Inflated Balloons Are Allowed On Birmingham Buses
Unlike in Liverpool, inflated balloons are obviously allowed on Birmingham buses, as no-one objected to this group of people doing so.
Inflated Balloons Are Allowed On Birmingham Buses
Why should Liverpool have a ban, when no-one else seems to?
Liverpool Gets The Puppets Out Again
In 2012, Liverpool staged the Sea Odyssey: Giant Spectacular to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.
On Friday, they’re staging another giant puppet show to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Great War. It’s reported here in the Liverpool Echo.
I wish I could go, but I’ve got to be here for my builders on Friday, which would be the best day.
You may question, if a free show like this is a good idea, as surely it costs a lot to setup. This is what Wikipedia said about the financial benefits of the Sea Odyssey.
An independent report into the impact of Sea Odyssey concluded it was the most successful event in Liverpool’s history. The report showed that 800,000 people took part in the event, which resulted in an economic impact of £32 million.
So it would appear that spectacular events are a good idea financially.
How much did Leeds, Cambridge and London benefit from the Tour de France? And after the Commonwealth Games, how many people having a holiday in Edinburgh, will now take the trip across to Glasgow?
What odds will I get on the French puppeteers turning up in Liverpool again in a few years time. Perhaps they’ll bring a puppet of Red Rum to the Grand National!
Crossrail Of The North
Is it farther between Liverpool and Hull or from London to Norwich?
Actually, they are about the same being around two hundred kilometres for both.
But compare the train times between the two city pairs.
Liverpool to Hull takes three and a quarter hours, with at least one change, whereas London to Norwich takes five minutes under two hours.
Actually, the London to Norwich service hasn’t improved much since the 1960s, as British Rail’s aspiration then had the catchy phrase of a two-hour, two-stop service.
Since then the line has been electrified and a typical train stops up to six times on the route, with eight coach services running twice every hour.
You might think, that being that the line runs across the flat East Anglian countryside that it is a railway on which high speeds of the order of two hundred kilometres per hour are possible.
But you’d be wrong, as the line isn’t straight and the maximum speed is only a hundred and sixty!
Even so, plans are afoot to do the London to Norwich trip in ninety minutes, probably using the current trains, albeit with perhaps some new locomotives.
All this shows what a disgrace the rail routes across the North of England are.
Few are electrified and trains are often scrapyard specials. There are some new trains, but these are seriously overcrowded.
Politicians should hang their heads in shame.
At least George Osborne seems to be thinking about it, judging by reports on the BBC this morning.
The North of England needs a high frequency and high capacity, world-class railway linking the main cities together. As with London to Norwich, Liverpool to Hull should be at least twice an hour in ninety minutes or less. It should all be possible with good 1980s, let alone the best modern, technology.
A Maritime Tour Of England
My trip to Portsmouth yesterday, got me thinking.
As I waited for my train to return to London, there was a First Great Western train waiting in Portsmouth Harbour station waiting to depart to Cardiff via Bristol.
So why if you are thinking of visiting England and you’re interested in the sea and ships, why not visit England’s three western maritime cities; Portsmouth, Bristol and Liverpool? All have their main attractions close to the city centres and with the exception of Bristol, the stations are too!
Trains between Portsmouth and Bristol are every hour and take about two and a half hours and those between Bristol and Liverpool have the same frequency but take just over three hours.
So it is feasible to perhaps start your trip in London and then spend say two or three days in each city. Remember that Portsmouth and Bristol are near to excellent beaches for swimming and sunbathing and Liverpool is near to the amazing beach at Formby with its statues by Antony Gormley.
After Liverpool, you might carry on to Newcastle or Glasgow for a maritime theme or take the flight home from either Liverpool or Manchester airports.
As all cities are to the west, the weather is more likely to be sunny and warm, than some other places I could mention. The weather in Portsmouth yesterday was supposed to be of cloud and rain, but I ended in the sun all day.
Two things would improve your trip.
Some rail companies allow you to break your journey, provided you keep going in the same direction. So for instance, between Portsmouth and Bristol, you might like to break your journey at Salisbury for lunch.
But if you do, I suspect there’s no Left Luggage facilities at the station.
As to hotels, you would obviously pay your money and take your choice. I think that in each city, there are ones at all prices in the city centres or by the stations.
Remember if you’re over sixty, you can buy a Senior Railcard for a third off rail fares. If you are someone, who can stick to a timetable, the three tickets linking London, Portsmouth, Bristol and Liverpool, booked in advance over the Internet will probably cost around £30 each leg or £20 with a Railcard.
Judging by the number of foreign tourists, that I meet on trains, this type of holiday is getting much more common.
