Walking Along The Clyde
Is there any other river that is commonly used as a person’s name? I’ve never heard of anybody called Mississippi, Amazon, Nile or Rhine. Not even a child of a celebrity!
I walked along the river to Glasgow Green from Central station.
As with many cities, it has a varied collection of bridges.
It was also extraordinarily sunny. A couple of people were sunbathing by the river. Later in the day, I saw a young lady walking around the city centre wearing a mini skirt, high-heeled sandals and a small bikini top. The weather was just that good!
Note the pictures of the derelict Ladies Waiting Room. There’a a lot more about it here in a blog called Lost Womyn’s Space.
I was also impressed by the City Union Bridge and St. Enoch Viaduct, which could in future be part of Glasgow Crossrail.
Reasons To Go Virgin Or East Coast
I went up to the Commonwealth Games on the 08:30 Virgin out of Euston arriving on time at 13:01 give or take a minute or so.
The best thing about going Virgin before 09:00, is that you get a proper breakfast, which includes a gluten-free option. I had plenty of tea, some delicious scrambled egg and smoked salmon and a glass of juice.
I didn’t get my gluten-free roll though!
As I was meeting someone in Glasgow, who’d come through from Edinburgh, I could have gone up with East Coast and then across to Glasgow with her.
But it would have meant an earlier start and I had to see the builders.
I think it’s true to say that if you’re going to Glasgow or Edinburgh from London, it’s probably better to go direct. But even so, the distance between the two big Scottish cities isn’t great, with the fastest trains taking between fifty minutes and an hour.
So as Virgin run twenty trains a day up the West Coast and East Coast run eighteen and the fastest trains take about the same four hours sand a bit, it’s very much a case of you pays your money and takes your choice.
The trains are different with Virgin running tilting Class 390 trains and non-tiliting diesel InterCity 125 and electric Inter City 225 trains. My preference is for the non-tilting trains.
The only certain thing is that in the next few years, train routes between England and Glasgow and Edinburgh will gain more capacity and will get faster.
As an example, over the last year, Transpennine Express has introduced new faster Class 350 electric trains to and from Manchester. I thought I heard several northern families in Glasgow, who looked like day trippers up for the Games.
A Transpennine Class 350 In Glasgow
So is this illustrative of how fast, comfortable, high-capacity railways change our lives?
The biggest changed will be Network Rail moving to in-cab signalling, which will allow running over 200 kph on both the West and East Coast Main Lines. This could bring the journey time from London to Scotland much closer to the magic four hours, using the current trains.
When I went to Edinburgh recently by easyJet, security problems meant that I took five and a half hour from my home to Edinburgh city centre. So a four hour journey will be fast enough to give the planes a run for their money. But not everybody goes between London and the major Scottish cities and possibly the biggest beneficiaries of a faster service will be those who have easy access to intermediate stations like York, Peterborough, Preston and Carlisle.
The biggest problem will be track and train capacity on the East and West Coast routes. On the West Coast, there will probably be a further increase in the Class 390 fleet and on the East Coast the Class 800 and 801 are coming.
As with so much on Britain’s railways, the elephant-in-the-room is freight, which is increasing substantially. So will we see extra routes and tracks opened up to held the freight through, just like we have with the GNGE between Doncaster and Peterborough via Lincoln. Of course, we will!
Perhaps, in Scotland, we might even see the return of freight to a Waverley line extended to Carlisle.
Then there is the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Program, a project that seems to have lost its way a bit recently. But the main aim of getting about a dozen services every hour between Edinburgh and Glasgow, with some taking just over half-an-hour must be a goal for Scotland.
Easing London’s Housing Crisis
It’s now four years since I bought this house.
It had been built rather badly by a company called Back Street Developments about ten years ago and there seemed to be no NHBRC registration for it. In the intervening years the previous owners had put tenants in, and they had done there best to wreck it. The owner obviously skimped on maintenance, but then all these facts were reflected in the price I paid.
Some time ago, I started to get the house straight. Finding a builder has been a nightmare!
The first builder walked away from the job after personality clashes between the owner and his work-force, leaving me without a bathroom.
I’ve got one coming in fom outside London, things seem a bit better.
An illustration of the problem is that people locally are always asking, if I know a good builder. I also want to sort my dreadful kitchen. I have asked several companies to look at it and not one has ever made a fixed appointment or even turned up.
