Robert Hampton

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14th August 2014

Consultation Station
Posted by at 9.03pm | Trains | 2 responses

Do you travel by train in the north of England? Specifically, the Northern Rail or Transpennine Express franchises?

Both franchises are up for renewal in 2016, and the Department for Transport is seeking views from “stakeholders” on the future of the service. The consultation document (PDF file) sets out the Government’s view.

The good news:

6.12 We are not considering line or station closures within this review of the franchise design.

However, there are lots of other ideas discussed, some of which are slightly worrying. It’s no secret that the Northern franchise attracts a huge subsidy, and “efficiency” is the watchword to try and drive costs down. Fare rises, ticket office closures and reductions in lightly-used services could be on the cards.

On a more positive note, the document also mentions the possibility of changes to TPE’s Scottish services and maybe bringing back a direct Liverpool-Scotland service. This would be a big improvement on the current situation where connections from Liverpool to anywhere north of Preston are quite poor.

We are also asked for views on which services, in particular, are underperforming and could be improved. If you think Teesside Airport deserves a train every 10 minutes, now is the time to speak up!

Of course, the cynical view is that the DfT have already made up their minds, and this is a sham consultation before they rubber-stamp the changes. But the opportunity is there to make your views heard.

You have until 18th August to make your views known. The future of your local railway station could be at stake, so view the consultation document and find out how to respond on the Department for Transport web site.

This whole post is without prejudice to my strongly-held view that the best structure for Britain’s railways is a state-owned not-for-profit organisation running services with the best interests of passengers and taxpayers at heart.

Northern Rail

30th June 2014

Geordieland Champion
Posted by at 7.57pm | Out and About | No responses

As is traditional, here is my end-of-trip tidying up report.

Transpennine 1st Class

Transpennine Express

I travelled to Newcastle and back on the new direct service from Liverpool which commenced on 12th May. I say “new”, it’s actually a reintroduction of a regular service which used to run until the timetable was rejigged a few years ago, diverting most services to Scarborough.

For once, the Transpennine Express is worthy of the name. This trip is FAST – the end to end journey time is just a shade over 3 hours, and the time from Liverpool to Manchester Victoria is just 32 minutes, non-stop. We hurtled through St Helens at 80mph – always the best way to experience St Helens.

In a fit of extravagance, I had booked First Class tickets. As I slumped into my extra-wide seat, the friendly First Class host approached me to offer a drink and a pastry. We hadn’t even left Lime Street. Thumbs up for attentiveness there!

He came around again after Manchester, offering further snacks – embarrassing for me as I still had my previous croissant on the table. He appeared again after Leeds, and York. He came around again for a final patrol at Chester-Le-Street, just 12 minutes before reaching the final terminus.

Maybe I was lucky to get a good train crew, but I was very happy to be plied with snacks for the length of the trip.

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28th September 2013

Homeward

Train at InvernessLeaving Inverness behind, Ian and I set off for home. By extreme good fortune, although we had booked our train tickets separately, the seat reservation system had allocated us seats facing each other across a table. I was glad we had reservations, for the train was busy and became more crowded the further south we travelled.

A variety of personalities all jostled for space. I noticed a teenager wearing iPod earphones, who was turfed out of his seat on three separate occasions during the journey, when the person who had reserved it turned up to claim it. Immediately behind Ian, an American couple had settled in for the long journey to Edinburgh. The wife was reading a tabloid magazine, picking out stories of interest and loudly discussing them with her husband. We heard her opinions on Prince Charles (how could he pick Camilla over Lady Di?) and Simon Cowell (his new baby is a surrogate, like Neil Patrick Harris). Her husband, meanwhile, buried his head in a book called “Whiskeypedia”. By the end of our journey, Ian and I had our eye-rolls perfectly synchronised.

The automatic announcer on the train kept getting out of step with the station stops. For some reason, this seemed to amuse a group of people sitting at a table further down the carriage. Every time it announced the wrong station, gales of laughter were heard.

This train was also notable for the frankly alarming sign in the lavatory. Basically, don’t use this toilet if you have any genital piercings.

warning-magnets

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4th August 2008

Blogs, trains and no automobiles
Posted by at 1.13pm | Trains | No responses

Apologies for not being around recently. You could be forgiven for thinking, after recent posts, that I have given up on the blog. That’s not the case. In fact, I think I’ve finally got my blog redesign to a point where I can put it online. I’ve been working on it for over a year and have not been satisfied, but on Saturday afternoon I made a few changes to the colour scheme and it all clicked. There’s a few other things to sort out, and then I’ll put it up. Are you excited yet? No? Oh.

On Wednesday I debuted my manbag in public. I had to go to York with various items in tow, and it made sense to put everything in a bag rather than try and stuff it all into my sweaty trouser pockets. Unfortunately my paranoia kicked in. I placed said bag on the floor beneath my train seat, but was afraid to let go of it completely for fear that I would forget it when leaving the train. I also felt the need to constantly check it to make sure my mobile phone, railcard and sundry items were all present and correct. How do women manage all the time?

The journey was, regrettably, not hassle-free. Thanks to TransPennine Express’s refusal to call at Liverpool South Parkway, I had to change from Merseyrail onto a local stopping train to Warrington and pick up the express there. I queried TPE about LSP (I love TLAs) a while back and was told in no uncertain terms that they had no plans to “operate to, from or via” this station. Bloody daft, considering the trains have to slow to a crawl through LSP to take the junction towards Hunts Cross and therefore actually stopping would make little difference, but there you go.

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