92 Clubs By Public Transport Alphabetically in a Calendar Month – Day 2
This is not an easy day, as Aston Villa, Barnet and Barnsley are all within easy walks of train stations, but I do have to go up to Aston Villa and then up to Barnsley, with a short detour from Euston to High Barnet in between.
I should be back from Aston Villa before 15:00 and so should be ready to leave St. Pancras by 16:00.
I think I’ll have to go to Birmingham to start Day 3.
Proposed Schedule
London Witton
08:50/11:26 09:50/12:26
Witton London
12:17/14:17 13:17/15:17
Euston High Barnet St. Pancras
60 mins
London Barnsley
16:25/19:37
Barnsley Birmingham
20:12/22:08
Is It Time To Get Even? – 92 Clubs By Public Transport Alphabetically in a Calendar Month
There’s an old saying about not getting mad, but getting even.
I’ve had a basketful of bad luck over the last few years, what with losing my wife of forty years and son to cancer and then suffering a couple of strokes. So perhaps now is the time to do something to wipe the slate clean and see if I can buy off the Devil who is bugging me. I had thought about perhaps doing something like riding my bicycle to Moscow, like Carol Thatcher did, but she is a lot braver and fitter than I am.
I’d much prefer to do something to raise money that for most of the time had me sitting in a comfortable chair and that at night allowed me to sleep most nights in my own bed.
The task, if I will accept it, is to visit all the 92 Premier and Football League grounds in alphabetical order in one calendar month, using only trains, trams, buses and Shanks’s pony. I thought about adding allowing bicycles and hitch-hiking, but I’m probably not up to the former yet and nobody ever does the second these days. Taxis are definitely out, except in an emergency.
I have created a spreadsheet of all the teams and it looks like it will be possible to do it in a 31-day month.
October, this year would be a good choice as on the 1st, Aldershot, who are second alphabetically, play Accrington Stanley who are first. So hopefully, I could visit the match and then get a lift back to Aldershot on a supporters coach, just in time to get a train back to London and do Arsenal on the way home.
On the other hand there are some interesting days, where several clubs are close to each other both in alphabetic order and geographically or easier to get between. There are.
- 3rd – Birmingham, Blackburn, Blackpool and Bolton
- 15th – Liverpool, Macclesfield, Manchester City, Manchester United and then on to Middlesbrough
- 17th – Newcastle, Northampton, Norwich, Notts County, Nottingham Forest and then on to Oldham
- 21st – Rotherham, Scunthorpe, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday and then on to Shrewbury
- 23rd – Swansea, Swindon, Torquay and then back to Tottenham.
Other than the Accrington-Aldershot match, there would appear to be games on the 15th at Macclesfield, the 22nd at Stevenage and perhaps it will all end on the 29th at Yeovil.
Obviously any money I raise will go to Liverpool University to help with research into pancreatic cancer. I will be setting up a page on Just Giving soon. Hopefully there are people who might like to sponsor the odd day.
At a first glance there are a few difficult teams.
- Bournemouth
- Bradford
- Colchester
- Coventry
- Crawley Town
- Doncaster
- Oxford United
- Plymouth
- Port Vale
- Shrewsbury
- Stoke
- Swindon
- Torquay
- Yeovil
Any help on buses or walking routes for these would be appreciated. Lifts, although I’m grateful for the thought, are not allowed.
The irony is that I don’t think this would have been possible for me, until this year, as now Marks and Spencer’s now have stagetically placed pit-stops in many stations, where I can get wholesome gluten-free sandwiches to speed me on my way.
Here is a provisional schedule.
