London Buses To Go Cashless
It’s been announced that from this summer, London buses will go cashless.
Since Transport for London announced their consultation in August last year, there has been little discussion anywhere on the proposal in the media. Which makes me think, that most users of London buses are not bothered at all.
I’m very much in favour, as often my bus is delayed as groups of young people are using cash. Strangely, I’ve never seen anyone my side of forty, buying a ticket recently. They all seem to use either Oyster or a Freedom Pass. Could it be that most younger people only use buses as a last resort and many actually haven’t, as they always use their cars or have been driven around by their family?
Madness At Hackney Wick
This story is beyond belief. Here’s the first bit.
A young woman was in a serious condition in hospital today after leaping on to a freight train in London and being burnt by live overhead cables.
The 22-year-old sparked an explosion by touching the 25,000-volt wires and was thrown 20ft on to the platform where her friends had stood watching, the London Evening Standard reported.
The only good news is that she wasn’t killed. It probably shows that if say the 25,000 volt cables are dragged down in an accident, you might just about get away with being hit. But I certainly wouldn’t recommend any experiments.
The Invisible Busway
I used to see the odd local news story about the Luton Dunstable Busway, when I lived in Suffolk, but it does seem to be rather invisible on the web. It does have a rather poor website, which doesn’t seem to be updated regularly, but information in Wikipedia is very limited. It’s just a section in Transport in Luton, under Current Developments. It does say that it opened in September 2013.
The only news story I can find is this one about low usage on the BBC.
Passenger numbers for the first month of the Luton and Dunstable guided busway were just 43% of those predicted for the £91m scheme.
Perhaps the busway hasn’t been given a high enough profile? The successful Cambridge busway, had a lot of publicity, although much of it proved the old adage, that no publicity is bad publicity.
Perhaps I should go for a look, but there is very little to draw me to Luton or Dunstable.
All Systems Go On The Cambridge Busway
I was sceptical about the Cambridge Busway before it opened and felt that it would probably be better to have reinstated the railway. A group called CASTIRON was formed to promote the railway, but the busway still was built and opened.
Now I read this article, which states that Stagecoach is going to increase srvices on the route. Here’s the first paragraph.
Operator Stagecoach yesterday said it would increase the frequency of departures to every five minutes during peak times, in the hope this will relieve overcrowding and stop passengers being left waiting by buses which are too full to stop.
As the busway is going to link up with the new station at Chesterton and new housing along the route at Northstowe, it doesn’t seem to appear it is going to be a white concrete elephant.
It Happens Again Travelling To And From Ipswich
This afternoon, I went to football at Ipswich and like last week, when I encountered the troubles detailed in this post, I had more trouble.
I decided to get the 13:00 rather than the 13:30, in case the latter was a bit late. I was advised by staff at Liverpool Street station, not to take the 13:00, as it was only going to Colchester. Instead I was told to get the 13:02 slow train to Ipswich. After a few stops and hiccups, I eventually got to Ipswich, a few minutes later than the 13:30 normally would, which meant I missed about two minutes of the match.
Then at half-time, a couple of people turned up who had caught the 13:30, which had arrived forty-five minutes late.
Returning to London, I normally catch the 17:09 and I did today, but it had lost thirty minutes from its schedule by Manningtree.
By Colchester, we were going better and eventually got into Liverpool Street only losing a few more minutes.
The ticket collector told us all that it appeared that there had been an attempted cable theft, although that is not mentioned in this article in the Eastern Daily Press.
Is The Forth Bridge Scotland’s Best Loved Landmark?
Not my words, but those of Network Rail on a web site describing their plans for the Forth Rail Bridge, called The Forth Bridge Experience.
If the experience is as well thought out as the web site, they might be on to something.
After all if Tower Bridge in London can have an experience, why not the Forth Bridge!
Thinking about it though, recognisable landmarks in Scotland, that are recognisable to non-Scots, are thin on the ground.
I think if I go back to before I first visited Scotland in 1965, I would suspect that the Forth Rail Bridge would have been the only landmark I could recognise.
Suffolk Shows The Value Of Improving Train Services
The East Suffolk line from Ipswich to Lowestoft is one of those train lines, that British Rail would have liked to close in the 1960s and 1970s. Everything was simplified and a lot of the line was made single-track.
Then a year ago, they introduced a loop at Beccles and an hourly service between the two biggest towns in East Suffolk.
The result has been an 11.5% increase in passengers as is reported here. Here’s the first paragraph.
It was a record setting year as passenger numbers of the East Suffolk Line hit an all time high in 2013. A record 653,000 journeys were made on the line between Ipswich and Lowestoft last year, an 11.5% increase on 2012. Compared to 2009 / 2010 that number is up by 60%.
We’re not talking massive sums on improving the line, but it shows that if you provide a better train service, it’ll get used, as I found out earlier this week on the Settle and Carlisle.
