Doncaster to Edinburgh
I had a few minutes to change trains at Doncaster, before I got on the fast train towards the North. I’d known when I booked that the last part of the journey to Edinburgh would actually be a coach as they were doing substantial work in the Morpeth area. At least though when I got in the Scottish capital, I knew that it was perhaps a ten minute taxi to a comfortable bed in my friend’s house.
Doncaster is a station that has had a serious makeover with most of the facilities modern and up-to-date. But I don’t know, but it just lacks something.
Perhaps, stations should be destinations in their own right.
I know St. Pancras International is in a different league from every other station in the UK and possibly Europe, if you believe some of the statements of the head of SNCF, but I believe all stations should aspire to be a little bit like that station.
If say you are meeting someone in the station, it should be a pleasant place to wait, have a coffee, read the paper and perhaps watch the trains coming and going.
Moving a Train
The picture shows a Southern train from the routes south of London, probably being moved to the works at Doncaster or York for repair or refurbishment. There is a lot of movement at a station like Doncaster.
Stations should also be places for business meetings, so that say if you are based in london and want to meet your managers from say Hull and Newcastle, then perhaps a sensible and productive lunch in the middle would be an idea.
I didn’t venture outside of the station, so I don’t know whether their is a nice hotel or restaurant outside or not!
But why not create a sensible cafe/restaurant, shops and perhaps a hotel high up in the station? Many stations have beautifully structured roofs and the proper structure placed up there would compliment them. In some ways, the engineering involved would be similar to that in some of our art gsalleries and museums, where roofs and mezzanines have been created. Space should always be use to the maximum, and now that trains make a lot less pollution, the roof space might be ripe for development
It might not be practical, but so many of our stations are cluttered and there is nothing more than a Costa and a burger bar.
We can do so much better!
It’s just a small point, but to get it right, you must get all the details right. For instance they’d put in nice new toilets in Doncaster, but the toilet roll dispensers were all broken, as they were badly designed.
Coming up, I would have been able to just walk across the platform, but when going north, it meant I had to use the underpass. Perhaps, we should ensure that as many connections as possible are just a short walk on the level! Doncaster, Peterbough and York aren’t too bad. They would also be a lot better, if people didn’t travel with the kitchen sink on wheels trailing behind them.
I was travelling very light and all I had was just a shoulder bag, that carried a spare pair of knickers and socks for each day I was away and a shirt for every two. I didn’t bring a laptop, as I’ve now come to the conclusion that every gram is something else to carry and more strain on my decrepit body.
We arrived in Newastle on time and whilst others were dreading the bus, I was being philosophical. There was a bit of a scrum at the coaches, but I was on quickly and managed to get a double seat for the nearly three hour trip. I think it could have been better organised with perhaps a few coaches going direct to Edinburgh, rather than having to drop off perhaps one person at Berwick and Dunbar. Some American passengers were getting distinctly edgy, as they’d only got into Heathrow that morning. They’d have probably changed their plans, if they’d known about the coach, but then the information their agent got in the US seemed to be incomplete. Travel agents are to me the lowest of the low, as they always book you on the route that gives them the most commission, so possibly East Coast pays better than Virgin! We are lucky in that we have two equally fast routes to Scotland from London and you should use the one that is more convenient, not the one that is obvious.
Sir Christopher Achieves His Goal
In the Great North Run yesterday, Sir Christopher Chataway achieved his goal of a time of under one hour fifty-two minutes, to beat eighty percent of the other runners in the half-marathon. Here’s the report in The Independent. Apparently, he’s giving up competing.
“It will be my last half-marathon,” he announced afterwards. “In future I shall be concentrating on the only sport in which I’m improving – bridge.”
I suspect he might recind that statement. After all, he did nothing for many years and then came back a star!
Thank Heavens For Sir Bobby!
