European Train Booking Is Going Backwards
I am only a simple man, but I do know what computer software can do. And often it’s very complicated and works well!
In this post, I describe how I meandered all the way from East London to Yeovil using several trains. What complicated things was that I wanted to go via Littlehampton to see a Thomas Heatherwick-designed cafe. But I ended up with a complicated route from National Rail’s web site and I bought the tickets without difficulty.
So you’d think that if we navigate round our maze of lines in the South of England, then buying a ticket to most major cities in Europe should be a single transaction.
With Paris and Brussels it’s easy, if you go to the Eurostar web site and you just pick your train, pay your fee and then print the ticket.
I have a friend, who I see regularly, who lives near Lausanne. It’s a seven hour journey with a seventy minute change in Paris, so it’s not a short journey, but buying a ticket on Eurostar is as easy as buying one for Paris. Eurostar’s web site, also tells you how to get across Paris.
It’s pretty easy too, to buy a walk-up ticket for Paris in say Geneva and I’ve done it a couple of times.
As it’s a long journey back to Blighty, I usually give myself a couple of hours in Paris to have a good lunch or dinner before taking the Eurostar home. No-one in London, makes crepes like Cafe Breizh
But basically, getting to and from Switzerland by train, is as easy as going say from London to Inverness.
Let’s suppose that you want to go somewhere closer than Switzerland, like The Hague. Obviously, as Switzerland isn’t in the EU and The Hague is, you’d think that the Dutch capital would be the easier journey to book.
But whereas you can book to most large Swiss cities,you can’t book to The Hague.
A few years back, I booked a Eurostar ticket to Any Dutch Station. But this was discontinued!
Now you have to buy a ticket to Rotterdam and then fight your way through the Dutch ticketing system to get to The Hague. Five years ago it was much better.
Buying tickets to places like Berlin and Munich, is not much better either.
If the French, Belgians and the Swiss can get it right and probably up to the same standard as our system, why can’t Dutch and the Germans? The Dutch were even more integrated five years ago!
I’m sure if the best of the British, French and the Swiss had been put in charge of developing a full system for Europe, you’d be able to login to Eurostar, type in any station in Europe and get given a choice of routes, for you to select one.
No wonder the management of the EU is in such a mess!
Is Virgin Atlantic Closing Little Red?
The Sunday Times is leading the Business section, with an article that is saying that Virgin Atlantic is closing Little Red.
I always thought it was an ambitious plan, especially as the airline doesn’t go to Glasgow. This might seem a mistake, but remember Virgin Trains go to Scotland’s biggest city, where probably most London-bound travellers live.
Incidentally, I have only heard of one person, who has used the airline to get to Scotland and they live near Heathrow.
But after my experience with flying easyJet to Edinburgh, where it took as long as the train, due to security delays, I just wonder if flying to Scotland now, is a second class option to many travellers. As an example, one of my Edinburgh friends, who frequently travels down to London, always seems to use the train.
So you have to have a good reason to fly, such as your company is paying and you get the reward points.
Security delays are obviously a problem at some airports and these could get worse, unless terrorism worries actually reduce our desire for air travel substantially.
But two other factors probably have more effect; Manchester Airport and the trains.
Traffic at Manchester Airport has risen by nearly twenty percent in the last few years and this has been substantially helped by better rail connectivity across the North and to Glasgow.
So why would a Glaswegian spend more money to fly to Heathrow, when he or she can do the total journey quicker, by taking a convenient brand-new First TransPennine train to Manchester Airport and getting his flight from there?
But the trains are so much better at journeys a couple of stops short of a full London to Scotland journey. And how many Scots who live in the Central belt want to go to places other than London like Birmingham, Peterborough or Milton Keynes?
The trains are getting better each year and there seems to be no sign of the pace of the improvement slowing. Station upgrades at Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, Peterborough and Birmingham will be completed and extra paths for more trains will be available, as alternative routes for freight trains become available. The real game-changer will happen at the end of this decade, when in-cab signalling becomes available, allowing the trains to increase maximum speeds from 125 mph to 140 mph.
Presently the fastest London Glasgow trains take four and a half hours, but the improvements could deliver a time around four hours.