This Won’t Happen To Me!
This story is one of those, where you wonder how the driver managed to wreck the house opposite. As usual they seem to be claiming the automatic transmission malfunctioned. They rarely do! But as the old joke says, the nut behind the steering wheel is the most dangerous part of a car.
I doubt it’ll happen to me on either side, as I don’t drive and there is no house with a sloping driveway opposite. To make it even more difficult for a kamikaze driver, my kitchen is at the back on the first floor. I suppose they could go down the mews and jump the car over the house at the back of my garden.
It doesn’t give in the article, any details on the driver, but it does seem to me, that whatever happens, they should be made to take a thorough test before driving again. Next time their automatic transmission mulfunctions, a child could be the victim.
The Royston Crow gives more detyails here. Isn’t that a wonderful name for a local paper!
Long Live The Settle And Carlisle
Or as I rode the Settle and Carlisle line yesterday from North to South, should I call it, the Carlisle and Settle?
I’ve never ridden it before and I can’t understand why, as it is a spectacular line running through magnificent scenery.
The weather yesterday wasn’t good as the pictures show. But that didn’t stop the 15:05 from Carlisle being about two-thirds full. Most seemed to be small groups, whohad had a day out and were returning to Leeds. But judging by their clothes, they weren’t going to stray far into the hills.
If this a typical journey on a wet Tuesday afternoon in late January, there can’t be much wrong with the way the line is managed, as a partnership. Judging by the age of many of the customers, the ridership is probably a tribute to the Senior and other railcards.
Reading various web sites it would seem that Network Rail have got to grips with the magnificent Ribblehead Viaduct, the track and other structures, and the Settle Carlisle Railway Development Company seem to have been doing their best in restoring stations and other lineside structures. I also found this article on the Network Rail web site about improving communications and signalling.
It would appear too, that there is a lot of enthusiasm and common sense in securing the future of this line.
So what do I think the future will hold?
The Development Company and others want to see more trains on the line. Currently, there are seven trains in both directions between Leeds and Carlisle, with the first leaving at 05:29 from Leeds and 05:50 from Carlisle. If that isn’t a schedule to get people into the hills for a heavy constitutional, then I don’t know what is? The train I rode was one of Northern Rail’s two coach Class 158s. It would be interesting to see how crowded these trains get in the summer! Obviously new trains are out of the question, but with the Manchester-Liverpool-Blackpool electrification, there might be some more of these Class 158s available. If those backing a direct Manchester to Carlisle service over the line, they’ll certainly be needed. But people have said to me, that there is a shortage of decent diesel multiple units in the UK.
Surely though, greater capacity on the line will help to generate tourism in the area and all the much-needed employment it creates!
As I write this note, it has been announced that the West coast Main Line has been closed due to overhead line problems at Penrith. So like the problems I encountered last Saturday on Greater Anglia, there I suspect, a lot of frustrated passengers and rauilway managers and staff, wondering what is going to happen!
So perhaps one option might be to electrify Settle to Carlisle and the related Leeds to Morecambe line. This would provide a double-tracked by-pass from Carnforth to Carlisle. This option, which could also be used by freight trains is discussed here. Remember that the West Coast Main Line is mainly double-track, so an electrified Settle to Carlisle line, would give some extra much-needed capacity between the North of England and Scotland. Admittedly, it wouldn’t be a 200 kph like the West Coast Main Line. It certainly, is a line that can take heavy trains, as the media is always showing pictures of trains like steam driven excursions using the route.
As I indicated earlier, there is a shortage of diesel multiple units and this is often the reason that drives services on the UK’s railways. Greater Anglia run a deplorable service from Ipswich to Felixstowe using a single coach Class 153. But it’s not their fault that they can’t get hold of something bigger and better. Nothing else exists!
I have said before that the High Speed Diesel Trains, that will be surplus to requirements after the introduction could be reused on some of the lines in the UK like Settle to Carlisle and Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh. As Chiltern have shown, if the Mark 3 coaches are refurbished and returned to their original seat layout, they ride like Jaguars and are some of the finest trains in the world.
On Settle to Carlisle line, they would be ideal to allow the reinstatement of direct Glasgow to Leeds and East Midlands services, which currently go via Edinburgh.
I don’t know what is going to happen in the next few years, but without doubt, something will happen to invigorate the Settle to Carlisle line.
The line will outlive us all!
Leeds Has Now Got Liths
Last time that I went to Leeds, this wasn’t there outside the station.
Leeds Has Now Got Liths
It’s good to see more towns and cities jumping on London’s bandwagon. The system is called Walk It Leeds and there’s more here.
I think that in a few years time, every city and town will have a top class wayfinding system. The next thing that needs sorting out, is a system so that visitors can use the buses easily.
Most of these systems are computer generated, so to do another place, just needs to put in the co-ordinates of where you want a map and run the program, changing the colours and logos to suit.
The Anonymous Widower 