First Impressions Of Dubrovnik
I arrived in Dubrovnik in mid-morning and took the airport bus to just outside the old city.
My hotel was in the old city, just off the main walk across the old city between the bus station and the old port.
Flying To Dubrovnik
I chose the flight leaving at 05:55 on a Sunday morning deliberately, so that I would get another half-day in Dubrovnik.
But it wasn’t the best journey.
- I walked round the corner to get an N38 bus to Victoria at about 0200 and all seemed to be stopping short at Piccadilly Circus.
- Piccadilly Circus was rather strange at two-thirty in the morning and was surprisingly empty.
- In the end, I took a taxi to Victoria.
- Gatwick Expresses don’t run at that time in the morning, but I just managed to catch the 0300 to Gatwick, which is not the fadtest of trains.
- I got into Departures easily, but then had to walk miles through duty-free, where I never buy anything.
- I also forgot to buy my toothpaste and deodorant.
- It was the main terminal and buying a gluten-free breakfast from someone I trust was off menu.
We’ve got no-frills airlines, why not a no-frills airport, which would only have a cafe that does gluten-free food, toilets and a Boots?
After that the flight was uneventful.
This picture shows my first view of the sea off the Dalmastion Coast.
If you want to see what a pilot sees on a typical flight into Dubrovnik, watch this video.
You should be able to recognise the distinctive coastline.
The Future At Shenfield Station
There is an article on Rail Technology Magazine, which describes how Network Rail completed £14.5 million preparations for Crossrail over the bank holiday.
This is one of the comments by Andrew Gault, which describes the operation of Shenfield station after Crossrail opens.
Plus the new new bay platform (Platform 6) at Shenfield is soon to be built and once the new Platform 6 at Shenfield is built and opened then Crossrail Elizabeth Line trains will use Platforms 5 and 6 as a terminus with Platform 4 being used for Abellio Greater Anglia’s Southend Victoria trains to stop on Platform 4 freeing up Platform 3 for Semi-Fast trains and Stopping Commuter trains to Ipswich, Braintree, Colchester, Clacton-on-Sea and Intercity trains passing through Shenfield towards Norwich and Ipswich and yes Shenfield will see more passengers using Crossrail Elizabeth Line once the full service is in operation in late 2019/early 2020 and same with Abbey Wood, Reading, Maidenhead and Heathrow Airport.
Is Mr. Gault indicating that some or all fast Ipswich and Norwich trains will stop at Shenfield?
If he is correct, then it will certainly make getting to Portman Road for Tuesday Night matches a lot easier for me.
Gerrards Cross Station
I’d never been to Gerrards Cross before and when a friend suggested I go to see her for lunch, I got on a train.
The journey had been complicated because there had been a complete signal failure at Marylebone, so in the end I took the Central Line to West Ruislip station. Checking the Oracle as I came out from London, I was able to determine, that the odd train was running and I was likely to catch one a couple of minutes after my tube arrived. I did and I arrived in Gerrards Cross station an hour later than I’d planned.
This Google Map shows the station and the local area.
Gerrards Cross
I had a pleasant lunch in Pizza Express with my friend.
Gerrards Cross is certainly not a town, where I would chose to live, but it is one of those rare towns, where you could get together to have a pleasant lunch or conduct a business meeting close to the railway station.
Note that the pictures and the map show how the Tesco supermarket, is built over the railway.
This tunnel collapsed during building and blocked the railway for a few months. Luckily no-one was hurt, but I do think Tesco got a bit of a bruising to their ego.
My view is that we need more schemes like this to reclaim railway land, so we can build over the top. Although, housing, offices and public buildings like hospitals would be preferable to yet another unnecessary Tesco supermarket.
In Could A Chiltern Metro Be Created?, I looked at Chiltern Railways’s plan for a metro service between Marylebone and West Ruislip stations.
In the post, I asked if it would be better if the service was extended past West Ruislip.
At present, Gerrards Cross has an off-peak stopping service of one train per hour into Marylebone.
If the Metro does get created, I’m sure Gerrards Cross could benefit from more stopping services into Marylebone, but as Gerrards Cross is a station with only two tracks, I doubt it would be used as a terminus, as on my trip, trains were going through without stopping every few minutes.
West Ruislip and Beaconsfield stations, which both have two platforms and enough space for four tracks would appear to be better choices for the Western terminus of the Chiltern Metro.
In an ideal world, I would like to see island platforms between the fast and slow lines at the terminus of the Chiltern Metro, so that passengers travelling between stations on the Metro and Chiltern Main Line services.
But I doubt there is sufficient space at any current station for this layout.
Was The London Mayoral Election A Low Turnout?
When I voted for the Mayor in 2012, I seem to remember that the Polling Station was much more busy.
The BBC has said tonight, that that is their information.
But what do you expect with such a lacklustre collection of candidates?
At previous elections, thee has been party activists outside, but today the street was empty except for a rather nice tabby and white cat.
He didn’t tell me who he was representing. I would guess, it was himself!
