Does She Use Twitter?
They’ve just had the Reverend Jane Twitty 0n BBC Breakfast.
Does she use Twitter?
Collect Your Shopping At A Tube Station
This story in the Standard describes how London Underground stations will be used as pick-up points for shopping. Here’s the first two paragraphs.
Tube chiefs signed up some of the high street’s biggest names today to start a retail revolution on the Underground.
From next month, Tesco and Waitrose will offer a “click-and-collect” service that will enable passengers to pick up groceries from lockers or vans at a dozen outlying stations.
After the story about Doddle parcel points in rail stations, there would appear to be a delivery revolution starting out there.
And about time too!
Today, I’ll have to stay in as I am awaiting a valuable package from a courier. As they usually come here about 16:00, that will mean a long wait.
My most common package is clothes from M & S, but these days, I Click and Collect, at the store at The Angel and just pick them up when I get the e-mail. As I pass the store, virtually every day on a bus, it is so convenient.
When I get a local parcel delivery point, it will be so good.
What Can The Banks Do For Us?
After writing the previous post about Mark Carney’s thoughts on the pound and Scottish independence, I got to thinking about the nature of different currencies and how I feel about them.
On my travels to Budapest, Stockholm, Palermo and Bilbao, I’ve used Hungarian forint, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian krone and Swiss francs in addition to euro and pounds. Train journeys across Europe could be a nightmare, as like the trip back from Stockholm, each country could be a different currency and you end up with enough change to tear holes in all your pockets, but impossible to understand.
The personal preference, that I like to use cash makes it worse in a non-euro and non-pound country, like Hungary, where I don’t have any natural feel for notes and coins.
I just think that the banks are making it easy for us to handle all these currencies, but some have made a start.
I have a credit card from Nationwide, that just converts the transaction into pounds on my statement and doesn’t charge me any commission, when I use it abroad.
As a customer I like that and I’ve heard one savings expert recommend this credit card for just this reason.
So shouldn’t all credit cards be like this?
But i used to be a world-class computer programmer. Probably to say I used to be is totally wrong, as my mind is still reasonably sharp and it certainly knows what computers can do.
So why when I use my credit card in say Ruritania and I pay for a delicious gluten-free meal with my credit card, does the terminal not show me the cost in both Ruritanian wotsits and English pounds? If I was say a Frenchman and my bank account was in euros, then I would want euros instead of pounds.
All it needs is a bit of clever software.
Come on you bankers!
Carney’s Sense On An Independent Scotland And The Pound
Mark Carney has pronounced on how an independent Scotland would use the pound. It’s reported here and this is the first few paragraphs.
The Bank of England governor has said an independent Scotland would need to give up some power to make a currency union with the rest of the UK work.
Mark Carney said such a move, proposed by the Scottish government, “requires some ceding of national sovereignty”.
He also said the risks of not having a strong agreement had been demonstrated by problems in the Eurozone.
I think it is more complicated than he says, as would a government of what is left of the UK, want to let Scotland share a currency? There are plenty of politicians, who would want to settle old scores
And would Scotland be allowed to use the pound by the European Union?
I don’t care one way or the other, so long as I don’t have to foot the bill for extra taxes to pay for the mess politicians leave us in! Which of course, they always do!
Long Live The Settle And Carlisle
Or as I rode the Settle and Carlisle line yesterday from North to South, should I call it, the Carlisle and Settle?
I’ve never ridden it before and I can’t understand why, as it is a spectacular line running through magnificent scenery.
The weather yesterday wasn’t good as the pictures show. But that didn’t stop the 15:05 from Carlisle being about two-thirds full. Most seemed to be small groups, whohad had a day out and were returning to Leeds. But judging by their clothes, they weren’t going to stray far into the hills.
If this a typical journey on a wet Tuesday afternoon in late January, there can’t be much wrong with the way the line is managed, as a partnership. Judging by the age of many of the customers, the ridership is probably a tribute to the Senior and other railcards.
Reading various web sites it would seem that Network Rail have got to grips with the magnificent Ribblehead Viaduct, the track and other structures, and the Settle Carlisle Railway Development Company seem to have been doing their best in restoring stations and other lineside structures. I also found this article on the Network Rail web site about improving communications and signalling.
It would appear too, that there is a lot of enthusiasm and common sense in securing the future of this line.
So what do I think the future will hold?