I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to listen to the Popefest on the radio and it was a great relief when I found that Radio 5 Live, were doing a program on the cancer research centre that Sir Bobby Robson helped to fund!
What a refreshing and uplifting program and yet another reason to celebrate one of the finest Englishmen of the last few decades! He will certainly have or have had more effect on the lives of ordinary people all over Europe than the current Pope.
We can all learn a lot from how Sir Bobby carried on until the end.
He was a selfless man with true humanity, who probably never did anyone any harm! He certainly never meant it, if he did! And to say that about a man, who worked in one of the most ruthless professions is extraordinary.
We will never see his like again!
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.
The Castle, Newcastle
As you would expect Newcastle has a castle.
Newcastle Cathedral
Newcastle Cathedral would not be considered a large church.
Newcastle Cathedral
I didn’t get a chance to go in as it was shut.
Outside is a typical statue of Queen Victoria.
Queen Victoria Statue, Newcastle
There seem to be lots of statues of Queen Victoria, many of which have a very similar pose. Did some sculptors do job lots?
Grey’s Monument, Newcastle
I hadn’t realised how important a politician Charles Grey was until I went to Newcastle. I hadn’t realised that he had been a character in Saul Dibb‘s film about the Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, the Duchess.
You can’t miss the monument erected to him in the centre of Newcastle.
I have just been talking to a friend and they put me right aboiut Grey. His 1832 Reform Act was very important and when he was Prime Minister when slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire.
For trivia, Earl Grey tea was named after him and he had sixteen children with his wife and at least one other.
Around Newcastle City Centre
I walked down from St. James’ Park to the centre of Newcastle.
These days city centres look very much the same with steel and glass shopping centres, although Newcastle does have quite a lot of grand stone buildings in an area called Grainger Town.
Stone Buildings in Newcastle City Centre
This is just a side street and there are a lot of grand building still left in the area, although T. Dan Smith and John Poulson would have probably knocked the lot down if they hadn’t got charged with corruption.
Luckily sense was seen and the area is now being restored.
But that didn’t stop this hideous edifice being erected by the Co-Op.
A Hideous Edifice
Can a building like this have ever looked good? Even as a set of drawings!
Do I have one abiding memory of Newmarket City Centre?
Yes! I’ve never been to a place with so much smell of chips and burgers.
The Sage Gateshead
The Sage Gateshead dominates the south bank of the Tyne with The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Arts.
I didn’t visit the building, so I can’t comment about the inside, but it certainly looks a good building to me.
The Bridges of Newcastle
If Newcastle has one unique feature that distinguishes it from all other cities in the UK, it is the bridges across the Tyne.
The bridges in order as you go from the mouth of the Tyne upstream or from east to west are as follows.
- The Gateshead Millennium Bridge or the Blinking Eye Bridge was opened in 2001 and is a foot and cycle bridge by the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. The bridge opens every day and some of the pictures show this.
- The Tyne Bridge was opened in 1928 and is a classic through arch bridge like the larger and much wider Sydney Harbour Bridge, which was opened four years later. Both bridges were built by Dorman Long in Middlesborough.
- The Swing Bridge was built by Armstrong to allow large warships access to his works on the Tyne.
- The High Level Bridge was designed by Robert Stephenson to allow both road and rail traffic to cross the river. It opened in 1849.
- The Queen Elizabeth II Metro Bridge is a modern bridge opened in 1981 that carries the Tyne and Wear Metro over the river.
- The King Edward VII Bridge, opened in 1906, carries the main East Coast Main Line.
- The Redheugh Bridge carries the A189 over the river. It was opened in 1983.
A lot of these bridges have been designed to allow large ships up the Tyne. Now though, the Gateshead Millennium Bridge has effectively stopped this.
Purists will say why have I called this the Bridges of Newcastle rather than the Tyne Bridges, especially as Newcastle is only on one bank of the River. But most people will know of Newcastle and many will not know the name of the river.
The Anonymous Widower 