kennington to Euston along either branch of the Northern Line between Preeti and Priya? Well, perhaps. Still, it’s all in good fun, and I’ve no doubt that people would give generously. After all, it is for charity.
Now I’d pay to see that
For want of a sign
There was something that caught my eye in the evening paper yesterday, in relation to The Tube, a programme on BBC2 that has been garnering high praise showing, as it does, the people that keep London’s great transport marvel running as smoothly as it does. Richard Godwin’s column included a line from a driver on the merits of the Piccadilly Line:
Every time every other line goes up the wall, they’re doing weekend engineering works, what line is always running to carry the burden? The Piccadilly. The premier, perfect Piccadilly. The Piccadilly line, if it was a mate of yours, it’d be a mate where you’d say ‘He doesn’t say a lot, he’s very cool, but when the shit hits the fan, he pulls it out the bag every time’.
I’d never really thought of the Piccalli like that to be perfectly honest. But it is symptomatic, apparently, of just how well those people that work on the Tube get on with things. So why then did we get a second piece concerning the Tube in the very same evening paper last night?
“Oyster card-holders ‘fined’ £4.60 a time for walking through Paddington station”
This is the story that people going to the Hammersmith & City platforms at Paddington are, for some reason, entering the station using the Praed Street entrance, then having to exit that part of the tube station, walk through the main train shed and up to another set of barriers to enter what is the Bishop’s Road part of the tube. The Oystercard system allows a set amount of time to make that walk, before it then charges you the maximum fare, in this case £4.60p. So, if you dawdle, you’re getting charged. Naturally people are complaining about this, but it occurs to me that there is a simple way around the problem. If you need the Hammersmith & City line at Paddington, don’t go through a barrier at one of the Praed Street entrances. Just walk through the main entrance to Paddington station, where there are no barriers. This is where the staff at the tube station should be showing their helpfulness. Is it beyond the realms of possibility that they could produce signage that could be put up in both the Circle/District and Bakerloo entrances that says “For Hammersmith & City line, please go through the main line station”, making it very clear that you could get charged for swiping in and out and in again. How hard can it be?
Chairman Pip’s Podcast #10
Mark Bright may need a reality check
I was watching the BBC’s Late Kick-Off last night. For those that don’t know, this is a programme that looks at what’s going on with the Football League clubs in your region. My region, for those that weren’t aware, is London and the South-East, and on the London regional programme last night there was an interview with Femi Ilesanmi, a defender who currently plays for Dagenham & Redbridge. Of course you’re all asking to yourselves “where is this going?”. Well, it seems that this young man has just passed his driving test, which means he is no longer tied to using public transport to get from where he lives in South London, to where he works (which, it may surprise you to learn, is in Dagenham). So, the Late Kick-Off crew decided it would be fun, as part of this interview, to focus on his journey to work on a matchday, which involves going from Elephant & Castle to Dagenham East via London Bridge and West Ham. All well and good. Except that all involved (possibly with the exception of the subject of the interview) did seem to be quite smug about the whole “footballer using the Tube” thing, very much in the “this is his last tube journey, he’s freed from travelling with all the plebs” kind of vein – it was certainly unworthy of Mark Bright, former professional footballer and now sports reporter (amongst other things) for BBC London, to guffaw so much at the young pro’s lack of an Oystercard. Why is it so impossible to believe that a footballer should use public transport? Surely if it’s good enough for Thierry Henry, then it’s good enough for Femi Ilesanmi who, let’s be honest, would probably go totally unrecognised on the Tube by anyone who isn’t a Daggers fan. Furthermore, let’s think about cold hard cash. As a professional at a League 2 club who is probably on his first pro contract, I’d imagine our young player is on around £600-£700 per week, which would work out at around £28,000 per year, before tax, which is not a bad wage for a 20 year old. But, let’s consider what it would cost him to run a car in terms of tax, insurance and fuel costs. We know that petrol costs, and the insurance premium for someone of his age would likely be through the roof. As a consequence, even with the ever increasing rail fares that we are all subject to, it would probably work out cheaper for our young pro to spend the £2,000 on an annual Zone 1-5 Travelcard. As for the crack from presenter Dan Walker about the young pro “now being able to avoid the weekend engineering work”, why again should a footballer not be able to work his way around them, as no doubt many other people that work weekends. And finally, from the mouth of the footballing “great” that is Gareth Ainsworth, a comment that in using the Tube, our young pro has to travel “even earlier” to go to training than he does on matchdays. Oh no – he might have to use the Tube at rush hour!!?? The world will end!! People often complain that footballers are divorced from reality. I thought that was only the superstars getting six figure salaries on a weekly basis, and cocooned away from the people that fork out to pay them. Clearly, even journeymen like Gareth Ainsworth are equally divorced from a semblance of reality too, as are those that also comment on the game for Auntie Beeb.
