It Wasn’t A Good Trip!
The objective was simple, which was to get to Felixstowe from Liverpool Street in time for a dental appointment at 14:10. I worked out I’d leave on the 11:30 from London and then I had fifteen minutes at Ipswich to change onto the 12:58 to Felixstowe. I would arrive at 13:24, which gave me plenty of time. Coming back, I had plenty of time to catch the 15:28 after my appointment and after a change at Ipswich I’d be back in London for 17:19
But things didn’t work out as expected! The train crawled out of London and we were thirteen minutes late at Colchester, so I felt I’d miss my connection. But that was late too, so I caught it easily!
But I don’t like being late.
After my appointment, I walked back to the station and as the train appeared to be on time and it was only15:00, I walked back to the bar in Felixstowe station to see if they had a nice glass of cider.
But they didn’t so after fiddling about, I walked back to the platform and sat and read my paper for a bit.
There was then a bit of commotion and on checking the display I found that my train to Ipswich had been cancelled just a few minutes before it was due to arrive.
I thought about taking the bus into Ipswich, but then I realised I’d have to get from wherever the bus dropped me to the station.
I did think about waiting for the 16:28, but who was there any guarantee that wouldn’t be cancelled as well. After all, as I went to Felixstowe, a driver had told me one train had already been cancelled in the morning.
So I walked back to the taxi rank opposite Tesco and took one to Ipswich station for £25.
I eventually got back into London at about 17:30 and was dropped right in the middle of the rush hour.
Not one of those inconvenienced by this cancellation heard any advice from Greater Anglia.
Discussing it all with the taxi driver, who took me to Ipswich, he said it happens all the time, because they give the freight trains priority. Let’s hope that when the Bacon Factory Curve is completed, things get a bit better. However, it would help if more of the line from Ipswich to Felixstowe was double-tracked, as the Docks said they would be.
This line sets a bad precedent for the row that will happen between London Overground and the freight operators, who want to use the North London and Gospel Oak to Barking Lines to and from London Gateway. I think we’ll see one hell of a row over that conflict, especially when Class 66s thunder through all night keeping the residents awake.
Abbey Wood To Get a Striking Station
Abbey Wood station in South East London is one of the termini of Crossrail. The drawings and concept have now been released and don’t look boring.
The best place to see the concept is here on the Fereday Pollard web site.
I Didn’t Think They Used Buses In Hampstead
You can easily make the assumption, that those upmarket people in Hampstead don’t use buses, as why would they travel with their inferiors, when you can drive or use a taxi. So this story from the Ham and High is very surprising. The headline in the paper says it all.
C11 bus driver asks passenger ‘Where’s Hampstead?
For those unfamiliar with the C11, it’s one of a series of single deck buses that meander all over London boroughs to provide local transport and fill-in for the Underground and the major bus routes. They’re almost like rural buses in Central London.
Slow High Speed Rail
The Dutch and the Belgians have abandoned their new Fyra high-speed trains and are replacing them with coaches hauled by TRAXX locomotives as is reported here.
The Fyra was supposed to run at 250 kph, but they have proved to be very unreliable. On the other hand the TRAXX-hauled coaches are probably limited to about 200 kph. So they will have a high-speed line called HSL-Zuid, which has been designed for up to 300 kph, with trains on it running at well below that speed.
It’s a bit like putting the the Class 90s and the Mk 3 coaches you get between London and Norwich, on the East or West Coast Main Line. Some of course, used to work there twenty years ago, so they are a bit clapped, but they are generally more reliable than Fyra, which has been nicknamed the ALDI-trein
In fact here’s an idea!
I’m sure we’ve got some old Class 90s and a few rakes of coaches, we could lend to the Dutch and the Belgians. But there are various problems in that Continental trains are bigger than ours and I don’t think they’d fit the platforms. They also wouldn’t be able to work all the high-speed line as some parts and the rest of the Netherlands doesn’t use 25kV like the UK and most of Europe.
It would appear the Dutch and the Belgians, with the help of a basket case of an Italian train maker, have dug themselves an enormous hole. Now they are going to get themselves out of trouble, using an engine built in Germany by a Canadian company.
I wonder how many civil servants and politicians have been fired because of this fiasco?
We may have done a few things wrong with the trains in the last fifty or so years, but we’ve never created anything as bad as this!
The Hitchin Flyover Opens
It was only in May, that I took a couple of pictures of the construction of the Hitchin Flyover. It is now open for test purposes and a few passenger trains according to this story from Network Rail. There is a good time-lapse video of the construction in the Network Rail article.
Some Sense On HS2
There is a report on the BBC, which says that a new station could be built at Old Oak Common to link HS2 and Crossrail. Here’s the first two paragraphs.
Views are being sought on plans for a High Speed 2 and Crossrail station in west London, as part of a scheme it is claimed could create up to 90,000 jobs.
Greater London Authority is consulting residents on the plan for Old Oak, which it says will generate jobs and see thousands of homes built.
I think it’s a good idea and I suspect many others will too, especially, as it will allow the creation of lots of much needed new homes and jobs in the capital.
Other points include.
- This station would take the pressure off Euston as many passengers coming from or going to the North on HS2 would probably prefer to change to Crossrail for the London end of their journey.
- Would less traffic through Euston mean that the need to rebuild Euston station and its dreadful connections to the Underground, could be sensibly delayed?
- If there is less pressure on Euston, the need for Crossrail 2 is probably less.
- It creates a one change connection between the North and Heathrow Airport.
- If a Thames Estuary Airport is built, then I suspect that would be linked to Crossrail, so that is just one change too.
- This plan creates a link between large areas of West London to long distance rail services, especially if the West London and North London lines were to be improved.
But it does show even more that we need some holistic planning, which sorts out London, its railways and airports for the next thirty years or so.
If you look at the area on a map, you will find that the area is served by several railway lines at present including the Great Western Main Line, the West Coast Main Line, the London Overground and even the Central and Bakerloo Lines of the London Underground. There would also appear to be large areas of industrial land, that would probably be ripe for development.
An Impressive Argument For A Thames Estuary Airport
I’ve just read this article in Airport World, which makes an impressive argument for a new four-runway London Airport in the Thames Estuary.
It just strengthens my belief that before we decide on the route of HS2, we must first decide what we are doing to create more runway capacity in the South East.
Is It Cheaper To Use An Out Of London Dentist?
I’ve gone to the same dentist in Felixstowe off and on for nearly thirty years. I don’t have any specific problems, but I felt that because of this long and excellent experience, that it would be best for me to return, as my previous dentist in London has sold his business and retired.
Today it cost me £33.25 for the First Class ticket to Felixstowe and the private check-up was £18. That was all I spent, although when I visited my London dentist, I usually treated myself to lunch in Carluccio’s round the corner from his surgery.
Progress On The Bacon Factory Curve
I went to Felixstowe today, to see my dentist. After changing at Ipswich, I was able to get some pictures of work on the new chord allowing freight trains leaving the Felixstowe branch to go straight towards Stowmarket, Ely and Cambridge. More details are given here.
I must say the pictures were better than last time I tried as the Class 153; Benjamin Britten, seemed to have had its windows cleaned.
Walking Round Broadstairs
I don’t remember Broadstairs much from my childhood, although I did recognise a house that was in a similar style to the one where my uncle lived. But his house seemed to have been replaced with a modern one.
We did walk along the beach and I had a pretty good lunch and some beers, which was the object of going to the town.
The Anonymous Widower 