A Pointless Strike
The London Underground strike is totally pointless as it is trying to protect booking office staff, who because of the new ticketing systems, have little to do anyway.
Boris hohnson said this.
We need to take account of the fact that some ticket offices are now selling fewer than 10 tickets an hour. We need to liberate staff to get out on to the platforms and concourses where they can be of most use to the travelling public.
I’m afraid that this won’t be the last strike, where new technology is threatening to get rid of jobs or redeploy people.
A Date in My Diary
Last night, the BBC repeated the program about the Coventry Blitz. It reminded me that I shall be going to see Ipswich at Coventry on New Year’s Day. I shall of course visit both cathedrals.
I was talking to an Italian tourist at that I met at Mallaig about other places to go in the UK and I suggested Coventry. He mentioned that the verb to coventrate, or lay waste by areial bombing, is now incorporated into the Italian language.
Street Sculpture in Ipswich
I have always liked street sculpture and feel it is something that brings art to everybody, or in the case of Minsk in Belarus to the people. There are some of the Belarus street statues on this page. I must add to this page, as I have lots of photos from when I visited the city to support England.
Ipswich has some good street sculptues or statues, which tend to be on the popular side of culture. Here’s the Giles family in the Buttermarket.
The Giles Family, Ipswich
It was erected as a tribute to the cartoonist Carl Giles, who lived in the town. Does any other cartoonist have a statue of his famous characters? Or do they have the street named after them?
You might think a statue of cartoon characters is unusual, but the other two popular statues in the town are those of Sir Bobby Robson and Sir Alf Ramsey. Can any other town boast two statues to their football managers, but none to any of their footballers? I doubt it!
Here’s Sir Alf, on the touchline for the World Cup victory in 1966.
Statue of Sir Alf Ramsey, Ipswich
And then there is Sir Bobby in a much more animated pose.
Statue of Sir Bobby Robson, Ipswich
There is also a sculpture trail for Ipswich. Is Ipswich unique in not having any full-size statues of military or royal and often obscure figures in the town centre? There is only one statue of a prince in the town and he was Russian. But Alexander Obolensky is not rememberedso much for being a prince as for scoring one of the greatest tries in the history of rugby.
Three Hours in Ipswich
One of the things I hope to encourage with this blog is internal tourism in the UK. So as I was early and wanted to see a new art gallery in the town, I decided to have a little walk around the centre of the town.
It is actually very compact and sits between the River Orwell and the railway on one side and Christchurch Mansion and Park to the North.
I started by walking from Ipswich Rail Station over the River Orwell and past Portman Road football ground into the town centre. Ipswich Town’s ground must be one of the nearest grounds to a rail station outside of the major conurbations.
My first visit after checking if Marks had something I wanted, (Which they didn’t incidentally!) was to go to the old Ipswich Art School, which has now been turned into an art gallery. The first exhibition is a loan of work from the Saatchi Gallery.
It was very much worth visiting, but as it was the sort of modern art, that I don’t like, I almost got the impression it was a lovely building wrapped around some unlovely art! I hall go again, for the next exhibition!
It was then a short walk up the hill to Christchurch Park, which is a traditional formal park of the sort you get all over the United Kingdom.
Christchurch Park, Ipswich
I ate my packed lunch in the sun, looking out at the War Memorial.
The War Memorial, Christchurch Park, Ipswich
Why is it war memorials always have phrases like “Our Glorious Dead”? Death is never glorious! It’s just an awful waste and a what might have been!
There is also another smaller war memorial in the park. And that is one to the men of Suffolk, who died in the Boer War.
Boer War Memorial, Christchurch Park, Ipswich
I then moved on to Christchurch Mansion, which is effectively inside the Park.
Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich
Strangely, deespite living in the area for many years, I’d only been over the mansion once and that was when I attended a black-tie dinner there in the 1990s.
But I made a mistake and I should have gone more.
For a start there is the house and gardens, but then there is the art gallery with a dozen paintings by both John Constable and Thomas Gainsborough.
These though are not the famous paintings we’ve all seen in National Galleries all over the world, but often earlier ones that they painted locally as they were starting out on their careers. As an example, there is a touching portrait by Constable of his mother, Ann.
For that reason alone, they are worth the walk up from the town centre to Christchurch Mansion.
I then walked back down to the town centre, which has as more old shops, than any other towns I know. It is perhaps a pity that most of the shops as is comon throughout the UK, are national chains. But that is a problem all over the UK.
Ipswich Town Centre
The picture shows the Great White Horse, with its Dickensian connections.
The jewl in the crown of Ipswich dhops is the Gade One Listed, Ancient House.
The Ancient House, Ipswich
It must surely be the most unusual branch of Lakeland!
After walking back along the Buttermarket, I was virtually back where i started and it was a short walk down Princes Street and through an underpass or over a crossing and I was back at Portman Road. The route took me past another Grade One Listed Building, but one that is very diferent to the ancient House. this is Lord Foster’s first important building, the Willis Faber Building.