It’s S(Stock)super!!
I made my first, albeit brief, journey on an S Stock train this week, and will say that I was actually fairly impressed. Admittedly I only went from Kings Cross St Pancras to Liverpool Street, and it wasn’t a time of day that meant the train would have been exceptionally busy. But even so, I was pleasantly surprised both by the lovely squishy nature of the seat, which I wasn’t expecting, and the good quality of the ride (which in fairness one should really expect). I actually ended up thinking to myself “Bombardier could be onto a winner here”. This thought was not so obvious as you might think, given that the S Stock is from Bombardier’s Movia product range, as is the 2009 Stock, which I have to say I dislike in the extreme; to say I miss the 1967 Stock is an understatement. How it’s possible to have two broadly similar types that are of such varying quality is difficult to understand. It is admittedly difficult to ascertain just how reliable the S Stock trains are at present, owing to a number of factors:
- They are currently only in use on the Metropolitan Line, which has a number of central termini and operates for large parts of its route with up to four running lines (for stopping and fast services), that allow more scope for diversions in the event of a train failure
- The entire fleet is not yet in service, with A60/62 Stock units to continue in service until sometime in 2012, so reports of train failures could be either one or the other type.
Nevertheless, when I am on the Underground in the morning, and hear the announcements of delays on this line or that line, it is rare that you hear that the Metropolitan Line is delayed due to a train failure, whereas announcements that the Victoria Line has delays because one of their trains has gone kaput are commonplace. And don’t forget that the 2009 Stock is entirely responsible for the Victoria Line now. Perhaps though I am being overly generous to the S Stock. It may yet turn out to be a total lemon whose faults are hidden by the unique nature of the Metropolitan Line. We’ll see what happens when it starts replacing the C69/77 Stock on the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines, which are just a pair of running lines. So if there’s a train failure here, then there will be problems.
S Stock train - based on a single short journey, the new S Stock could prove a winner for Bombardier
Thinking about the introduction of the S Stock, I then gave some consideration to the idea I had about using the A60/62 Stock on the Lymington Branch Line, instead of the solution South West Trains came up with to replace their Class 421s. Except that the A Stock is the widest mainline sized passenger train currently in use anywhere in Great Britain, and thus would be out of gauge. So then I thought about the C69/77 Stock. Until I learned that they are pretty much the same size as the A Stock, and so would also not be able to run. Le sigh. But, that still leaves us with the D78 Stock, which is due to be replaced by 2015, and which Harrogate Council want to use to improve the service on the Harrogate Line. The D78 Stock are not as wide as either the A or C Stock trains, and so could be used without the need to do major work on the infrastructure. So how about SWT making preparations to obtain some D Stock trains alongside Harrogate Council?
Like this:
Does Daryl Morgan provide an essential service?
I’m hoping you all had a nice, relaxed Christmas and New Year, and didn’t have to do anything or go anywhere. Unless you were working. But of course, if you drive a London Underground train, chances are you weren’t working, at least on Boxing Day, because you were all on strike. Now, I’m not going to be debating the merits or otherwise of the Boxing Day sales and such like. The fact of the matter is, for many people, especially in the retail sector, and more especially in London, Boxing Day was a working day, as are most other public holidays in the UK – to the best of my knowledge, the only public holidays where people are encouraged not to work are Good Friday and Christmas Day. So, the question that comes to my mind is, given the number of people that HAD to work on Boxing Day, why is it that Underground drivers only have to volunteer? Indeed, why is it that they only have to volunteer to work (again to the best of my knowledge) on public holidays full stop? I think it is fair to say that the transport network is an essential service; not as essential as the emergency services, but still an essential service. By all means pay people double time for working public holidays, but to me it should be written into T&Cs that transport workers work a certain number of public holidays, and if their name comes up on the rota, tough. A lot of workers aren’t essential – for example, Daryl Morgan told me that she chooses to work at Babestation every New Year’s Eve. That’s admirable of her, and the other Babestation babes that also choose to do so, as well as working Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and the rest. But, much as it pains me to say, they aren’t essential workers providing an essential service, and so it should be up to them if they work on public holidays or not. For tube drivers, as unfair as it may sound, I don’t believe they should have that option. And they certainly shouldn’t hold the city to ransom as they have done the last two years.