Ipswich Town’s title win in 1962 is a bigger underdog tale than Leicester City winning the Premier League
Who said that?
Ray Crawford, who scored thirty-three goals in Ipswich’s title win in 1962, did in this article in the East Anglian Daily Times. Crawford says this.
Town had been in Division Three South when England’s future World Cup-winning manager Sir Alf Ramsey took charge in 1955. There was promotion in ‘57, they were Division Two title winners in ‘61 and top-flight champions the following year. Five players were there throughout the journey.
“Leicester’s is an unbelievable story because it’s come in an era which, sadly, is dominated by money,” said Crawford. “I still think ours was a bigger achievement then theirs though.
“We were a bunch of nobodies who had never been in the top division. Everyone wrote us off. They said we didn’t have enough experience, they said we were lucky to win the Second Division and they said we were favourites to go straight back down. We didn’t have a single international until I was capped (just twice) towards the end of that season.
Ipswich declined after Sir Alf left for England. Under him, Ipswich had played a unique system suited to the players, which is what Sir Alf did to win the World Cup with England. You could argue, that Ranieri has got Leicester to play in a style that suits his players strengths and no other club has really found the answer yet!
I do wonder if Ramsey and Ranieri, who were both defenders, learned their management skills watching from the back, as the forwards wasted chances galore.
As an aside, hoe much would Chelsea or Manchester City pay for a striker, who scored thirty-three goals in a season?
Virgin’s New Train On Test
I took this picture near to Stevenage.
Virgin’s New Train On Test
Virgin’s new Class 800 train is under test.
The Class 365 Trains Are Looking Dated
I travelled to Peterborough on a Class 365 train.
The interior wasn’t in anyway bad condition, but it certainly shows how design has moved on in the last twenty years.
These are pictures of Thameslink’s Class 387 trains, which are a couple of years old.
Design moves on and gets better.
A Good Information Board
I saw this information board at Kings Cross station.
I think the seat on the right, should be by the Tube Map.
But it’s a good attempt!
Leicester Via Oakham And Melton Mowbray
I went to Leicester by taking a train to Peterborough and then took the Cross Country route via Oakham and Melton Mowbray stations.
Note the hot chocolate, which was one of the best I’d had in some time, except for another one on a train a couple of weeks ago.
I went by this route for three reasons.
- I wanted to have a look at the two stations of Oakham and Melton Mowbray, and although nothing special, they both look to be well-maintained provincial stations.
- I wanted to see whether the things I said in The Kettering To Oakham Line were valid.
- I also wondered if you could get a peek of the Welland Viaduct, before the two routes join South of Oakham. I didn’t!
I think that East Midlands Trains will have fun in this area, as electrification of the Midland Main Line starts to be finished.
The St. Pancras Problem
St. Pancras station must be a very inefficient station for East Midlands Trains.
- It has only four platforms, whereas they probably need a couple more.
- These platforms can take ten car trains, like 2+8 HSTs or two five-car Class 222 trains.
- Passenger access to the platforms is chronically bad and usually involves a lot more walking than say at Liverpool Street, Kings Cross or Paddington, where you exit from one end of the train onto a wide concourse.
- Double use of platforms must also be a nightmare for the company and its staff.
- New electric trains will increase the number of passengers wanting to travel.
I wonder how many passengers take trains that stop at Bedford and use Thameslink to go to London. Or perhaps drive to places like Grantham, Newark or Nuneaton and use alternative services.
One way to increase the efficiency of St. Pancras would be to run only full-length trains into the station.
But this would increase the problems of passenger flow, in one of my least favourite stations.
Two bullets will have to be bitten.
- The two escalators linking down from the East Midlands Trains station at St. Pancras, will have to be augmented to at least three and possibly four.
- Lifts must be provided so that passengers with heavy bags can descend to the main concourse and Thameslink, without walking fifty metres in the wrong direction.
To be fair, the station was designed before the trtemendous increase in passengers seen in the last few years.
But the architects knew that Thameslink was getting seventy percent larger and made no provision for proper links between the four sets of rail lines serving the station.
The Ten-Car Train Effects
If East Midlands Trains was only running full length, which will probably be ten-car trains into St. Pancras, it would mean they would have to be acceptable all over their network.
The trains could be two five-cars running as a pair and these could join and divide appropriately to open up new services.
For instance, a train to Nottingham could divide with one section going to Mansfield and the other to Lincoln.
Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield wouldn’t be a problem, but would Corby be able to fill a ten-car train, when as I found on A Trip To Corby, during the day they have difficulties filling a five-car one.
Onward From Corby
The solution is that trains from Corby should go on to Oakham and Melton Mowbray.
The area is seeing a lot of new housebuilding and would probably welcome a direct service to London.
The trains could either go North at Syston Junction to East Midlands Parkway and Sheffield or loop back South to Leicester.
I suspect that East Midlands Trains have their plan to expand their market and that the expansion of Corby station into a full two-platform through station is part of that plan.
Conclusion
Everything is seeing improvement in the East Midlands.
The Anonymous Widower 