Is Vince Cable Pitching For Luddite Of The Year?
I’ve just heard Vince Cable on the radio saying that he will endeavour to get Lloyds to not close the last branch in a town.
I’ve afraid traditional banking is dead. For most people and companies, cheques are no more, branches have no purpose and everything is on the Internet.
If people don’t want to go that way, then I suspect that someone will accommodate them At a price!
People always go on about how would small shops bank their cash. Here in London, they banned cash on buses and although the usual Luddites had their say, nobody seems to bother now!
The Trains Going North
Today, I went from East Croydon to Luton and then on to Bedford in two Class 319 electric trains.
They were originally going to be fully refurbished, but now according to Wikipedia, the refurbishment will be more basic.
The cascaded trains will get a more basic refurbishment than previously proposed, which will include a new Passenger Information system, LED lighting, new seat covers and an internal and external repaint.
It will be interesting to see the trains in Lancashire. Certainly, the ones I rode today had a poor passenger information system and too much awful pink paint.
But the plus point is like all Mark 3-derived trains, they rode smoothly and quickly through the countryside, at speeds approaching their maximum of 100 mph.
GTR Create A Crisis Out Of A Little Local Difficulty
My Plan was simple. I intended to take a train down the East London Line to South Norwood and from there walk across the platform to hop one stop to East Croydon. At East Croydon, the idea was then to get a Thameslink Class 319 to Luton and Bedford, taking pictures along the route.
I should have known there were problems at Dalston Junction, as staff didn’t know where trains were to be routed. In the end my West Croydon train, which had been prematurely turned at the station, was sent off to Crystal Palace.
I spent about fifteen minutes at New Cross Gate changing from my train to a following West Croydon one. It sped to South Norwood, where I waited to try to get some pictures of the passengers crossing between southbound Overground and Southern trains.
The wait was in vain and I didn’t get my pictures and in the end took a train to East Croydon to get Thameslink.
At East Croydon, chaos was in full flow, with trains arriving randomly in opposite directions on the same platforms, and after nearly an hour, I managed to squeeze onto an extremely crowded Bedford train.
Eventually, the crush in the train eased and I got to Luton and Bedford in a Class 319 train.
The problem had all been caused by a serious signal fault at Clapham Junction. These happen, but it was GTR‘s response to the problem that failed so badly.
When I was waiting at South Norwood, there were no staff on the southbound platform and no information about what was going on.
At East Croydon, information was again minimal, but it probably didn’t help that the station is in the middle of a rebuilding.
GTR must get their act together.
Reading between the lines in this section on East Croydon station from Wikipedia, it seems that GTR aren’t the only ones, where East Croydon station is concerned.
The Anonymous Widower 