The Edinburgh Trams Finally Arrive
One of the reasons to go to Edinburgh was to see the new trams.
The trams themselves are impressive and are the first I’ve seen with leather seats. Incidentally according to this Wikipedia article, the Edinburgh tram is a special design and unlike any others.
The trams, like many Lothian buses are being fitted with wi-fi, which is something I’d like to see on all public transport.
But I think that the design of the system shows a few shortcomings.
Edinburgh is a World Heritage Site, so why didn’t they use battery or catenary-free technology, through the historic centre, as is done in Bordeaux, Nice and Seville. Incidentally the Seville trams were built by the same manufacturer as those in Edinburgh; CAF. It therefore seems even more surprising that Edinburgh doesn’t use the same technology in the city centre, especially as in addition to not using intrusive and ugly catenary, according to some technical articles, I’ve read they are cheaper to install in heritage areas, as no posts or attachments on buildings are needed.
Even the most patriotic of Scots, will admit that it rains in their country. The ticket machines, like they are in many places I’ve been, are out in the open and buying a ticket without an umbrella wasn’t an easy process. All it needed was to make the shelters a little bit longer, as one of the pictures shows.
The ticketing is something that doesn’t take advantage of modern technology. These days, you shouldn’t need to buy a ticket, as you don’t on London’s buses, where if you haven’t got a ticket or an Oyster, you can use a contactless bank or credit card. I hope Edinburgh has plans to allow these cards, as visitors will demand this, as it gets implimemted in more places across the world.
I also felt the ticketing zones weren’t visitor friendly. You can buy one day tickets, but why don’t they do what I found in one European city and offer twenty-four hour tickets. This helps people who might fly into Edinburgh for business or a concert and then fly back out the next day. Charging people for two separate tickets will just upset visitors.
The tram also failed my map and information standards by a long way. Edinburgh has virtually no maps and surely there should be one on every tram stop.
HS2 Must Be Right As The C of E Opposes It
This report in the Telegraph and praying that HS2 will be halted. Here’s the first paragraph.
The Church of England has announced its opposition to HS2 – saying the high speed rail line will desecrate graves and shatter peace
This to me proves HS2 must be a good thing as the C of E’s idea of progress seems very much to go in a backwards direction.
Should Network Rail Manage More Stations?
This post was suggested by this article pointed to by Global Rail News, which says that Network Rail is going to take more stations directly under their control. Here’s the first two paragraphs.
Newcastle and York are to become Network Rail-managed stations from the start of the new East Coast franchise in 2015.
The main line stations will join Reading and Bristol Temple Meads, which Network Rail took over on April 1, under a new management model designed to improve long-term planning for the UK’s railway stations.
So what stations do Network Rail actually manage? There is a list of the nineteen stations, they current manage on on their web site.
Living in London, I use a lot of Network Rail managed stations, as all London terminals except for Blackfriars are managed by the company. The signs are consistent and even when the station is only used by one train operating company, like Liverpool Street or Waterloo, the national signs are dominant! As they should be! So a visitor to London, unfamiliar with where they are going, should find navigating around stations easy. Some large Continental stations could do a lot worse than mimic the signs at Euston, Waterloo or Kings Cross.
Generally, I think Network Rail gets it right. They also have a policy of getting better and often healthier food outlets into stations. Stations like Waterloo, Kings Cross, St. Pancras and Manchester Piccadilly have benefited from this policy. I have too, in that in the last couple of seasons, when I went to football at Blackburn, Burnley or Blackpool, I have sometimes arranged one journey with a change at Piccadilly, so I could have lunch or supper.
As someone, who hasn’t even managed a whelk stall, surely if one company manages a lot of stations, then good ideas filter across the group.
I wouldn’t call for all stations to be directly managed, as the vast proportion of smaller ones deal with one company. But even here, they should follow Network Rail’s policy on signs and possibly architecture and station furniture. In the case of the latter, I’ve seen some truly inappropriate designs. To be fair to Network Rail, they have produced this design guide and they are currently responsible for leading the Access for All.
So after Newcastle and York, what other stations, should they manage?
In the article from Global Rail News, one of the comments suggests that Clapham Junction station be directly managed.
The station has been improved and is managed by South West Trains, but used in addition by Southern and London Overground. The station needs further improvement and with Southern becoming part of the new Thameslink franchise, there will be three big beats using the station, which will be managed by a competitor.
It strikes me that there needs to be a policeman sitting about the corporate fights that will break out in one of the UK’s busiest stations. Network Rail are the obvious candidate.
There are other busy stations like Clapham Junction, which could probably need someone to sort out problems, caused by the station manager being the dominant train operating company in the station. In this class, I would name Peterborough, Preston, Derby, Nottingham, Sheffield and Wolverhampton.
And then there’s Cardiff.
Surely, if Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverly are managed by Network Rail, Cardiff Central must have string claims, even though it’s in Wales. But the Scots don’t seem to have problems over their two Network Rail managed stations.
I think by the end ofthis decade, more of the larger stations will be under Network Rail’s umbrella.
The Other Side Of Healthcare
According to reports like this, the new boss of the NHS is going to create more smaller community hospitals. Here’s the first few paragraphs
Smaller community hospitals should play a bigger role especially in the care of older patients, the new head of the NHS in England has said.
