Cinderella Will Take You to the Ball!
If ever there was a railway that was built on the cheap and was very much an ugly duckling, that has metamorphasised into a swan, it is that Cinderella of London’s transport system, the Docklands Light Railway.
It is a unique concept in the United Kingdom, in that the small trains are driverless and generally run between unmanned stations, to cut down both the capital and running costs. Each train has an onboard customer service representative for security as well as dealing with the passengers, He or she can drive the train in an emergency.
It may in some ways be a Cinderella, but over the twenty years or so it has been running, it has grown like Topsy from its original routes linking the City, Canary Wharf and Stratford to serve Lewisham and Woolwich south of the Thames and the City Airport and other places to the east.
Docklands Light Railway at Canary Wharf
Now that the Olympics are just two years away, this line has new and larger trains and will play a major part in moving people to and from that big party in Stratford. Even now, some of the best views of the Olympic Park are from the DLR.
Olympic Park From the DLR
I travel the DLR a lot if I can, as it is the best way to explore the east of London. Views are superb, as unlike the Underground, very little of the line is in tunnels and much of it is on viaducts or bridges raised above the ground. No trip by a tourist to London is complete without using London’s most unusual and unique transport system.
I can’t understand, why the concept has not been copied elsewhere. I feel that the badly-designed, implemented and built Cambridge Busway could almost now have been built as a smaller version of the DLR. Trains might be just two coaches and running at ground level from Trumpington, via Addenbrookes and the city centre all the way to Histon, Long Stanton and St. Ives. The DLR has shown that such a concept will work and in the end, people get to love it.
Proving I’m Not Tired of Life!
It was Samuel Johnson, who famously said, “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life!”
As there was little to do to keep me at home, I got a lift from one of the stud staff to the small station at Dullingham from where I got the local train to CAmbridge from the fast train to London.
Cambridge Train Arriving at Dullingham
For just £21.10, I bought a ticket that got me to London and allowed me to roam all over the city as far as Croydon in the South and Barking in the East. So I do have a Senior Railcard!
When I left I hadn’t too much idea about what I was going to do, but I had vague thoughts about travelling around seeing some of the sights and perhaps going to see some friends in South London.
Well, within an hour from leaving Dullingham, I was in Kings Cross, after an enjoyable journey chatting with three ladies of about my own age. The American lady opposite was at a legal Summer School in Cambridge and was intending to use the trains to explore London and places further, whilst in the city. I think she said that she’d bought a Senior Railcard in Cambridge to get the discount of a third on tickets. I hadn’t realised that the cards were available for non-UK citizens, but it seems fair and it will encourage tourists of the right type.
Tourism Will Increase by 60%
This report was on the Press Association web site.
The value of tourism to the UK economy is set to rise by more than 60% to £188 billion by 2020, according to a report.
The number of jobs supported by tourism is predicted to increase by 264,000 to 2.89 million in the next 10 years, the report commissioned by VisitBritain added.
The amount of spending per year by overseas residents is likely to almost double from £16 billion now to £31 billion in 2020.
It is all good news, but are places like Middlesbrough ready for it. In my travels recently, London, East Suffolk and Newcastle certainly are.
Buses, Trains and Walking
On Wednesday, I needed to get from Aldgate to Piccadilly Circus, so I took a bus. In London, you just look at the list of places on the shelter and then find out, which stop in the area is the one you want. In this case, I was lucky as it was the same shelter, but usually, it’s only a walk of a couple of metres. I think I waited perhaps a minute before my 15 bus arrived. I have a free pass, as I’m over sixty, so it was just a matter of showing the card, climbing upstairs and finding a seat. As I get tired, I find that buses are a convenient place to sit in towns like London. After a brief rest, I arrived at my destination.
Similarly, the trains are now pretty comfortable and for my journey home, after a second bus ride to Kings Cross, I was able to get a seat. As the train was busy, First Capital Connect were employing a firm lady to organise everybody in the carriage. We do things differently here to Japan, but she had the same effect, as she got everybody sitting orderly, by eliminating those, who feel that they are entitled to two seats.
I was quite refreshed by Cambridge, before my transfer to the train for Newmarket. There was a bit of hassle, as I had to exit the station to get another ticket, rather than purchase it on the train. They have now installed gates at Cambridge to clamp down on fare dodging, but they’ve also made it difficult to say go to the M&S in the station to get your supper, whilst you are waiting for your connection. They should think these things through properly.