The Willis Faber Building, Ipswich
Note how the building opposite are reflected in the glass. This is now probably the most famous building in Ipswich, as every time Lord Foster is mentioned, they always show some footage.
The walk with a couple of detours had been easy and had taken me two hours, so if you’d decided to have lunch somewhere, you’d have filled the three hours. On a nice day as Saturday was, I wouldn’t eat in the town centre, but I’d get a picnic in Marks or one of the other shops and eat it in Christchurch Park or outside the Mansion. Judging by what I saw, many people were doing just that.
The next time, I am in Ipswich and the weather is good, I’ll walk round the town centre and visit the ten Grade One listed Buildings in the town centre. That is not bad for a town, which has featured heavily in Crap Towns.
The Damned United
In common with many other men of my age, I am not a fan of Leeds United or the Damned United as they were called in David Peace‘s novel, The Damned Utd
So it was with trepidation, that I took the train to Ipswich this morning to see Town play this afternoon. They haven’t been playing too well lately and I felt that a draw was the best we could hope for.
I also went early and this gave me three hours in the town before the match.
Jointed Track in the Highlands
As the train journeyed from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh, I noticed a sound that I hadn’t heard for years; the clickety-clack of traditional jointed rail, as opposed to the much-more-normal continuously welded rail, which is virtually standard in the UK. It’s generally considered to be safer too!
Traditional Jointed Rail at Kyle of Lochalsh
This photograph confirmed the rails.
I suspect that it could be that the cost of continuously welded rail isn’t justified on such a branch or it just might be some other reason of accessibility or distance.
But it was nice to here the sound again on a main line train.
A Train for the Highlands
We have a rolling stock crisis in the UK, with not enough of the right kinds of trains. One manifestation is that we’re still using obsolete Pacers, as I found on my way to Scunthorpe.
Between Inverness and Kyle of Lochlash and between Mallaig and Fort William, the trains were not in bad condition, but they were too small and overcrowded, as I suspect they are on many branch lines and especially those to places worth a visit, like say Great Yarmouth.
Alan Williams in his column in Modern Railways, says that there are surplus diesel locomtives in good condition and quite a few rakes of Mk. 3 coaches. He advocates using these to replace the Pacers. I wouldn’t, but would use them to replace the trains I rode in Scotland and other scenic and other lines to release fairly modern units to kill off the Pacers.
If you take the Scottish Highland routes, they could be developed into a tourist attraction in their own right. How about?
- Wi-fi evetywhere.
- Perhaps a Dining/Buffet Car in Summer. Aren’t there some Mk 3 ones about?
- At seat trolley service.
- Low density seating.
- Wide windows for the view. What would Health and Safety say?
- Bicycle racks
Reflections on My Journey to Scotland
In my Modern Railways for October, which I bought in Doncaster, there was an heretic article by Chris Stokes, asking if we really needed HS2 or the High Speed Line to the North, which would go to just Birmingham at first. He described it as a vanity project.
Twelve months ago, I was a sceptic on whether we needed a High Speed Line to the North, mainly because I didn’t think it would do anything for anybody in East Anglia where I lived. If I needed to get to the North, I wanted a fast line from somewhere I could drive to easily like Peterborough.
But when it was announced that the route would be to Birmingham in the last days of the disastrous NuLabor experiment, I warmed to it a bit, although I did think it needed to go via Heathrow. I also thought very much that it was a Nimby’s charter.
But Chris’s article has now turned me back to very much a sceptic. Competition being what it is, his argument, that unless you virtually close down the West Coast and Chiltern Birmingham services, no-one will pay a premium to go from London to the Midland’s premier city. My son incidentally always goes by Virgin and has never thought about using Chiltern, as Euston is on the same Underground Line as where he lives.
Chris also argues, that the amount of First Class traffic will decrease due to austerity, good housekeeping and modern technology removing the need to travel. Some years ago, I installed a Management Information System in a company, which was web-friendly and even allowed the computer-phobic CEO to find out how the company was doing from any computer in the world. But also, the modern traveller will become First Class smart and book it when and where they need it. So if you think there is a premium market that saves a few minutes, forget it!
Put simply, a lawyer say going to Birmingham from London for the day, will choose his route and class dependent on what is best for his needs. Hopefully, when I move to London, it will be in walking distance of Canonbury. Who’s to say that in 2015, someone isn’t running an express to say Milton Keynes, Coventry and Birmingham from Stratford and East London on the North London Line and possibly the Primrose Hill Tunnel?
So what will happen to lines to the North, if we don’t build HS2 on schedule? We’ll get the usual whining, we always get when the investment is cut, but let’s look at the reality of what will happen!
We now have two good and pretty reliable and fast train lines from London to the North of England and Scotland. I was told on my trip to to Inverness that it should be possible to be some minutes under four hours from Edinburgh to London. This compares with a fastest journey now of about four hours twenty minutes, although Operation Peppercorn is aiming for the magic four hours flat for the fastest trains with a stop at Newcastle. Glasgow to London by comparison is now about four hours and twenty minutes. Many of my Scottish friends say this is fast enough to mean they won’t bother to fly to London, as airport checks and delays are getting worse and they can use phones and laptops on the trains.