- 1st – Accrington, Aldershot and Arsenal
- 2nd – Aston Villa, Barnet and Barnsley
- 3rd – Birmingham, Blackburn, Blackpool and Bolton
- 4th – Bournemouth and Bradford
- 5th – Brentford, Brighton, Bristol City and Bristol Rovers
- 6th – Burnley, Burton Albion and Bury
- 7th – Cardiff and Carlisle
- 8th – Charlton, Chelsea, Cheltenham and Chesterfield
- 9th – Colchester, Coventry and Crawley Town
- 10th – Crewe, Crystal Palace and Dagenham and Redbridge
- 11th – Derby, Doncaster, Everton and Exeter
- 12th – Fulham, Gillingham, and Hartlepool
- 13th – Hereford, Huddersfield and Hull
- 14th – Ipswich, Leeds, Leicester and Leyton Orient
- 15th – Liverpool, Macclesfield, Manchester City, Manchester United
- 16th – Middlesbrough, Millwall and Milton Keynes
- 17th – Morecambe and Newcastle
- 18th – Northampton, Norwich, Nottingham Forest and Notts County
- 19th – Oldham, Oxford United and Peterborough
- 20th – Plymouth and Port Vale
- 21st – Portsmouth and Preston
- 22nd – QPR, Reading, Rochdale and Rotherham
- 23rd – Scunthorpe, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday and Shrewsbury
- 24th – Southampton, Southend, Stevenage and Stoke
- 25th – Sunderland and Swansea
- 26th – Swindon, Torquay and Tottenham
- 27th – Tranmere, Walsall, Watford, West Brom and West Ham
- 28th – Wigan, AFC Wimbledon, Wolverhampton and Wycombe
- 29th – Yeovil
The Seventy-Free Goes Seventy-Pay
Transport for London will see an increase in revenue today, as the seventy-three bus goes non-bendy. I have sat in the back of these buses and seen that so many of the passengers don’t touch in.
A New 73 Bus
However, now the bus is a proper double-decker, they’ll have to pay.
I travelled on one to the Angel today and it was a bit crowded. But then last week on a bendy, it wouldn’t have been exactly empty. It’s just a very busy bus route.
When I rode the 73, I was able to take this picture of a bendy bus causing a traffic jam.
A Bendy Bus Causing a Jam
Try takimg a picture like this from a bendy!
Pedestrian Unfriendly Walthamstow Central
As I said earlier, last night I went to Walthamstow Central.
From the station I needed to go towards Walthamstow Village.
To cross the road there must have taken me nearly ten minutes, as first I had to cross from the station over Selborne Road. This is not easy if you don’t know the light phasing, especially as a lot of those turning off Hoe Street into Selborne Road, seem to do it at full speed and even if the lights are red.
Once over Selborne Road, I needed to cross Hoe Street, which is a double crossing with two sets of lights and a wait in the middle. To make matters worse a bus blocked the first time I had a green light, so it actually took me three goes.
I hope it’s easier if you use the junction regularly, as you may get used to the phasing. To get where I want it may actually be easier to go to Wood Street station and walk down the hill.
Are The Edinburgh Trams About To Do a U-Turn?
I thought it was difficult because of their size for trams to do a U-turn. But apparently not in Edinburgh!
I think it’s a toss-up about which opens first; the Edinburgh Tram or Crossrail in London.
Up and Down the Stairs at Hackney Downs
I went for supper to Walthamstow tonight.
The easiest way is to get a bus to Hackney Downs station and then take a Chingford train. It works well if you just catch a train.
But I just got to the top at Platform 2 to see the train disappearing out of the station. It looks like I’d have to wait for twenty minutes, but a stationman said there was another train in ten minutes on Platform 4. So it was down the dreaded staircase again and then up another one.
Surely for passenger convenience, all Chingford trains should leave Hackney Downs from the same platform. Or if for operational reasons they can’t then perhaps there should be a display at the bottom of the stairs, that lists all departures in order together with the platform. The Overground has such a display at both Highbury and Islington and Dalston Junction stations. Even the bus stop outside Hackney Downs has a display showing the details of the next few buses.
The DLR Reaches Stratford International
Today the DLR was opened to Stratford International station. So I went for a ride and took a few pictures.
It is an impressive line.
One thing that it does is to create a step-free route from stations on the North London line to the London City Airport, with a single change at Stratford.
I also joked with one of the staff about tourists coming to Abbey Road station to see the crossing. Nothing surprises her!
Overground Art
I had gone to see the non-opening of the DLR extension to Stratford International this morning and coming back, I came back via Haggerston station, rather than the more usual Dalston Junction station, as I wanted to get a paper on the way home.
It wasn’t the first time I’d used the station, but it was the first time I’d seen this artwork.
The Elliptical Switchback by Tod Hanson at Haggerston Station
And here’s the explanation.
Art Inspired by Edmond Halley
There should be more art like this on the Overground. I wonder what Sir Edmond would have thought!
Abbey Road Station
In the next few days or so, cable thieves permitting, the new extension of the DLR will open to Stratford International.
This will mean there will be a new station called Abbey Road.
I wonder how long after it opens, the first tourists turn up looking for the famous recording studios, where the Beatles made most of their records.
Perhaps the station should have been called Abbey Mills or Bazalgette, in honour of the Northern Outfall Sewer and the Abbey Mills Pumping Station nearby.
The Anonymous Widower 