Was The London Mayoral Election A Low Turnout?
When I voted for the Mayor in 2012, I seem to remember that the Polling Station was much more busy.
The BBC has said tonight, that that is their information.
But what do you expect with such a lacklustre collection of candidates?
At previous elections, thee has been party activists outside, but today the street was empty except for a rather nice tabby and white cat.
He didn’t tell me who he was representing. I would guess, it was himself!
Ipswich Town’s title win in 1962 is a bigger underdog tale than Leicester City winning the Premier League
Who said that?
Ray Crawford, who scored thirty-three goals in Ipswich’s title win in 1962, did in this article in the East Anglian Daily Times. Crawford says this.
Town had been in Division Three South when England’s future World Cup-winning manager Sir Alf Ramsey took charge in 1955. There was promotion in ‘57, they were Division Two title winners in ‘61 and top-flight champions the following year. Five players were there throughout the journey.
“Leicester’s is an unbelievable story because it’s come in an era which, sadly, is dominated by money,” said Crawford. “I still think ours was a bigger achievement then theirs though.
“We were a bunch of nobodies who had never been in the top division. Everyone wrote us off. They said we didn’t have enough experience, they said we were lucky to win the Second Division and they said we were favourites to go straight back down. We didn’t have a single international until I was capped (just twice) towards the end of that season.
Ipswich declined after Sir Alf left for England. Under him, Ipswich had played a unique system suited to the players, which is what Sir Alf did to win the World Cup with England. You could argue, that Ranieri has got Leicester to play in a style that suits his players strengths and no other club has really found the answer yet!
I do wonder if Ramsey and Ranieri, who were both defenders, learned their management skills watching from the back, as the forwards wasted chances galore.
As an aside, hoe much would Chelsea or Manchester City pay for a striker, who scored thirty-three goals in a season?
Virgin’s New Train On Test
I took this picture near to Stevenage.
Virgin’s New Train On Test
Virgin’s new Class 800 train is under test.
The Class 365 Trains Are Looking Dated
I travelled to Peterborough on a Class 365 train.
The interior wasn’t in anyway bad condition, but it certainly shows how design has moved on in the last twenty years.
These are pictures of Thameslink’s Class 387 trains, which are a couple of years old.
Design moves on and gets better.
A Good Information Board
I saw this information board at Kings Cross station.
I think the seat on the right, should be by the Tube Map.
But it’s a good attempt!
Leicester Via Oakham And Melton Mowbray
I went to Leicester by taking a train to Peterborough and then took the Cross Country route via Oakham and Melton Mowbray stations.
Note the hot chocolate, which was one of the best I’d had in some time, except for another one on a train a couple of weeks ago.
I went by this route for three reasons.
- I wanted to have a look at the two stations of Oakham and Melton Mowbray, and although nothing special, they both look to be well-maintained provincial stations.
- I wanted to see whether the things I said in The Kettering To Oakham Line were valid.
- I also wondered if you could get a peek of the Welland Viaduct, before the two routes join South of Oakham. I didn’t!
I think that East Midlands Trains will have fun in this area, as electrification of the Midland Main Line starts to be finished.
The St. Pancras Problem
St. Pancras station must be a very inefficient station for East Midlands Trains.
- It has only four platforms, whereas they probably need a couple more.
- These platforms can take ten car trains, like 2+8 HSTs or two five-car Class 222 trains.
- Passenger access to the platforms is chronically bad and usually involves a lot more walking than say at Liverpool Street, Kings Cross or Paddington, where you exit from one end of the train onto a wide concourse.
- Double use of platforms must also be a nightmare for the company and its staff.
- New electric trains will increase the number of passengers wanting to travel.
I wonder how many passengers take trains that stop at Bedford and use Thameslink to go to London. Or perhaps drive to places like Grantham, Newark or Nuneaton and use alternative services.
One way to increase the efficiency of St. Pancras would be to run only full-length trains into the station.
But this would increase the problems of passenger flow, in one of my least favourite stations.
Two bullets will have to be bitten.
- The two escalators linking down from the East Midlands Trains station at St. Pancras, will have to be augmented to at least three and possibly four.
- Lifts must be provided so that passengers with heavy bags can descend to the main concourse and Thameslink, without walking fifty metres in the wrong direction.
To be fair, the station was designed before the trtemendous increase in passengers seen in the last few years.
But the architects knew that Thameslink was getting seventy percent larger and made no provision for proper links between the four sets of rail lines serving the station.
The Ten-Car Train Effects
If East Midlands Trains was only running full length, which will probably be ten-car trains into St. Pancras, it would mean they would have to be acceptable all over their network.
The trains could be two five-cars running as a pair and these could join and divide appropriately to open up new services.
For instance, a train to Nottingham could divide with one section going to Mansfield and the other to Lincoln.
Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield wouldn’t be a problem, but would Corby be able to fill a ten-car train, when as I found on A Trip To Corby, during the day they have difficulties filling a five-car one.
Onward From Corby
The solution is that trains from Corby should go on to Oakham and Melton Mowbray.
The area is seeing a lot of new housebuilding and would probably welcome a direct service to London.
The trains could either go North at Syston Junction to East Midlands Parkway and Sheffield or loop back South to Leicester.
I suspect that East Midlands Trains have their plan to expand their market and that the expansion of Corby station into a full two-platform through station is part of that plan.
Conclusion
Everything is seeing improvement in the East Midlands.
Leicester City Centre
This Google Map shows the relationship between Leicester station and the City Centre.
Leicester Station And The City Centre
The station is in the South-East corner and the big High Cross Shopping Centre and the cathedral are in the North-West corner.
Leicester City’s stadium is off the map to the South-West.
I could just about walk it to the Shopping Centre from the station, but it was at the limit of my range with the faciitis in my right foot.
I took these pictures as I walked between the station and the centre.
If there was a city, that needs a people mover of some sort between the two locations, it is Leicester.
All European cities would run a tram and with the latest technological developments, the tram would now be battery powered as in Seville and soon to be seen in Birmingham. On such a short distance, it doesn’t even have to have rails, but could be a rubber-tyred, double-ended articulated bus. I once saw a concept like this is in a Wrightbus presentation.
I made one big mistake on my visit to Leicester.
I was intending to go to the cathedral and have some lunch, which I did in Carluccio’s in the High Cross Shopping Centre.
As I was hungry, I had the lunch first and found that the shopping centre has been designed, so you have to go back through it to get anywhere.
As I didn’t want to buy anything except lunch, that would have been a pointless exercise.
So after wasting twenty minutes walking in the wrong way, I was running too late to visit the cathedral.
So on your visit to Leicester visit the cathedral first and if you’re in a hurry and want something to eat afterwards, don’t go in the shopping centre.
A properly-designed people mover going from the station to the pedestriansed central are and on to the cathedral would not only solve my problem, but it would surely attract a lot more visitors to the city to visit the cathedral and Kind Richard.
The one thing that a people-mover in Leicester, doesn’t have to be, is a fully-fledged tram with overhead wires. That is so nineteenth century for short routes in city centres.
Get it right in Leicester and I can think of several other towns and cities, that could use such a system.
The Anonymous Widower 