Why Do Web Sites Get Redesigned?
I’ve used the East Midland Trains web site, many times in the last few years and have found it excellent.
But now it has had a makeover and I had to have a couple of attempts to get my tickets for the Ipswich match at Derby.
I always book a return in First Class, with the outrun being timed to get to the destination by something like 14:00 and then a fetch after 17:00 to get back to London. Usually, this is because, I won’t find anything to eat in the destination and so go straight to the ground. As Pride Park is close to Derby station, this would definitely be the case at Derby.
But the site kept telling me, I’d put in the wrong times, as I suspect someone had got his checking wrong. It was only, when the site handed me over to the ticketing engine behind the booking site, did I get some sense.
In the end, I’m travelling from London to Derby and back for the extortionate price of £29. And that’s in First Class with tea and drinks! If there are any snacks, I’ll forgo them, as they won’t be gluten free.
Coal Is A Dangerous Fuel
There are dramatic pictures in Modern Railways of the landslip at Hatfield Colliery, which damaged the railway at Stainforth.
It just goes to show how dangerous coal is, as it seems to be capable of creating disasters. Luckily this one didn’t cause any injuries or death.
There’s more about it here.
I believe that coal is just too dangerous to mine! It’s also a large producer of carbon dioxide and I would ban its burning worldwide.
It’s Common Sense To Build New Stations
Network Rail has announced a list of six stations it will probably build. These are in addition to some already on the stocks like Cambridge Science Park and Coventry Arena.
I’m a great believer in adding stations at strategic points to existing lines, as often it is a sensible way to generate traffic and the corresponding revenue.
An Alternative London End To HS2
This plan called Euston Cross, was first aired in the railway press and is a serious alternative to what is currently proposed. it’s described detail in this post in a blog.
I think it should be taken seriously, as it would appear to have a few cost advantages and it would require less demolition at Euston.
As an engineer, who helped to develop the methods and software to build large projects, I believe that we can’t ignore the lessons of the biggest and most intelligent beast in the jungle; Crossrail.
Crossrail is setting new records for tunnelling proficiency, depth under London and project management. But as we experienced in the North Sea Oil industry in the 1970s, today’s big machines are dwarves compared to what will be available in a few years.
So the idea of linking HS2 to HS1 by means of tunnels and an underground station might be easier, than anybody would dare think using today’s technology. It could also go a lot deeper and just as Crossrail is diving under the Underground, it could probably dive deeper still.
Call For Thomas Heatherwick
I have just been re-reading the article in the April 2013 edition of Modern Railways, entitled Time for a fresh look at light rail.
The article says that if we are to get more tram systems in the UK, then they must be cheaper. The writer argues that to be cheaper, they must be lighter and designed without thinking too much of how you build a High Speed Train.
He also argues that they should be innovative in their collection of power, like the trams in Seville. I would go one stage further and use some kind of flywheel power storage, as proposed by Torotrak.
Perhaps now is the time to call for Thomas Heatherwick, to design a lightweight, virtually silent, stylish, high-capacity tram, that didn’t need to have overhead wiring all along its route. Seville has shown some of what can be done. The team that successfully takes the next step, will create a revolution in trams. And with luck make a fortune!
The Cruise and Duty Free
I never bother with duty-free, as I don’t smoke and don’t want to carry heavy bottles of booze that I might break. I did once drop a bottle of Bell’s on the floor at Dulles Airport in Washington. And it broke!
But when duty-free sales were announced on the Tannoy on Oriana, I was very surprised at the rush.
Why Have I Gone All Tidy?
It’s strange, but over the last week or so, I’ve started to tidy where I work, cook and sleep.
I was particularly tidy on the Oriana. As this post shows.
I’ve never done this at any other time in my life.
Perhaps, it’s because I’d like a girl-friend and I don’t want to invite them home to a load of chaos and mess.
Getting To Millwall
I like going to see Ipswich play at Millwall.