The Development Company and others want to see more trains on the line. Currently, there are seven trains in both directions between Leeds and Carlisle, with the first leaving at 05:29 from Leeds and 05:50 from Carlisle. If that isn’t a schedule to get people into the hills for a heavy constitutional, then I don’t know what is? The train I rode was one of Northern Rail’s two coach Class 158s. It would be interesting to see how crowded these trains get in the summer! Obviously new trains are out of the question, but with the Manchester-Liverpool-Blackpool electrification, there might be some more of these Class 158s available. If those backing a direct Manchester to Carlisle service over the line, they’ll certainly be needed. But people have said to me, that there is a shortage of decent diesel multiple units in the UK.
Surely though, greater capacity on the line will help to generate tourism in the area and all the much-needed employment it creates!
As I write this note, it has been announced that the West coast Main Line has been closed due to overhead line problems at Penrith. So like the problems I encountered last Saturday on Greater Anglia, there I suspect, a lot of frustrated passengers and rauilway managers and staff, wondering what is going to happen!
So perhaps one option might be to electrify Settle to Carlisle and the related Leeds to Morecambe line. This would provide a double-tracked by-pass from Carnforth to Carlisle. This option, which could also be used by freight trains is discussed here. Remember that the West Coast Main Line is mainly double-track, so an electrified Settle to Carlisle line, would give some extra much-needed capacity between the North of England and Scotland. Admittedly, it wouldn’t be a 200 kph like the West Coast Main Line. It certainly, is a line that can take heavy trains, as the media is always showing pictures of trains like steam driven excursions using the route.
As I indicated earlier, there is a shortage of diesel multiple units and this is often the reason that drives services on the UK’s railways. Greater Anglia run a deplorable service from Ipswich to Felixstowe using a single coach Class 153. But it’s not their fault that they can’t get hold of something bigger and better. Nothing else exists!
I have said before that the High Speed Diesel Trains, that will be surplus to requirements after the introduction could be reused on some of the lines in the UK like Settle to Carlisle and Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh. As Chiltern have shown, if the Mark 3 coaches are refurbished and returned to their original seat layout, they ride like Jaguars and are some of the finest trains in the world.
On Settle to Carlisle line, they would be ideal to allow the reinstatement of direct Glasgow to Leeds and East Midlands services, which currently go via Edinburgh.
I don’t know what is going to happen in the next few years, but without doubt, something will happen to invigorate the Settle to Carlisle line.
The line will outlive us all!
A Stupid Football Supporter
Is this message for the most stupid and bone-headed football supporter, who happened to be at Leeds United on Tuesday night?
He had parked his Chevroler Spark, LT12 FNE, in the wrong place and despite umpteen public address calls to move it, he obviously ignored them, as they put this message on the big screen.
A Stupid Football Supporter
The message stayed there for quite a time, so draw your own conclusions.
The fact that Leeds United could program the screen like this, is impressive. I wouldn’t have been so polite.
Leeds Has Now Got Liths
Last time that I went to Leeds, this wasn’t there outside the station.
Leeds Has Now Got Liths
It’s good to see more towns and cities jumping on London’s bandwagon. The system is called Walk It Leeds and there’s more here.
I think that in a few years time, every city and town will have a top class wayfinding system. The next thing that needs sorting out, is a system so that visitors can use the buses easily.
Most of these systems are computer generated, so to do another place, just needs to put in the co-ordinates of where you want a map and run the program, changing the colours and logos to suit.
The Bill For RBS Goes Up
On the first of January, I wrote this post, entitled Will We Ever Get Rid Of This Worthless Bank.
But now according to reports, like this one on the BBC, the bill is going to get bigger. The BBC article says that the bank needs another £3.1 billion for claims relating to the financial crisis. As there are sixty three million of us, that means, that even the granny in the council house and the baby just leaving the hospital will have to find another pound a week.
So next time, you look at your bank account or count the change in your pocket, think of the mess that the prudent Gordon Brown, dropped us in.
Now Lloyds Bank Has Card Problems
What is it with the UK banks computer systems, as Lloyds had problems last night, as is reported here.
Beware for a surge of spam targeting Lloyds customers.
Would a Labour Government Target Smokers?
There are a couple of reports in cyberspace, that Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary wants to bring in more anti-smoking legislation.
I suspect, that many non-smokers and virulent anti-smokers like myself would welcome this, but would the idiots, who still smoke?
According to the Sunday Times, Labour peers are going to try to introduce a ban on smoking in cars containing children this week. I suppose if it passed, judging by the stupidity of the average smoker the coaltion and not Labour, would get the blame.
I actually, think we should go further and ban smoking in any moving vehicle. Partly, this is based on my experience as a child of my father filling and lighting his pipe on the move. On one ocassion he set his trousers on fire!
The Anonymous Widower 