If there is a problem with the two stiles of a possible ladder reaching up the United Kingdom, is that some of the interfaces to other lines are poor. But the basics and some of the rungs of the ladder are already in place.
There are a succession of large stations on both lines, such as Peterborough, Crewe, Doncaster, York and Newcastle, which can be developed into easy change stations to other places. As I said earlier, Doncaster isn’t bad and I think Peterborough is going to be developed and hopefully linked to the nearby shopping centre, but a lot of work needs to be done.
As I rode out of Edinburgh towards Inverness, I was impressed to see that electrification has started to link Edinburgh and Glasgow. As it is trains now run every fifteen minutes and most take just fifty to link Scotland’s two capitals. I suspect that this will become a very important link between the two fast lines, not only because of level cross-platform interchange from the South to local trains, but also because full electrification would allow fast direct trains from Glasgow to York and Edinburgh to Liverpool. Taking the first journey, my road atlas estimates that at four hours ten minutes, which compares with about four hours by train now with two changes and two different companies. I estimate that something like a Pendelino could do this journey direct with perhaps just a stop at Newcastle in about three hours fofty-five minutes. Who would back against, Peppercorn 2, squeezing more minutes out of the East Coast Line.
A similar situation could exist between Newcastle, York and Doncaster in the East and Manchester, Liverpool and Preston in the West, by expanding and electrifying the TransPennine network. Edinburgh to Sheffield is a journey that uses either a direct diesel service or a change to TranPennine at Newcastle. If TransPennine was a level change at Newcastle from one fast electric to another, there would be a much better service.
London too has a strong link across, although as I said Euston is not a welcoming station, but when you’ve got three world-class stations in Kings Cross, St. Pancras and Euston, as you will have, an innovative transport solution along Euston Road could surely be achieved. For a start let’s have a proper walking route a hundred metres or so north of Euston Road, with cafes and shops. But I’m certain that people should be encouraged to take the Metropolitan Line rather than the Victoria or Northern. Perhaps we need a moving walkway! Euston is supposed to be being developed and also be a terminal for HS2. If the latter does happen, there will be a lot of grief and opposition in that area of London. That development, whether it incorporates HS2 or not, will divert rail passengers to other routes, such as Chiltern for Birmingham and East Coast for Scotland.
There is also another link that might be brought into use, especially if Euston has to be partially closed to traffic, whilst it is rebuilt. That is the link to Manchester out of St. Pancras, which was used reasonably successfully as Operation Rio during the West Coast Main Line upgrade. I’ve always argued that this should have stayed in place, as it interfaces well with the A14 at Wellingborough for those going from East Anglia to the North Midlands,Sheffield and ultimately Manchester.
So what’s missing?
As I found going to Scunthorpe, it’s not what’s missing in this case, but what’s still here; Pacers. All of these links to the two stiles of the ladder must be upgraded to the standard of the diesel trains, I used in Scotland. And where possible, they should link easily to the fast services. I think that this will happen, but in some ways it depends on a strong electrification program to release suitable diesel units.
The real problem though is the lack of a full East-West route between say Peterborough and Birmingham or perhaps Milton Keynes and Stevenage or Cambridge. The Peterborough to Nuneaton route is being upgraded for frieght and passenger trains between the two towns take seventy-five minutes. So it would look like that route could be another rung in the ladder. The other route is the possible Oxford-Cambridge Line, which could be built, if funds were made avaialable.
I believe strongly that the two route ladder offers advantages over just building a speculative line from South to North, which would cost several times the amount needed to build the two route ladder.
For example, as electrification progresses, subsidiary lines like Birmingham to Bristol could be further improved, so that more and more people had less than two hour access to the main network. More rungs could be opened up, by any company that feel there was a niche to be filled.
So should HS2 be built? I think that one day it might be built, so we must safeguard the route, so that at some future date it could be added as another part of the network.
If Beeching made one big mistake it was not in making sure that abandoned rail lines were able to be rebuilt. How many lines hastily abandoned in the 1960s are needed now? But perhaps it would mean knocking down a hundred or so houses and a Tesco’s!
Trains Uncoupling and Coupling at Cambridge
Unusually, my connection out of Cambridge to Newmarket was late, so I had to wait about ten minutes before I moved on.
Whilst I waited, my train from King’s Cross split into two, with the first part going on to Kings Lynn and the remainder waiting patiently at the platform in Cambridge. A couple of minutes later an incoming train from Kings Lynn attached itself to the coaches in the station. Everything was quick and easy, just as it had been, when I’d seen trains do similar things at Crewe.
To some this might seem pointless, as why don’t the longer trains run all the way, but I suspect the procedures get the appropriate number of seats in trains. Surely, if it is done as professionally as I have seen, then it is a way of getting the capacity right and saving fuel to everybody’s advantage.
The Anonymous Widower 