As Virgin obviously have all the figures for both train and plane to Scotland, if they are closing Little Red, I suspect it was somewhat of a no-brainer.
One Tax We Don’t Have To Pay
I was reading an article in the Sunday Times about how Germans are leaving churches in droves as they don’t want to pay the church tax. Here’s the jist.
When it comes to a choice between God and mammon, German churchgoers are overwhelmingly choosing mammon.
Hundreds of thousands of citizens have been leaving the German churches every year, appalled by child sex abuse scandals and outrageous spending by clerical fat cats.
It would appear that for the average wage earner, it could be several thousand euros, which all church members pay to their chosen church.
There’s more about the so-called church tax in Wikipedia and I was surprised at how many countries have one. Here’s what Wikipedia says about the tax in Austria.
Church tax is compulsory for Catholics in Austria, with a rate of 1.1%. This tax was introduced by Hitler in 1939. After World War II, the tax was retained in order to keep the Church independent of political powers.
The Sunday Times said that some Catholics in Germany, who don’t pay the tax might be refused a religious burial. How charitable is that, when apparently the Catholic Church in Germany is said in the article to be worth £341bn.
Many of us moan about tax rates, but at least here’s one tax, that we don’t have to pay.
To Live A Long Life Keep Your Waistline At Half Your Height
This is the headline of an article in the Sunday Times reporting on a study from the City University.
I’m 1.71 tall and my waist is about 80 centimetres. Although I have no proof, I think I’m the same size, as when I left Liverpool University in 1968.
So I think I qualify.
But then so did C and our youngest son and both are not here now!
Two personal stories would appear to support the research.
One of my father’s heroes as he saw him box, was the incomparable Ted “Kid” Lewis. The Aldgate Sphinx was probably a similar size naturally to both my father and myself, although towards the end of his boxing career, he fought and won at light-heavyweight. But he lived until he was 75.
I also used to live in Newmarket and knew several retired jockeys well past sixty. Many were still trim and seemed to be pursuing a very active live. Someone should research the health and life of jockeys!
For these reasons, I intend to stay this size for the rest of my life. Especially, as it’s so much cheaper, as I don’t have to keep buying new clothes.
Crossrail Could Have Wi-Fi
This article from the Standard, discusses wi-fi on Crossrail. Here’s the first paragraph.
Commuters will soon be able to use their mobile phones on trains and in tunnels on the new Crossrail rail link under plans being drawn up by TfL.
It won’t be many years before all trains, buses and trams in the UK, have full mobile access. Chiltern have already gone that way, and Virgin Trains are planning a roll-out.
Are English-Based Politicians Making Scots More Likely To Vote Yes?
Reports like this one on the BBC are saying that the Scottish Referendum is swinging towards independence.
There’s an old medical joke told by doctors. – “You can always tell a Barts man, but you can’t tell him anything!”
I suspect that in terms of politics this applies to Scots. After all the voting patterns for Scotland are very different to England in General Elections.
So as the No campaign seems to be based around those who found political fortune in Westminster, does the Yes Campaign have an advantage. Even Alistair Darling represents an Edinburgh constituency, so he must go down well in Glasgow.
So what is the No Campaign doing?
According to reports like this one, they’re sending in their secret weapon – John Prescott.
I have a feeling that this could give the Yes Campaign a winning push!
Liverpool Gets Another Event
This morning Liverpool is hosting the start of the Tour of Britain.
It seems to me, that since being European Capital of Culture in 2008, Liverpool has received more of the large events, than it should have on the law of averages.
Perhaps, it’s just that the City is more efficient in attracting them!
On the other hand the Sea Odyssey of 2012, brought 800,000 people into the centre and had an economic impact of £32million.
So they know that events work.
It’ll be interesting to see the figures for the Tour de Yorkshire in Leeds and Sheffield.
A Tribute To Joan Rivers From The London Overground
This article in the Independent, flags up a tribute to Joan Rivers written on a customer information board at Hackney Wick Overground station.
She had a good innings and I for one, will miss her outstanding brand of humour. The only certain thing, is that someone in the future will come along with something more outrageous.
The Anonymous Widower 