Is This The Way To Develop Railways?
It has been announced today that the government has fully approved the Croxley Rail Link. This report on the BBC gives full details. Here’s their summary.
An extension to the London Underground’s Metropolitan Line to serve the centre of Watford has been given the final go-ahead.
The government gave the £118m Croxley Rail Link the all-clear through the Transport and Works Act Order.
The line will be extended to Watford Junction via Watford High Street and two new stations will open, including one near the town’s football ground.
This seems to be a scheme that has a lot of merits.
Personally, it will mean that when I go to see Ipswich play football in Watford, I will avoid the long walk across the town. I think that because of this ease of access, Watford FC will be one of the bigger beneficiaries, as ease-of-access always brings in more visitors to any venue.
This fairly small scheme will have all sorts of benefits. This paragraph is lifted from Wikipedia.
When the Croxley Rail Link is built, direct services into Watford Junction from Amersham would also be possible, thus linking the commercial centre of Watford to the new developments in Aylesbury, as well as providing the Chilterns with transport connections, via the Junction, to the North and other destinations.
I’ve always thought that Watford should be more of an interchange when going north to take the pressure off Euston.
i think we can honestly say that the £118 million that this development will cost, will return an awful lot more in benefits.
But then we’ve got a bit more clever with some of the schemes we’ve started recently.
The Hitchin flyover will take a few minutes off the times for trains on the East Coast Main Line for £47 million. It will be fully open in a few weeks.
Improvements to the Felixstowe branch line and its junction with the main line north of Ipswich, aren’t the biggest of developments, but they will take significant numbers of trucks off the road.
If you go to the Network Rail web site, you’ll find lots of these smaller projects.
I think we should complete all of these before we decide on the detailed route of HS2.
To The Hive To See Ipswich Town
Barnet have a new ground called The Hive and I went there yesterday to see Ipswich play.
As new grounds go, it is a good attempt to create a 6,000 or so capacity stadium.
Note Edgar Davids playing for Barnet and Titus Bramble for Ipswich.
Cissé’s Stand On Wonga
Papiss Cissé is adamant he won’t wear a Wonga-branded shirt, as reported here in the Guardian.
I support his stand.
I would like to see a law, where all loan companies from the banks, through peer-to-peer lenders to the legal loan sharks, have to publish the amount of money they lend in various parts of the country.
That way we could see if shirt sponsorship was a good idea for lenders.
My Greatest TV Sporting Moments
On BBC Radio 5 last night, they were asking what listeners most important memories of televised sport were, after Andy Murray’s win at Wimbledon yesterday on the seventh of the seventh to end seventy-seven years of disappointment.
Here’s mine.
Laker’s Match in 1956
I remember watching this and especially the screen the BBC showed when the match had ended early because of England’s victory. Read more.
Stirling Moss winning the 1957 British Grand Prix
In fact it was a shared win, as his car broke down and he took over that of Tony Brooks. Read more.
Stiring Moss winning the 1960 Monaco Grand Prix
This must rank as one of the greatest ever Formula One wins by a British driver, as Moss held off three much more powerful Ferraris in his Lotus-Climax. Read more.
Tottenham winning the FA Cup in 1961
This of course gave them the first Football League/FA Cup double since the 19th century.
Mandarin winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1962
Why I was watching this on an afternoon in March, I don’t know, but it was probably because I was off sick from school with the affliction from which I still suffer. It was a masterful ride by that old fox Fred Winter, who kept one of the cleverest steeplechasers to the inside, all round the course at Cheltenham.
Bruce Tulloh Winning Gold in Belgrade in 1962
Few others would include this, as he was not a great runner, but using supreme tactics and going from 800 metres out, he won the European Championships with ease. He showed that if you want something enough, you can get it. Read more.
England winning the World Cup in 1966
I was with my parents in Felixstowe and as we didn’t have a television, I saw it at our next door neighbours.
David Hemery winning Gold in Mexico in 1968
This was an amazing performance and I can still hear David Coleman’s commentary. Read more.
