Mr Hammond will reportedly deliver a speech on the cuts that are about to be imposed on the railway. Hopefully some of the other speakers at the conference will take the opportunity to school him about basic railway principles, including why trains get priority at level crossings.
Of course, you can only go so far with cuts, and it looks like the railways will need to find the money somewhere else. As is often the case, the long-suffering passenger will pay: the newspapers are full of warnings of steep fare rises.
It’s fair to complain about the amount of taxpayers money being swallowed up by the railways, but I’m annoyed that no-one ever mentions reforming the insane mess that is the privatised railway system. Privatisation promised a new era of efficiency; instead we got endless red tape and bureaucracy. A lot of the taxpayer’s money is being used to fund the profits of the private companies, rather than being invested in services.
But any meaningful reform seems to have been filed under “too hard”, so instead the government will screw the passengers and allow the gravy train to roll on. Nobody will benefit in the long run, except perhaps those with shares in Stagecoach, FirstGroup and Arriva.
Friday morning, and time to prepare to head home. There was time for one last indulgence, however. My train wasn’t until lunchtime, so we had a couple of hours free: just time for Nuno and I to take a spin round the Glasgow Subway. I dropped my suitcase at Glasgow Central’s left luggage office — where the world’s most bored-looking attendant asked me sleepily if I had explosives in the case — and headed for the underground.
No messing about with complicated prices here, just a simple £1.20 single fare to any station.
The subway originally opened in 1896. Although refurbished in the 1970s, it has never been expanded beyond its original circular route, and doesn’t completely fulfil the transport needs of modern Glasgow. There is only one direct interchange with National Rail (at Partick) and many important parts of the city are not served.
On Thursday it was time to say goodbye to Knoydart and head back to Glasgow. We boarded the morning ferry at Inverie Ferry Terminal (a fancy name for a small hut containing a bench and a toilet).
The boat deposited us safely back in Mallaig just before 12 o’clock, and we immediately headed back to the station to work out our plan of action. Our goal: secure a place on the Jacobite steam train to Fort William. We had tried to book tickets online but had been told they were all sold out. The web site did offer a slim ray of hope, however: some tickets are sold on the day by the train crew. I therefore wanted to meet the train as it arrived from its inward journey.
We had about half an hour before the train was due, so I took the opportunity to have a look around, as our rushed connection on Monday afternoon had left no time to explore. I was pleasantly surprised that Mallaig station, despite only serving five trains a day, had a fully fledged station building with toilets and a staffed ticket office.
I was just relieved to have shelter from the rain, which was coming down rather heavily at this point. While Nuno hunted for somewhere to leave our luggage, I sat observing as the lone ticket clerk dealt patiently with a procession of foreign tourists who needed to get to London (impossible unless they stayed somewhere overnight or had sleeper tickets, as they couldn’t reach Glasgow before 9pm, well after the last London train would have left).
I wasn’t the only one making use of the station facilities, as some seagulls had decided to nest on the track! The rails they were using appeared to be disused, thankfully.
We were up bright and early on Monday morning to head for Glasgow’s other main station, Queen Street. This is the starting point for services to the North, including the long and winding route to Mallaig. Armed with a bottle of Irn-Bru for refreshment (made in Scotland from girders… and E-numbers), we boarded a well-appointed ScotRail Super Sprinter and settled in to our table seat for the 5 hour, 2 minute journey ahead.
DB have been quietly building a small empire in the UK public transport world, and they’re not the only one. Abellio, part of Dutch state rail operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen, own a 50% stake of Merseyrail and Northern Rail. Meanwhile, French operator SNCF, via its Keolis subsidiary, is a partner in the Transpennine Express franchise. Keolis also hold a minority stake in Govia who operate three rail franchises.
Turns out Britain’s railways are being nationalised — it’s just different nations who are in charge.
Or as close to it as you can get, anyway. This late 80s advert for British Rail was usually only broadcast in a 60-second edited version. On a couple of special occasions, however, the full length two-and-a-half minute version was wheeled out, and here it is:-
On a related topic, thanks to the amazing staff at Merseyrail, who pulled out all the stops to keep their trains running, even running empty trains through the night to keep the lines clear of ice. The end result was that, except for a few minor delays and cancellations, the trains have been running normally, even on Tuesday afternoon when there was a near-whiteout for a time. The Liverpool Echo, not known for its love of the railways, had to grudgingly recognise the achievement. Let me just add to the praise: you guys are AWESOME (Merseyrail, not the Liverpool Echo)!