I don’t really have a problem with walking, but where I was in London wasn’t too well provided with places to sit, to get the rest I need to take. So in some ways, I thought that it might be better to use my pass and just sit in a bus.
But at least I know I can manage!
The Middlesex Hospital Lives On!
To me, two London hospitals hold pride of place in my mind, St. Bartholemew’s or Barts, as it was the local hospital, when we lived in the Barbican and the Middlesex, as our oldest and youngest sons were born there.
The Middlesex is now just a bricked and boarded-up chapel, surrounded by a vast deserted building site, as it has long been demolished to make way for a hotel and housing.
But something from the Middlesex lives on; the art. Or rather some of the most amazing pieces of Victorian art, that used to be in the hospital reception area.The paintings are now on display at The National Gallery until October. See more here on the BBC. The artist was Frederick Cayley Robinson. Note that the link points to a French entry in Wikipedia, as there is no English one! What does this say about our views on artists?
Five Years On
It is now five years since the London Bombings of the seventh of July in 2005.
On that day, when it became obvious what had happened, I wrote the following :-
Tuesday, I went to the funeral of a friend. Alex died young at 48. Life is cruel. But even the funeral was not a sad affair! Alex wouldn’t have wanted it so and stated it probably many times before she died!
Wednesday, I was in Trafalgar Square, when my fair and beloved city, London, was announced as the winner of the 2012 Olympic Games. Life can be so sweet.
But then we have the bombings of today!
Thousands of times, I’ve travelled through the tunnels under London. Many times, I’ve done the stretch between Kings Cross and Russell Square, where most of the casualties occurred. Occasionally, I’ve used the two parts of the Circle Line, where the other two bombs went off.
Am I bitter? Angry? Sad? Vindictive?
Not sure!
Sad yes! As why would anybody want to do such a thing! How would I feel if one of my sons did that? I would know I had failed. How would I feel if one of my sons had got caught in the blasts. I don’t know! But thankfully they didn’t.
So it has to be sadness at the moment. Vindictiveness only follows the old eye for an eye maxim, which means that we all go blind!
But perhaps, the greatest thing we can do is just carry on, remembering those that died and vowing to be more vigilant so that it won’t happen again.
Fay would have done that. She worked for my father and during the Second World War, the shy girl from North London, worked as a conductor on the buses. One day, the bus she should have been on, was hit directly by a German bomb. Everybody died! She just remembered the tragedy, I suspect she cried long and hard, and then she carried on.
A few crackpots, who take the good name of Islam in vain, should never be able to bring London to its knees, when the evil Hitler and the Luftwaffe failed.
A last point for Bush and all those who think that the death penalty is a deterrent in these sort of cases. I’ll ignore the fact that the London atrocities may well have been suicide bombers, which are usually pretty difficult to execute. But as I am someone who has no belief in any religious being at all, I do believe that we should do all we can to preserve reasonable life here, as there is nothing more to come. So if we ever execute anybody, then we are losing our own humanity and descending below their level.
Carry on London.
Since then London has picked itself up, dusted itself down and started all over again. But it always does and looks forward rather than backward.
I might be in a worse state having lost my wife and son to serious cancer and suffered a couple of strokes.
But I must carry on.
A Courageous Woman
Gill Hicks lost both her legs in the London Tube Bombings of the 7th July 2005. She has not embraced as many would hate but founded M.A.D. for Peace.
She is an example to us all!
The Culture Line
The East London Line has now teamed with ten museums to create The Culture Line.
What a good idea for both Londoners and tourists.
C Comes to me in a Dream
I don’t often dream of C, as I rarely dream about people, but I did last night. We were house hunting in Hampstead, or more likely a bit south-west. At one point we were in a garage and a lady appeared with a basset hound. He was called Lord Kinloch and two others appeared. We both thought this was the area for us. We were looking at a wreck of a property, when we met the very personable Asian developer. He said that he had the property for us just off Marylebone Lane. C also said she could put him in touch with a solicitor from Swindon, who had property to convert in London. The dream ended as we drove to Marylebone Lane.
The funny thing about the dream was that C was driving a blue Jaguar XJ-S. She had several, but all were red.
The Anonymous Widower 