Match Fifteen – Blackpool 0 – Ipswich 2
Ipswich finally got their first win since they beat Rotherham in September.
Blackpool 0 – Ipswich 2
It wasn’t that easy a win, but according to some Blackpool fans I met on the way back to the station, it was typical match for that ground, when the wind blows.
There was certainly, a lot of booting the ball a long way or towards the stratosphere.
Riding The Blackpool Trams
I’d never ridden the Blackpool trams until this visit, as often these visits seemed to coincide with their rebuilding.
The trams I rode are modern Flexity 2 units, that are essential for providing a complete service in the 21st Century. Supposedly some of the older trams still run at weekends, but I didn’t see any.
The trams have three problems in my mind.
They should link up with the trains at Blackpool North station. Wikipedia says this.
The tramway is to be extended to Blackpool North railway station after Blackpool Council agreed to provide the remaining funding for the project. [11] A study is currently being undertaken by the council about a further extension to Lytham St Annes.
They need information and maps at the tram stops. As the trams have helpful and chatty conductors, this isn’t as pressing as it could be, but why isn’t there an illustrated map showing the route at each stop?
The tram I rode from the North Pier to the South Pier was crowded to say the least. It strikes me that some serious thinking needs to be done about augmenting the fleet, either by adding more new trams or running the heritage trams more. In an ideal world, where money was no object you’d probably build some innovative new double-deck trams. Come to Blackpool Thomas Heatherwick, Blackpool needs you!
Blackpool’s New Maps And Signs
I’ve criticised Blackpool in the past, as lacking maps and information. But they have at least got started on a visitor-friendly information system.
I think it is true to say, that most of the locals and visitors I talked to, said that the town had been getting better in the last couple of years.
These maps and signs should lead to fewer people getting lost.
But there were no signs pointing you to the trams at the station and the tram stops didn’t have any maps or even information about how you use the tram.
Victoria Gets A Posh Umbrella
Manchester Victoria was a terrible station, with a difficult connection to Manchester Piccadilly. The connection improved with the Metrolink, but as they are now rebuilding Victoria, it’s got worse again. As I’m now familiar with the walking route, I was able to put a couple right about the way to go.
There must be something in the Manchester civic psyche, that likes to confuse people.
But Victoria seems to be getting on with its rebuilding, which includes a posh roof over everything and a new footbridge.
Unfortunately, the electrification to Liverpool Lime Street seems to be having problems and it will be some months before Class 319 electric trains are working the route, hopefully before next spring.
It does look to me, that when complete, anywhere on the tram routes in Manchester will have easy access to the electrified Trans-Pennine links at Manchester Victoria, which could become an architectural icon of the North. You’ll get the tram to Victoria and then totally under the new roof, you’ll go through the ticket gates and across the fully-accessible footbridges to the appropriate platform to await your train.
In addition, those who arrive from London and the South at Piccadilly and are perhaps going on to places like Burnley, Blackburn and Hebden Bridge from Victoria, will have a completely dry route, which is of course important in Manchester, using the trams. The trams must use contactless bank card tickerting though to be compatible with what other cities, like London, are doing.
This is Network Rail’s page on the £44million work.
I think everyone will agree that it’s all a bit different to the concrete crap that British Rail built forty to fifty years ago, like Euston and Manchester Piccadilly, when those with special access needs or advanced age didn’t exist, as everybody was adult and fit as a butcher’s dog.
I can remember meeting a friend in the newly-opened extension to Kings Cross station and looking with amazement at the structure that had been created.
Why shouldn’t other rail stations be given an added wow factor?
Especially now, when we have the architects, computers, techniques and materials to build them in an affordable manner. How many stations could be rebuilt using the same methods as New Cross Gate?
Good stations, like good clean electric trains, have one common problem. They are passenger magnets and very often attract so many extra paying passengers, that we have to expand the system.
I have a feeling that after they see the completed scheme, they’ll be wanting some of their other architectural disasters like Salford Crescent and Oxford Road stations, at least given the treatment that Network Rail have applied at Huyton.
Across Manchester In The Sun
For one of the few times in my life in Manchester, it wasn’t raining, as I walked between Piccadilly and Victoria stations.
But it was still a trying walk, for someone whose eyesight isn’t the best, as it doesn’t seem to have the number of light-controlled crossings, that other cities have!
There were also no maps and only a few forlorn finger-posts.
Virgin’s Sub-Standard First Class
I usually travel First Class to football outside London.
First Class to Ipswich isn’t much, but it’s only a journey of a few minutes over an hour and they do throw in free and excellent wi-fi.
It doesn’t compare well with the new offering, I had a taste of, when I went to Cardiff on First Great Western. But the offering I got to Manchester from Virgin on my way to Blackpool was very poor.
I had thought before I travelled, that I might upgrade to First Class on the way back for £15, but I didn’t bother.
Alan Williams in the November 2014 Edition of Modern Railways has a go at some First Class offerings, criticising seat allocation, bad views and catering amongst other things.
If companies are going to offer better travel for an extra price, they ought to do it right. It should include.
- Proper seat choice on the Internet. I think East Coast do this!
- At Seat Service with proper china
- A comprehensive snack offering to suit all tastes, including coeliacs and vegans
- Complimentary bottled water
- Free easy-to-access wi-fi.
- All seats should have a decent view, like Chiltern Railways offer to everyone on their Mainline service to Birmingham.
I think Virgin should question, whether they are offering the right service. I know it was a Saturday, but it was even inferior to East Midland Trains to Nottingham.
