An Unusual Picture
I have cut this picture out of Google Earth of the railway north-west of Chorley.
Sixteen Butresses
There would appear to be sixteen buttresses over the twin track railway.
They are actually some of the last examples of flying arches on UK railways. There’s more about the Chorley Flying Arches here.
I’m posting this, as the line through Chorley has just reopened after the related Chorley Tunnel has been expanded to allow for electrification. That is reported here on Modern Railways. It says this about the arches.
As well as upgrading the tunnel, the 16 historic Chorley flying arches – Grade II listed structures on the approach to the tunnel which are the only remaining examples on the British rail network – were refurbished following co-operation and consultation with English Heritage.
On the 22nd of this month, I’m going to see Ipswich play at Wigan. I think, I’ll go and look at these unique structures.
How many countries would actually restore te arches, rather than replace them with modern steel structures?
Thomas Heatherwick Goes Global
Thomas Heatherwick is going on a tour of the US and Asia, to show his iconic designs to the world.
He may leave a legacy of designs, but his biggest legacy, will be that he has shown how if architects, designers and engineers think outside conventional norms, you create the wonder factor and inspire others to do the same. Hence we all get a better world.
If we take the design of Thomas and his company, that I know best, the New Routemaster, every time you use one, you notice something that is different to and better than most current buses. Yesterday, as I got off after travelling home from the Angel, I realised that the walk to the centre exit was all clean lines and hand-holds in the right places, with no messy strap-hangers out-of-reach of short people and children, that seem to be an omnipresent feature of all other buses.
That is good design, and would Londoners accept a new bus without things like a totally-flat floor and well-positioned hand holds in the future?
The Orange Tickets Fight On
It’s the first time, that I’ve noticed it, but this orange rail ticket, I bought at Kings Cross on Saturday has one of those square bar codes.
The Orange Tickets Fight On
As you can see it wasn’t used by any ticket inspector to get to Rutland, as one used a Mark 1 pen and the other some stamp.
It just shows how the original ticket was such a good design from 1986.
I suspect that the basic design of the ticket will outlive me, by a good few years.
Peterborough Station’s Litter Bins
I came across these bins, when I changed trains at Peterborough.
What a wonderful example of simple, good design.
If this doesn’t nudge people to put their rubbish in the right bag then nothing will.
Match Five – Derby 1 – Ipswich 1
Derby is one of the easier grounds to get to from the excellent rail station, in that it’s just about a walk of about ten minutes.
Today though, I went via Oakham to have lunch with a friend, so I had to change trains twice at Peterborough and Leicester. Both changes were the ones that should be avoided, where you have to climb up one set of steps and then down to another platform. There were lifts, but in some places on the rail network, we’re seeing reorganising, that mean the up and downs are minimised. We need more innovative thinking.
Oakham is a small simple station, with a pub and brewery attached, so it’s a good place to meet for business or pleasure.
Oakham Station
The picture shows the station from the footbridge. In the distance you can just see the infamous level crossing, that is a pain to people living in the town. The signal box there was used as a model for the Airfix kit.
After an excellent lunch at the Finches near Oakham, I arrived a few minutes late at Derby and thought I’d buy my return ticket before the match.
£141 – You Must Be Joking!
This was the only ticket offered by East Midlands Trains. A First Anytime Single at £141.
For Ipswich fans, the match was overshadowed by the news that David McGoldrick is leaving for Leicester. If he had played, the result might have been different as a couple of chances missed in the second half, were possibly the sort, he wouldn’t have missed.
But if Mick McCarthy has got the reported eight million for McGoldrick, then turning round the player’s career and getting half a season out of him for Town, has been good business for all concerned. Let’s hope Mick can resurrect Conor Sammon‘s career in the same way.
The match was enlivened by the debut of Ted Bishop, who after a quiet first half, started to create trouble for Derby in the second half. In dealing with him in one instance, Derby gave away the free kick that led to Ipswich’s equaliser. One shot from distance and another he had when he came on as a substitute at Crawley, show that he might have some serious talent in the future as a scorer from midfield, in the manner of Matt Holland. In some ways, the shot today, was reminiscent of some from Ipswich’s legend Ted Phillips, who I saw score several goals in the early 1960s.
When Bishop tired, he was replaced by Alex Henshall, who showed he could torment the Derby defence.
So two youngsters with a combined age of 38, showed the Ipswich fans, that this season might not be in the dire mould of some of recent memory.
I eventually got home with a ticket that cost £42.90, which was just forty pence more than their on-line price and £2.70 more than the sum of my two tickets to get to Derby. But why don’t East Midlands Trains make their ticket machines easier to use. The trouble was that I tried to buy a ticket via EMTrains, rather than Any Permitted Route on the machine. But as East Midland Trains was the operator I needed for London, surely my choice was logical.
Incidentally, on the train to London, I sat with a Derby fan, who said that for Tuesday night matches he reluctantly had to drive, as there is no late London-bound train after the match.
I don’t find East Midlands Trains good value and avoid them, if I possibly can.
Forward Thinking In Liverpool
As a Londoner, I have always been fascinated with the City’s transport system. I have watched it develop and grow for over sixty years, from the days of trams and trolley buses through the classic Routemaster buses and the birth of the Victoria Line to the present day. London always seemed to have some sort of plan, even if sometimes some of them like the Bakerloo Line extension to Camberwell don’t get implemented and some like bendy buses were a mistake. In some ways one of the best parts of London’s transport system, that has grown over these years has been its coherent and understandable non-electronic information system, which is second to none in the world.