As the trains were running I had no excuse not to be in work, but on Wednesday morning the pavements in the city centre were like glass. I was wearing the least practical shoes imaginable and had barely set foot outside Central station before I slipped and landed on my bum. It wasn’t even a dignified fall: there was much flailing of arms and feet before I eventually toppled over. Still, it seemed to amuse the man on the corner who was giving out Metros.
Was this year an exciting way to say goodbye to the decade? Here’s a reminder of what happened on planet Hampo this year (part 2, hopefully, follows tomorrow):-
January started out with one of my favourite shows being revived. Despite being up against EastEnders and being hosted by Ben Shepherd, the Krypton Factor did well enough to be recommissioned for a second series. We found out Who would replace David Tennant, and a year later we still haven’t actually seen him in the role. ITV’s latest attempt to ape the success of Doctor Who was Demons which failed spectacularly; the only creative thing about it being the number of different excuses the writers found for Christian Cooke to remove clothing.
Britain’s railway system has something of a reputation for bureaucracy and inefficiency. Sometimes it’s well-earned, but other times it really comes through.
Some background: many bridges in Cumbria have been destroyed or rendered unsafe following the severe flooding of the past few days. Particularly badly affected is Workington, where the town has been effectively sliced in two by the loss of all the road and pedestrian bridges crossing the River Derwent.
The only bridge still open is the bridge carrying the Cumbrian Coast Railway. The only problem is that Workington has only one station and the next stop on the other side of the river is four miles away.
Yet again Liverpool trails behind its fellow city. Manchester gets everything, we’re left behind…
Oh wait, this is a survey of the worst stations in the country. I can’t really argue with Central‘s placement on the list: when you’re forced to push your way past throngs of people on a platform that’s just too narrow, it’s the worst possible advert for Merseyrail that there could be.
The amazingly-named Lord Adonis is on a whistle-stop tour of the top ten today, visiting Liverpool Central to open the new MtoGo shop there. This being the era of Web 2.0 and all that, he is blogging about his day on the Department for Transport web site. I look forward to reading his thoughts.
I like the National Rail site. As well as the regular stuff about timetables and fares, there’s a glorious hodgepodge of miscellaneous trivia about the rail network.
Now they’ve gone even better, with Stations Made Easy. It’s an amazing site which contains maps and plans of railway stations. Not just major stations, mind you, but seemingly EVERY station on the network (although Stanlow and Thornton station, located within the Shell oil refinery near Ellesmere Port, is missing).
Even better, hover your mouse over each part of the plan and you get photos and information of every section.
It’s like Google Earth for trainspotters and a fantastic resource for anyone visiting a station for the first time, or even just the terminally curious. Some stations are not particularly photogenic, however.
My favourite one so far is Edale, where there’s a dusting of snow on the platforms.
I’ve got something to put in you… it’s a Railcard, Railcard, Railcard
On Saturday I travelled to Hillside for the Friends of the 502 Group AGM taking place nearby. It was a happy occasion filled with positive vibes, but for me it was tinged with sadness because it was the last time I would ever use my 16-25 Railcard.
I squeezed every last drop out of it by renewing it the day before my 26th birthday to get an extra year out of it. Still, all good things must come to an end, so it’s time to put this badly faded bit of thermal-printed card in my memory box (note to self: get memory box) and resign myself to paying full fare on the trains from now on. Unless I enrol as a mature student, which is unlikely to happen (I’m not mature, for one thing).
Goodbye old friend, I’ll miss you. Although I certainly won’t miss this dreadful picture of chubby teenaged me:
Londoners are up in arms about the new Tube map which has been redrawn to make it “less cluttered”. On that count it succeeds completely, largely thanks to tidying up the East London Line and getting rid of the little red dagger symbols that were sprinkled everywhere. Here’s a sample of before and after for you:-
The big change that has upset everyone is that the River Thames has disappeared. If it were a geographically accurate map this would be important, but it isn’t. As BBC blogger Mark Easton points out, the Tube map is designed for people who already know which station they’re going to and just need a simple diagram to know which lines to use. You don’t need to know where the river is for that.
So I think the new map is a huge improvement. It’s certainly better than the now permanently broken Merseyrail map, which after recent revisions has achieved the near impossible and made a simple network appear complicated.
Enjoy the new Tube map while you can, because Boris, with his keen eye for a bandwagon, has ordered the changes reversed.
