A Walk Around Las Palmas
I took a long walk in the sun to up my vitamin D levels.
Las Palmas is a typical Spanish city, like say Bilbao, Barcelona or Valencia, with the added feature of one of the best beaches in Europe.
Swimming Pool Panorama
I took these pictures from the rooftop swimming pool of the hotel.
At least I got some time sitting in the sun.
Leaving From Southend Airport
It’s a long time, that I did some of my flying training at Southend Airport.
I flew from the airport to Las Palmas, as it was only flight I could get on the Sunday, that had seats.
Southend Airport, must be one of the few with a lawn outside the terminal where passengers can waste time before going through the gate or people can wait for a passenger.
I couldn’t use the station, which is only about a hundred metres from the gate, as being Sunday, it was a bus on part of the way to London because of Crossrail work.
So I used Southend Central station and got a lift with a couple of Dutchmen.
Exploring The Historic Centre Of Las Palmas
I took a 30 bus from the port to the bus station at San Telmo and walked to the cathedral and back.
There is a lot to see as the pictures show.
Does Sheffield Get The Public Transport It Needs?
I ask this question, as I spent a day in Sheffield yesterday, watching Ipswich play Sheffield Wednesday. These are some observations.
The London Sheffield Train Service
In the 1960s and before, Sheffield had a higher priority than it does now in the Government’s rail policy.
One of the flagship services was the Master Cutler going into Kings Cross.
I can remember this train with an iconic Class 55 locomotive on the front, speeding through Oakleigh Park station.
The service between London and Sheffield station isn’t bad, but to put it mildly, the First Class isn’t first class compared to say, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle.
Yesterday on my trips up and down, not as much as a cup of coffee was offered. Perhaps more importantly, tickets weren’t checked coming back to London. Wi-fi wasn’t working on the way up, but I didn’t check it, as I generally don’t use it, as logging in on some services generates spam.
The other big problem with all services out of St. Pancras, is that their are no late trains back to the capital, whichy must encourage people to drive.
Two developments should improve the service to London.
- Electrification, which surely must see a time around two hours to London.
- The new East Midland Franchise.
If the second has the same affect, as the new East Anglian Franchise did, we should see serious improvements.
Sheffield needs at least three trains-per-hour (tph) to and from London and the South. In my view this is the minimum frequency for a journey that could be two hours or under from London. Manchester and Norwich have or will have it, so why not all cities and major centres between these two sizes?
One of the problems of increasing the frequency from 2 tph or even lengthening trains, is my Aunt Sally or that Fur Coat And No Knickers Station of St. Pancras.
So something radical will have to be done by the new Franchise, as increasing services out of St. Pancras will need some clever train scheduling.
Sheffield’s Non-Standard Tram System
The Sheffield tram seems to work, but if they were being designed today, they would be very different, as would be the Manchester Metrolink.
- The Siemens-Duewag Supertram are to a special design to cope with gradients.
- The trams are only 40% low-floor.
- The trams are long, to avoid running in multiple.
- There is a lot more street running, than other systems.
This all means that expanding the system will be difficult and expensive.
On my trip yesterday, I encountered some problems.
- The trams were very crowded.
- There was a long delay because someone had parked on a double-yellow line blocking the tram tracks.
- The frequency is not high enough.
Some problems would be solved in say Manchester and other tram systems in the UK, would be solved by just ordering more trams. I suspect that because of the non-standard nature of the system, and the obselete tram design, that this is not possible, at an affordable cost.
Sheffield’s solution is to add a new route to Rotherham using Class 399 tram-trains. They will also order some extra vehicles to improve frequencies on the existing network.
Progress has been slow to say the least, and I can’t help thinking that designers of CAF, who have produced the excellent Urbos 3 trams for Edinburgh and the Midland Metro, couldn’t have rearranged some of their solutions to provide extra trams to improve the current Sheffield network.
At some point the original trams will need to be replaced and the tram-train might provide a solution for this, but surely a 100% low-floor tram designed especially for Sheffield’s non-standard network, could be a more affordable solution.
Progress On The Tram-Train
I took a walk along the River Don and this must be the slowest railway project in the UK. That says something, considering we’ve got some real dogs out there.
Tram-train services to Rotherham are supposed to start in 2017.
There is still a lot to do.
Trams To Hillsborough Stadium
The Hillsborough Disaster happened on the fifteenth of April 1989 and the Sheffield Supertram opened on the 21st March 1994.
As one of the causes of the Hillsborough disaster was traffic problems on the M62 from Liverpool, surely you’d think that the design of the Supertram would have been arraqnged so that supporters could get to the stadium eaqsier.
But not a jot of it, as I suppose that the powers that be, decided that lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice.
This Google Map shows Hillsborough Stadium.
Hillsborough Stadium And The Supertram
The Supertram has a stop at the top of Leppings Lane, which is ideal for the Visitors end.
The tram route runs on the North-South road at the West of the map.
This Google Map shows the area of the Leppings Lane tram stop.
Leppings Lane Tram Stop
It doesn’t seem to be the most difficult project to improve the access to the Supertram at this stop.