I suspect that kitchen companies would prefer to fit out some multi-millionaire’s house in Mayfair, rather than my small kitchen.
I do wonder how many properties are not lived in, as the owners are waiting for a builder to sort it out. And how many people are put off downsizing, as theycan’t be bothered to go through all the hassle of finding a builder.
So if we sorted out the refurbishment of small and medium sized properties, would we release more properties for occupation?
The first thing we should do is to seriously analyse the homes market and identify why properties are empty or under-occupied!
Any soutions we propose should of course be nationwide, as I don’t believe this is just a London problem.
No Contactless Bank Cards On The Emirates Air-Line
When I rode the Emirates Air-Line, I topped up my Oyster and I asked one of the guys there, if come September, I could use a contactless bank card.
No! As they’re not part of Transport for London.
Come on! That would surely incease ridership, as anybody could just turn up and go!
Do We Really Want The Barking In Parliament?
This story about astrology from the BBC annoys me immensely. Here’s the start of it.
A Conservative MP has spoken of his belief in astrology and his desire to incorporate it into medicine.
David Tredinnick said he had spent 20 years studying astrology and healthcare and was convinced it could work.
The MP for Bosworth, a member of the health committee and the science and technology committee, said he was not afraid of ridicule or abuse.
Let’s face it Hitler was reportedly a believer in astrology.
At a minimum the MP must be removed from the Science and Technology Committee.
The Crossrail Site At Limmo Is Winding Down
From the Emirates Air-Line it looks like serious work s winding down at the Crossrail site at Limmo, where the tunnel boring machines; Elizabeth and Victoria, were inserted into a massive hole, to start their journeys to Farringdon via Canary Wharf.
The conveyors are still in place and a ship was there to be loaded with spoil to be taken to Wallasea Island.
Over the years it has been fascinating to see how how the work for Crossrail has started, increased and is now starting to finish, from the DLR and the cable car.
The Crossrail Portal At Royal Victoria From The Bridge
I was on the bridge at Royal Victoria DLR station this morning and took this picture of the works creating the Crossrail tunnel portal at Royal Victoria.
The Crossrail Portal At Royal Victoria From The Bridge
When completed the tunnels will go under where I took the picture to the next station, which is Canary Wharf. Custom House station and the crane used to put the pieces together is in the distance to the left of the electricity pylons.
According to the documentary on Crossrail, it was a tight squeeze at Tottenham Court Road, but this shows it’s as tight as a duck’s arse, virtually everywhere.
Rude words are allowed when talking about Crossrail, as one of the female project managers used the F-word in the documentary.
Everybody Loves A Big Explosion
There was only a small protest at the demolition of the cooling towers at Didcot power station, early this morning.
But they were mainly locals asking if they could be blown up at a more user-friendly time than 04:30.
This report and video on the BBC, shows that as explosions go, it was a good one!
Things You learn In The Middle of The Night
I woke early, so got up and made a cup of tea and did a bit of writing, whilst listening to the excellent Doton Adebayo on Radio 5.
At one point he was talking to a Canadian journalist, who said that due to cutbacks, the Commonwealth Games are not being shown on Canadian television. All they are getting is the odd highlights.
Is Rugby Sevens The Ideal Team Sport For A Games?
I’ve spent some of this afternoon watching the rugby sevens at the Commonwealth Games.
I’ll watch rugby on television, if there’s nothing else on, but rugby is getting more and more like American football, which to me is a game of large men playing to an obscure set of rules, occasionally broken up by some outstanding skill.
But to me, rugby sevens is a completely different game, where agility,speed, skill and tactics are more important than brute strength.
I wouldn’t be interested in going to see a full size rugby match, but if someone said come along to a sevens tournament, I’d probably go.
Rugby sevens is also unique amongst multi-team tournaments in that the game is designed to fit into two days and like it is at the Commonwealth Games on a Saturday and Sunday. So unlike all other team games at Games, like football and hockey, it is very easy to fit into the schedule.
Also, like in Glasgow, all you need to stage it is a decent football or rugby stadium. It is even better though, if you have a top quality stadium like Ibrox, you could use.
And then there’s the advantage that teams are small, so organisers don’t have to provide masses of accommodation for rugby players and officials.
So to me, it’s not surprising that rugby sevens is going to be a sport at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil! Especially, as it is already played in the Asian and Pan American Games.
Did two butchers from Melrose in the Scottish Borders realise what they had started?
The Anonymous Widower 