When I first went to Liverpool in the 1960s, the local train system was old and decaying and although the buses were generally younger than most of London’s, the only way to find how to get to different parts of the city, was find out your bus route before you started. It was the same in London in those days, but now generally turn up at any bus stop, train or Underground station in the capital and want to go a particular tube station and you can easily find the route.
Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and most of our large cities, still have public transport systems that are fairly incomprehensible to a visitor, who perhaps just wants to get to the hospital to see their Auntie Gladys.
I have never seen something as basic as a decent pedestrian or bus route map at a bus stop outside of the capital.
Could London’s obvious superiority in this area and others in particular, be down to London having an overall transport body, whose origins go back almost a hundred years? Part of Transport for London’s genes say that you must make the best of what you’ve got and that all design must be top class, even if you can’t afford the best architects and designers.
Most conurbations outside London don’t have overall transport bodies with such a heritage. They also often seem to allow the train and bus companies to go off in their own directions, rather than one that is best for everyone.
As an example, ask any visitor to London, how many bus companies there are. They will probably say one. Which is not true as there are several, who each run a number of routes to the same rigid standards laid down by Transport for London. How many areas outside London have a joined-up transport system?
Merseyside is slightly different, in that many of the local rail routes are run under the name of Merseyrail, in much the same way as the London Overground. It is system that seems to serve the city and its visitors well.
I was pleased to see on Global Rail News, that Liverpool is developing a thirty year rail plan. Here’s the first part.
The Liverpool City Region has worked with Network Rail to draw up a 30-year plan to improve passenger and freight rail links.
The Long Term Rail Strategy outlines 12 high-priority rail projects for the city and surrounding area designed to improve both suburban and intercity rail services.
Are other cities so forward thinking? I shall get hold of their plan and explore it.
What’s The Opposite Of Mushroom Management?
Mushroom management is an old concept, that is a big joke in the dictionary of bad project management. It even has a Wikipedia article, which gives this short description.
keep them in the dark, feed them bullshit, watch them grow
I have on the whole not really suffered from this type of management, as I’ve been managed by some good people.
So it was with great interest that I found this document on the Transport for London web site.
It is a progress report on the various capacity improvements on the London Overground.
It certainly isn’t a document to keep everybody in the dark.
It even gives the phone number and e-mail address of the guy who is in charge of the projects.
We need more fully accessible documents like this one for public projects.
There Are Some Honest People In This World
A couple of months ago, I lost my little ticket folder, which contains a credit card, my Freedom Pass and Senior Railcard on a 38 bus.
Imagine my surprise today when I got an e-mail from someone claiming to be at the Transport for London, that they had found it and would I go to Baker Street to collect something.
Could this be my little folder?
It was and it cost me just four pounds to get it back.
I only actually need the folder, as I’ve replaced all the cards.
Is Whitechapel Station Going To Be A Jewel In The East?
When I wrote about Crossrail as a tourist attraction, I said nothing about the station at Whitechapel.
I probably didn’t as although I use the station regularly, you don’t see much as you pass through except for hoardings with lots of graphics, pictures and information. When I went through last time, I took these pictures.
It shows the construction going on over the two north-south Overground platforms. Crossrail will run east-west about forty metres down. Note how the Underground is on top of the Overground.
I was told by a man in an orange suit, that there will be a bridge over the Overground platforms connecting it all together. Escalators to Crossrail will be going down from between the two Underground platforms, where the blue crane is now situated. The space between the Underground platforms will then be filled in to create a wide island platform with the two lines on either side. It will be an easy step-free interchange from Crossrail to the Underground.
There are some detailed architect’s impressions of the new station here. The page also says this.
The new Whitechapel Crossrail station will use the existing Whitechapel Road entrance to the Whitechapel London Underground and London Overground station.
The Crossrail platforms will be in deep tunnels to the north of the existing station but they will all share a concourse, ticket hall, gateline and station operations room, leading to a fully integrated station that provides an easy step-free interchange between the Crossrail, Hammersmith and City, District and Overground lines.
Transport for London’s, Transport Infrastructure Plan for 2050, states that at some point twenty-four trains per hour will run through this section of the Overground in both directions.
This matches the Crossrail and Thameslink frequencies, so once all these lines are complete, London will have gained a high-frequency H-shaped railway, where journeys like Luton, Brighton or Peterborough to Crystal Palace or Walthamstow might be accomplished using two easy step-free changes. In fact, the biggest problem after 2019 about travel in London, will be choosing which of two or three equally fast and convenient routes is best for you.
Travel is going to be fun!
I suspect Whitechapel might be my entry into Crossrail and Thameslink. I’ll just walk to Dalston Junction, take a four stop journey to Whitechapel and then fan out to the myriad destinations, that can be reached directly from there.
A Good Score Draw For The Overground’s Ticket Machines
I wrote here about how I bought my ticket to Reading using the machine at Dalston Junction, rather than on the Internet.
Yesterday at about 17:00, I bought my ticket for Ipswich, that I used today.
And I paid the same price, as I would have done on the Internet.
But I didn’t have to go through the rigmarole of entering an 8-character code to get my tickets.
So I think the machine got a good score draw today.
The Anonymous Widower 