Daryl Morgan chose to work on New Year's Eve, but she (unfortunately) doesn't provide an essential service
Like this:
Divorce is hard on everyone
And so, now that the divorce is final, it’s time to try and win the love of the children. What do I mean? Well, as of Friday 16th December, responsibility for operating Nottingham Express Transit (NET) passed from Arrow Light Rail/Nottingham Tram Consortium to a new concern called Tramlink Nottingham. Arrow Light Rail was part owned by Nottingham City Transport (NCT), the city’s municipal bus operator and, as a consequence, combined bus and tram fares were available, including an all-day “Cityrider” (essentially a Travelcard) for unlimited use on NET and NCT buses. However, the new Tramlink Nottingham consortium does not include NCT and so, as a consequence, these combined fares are no longer available. Instead, people that want to use the bus and tram without paying separate fares are being encouraged to purchase a “Kangaroo” card, which is the Travelcard equivilent offered by Nottingham City Council. This is more flexible in that not only does it allow travel on NCT buses and the NET system, but every bus operator within the Greater Nottingham area, the entirity of the tram system, plus trains running solely within Nottingham from any of six stations – Attenborough, Beeston, Bulwell, Carlton, Netherfield and Nottingham. However, now that the divorce between NET and NCT has been made final, we now get the situation where the parent that has lost custody of the children tries to entice the children with nice things to ensure that, even though they may not see them as much, they still prefer that parent. So, NCT have published a leaflet explaining the situation in regards to ticketing that has been posted on their website. This leaflet explains that the combined bus and tram tickets are will no longer be valid after the 31st January 2012, and that anyone who has one of NCT’s Easyrider cards with travel still on it after the 31st January should exchange it for a Kangaroo. However, it also says that using the Kangaroo when it comes up for renewal will be more expensive, with a price comparison between Kangaroo and Easyrider, with the clear implication that you’d be better off buying an Easyrider. Never mind the fact that the Kangaroo gets you on every single bus in Nottingham, while the Easyrider can only get you on NCT routes. But, the leaflet also displays a map showing NCT bus routes that can be used as an alternative to the tram, which are more frequent and more comfortable (allegedly):
With more seats available on the new 68/69 NCT double-deckers, you may find your journey is a more comfortable one! Plus many services are more frequent – every 7/8 minutes compared to the tram running every 10/12 minutes from Bulwell.
With the disconnection of the bus operator and the tram operator, this clearly is a declaration of war on the part of NCT in its bigging up of the comfort (debateable) and frequency of its services as opposed to the tram, as well as the fact that its prices are not changing, and you’d have to pay more if you want to use its buses and the trams. Of course, that doesn’t take into account that the Kangaroo can be used on, amongst other operators, Trent Barton and yourbus, both of which operate significant routes within the city. While obviously as time goes on things will settle down – I mean, you won’t have NCT and NET ticket agents stood next to each other, bashing each other over the head (a la the Metropolitan and Metropolitan District) – it looks like the initial stages of the divorce are going to be harsh and bitter.
The divorce between NCT and NET looks likely to be vicious in its initial stages
Is it any wonder people get ill?
I’ve not been well recently. It’s getting to winter, and that season of colds and flu and whatnot, and that’s what I’ve been lumbered with. Although I think in my case, God is punishing me for taking part in Movember, as this is the second bout of illness I’ve suffered while I have been growing my mo - just prior to my trip to Hull I had stomach problems that led to diahorrea that I am convinced were the result of a chicken sandwich from Tesco. However, setting that aside, I am ill, with all the classic cold virus symptoms. Now, you would have thought, given all the advice over the past few years about viruses, about how they thrive in warm, damp conditions, that people will have taken on board a few things that could help prevent the cold virus taking hold. The problem is, people today are all a bunch of half-arsed weaklings. Today in London it is quite mild for the time of year, in the low teens in celsius. And yet, because it is November, everyone automatically assumes “uh, it’s cold, I have to put my big thick winter coat on”. But that isn’t the worst of it. To get in this morning I travelled on three separate trains – a Class 378, a 1996 Stock and a D78 Stock. Somewhat surprisingly, all three were jam packed (one or two are usually, but it’s rare for all three). On all three, you also had the heating on and, on the trains where windows could be opened, not a single one even cracked. So here you have a warm environment thanks to the crowd of human bodies all close together, which raises the air temperature, surrounded by thick heavy clothing, with the heat on, and no ventilation, combined with people who are already coughing and splutering (like me), and is it any wonder that people end up getting ill? I was literally drenched in sweat by the time I reached South Kensington, and that is an uncomfortable feeling in November. People need to man up about the winter months. And the train operators need to find a way to control the heating on their trains more effectively.
A crammed train, commuters with heavy clothes, and no ventilation, is a recipe for the common cold to spread
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