The New Den is a compact ground, where away supporters get a good view of the action. In fact, as the view is one of the best, the stewards are generally friendly and it is an easy ground to get to by public transport, it is one of the best away experiences in English football, if you support a reputable club.
It is also exceedingly good value, as my senior ticket cost just £17 and of course because of my Freedom Pass, I had no travel costs. So my total expenditure was much the same cost as taking a lady to the cinema. Although in that case, I’d probably have to buy a drink or even a meal!
I went by taking the Overground to Canada Water station, from where I got a P12 bus directly to the ground. Even though, these buses are every 20 minutes on a Bank Holiday, I still did the journey in just over thirty minutes.
Coming back, I walked to South Bermondsey station and took the train to London Bridge, from where I got a 141 bus home.
wikipedia also says that a 21 bus goes close to the New Den, so as it goes past the end of my road, I might try that next year. You get off at Ilderton Road.
It certainly is the easiest ground for me to get to, with the probable exception of Arsenal’s ground at The Emirates. But that would cost a lot more for a match.
Andrew Motion Says Make Second Homes Very Expensive
It is reported that former Poet Laureate; Andrew Motion has said that second homes must be made very expensive to stop sucking the life out of villages. The full story is here in the Guardian.
I have owned and lived in two houses a couple of times in my life. At one time we were living in Cromwell Tower during the week and also had the house at Debach in Suffolk for the weekend. And then we had Les Ondes in Antibes.
I think in truth,neither arrangements worked out for C and myself, as we were incessant travellers. And fixed bases are not compatible if you want to go long distances abroad for a couple of months a year.
Before we moved to Newmarket, we were not using the house in France, but were flying everywhere in my Cessna 340A. If we hadn’t bought Les Ondes, we might have visited some of the places, I now regret we didn’t.
So my argument against second homes, is that they may look good on paper, but spending the money you save by having only one home, on say travel or something you enjoy is probably better.
Since C died, I’ve been to a few places, where she never went, that to have flown to in a light aircraft would have been fun. For a start on my cruise, there was Corunna.
There is also two other arguments against second homes.
By having a second home, you are effectively denying someone else or another family, a home. That is morally indefensible in times like these, where we don’t have enough homes.
There is also the climate change argument, in that loading a 4×4 up with half your worldly goods each weekend, isn’t a way of cutting CO2 emissions. All it does is create profits for oil companies.
I could throw in a few other arguments too, like the fact that I believe spontaneity and impulse are good for you and do you want to be involved in the various NIMBY arguments that plague the countryside.
Perhaps though, most people don’t think logically about life as I do, and they have so much money, they can’t spend it creatively.
So is Motion’s idea to make second homes more expensive is the only thing, that might curb second home ownership and put more houses on the market for those, who don’t have a nice place to live? But no government would bring in the legislation, as it would be a catastrophic vote loser. Just look at the protest, when Ryanair chopped all those routes to France a few years ago, as it cut the cheap route to second homes.
Similar arguments can also be applied to those individuals from abroad, who buy up desirable properties in the UK and leave it empty.
We need more housing and as we haven’t got the space to built much more, we must maximise our use of what we already have.
The True Cost Of My €100 Withdrawal
I withdrew €100 from a cashpoint in Bishopsgate before I went on holiday.
I got a rate of 1.157 euro to the pound, which for my € 100 worked out at £86.42. I was then charged a Non-UK commission fee of £1.72 and a Non-UK cash withdrawal fee of £1.00. The main transaction incidentally was labelled Ulster Bank.
So as I was in Bishopsgate and did a transaction with a bank in Ulster, surely I was in the UK. So why did I get slapped for an extra charge of £2.72?
On the other hand it was probably a better transaction, than I got in Morocco, when I changed a few pounds into the local dirham.
If I was in charge of this world, I’d create a universal token, that was worth about a pound, a dollar or a euro, that you could use for small transactions on public transport, pay toilets and with street vendors. After all, many machines now accept a one pound or one euro coin.
The Anonymous Widower 