Liverpool to Gdansk
I’ve flown out of a lot of the UK’s bigger airports in my own aircraft like Stansted, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Cardiff, Bristol and Liverpool, several times. But compared to say Edinburgh, where I flew many times, my single visit to Liverpool doesn’t rate high up the number scale.
But it was a memorable trip for one big reason; the weather.
I’d been to collect my eldest son and fly him back to Suffolk. The terminal was then small and you can just see it in this picture I took as my flight left for Gdansk.
The Leaving Of Liverpool
Then it was a small red and grey steel prefabrication. Now the terminal is many times bigger.
The weather on this trip was good, as the picture shows.
But on that day, we had to wait two or three hours to get a gap in the weather so we could take off.
When we did leave, we had tremendous thunder and lightning and it was a fight to keep the plane straight and level.
But we eventually made it back to Ipswich Airport, which now has been lost to developers and their concrete. Mainly because Ipswich’s geriatric Labour council at the time seemed to believe that private flying was all about rich mens’ toys. Despite the fact that the airport housed one of the biggest parachute training schools in the south of England.
I sometimes think that my life would be very different if Ipswich Airport hadn’t been closed.
The flight to Gdansk from Liverpool was uneventful, even if the Wizzair A320 was rather hot. But I made it off the plane with no problem.
Burnley To Liverpool Airport On A Sunday
To get to Liverpool Airport from Burnley on a Sunday wasn’t easy.
I first got a train to Preston where I got a train to Ormskirk. There was this unusual end-to-end interchange between one of Northern Rail’s Class 153 scrapyard specials and one of Merseyrail’s smart Class 508s.
Changing Trains At Ormskirk
Merseyrail has been pushing to electrify all the way from Liverpool to Preston, which would remove this change of train. Wikipedia says this.
Electrification from Ormskirk to Preston has been considered in conjunction with the Burscough Curves reopening. It would re-establish the most direct Liverpool-Preston route and is one of Merseytravel’s long-term aspirations.
This whole corner of Lancashire seems either to be sprouting wires or growing third rails. Many of which lead to Liverpool or Manchester.
Once in Liverpool, I alighted at Moorfields station and walked a hundred yards or so to Carluccio’s, where I had a supper to prepare me for the journey.
I did search for a bus to Liverpool Airport, but even at the main bus station, there was no information or anybody to ask.
When will these people learn, that one of the way to get people to use buses is to provide information everywhere as London does.
So I reluctantly took a taxi!
Slow Train To Liverpool
On Saturday, I’m flying out from Liverpool to Gdansk in Poland to start one of my home runs by train back to London.
You might argue why I’m starting from Liverpool rather than one of the London airports.
It’s because I’m seeing Ipswich Town play their last away match of the season at Burnley and it seems logical to take a flight from the more convenient Liverpool Airport.
I had thought, it would be easy to get a train between Burnley and Liverpool, as I’ve driven the route in the 1960s and it must have taken about two hours in my 1950s-vintage Morris Minor. So surely, there must be a train in about that time to speed me on my way, with a change at Preston.
If I was to do it today, I can do the journey in two hours and eight minutes with just that single change, but on Saturday, it’s a journey of two and a half hours changing at both Preston and Ormskirk. At least I end up in Liverpool at the station nearest to Carluccio’s, so there should be just time for a good late lunch and then a taxi to the Airport, from the rank next to the restaurant.
Fifty years on, we don’t seem to have made much progress!
Although things should get better in the next few years, as the Northern Hub spreads its electric tentacles.
Countryfile Is Showing The Gormley Statues
Just watching Countryfile and it’s showing the Gormley statues on Crosby Beach.
My Poor Boots
I took this picture when I got home yesterday.
My Poor Boots
The sand from the walk on the beach just doesn’t seem to drop off!
Why Wasn’t The Picc-Vic Tunnel Built?
The Picc-Vicc Tunnel, which would have been a rail bypass under Manchester. Having experienced the tunnel under Liverpool,earlier in the day, I was wondering, why a similar tunnel hadn’t been built in Manchester.
On the way back from Huddersfield to Manchester, I was discussing with several Huddersfield fans, how the Northern Hub would affect their journeys. All seemed to be welcoming the upgrade, so I asked why the Picc-Vicc tunnel wasn’t built.
One guy, said that he’d been to a lecture at the local historical society. He said that British Rail and the government were planning three tunnels in the 1970s; Liverpool, Manchester and the Tyneside Metro.
So because of cost, one had to be dropped, and Manchester was chosen.
As we’re getting much better with tunnels every year, I wouldn’t say that the Picc-Vicc tunnel is dead. Crossrail was on the back-burner for so long, no-one ever thought it would happen!
Could we for instance see a tunnel under part of Manchester for HS2?
The Anonymous Widower 