An Advantage Of A New Routemaster
I often sit in the rearward facing seats of a new Routemaster, by the platform. On my trip to Euston, I needed to change from the 38 I was on, to either a 30,73 or 476 to get to Euston.
The Superb Rear View On A New Routemaster
So by sitting where I was, I could see if one was catching us up. And if one had I would have got off my bus and hopped on the follower.
Unfortunately, one didn’t turn up, so at the Angel, I just dived into the Underground for the two stops to Euston.
When buses get on-board wi-fi, as they inevitably will in the next few years, it would be nice to find out what buses are following, so you could swap, if that was more convenient.
Housing
I have very strong views on housing. Partly I suspect because C and myself and our three boys had such difficulty finding a house in London in the 1970s. That was how we ended up in the Barbican, as we had enough income to rent a flat, but not enough deposit to buy a £7,000 house. Those who reckon today’s housing market is crazy, should read about how difficult in was in the 1960s and 1970s.
We lived in a variety of places including two rented modern flats, two large country properties, which we extended to my designs, another damp fourth floor walk-up flat and a new build estate box.
I feel strongly that housing should be matched to those who live in it, so one person living in a multi-million pound house could be just as scandalous as an empty one.
As a Control Engineer, I believe very much in stable systems and we’ve had a stable housing market bouncing on the bottom for decades, where houses are not matched to needs and because too few are being created, houses are far too expensive.
The general public like this status quo, as they can boast that their house has gone up £50,000 or so, whilst they made you cup of tea.
All new developments like new housing, high speed rail and fracking are opposed by the selfish idiot in the Chelsea tractor, as it might drop their house price.
So what should we do?
1. Every empty dwelling, should be brought back into occupation. Have you ever noticed how many empty flats are above shops?
2. We should give the building industry a good kicking, so that many of these empty dwellings are got ready.
3. Any empty dwelling should be heavily taxed unless it is in the process of being prepared for occupation. Those, who buy-to-leave should be taxed heavily so that they find renting the flat or house to someone who needs it, a much better alternative.
4. A person or family, who has more than one home for solely their personal use, should pay a special tax.
5. There should be no Council Tax discount for those living alone in large dwellings. Why for instance should I get one?
6.Perhaps too, like many European countries, we should pay Capital Gains Tax in some way on our houses.
7.Inheritance Tax drives too much of the housing market. Not only does it create worries for everybody, but it often condemns single elderly people to live in large draughty, energy-inefficient houses, when the best thing to do with the house is demolish it and create several new homes of which the elderly person has the pick! So let’s abolish the tax on principle recidences. However, whatever we do is going to be complicated with tax, so we had better get it right. The politicians who have done good impressions of Nero fiddling while Rome burned since the war, don’t stand a chance as they are all too tied to their vested interests.
8. But above all we need more new dwellings and a lot of those should be affordable. We have some of the best architects in the world in the UK, but underneath the top level, they just produce boring crap and much of it is just Pete Seager’s little boxes, where you park the car outside and live boring lives. C and I had a house like that in the country in the 1960s and we escaped to the damp flat in London.
Above all we must be radical. I was brought up in the suburbs of London and it was boring and bland. So why not clear some of these areas and create housing fit for purpose, that is energy efficient and doesn’t rely on every resident having their own personal car? In many ways, too many cars is one of the biggest problems in this country, as it necessitates that all houses must have space for two.
I don’t want this to turn into the rant of a bitter old man, which I am not! In some ways, it’s a fact that I made my money by inventing disruptive technology, so let’s disrupt the cosy cartel of those with homes, councils of fat-cat Tories or champagne Socialists, who like the certainty of getting elected and a building industry not fit for purpose, that likes big repetitive expensive contracts.
So if we are going to build more dwellings, where should we build them?
Although, it was done in a rather boring way, the development of the new Dalston Junction station, where flats were built over the station was very good. I have heard that Transport for London are rebuilding Dalston Kingsland station. They should be bold and effectively put the North London Line in a tunnel and build gardens and a new square over the top, with tower blocks providing the accommodation. C and I lived in a tower block with three children in the Barbican and it worked. At the present time, we have the architects and design skills to create housing, but those who live near-by don’t want it on their doorstep.
But imagine being a couple with two young children, living high above the city in a modern almost zero-energy flat in the clean air with superb views. To go shopping, you just take the lift to the shops and market below and to travel the same lift takes you into the railway station.
It was almost ideal like that in the Barbican, except that there was no supermarket, as there is today. But we had the market in Whitecross Street.
Every rail station, should have meaningful development over the top. Imagine putting the local hospital on top of a station, so that it is the easiest place in the city to get to.
We need more innovative solutions to our housing crisis, but most of the population still prefer what we have.
I sometimes think that the whole of the economics of this country is driven by the houses we own. Somehow we must break that link and allow everybody to purchase the dwelling that they need.
Crossrail Build A Temporary Station
Crossrail don’t seem to do rubbish, as these pictures of the temporary station at Abbey Wood show.
It will probably be better without the rain and when they have finished the lifts. But how many times have you seen lifts in a temporary building. I’ve only seen them once befire and that was at the site of Crossrail’s Custom House station.
Is Vince Cable Pitching For Luddite Of The Year?
I’ve just heard Vince Cable on the radio saying that he will endeavour to get Lloyds to not close the last branch in a town.
I’ve afraid traditional banking is dead. For most people and companies, cheques are no more, branches have no purpose and everything is on the Internet.
If people don’t want to go that way, then I suspect that someone will accommodate them At a price!
People always go on about how would small shops bank their cash. Here in London, they banned cash on buses and although the usual Luddites had their say, nobody seems to bother now!
The Anonymous Widower 