Mary Peters winning Gold in Munich in 1972
This was another amazing win and I’ve written about it before.
Red Rum’s third victory in the Grand National in 1977
Although, I remember the 1973 race, this one is more poignant as I can remember C screaming her head off at the television, as she cheered him home. Strangely, this memory was at the same venue as Moss’s victory in 1957.
Mo Farah’s Double Gold in London in 2012
This can’t be left out, as I’ll never see anything like this again. I did try very hard to get tickets to go, but when the ballot was held, I didn’t have any money, as my house hadn’t been sold.
If I write this list again, Murray’s win yesterday will definitely be included. Although it’s quite likely, that he could exclude this memory by perhaps winning Wimbledon a few more times.
Nationalism And The England Football Team
I went to the England match against Ireland last night at Wembley and although it wasn’t the best of matches, a thought about the England team struck me, as I listened to the phone-in on Radio 5 about English Nationalism.
It is surprising how many of the England team, could have been eligible to play for other countries. For example, Wayne Rooney and Gary Cahill have an Irish heritage and Phil Jagielka has a Polish father and a Scottish mother.
On the other hand, I think at least one of the black players, was born in England to parents, who were also born here.
So nothing is ever what it seems!
I myself, have two strong immigrant lines in my genes; Jew and Huguenot, so when it comes for me to define what is Englishness, I can get rather lost.
Perhaps being of mixed genes is a requirement to being a true Englishman or Englishwoman. After all Churchill had an American mother, Brunel had a French father and Alan Blumlein had a German father, to name but three.
I often define myself as a London Mongrel and when asked to fill in forms about my race, if I think I can get away with it, I do.
Could it all be down to hybrid vigour? It’s proper scientific name is heterosis.
I also like this quote on nationalism by Albert Einstein.
Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.
He is right!
I Know How Kevin Phillips Feels
It is being reported that Kevin Phillips penalty kick in the Championship Play-Off Final was worth £120,000,000.
I know to a certain amount how he feels today.
I was part of the team that sold Metier Management Systems to Lockheed for a similar sum in 1985., although with inflation it’s probably worth a lot more today.
As we went about the pre-sales process, we realised we had good methods and software, but everything was rather boring. So I was asked if I could create a version of Artemis with style and charisma. I did nothing else for six weeks, except write software, eat and sleep occasionally, but the result was that we received a lot more money, than we had decided we would accept.
It was the software and business equivalent of Kevin Phillips’s spot kick.
I also have two other characteristics that I share with Kevin. We’re both about the same height of 1.70 metres and we both performed our most important feats at just under forty years of age. He also is a man from North Hertfordshire, whereas I was brought up in that part of London, that used to have a Barnet, Herts postal address.
A Good Name For A Goalkeeper
Dortmund’s goalkeeper tonight is called Weidenfeller. Does that translate as Wide Fella?
Trafalgar Square In Yellow
Although last night was quiet, that couldn’t be said for lunch-time today.
but where were all the Bayern fans. Perhaps, as they have been described as the Manchester United of Germany, they were all in their hotels and restaurants, stuffing themselves with the German equivalent of prawn sandwiches!
It Was Quiet Last Night
I went up to Trafalgar Square yesterday evening, as with 150,000 Germans supposedly in town, there might be something worth seeing.
It would appear that UEFA have chosen the wrong day for the Champions League final. It was a bit different to 2011, when Barcelona fans were everywhere, as this post shows.
Is There A God?
I was just twelve, when I watched Wolves beat Blackburn Rovers 3-0 in the 1960 Cup Final. Like many of the finals of that era, there was a serious injury to a player, which reduced Blackburn to ten men, as substitutes weren’t allowed. The Blackburn player was Dave Whelan.
Today, he was the Chairman and major shareholder of Wigan Athletic, as they beat Manchester City to win the FA Cup.
Either there is a God, or everything comes to those who wait!
The Anonymous Widower 