In an interview in the Daily Telegraph, Simon Stevens signalled a marked change in policy by calling for a shift away from big centralised hospitals.
The health service chief executive said there needed to be new models of care built around smaller local hospitals.
I think there is something, which is just as important, that he doesn’t seem to mention.
That is that all hospitals should be easy to access from most of their catchment area.
When I lived in Suffolk, the only way to get to the excellent local hospital at Addenbrooke’s in Cambridge, was either by a private car or taxi. It certainly couldn’t be done by public transport.
Where I live now, I only have to walk round the corner about fifty metres and every ten or fifteen minutes, there is a 30 bus direct to University College Hospital. The other local hospitals; Royal London, Barts and Homerton are also easy by public transport. I could even get the 30 bus to Harley Street for a private consultation.
But not everybody is so lucky and many hospitals are downright difficult or even impossible to access by public transport. Two hospitals in Suffolk; Ipswich and Bury \St. Edmunds come to mind.
Fixing this problem, will not only help patients, but make it easier for visitors without their own private transport to get to the hospitals.
Hopefully good public transport to hospitals, may also ease parking problems for staff and visitors and hopefully cut down the number of patients who miss their appointments.
Deptford Station Is Almost Finished
In April 2012, I went to see the new Deptford station and I reported on it here. Today after seeing HMS Bulwark I walked along the Thames to the station to get a train to London Bridge station.
It shouldn’t be long before Deptford has a station of which it can be proud.
Innovations In Diesel Locomotives
All across Europe there is a shortage of locomotives to pull both freight and passenger trains. In some ways this may well be good news, as it could be said that the economies of some countries are at last picking up.
In the UK, there have been orders for the new Class 68 to pull both freight and passenger trains and for some more of the ubiquitous Class 66. As the latter class doesn’t meet the current emission standards, the order for the Class 66 will probably be the last for the type. In my view that is a good thing, as I’ve talked to drivers and although the engines are reliable, the working environment could be better. They also aren’t popular with some residents, who live near busy freight routes, as they aren’t the quietest.
So in the UK, we’ve seen a scraping around for motive power, and this partly explains, why some elderly engines, like the Class 20, I saw a couple of days ago, are still working.
But we have also ordered some new Class 88, which are an electric engine, with an on-board diesel engine, so are capable of going all over the network. So for say Felixstowe to Manchester via the routes through London, could be done without changing the engine en route.
I also found another interesting idea on the web yesterday. This article in Global Rail News describes the delivery of a new TRAXX locomotive in Germany. What is unique about the TRAXX P160 DE is that instead of one large diesel engine, it has four smaller ones. So the power can be adjusted to the load, therefore using less fuel and creating much less noise.
This technique has been used on some diesel multiple units like the Class 185 used by Trans Pennine. On their hilly routes, some parts need more power than others, so these trains have an eco-mode.
Over the next few years, we will see a lot more serious developments with respect to more power, better fuel economy and less noise.
Why We Should Improve Train Lines
I’m biased and love trains and other forms of public transport.
But everybody should read this document, which describes how and why a group wants to upgrade all the train services in the Lea Valley.
It details various solutions and the benefits they will bring.
It is also a report that has been listened to!
Lea Bridge station is being reopened and the London Overground, is taking over the Lea Valley lines.
The report is also full of innovative and sensible suggestions about how to improve the area for work, rest and play. Typical is the idea to create a footpath and cycleway to Northumberland Park station across the Lea Valley.
If the Overground can do for the Lea Valley lines, what it has done for other parts of London, it’ll be a good start.
Lea Bridge Station From The Train
After travelling round the Walthamstow Reservoirs, I continued on the train to Stratford. I took these pictures, as the train passed the disused Lea Bridge station, which is going to be reopened.
There ewas no sign of any work going on.
Is Heathrow Connect Worth Keeping?
Today, I’ve gone to Heathrow using Heathrow Connect, ostensibly to take the pictures of the new Stockley Viaduct on the way in and the way out.
There seemed to be very few people going the whole way in either direction and at a price of £13.05 for the round trip with a Senior Railcard, it’s not cheap. But then if you went from Paddington to Heathrow by Underground, it’s only probably about twenty minutes slower.
Quite a few people were using the intermediate stations like Ealing Broadway and Hayes, but as these would not be on special expensive Heathrow prices, I suspect that they are not very profitable for the company.
When Crossrail is completed in 2019, Heathrow Connect is going to be dropped anyway as the new railway will call at all Heathrow Connect stations.
One thing I didn’t like about it was the lengthy underground walks to the station from Terminal 1.
I hope Crossrail will be improving the interchange to the terminals, when it opens. But then Crossrail will not be serving Terminal 5 and a change of train will be required.
How customer-friendly is that?
As Terminal 5 is exclusively British Airways, they must be splitting blood.
The Viaduct At Stockley Coming From Heathrow
I took these pictures coming back.
Such an impressive structure, is one of those that can’t be photographed too many times.
Note that coming back around midday the Heathrow Connect train was almost empty until it pickedup passengers in the Ealing area.
The Anonymous Widower 