Given Sheffield Wednesday’s new owners, it is not inconceivable that the club ends up in the Premier League.
From my experience yesterdsy, the current arrangements would be difficult, so something creative needs to be done.
Getting between the station and Hillsborough is not easy, as a change of tram is needed.
Leppings Lane is only one stop from the end of the line at Middlewood. Surely, on match days, one simple solution would be to run trams direct to the station from Middlewood.
But the restricted number of trams probably makes this impossible.
Conclusion
Sheffield’s public transport network needs improvement.
Widowhood Is A Lonely Dark Club
And a dark club, that no-one asked if you wanted to join.
After forty years of a generally happy and vibrant relation, especially when it came like a thunderbolt from nowhere, makes it no easier.
It is lonely, but I do have the freedom to do what I want.
I could just throw my clothes on the floor each night and live on beer and baked beans. Which I don’t!
Today, I’m off to see Ipswich lose at Sheffield Wedneswday.
I’m then off tomorrow for four days in the Canaries! Nothing to do with Norfolk!
But both trips will be alone!
Surely, there must be widow, out there who feels like I do!
Could The Brexit Ruling Be Beneficial To All?
This article on the BBC is entitled PM urged to calm the backlash against Brexit ruling.
It is all getting very nasty out there.
The judges were asked for their opinion and they gave it.
Some reaction is like that of a heavy smoker, who has just asked his doctor, if smoking will cause lung cancer and he hasn’t liked the reply.
I am by training a Control Engineer, who in his time has modelled very complex systems.
I can remember a couple of difficult problems, where to find a working solution, some form of delay had to be introduced.
After that, everything was hunky-dory!
The biggest effect of the Brexit ruling, will be to introduce a delay in the calling of Article 50, which will now hang like a Sword of Damacles over everybody, be they a politician, captain of industry or just an ordinary Jack or Jill like me.
So as Doctor Johnson said about hanging concentrating the mind, could we see the ultimate British solution; a compromise?
Thank the Devil for lawyers!
What Would Happen If Trump Made It To The White House?
The Times yesterday tried to answer this question in an analysis.
Introduction
- Donald Trump has changed parties five times.
- He would be the first commander-in-chief with no experience in office or at the top of the military.
- He says he’s his own best adviser on foreign policy.
- He as campaigned as the ultimate political outsider.
Day 1
- He has vowed to erase the Obama presidency.
- He would withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.
- He would suspend a scheme that brings Syrian refugees to the US.
- He could task officials with drafting trade cases against China.
- He would go to a terrific inauguration ball.
The First 100 Days
- He would drain the Washington sump.
- He could restrict White House officials becoming corporate lobbyists after leaving.
- He could introduce term limits for members of Congress.
- He could cancel all payments to the UN climate change programme.
- He would begin interviewing candidates for the upreme Court, a decision, that could shape issues like abortion and gun control for thirty years.
- He has said he would give top jobs to generals.
- He will face resistance in Congress.
- The wall with Mexico will be designed.
- An immigration ban on some countries would be in place.
- Plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act would be in place.
More
A lot more is said on the wall, taxes, Syria, NATO, trade, Obamacare and immigration.
Read the article!
Conclusion
I doubt, I’ll ever go anywhere near the United States again.
What Are They Doing With Auntie?
I took these pictures around the old BBC Television Centre in White City.
Everybody must have their favourite image of the site from years ago.
I particularly remember an episode of Michael Bentine‘s It’s A Square World, where they flooded the building, using some superb special effects and lots of real water. I think that section started with Bentine interviewing Jack Hawkins and talking about making wartime naval dramas, with a big screen showing the sea, which then burst out of the screen. According to Wikipedia, he also sent the building into space.
But then Bentine was a unique comic genius.
Why Not Hydrogen-Powered Trains?
I regularly use the London bus route RV1 which runs along the South Bank between Tower Gateway and Covent Garden.
This article on the Rail Engineer web site is entitled And now Hydrogen Power – Alstom’s new fuel cell powered train.
The article is worth reading and gives a good review of what might be possible with a hydrogen-powered train.
I have a couple of reservations about hydrogen-powered vehicles.
- In the late 1960s, I worked at ICI Plastics. The Division had had a serious accident with a polythene plant a couple of years previously and there was a distinct lack of enthusiasm for highly-compressed flasmmable gases, that I share to this day.
- I also feel that, if the technology is so good, why aren’t all city buses and taxis hydrogen-powered?
Hydrogen could be the fuel of the future, but we’re possibly nowhere near its time.
This is an extract from the article.
The efficiency of the system relies on the storage of energy in the lithium-ion batteries. Fuel cells tend to work at their best if they are run continuously at reasonably constant performance. The battery stores energy from the fuel cell when not needed for traction and from regenerative braking when the train’s motors turn kinetic energy into electrical energy. In short, the batteries store the energy not immediately required, in order to supply it later, as needed.
So wouldn’t it be better to have a decent charging system for the batteries?
- Overhead electric
- Protected third rail electric
- Small diesel engine.
A system appropriate to the location could be used.
The Anonymous Widower 