The Fifteen Billion Pound Railway
I’ve just watched the latest episode of the BBC documentary on Crossrail call the Fifteen Billion Pound Railway.
Part of this episode told a history of tunneling through the last fifty years, through old film and the eyes of one of the tunnellers, who’s been digging for fifty years, starting with manual methods on the Victoria line.
It is fascinating to see how techniques have improved even over the last couple of decades.
Just as with North Sea Oil exploration, where projects got easier, as cranes got bigger, it looks like tunnelling will get easier, as tunnel boring machines get bigger, more powerful and better designed.
So when they build Crossrail 2 will it be a quick and more financially efficient project? Having spoken to some of the planners of the project on Friday at Dalston Library, I suspect it will be. Especially, as they are cutting out one of the Hackney stations to save a billion and moving one terminus from Alexandra Park to New Southgate stations.
The lessons learned on Crossrail will also effect HS2, where I suspect we’l see even more tunnels, in the final design.
Which Idiot Obscured The Clock?
I was in St. Pancras recently and someone has put pointless stained glass in front of the clock.
Which Idiot Obscured The Clock?
I suppose it’s art, but for those of us who don’t wear watches it’s a big annoyance.
The Back Passage At Kings Cross St. Pancras
A new passage has opened up on Kings Boulevard, which lets you by-pass the crowds going to and from Granary Square, by linking you directly to the subway that goes under Pancras Road
it is certainly magnitudes better than some subways on the Underground.
The Glasgow KISS Games
The Scots are known for their thrift and they certainly seemed to have used the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid) to produce an affordable opening ceremony last night.
The only extravagance would have been the amazing video screen, but that was probably hired through Sports Technology in Sussex, so we’ll see that and others like it, at events in the future.
The costumes and props for the show weren’t on the level of extravagance we’ve seen lately at some Games.
And it would appear that the only problem with the dogs was finding enough of them!
But the KISS principle has also been applied to the venues.
In a way holding the opening ceremony in Celtic Park by the athlete’s village was following what was done in London, where the athlete’s village was with all the main venues. This meant that athletes could enjoy the ceremony and then go to bed at a reasonable hour for competing today. We shouldn’t have games, where the athletes are some way from the venues. Both Glasgow and London have sufficient transport to cope for athletes and spectators.
But surely the masterstroke is building a combined sports hall and velodrome, with the facilities between the two arenas. You must get a hell of a lot more useable space for your money.
This one will be copied ad nauseum, all over the world.
The Scotties Steal The Show
It is generally reported in the media, that the Scotties stole the Opening Ceremony of Glasgow 2014. Look at what the Aussies said for example.
But it would appear, that finding enough dogs might have been a problem, as according to this article, they had to bring in Archie from Ringwood in England.
Perhaps they should have shared the duties around and perhaps got in a corgi for the Welsh team to add a touch of humour near the end.
Queen Elizabeth would have been amused!
It will be interesting to see if sales of Black and White whisky increase.
A Scot Gives His Reason To Say No!
On BBC Television this morning, a proud Scot said that he enjoyed the ceremony last night. For him, one of the uplifting moments was the Red Arrows.
He stated that if the Scots vote Yes, then there could be no more displays north of the border. See where their displays for 2014 are here. Two and last night’s performance are in Scotland.
I Wonder What The Duke Thought Of It!
Glasgow has got past the first hurdle, by opening the Commonwealth Games without any obvious hitches.
It will be interesting to see how the Duke of Edinburgh rates the ceremony amongst the dross, he has watched in his lifetime.
I would rate it fairly high up the scale, but Glasgow had two big advantages over say the Olympics in Beijing or Athens.
All the proceedings were done in a language that we and most of the spectators understand perfectly.
But perhaps more importantly, Glasgow had one of the first uses of a 96m. wide video screen, which meant instead of training masses of drummers, dancers and musicians, you just set some good programmers and video editors to work to weave some magic. You then prayed that you didn’t get a blue screen of death like Beijing did in 2008.
Perhaps it was just to save money on costumes and performers, but Glasgow kept it simple and colourful. Which worked!
But will Rio do the same for the 2016 Olympics? I hope so.
They’ll certainly use the screen or perhaps two! Without doubt it was impressive technology.
Redesigning The Ugly
There are lots of everyday common blots on the landscape, that are just downright ugly.
Take the electricity pylon. In all my years of travelling, I’ve never seen any that could be described as beautiful. If we didn’t want them to spoil the landscape, we’d bury them, as happens in most towns and cities.
However, there was a competition a few years ago with a £5,000 prize to find a better pylon. It’s all described in this report.
I’ve not seen any better ones yet!
So now it is time for the designers to look at the overhead lines used on railway lines. The thoughts and ideas are detailed here.
How many everyday objects can be improved by better design and materials?
Liverpool Gets The Puppets Out Again
In 2012, Liverpool staged the Sea Odyssey: Giant Spectacular to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.
On Friday, they’re staging another giant puppet show to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Great War. It’s reported here in the Liverpool Echo.
I wish I could go, but I’ve got to be here for my builders on Friday, which would be the best day.
You may question, if a free show like this is a good idea, as surely it costs a lot to setup. This is what Wikipedia said about the financial benefits of the Sea Odyssey.
An independent report into the impact of Sea Odyssey concluded it was the most successful event in Liverpool’s history. The report showed that 800,000 people took part in the event, which resulted in an economic impact of £32 million.
So it would appear that spectacular events are a good idea financially.
How much did Leeds, Cambridge and London benefit from the Tour de France? And after the Commonwealth Games, how many people having a holiday in Edinburgh, will now take the trip across to Glasgow?
What odds will I get on the French puppeteers turning up in Liverpool again in a few years time. Perhaps they’ll bring a puppet of Red Rum to the Grand National!
What Will A Reopened March And Wisbech Railway Mean?
It was mentioned in the blog on Rail News, that a study will look at the reopening of the route from March through Wisbech.
The main reason is that it will allow freight trains between Felixstowe and the North to totally bypass the East Coast Main Line by using the upgraded GNGE.
But will it create better opportunities for passenger services around East Anglia and the Fens?
Getting between Ipswich, Norwich and Cambridge and the North of England and Scotland is not easy, as it means a slow train across East Anglia to Peterborough or a long detour via London.
As an example, going from Ipswich to Manchester takes over four hours and routing is via London. I know a lot of keen Ipswich fans use that route to get to away matches, as the cross country routes are totally inadequate and very crowded.
In a few years time, the TransPennine routes will be electrified, so to get to Liverpool and Manchester from Ipswich, it might be quicker to travel via Doncaster, perhaps changing at Peterborough.
Opening up the route from March to the GNGE would allow direct passenger trains from Ipswich and Norwich to go via Ely and Lincoln to Doncaster.
Lincoln is getting better connections to Nottingham according to the blog in Rail News, so these direct trains might give East Anglia better connections to the East Midlands as well.
But of course, all of this thinking is pie-in-the-sky, as where is the money for shiny new trains?
On the other hand, there might be a glut of hand-me-down InterCity 125s from the Great Western and East Coast Main Lines, as they get replaced by Class 800/801 trains.
So will we see these trains working cross country routes and giving much needed extra capacity out of East Anglia and the Fens?
It’ll be a bit like your mini-cab company saying we couldn’t send the new Nissan, so we sent this immaculate 1970s Jaguar instead. Although the lines wouldn’t be high speed ones, they wouldn’t be slow and mountainous ones, like those through the North of Scotland, where these trains show how good they are.
Repening the line through Wisbech could be unlocking a real box of delights for the East.
The Anonymous Widower 