The Overground Features In The United States
This story from the Telegraph is priceless!
The Americans needed some meaningful footage for an advertising campaign and chose some stock footage taken on the London Overground.
I should think all those concerned with London’s superb new railway, from management to drivers and passengers, are pleased, as it is rather flattering and in a way says, it must be one of the most photogenic railways in the world.
Bob Crow Looks After The East End
The Tube Strike today, is a pain to many Londoners. But I’ve just been to Canary Wharf and back and things didn’t seem that crowded.
I even changed at Shadwell, which is Bob Crow‘s birthplace, from the Overground to the DLR, with no hassle whatsoever. So perhaps he’s making sure the strike doesn’t affect his part of London very much!
But then, Hackney doesn’t have any Underground lines. And probably never will, as the powers that be, think if you give the plebs in Hackney one, they’ll only want another!
The Energy Bill Of The Future?
I saw this advert on the Tube yesterday.
The Energy Bill Of The Future?
After checking Mobile Energy’s web site, there are some nice features, but they don’t talk about a smart meter, which is what we all need.
RBS Mucks Up ISAs
My trawl for the Royal Bank of UK Taxpayers, has found this story from the Herald. Here’s the first paragraph.
Some NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) customers have found themselves short-changed in their monthly interest payments in the latest blunder to hit the banks.
It looks like a computer error.
It’s funny, but it seems quite a few of the stories critical of RBS, seem to be in the Herald. Didn’t it uised to be the Glasgow Herald?
A Pedestrian-Unfriendly City
I mentioned to a friend, who lives near Milton Keynes, that I might come up to see the new electric buses in the city. They suggested I come up and take one of the new buses to Bletchley Bus Station, where they would pick me up.
I got a return ticket on London Midland to Milton Keynes Central for just £9.55 for a journey that takes thirty-five minutes each way. Which I didn’t think was bad value.
There was information at the station about the buses, but compared to London, it wasn’t of the highest quality.
Clear But Fairly Useless Bus Information
Although, the bus stand looked to be all new.
A New Bus Station
But it was all very draughty and after waiting for twenty minutes, I didn’t see any of the new wireless electric buses going to Bletchley.
A New Electric Bus
Although a couple did pass without stopping.
Then my friend sent me a text to say, that they’d had a breakdown and when the AA came, they’d meet me in the central shopping in the city. There didn’t seem to be clear instructions about the best bus to get to the centrre and as it was a sunny, but cold day, I decided to walk, especially, as I could see a solitary lith with a map by the station.
A Solitary Lith In Milton Keynes
The lith said that it would be about a fifteen minute walk, so I set off for the centre. I didn’t pass any other direction signs or liths and eventually, I had to resort to the age-old device of asking a passer-by. I then got another message from my friend, who was still waiting for the AA. A phone call later and we decided, we’ll meet another day.
I carried on walking and found the shopping centre, where I knew there was a Carluccio’s, so at least I could have lunch before returning. Carluccio’s cafes are usually fairly obvious with their blue canopies, but could I find it? Of course not! I couldn’t even find a directory in the shopping centre, giving any useful information. It was a new experience for me, to find a shopping centre without instructions to find your favourite shop. So I decided to go back to London and took a sign pointing to a bus station. But the dreadful place had one more surprise in store for me. To get to the buses, I had to walk into the sun and didn’t see this beautifully camouflaged stone seat, as my eyesight isn’t a hundred percent, in certain circumstances.
A Camouflaged Stone Seat
I didn’t see it at all and it rapped me hard across both knees.
The Damage To My Left Leg
The picture shows the damage on my left leg.
When will those that design our pavements realise that not everyone is fit with perfect eyesight?
I wonder if a personal injury lawyer, would like to take on my case.
And then of course, there was no simple way to find which bus you should take to get back to the station.
When I got back to the station, I was wrongly informed, which was the next London Midland train back to London, so I had to wait for twenty minutes on a cold windy station with no shelter.
I shall never return to the most pedestrian-unfriendly city, I’ve found on my travels. And as my friend will testify, they can’t even get the breakdown service for the cars that they expect everybody to use, correct!
Tube Strikes And Cashless Buses
London for the next two days will suffer a Tube strike, about the closing of ticket offices and putting more staff in station lobbies and on platforms. New technology means that very few people need the ticket offices and the space could be better used for other purposes like retail.
Yesterday, London buses announced that they would no longer accept cash on buses from the summer. I would have thought that the Unions would have objected to this, as surely there must be job losses in those handling the cash. Or are the unions concerned with buses, in favour of a better service for all Londoners, whereas those on the Tube, are just out to do a King Canute and turn back the tide of new technology.
I suspect, every rail company in the UK, can’t wait for the day when Bob Crow retires!
Network Rail were going to close the West Coast Main Line in the Watford area for track works this Summer and in February next year. But these closures have been cancelled, according to this article in Modern Railways. It looks like that some nifty project management has been applied. So often this type of major project ends up causing troubles all round, as the project management is non-existent.
Here, Network Rail deserve praise, especially, if it works out as planned.
The IT Brief
I get masses of spam e-mails from these jerks called the IT Brief in the United States.
Is there a yard dog American lawyer out there who’d like a bit of fun, by suing them for wasting my time?
He can have half he gets out of the idiots, provided they don’t send me any more spam!
A Victory For Good Project Management
Network Rail were going to close the West Coast Main Line in the Watford area for track works this Summer and in February next year.
But these closures have been cancelled, according to this article in Modern Railways.
It looks like that some nifty project management has been applied.
So often this type of major project ends up causing troubles all round, as the project management is non-existent.
Here, Network Rail deserve praise, especially, if it works out as planned.
The Anonymous Widower 