Wales’ Public Transport Priorities All Wrong, Expert Says
The title of this post, is the same as that if this article on the BBC.
This is the sub-heading.
The Welsh government has got its priorities wrong over public transport, an expert has said.
These five paragraphs outline the story.
Ministers should have improved bus and train services before reducing speeds from 30mph to 20mph on many Welsh roads, said Stuart Cole, Emeritus Professor at University of South Wales.
He said public transport facilities should have been “put in before any other anti-motorist legislation”.
The Welsh government said current arrangements were complex across Wales.
But Prof Cole said the Welsh government had “gone about it the wrong way round” although “what they’ve done is not in itself a bad idea”.
He said he wanted to see Wales emulate the Netherlands, where there’s been massive investment in trains and buses to entice motorists out of their cars.
I agree with Professor Cole and I feel that the Welsh Government’s approach has been all stick and no carrot!
He also criticises the lack of a Welsh travel card.
The article gives a classic example of bad transport planning.
Llanelli, in Carmarthenshire, which happens to be Transport Minister Lee Waters’ constituency, is a good example of how buses and trains are not integrated.
The bus station is a mile away from the train station, and there are no buses linking the two.
In fact there are no buses at all from the railway station.
There must be other examples like this all over the country.
Perhaps we need a UK-wide complaints department for idiocies like this.
Can Park-And-Ride Stations Be Used To Increase Motorway Capacity?
This article on the BBC is entitled New Smart Motorway Plans Being Scrapped.
I’ve never driven or even been driven on a smart motorway. But one incident in the 1970s, convinced me that we should have full hard shoulders on motorways and probably some dual carriageway roads.
I was travelling North on the then-two-lane M11 just North of Stansted Airport, doing around seventy in the outside lane of a not very busy motorway.
From nowhere an MGB convertible appeared in my mirrors and I pulled over to let the other car through.
There was a slight bend to the right at that point and the road was in a cutting.
The MGB just went straight on, climbed the banking and then turned over and rolled down and into the middle of the motorway.
A couple of other cars stopped on the hard shoulder and I initially pulled in behind them.
Miraculously, the driver had got out of the upside-down MGB and was standing beside the car.
I noticed that someone was using the emergency telephone by the side of the motorway, but I was worried that someone could come along too fast.
So as I had a large white car, I switched on the hazard lights and reversed down the hard shoulder. It certainly slowed everybody down and there were no more bumps or injuries. But what would have happened if the motorway had been busy?
When I first heard that smart motorways were going to be introduced in 2007, I was immediately against the idea because of that serious incident on the M11.
So what can we do to increase the capacity of our motorway and main road network?
Mathematical Modelling
In the 1970s, my software was used to model water supply in the UK. This piece of software just solved simultaneous differential equations and was used by the Government’s Water Resources Board.
I believe that software like I wrote fifty years ago and other more modern systems can be applied to traffic flows.
This should mean that any solutions put forward should be able to be tested.
Use Of Trains
If people can be encouraged to mode-shift and use trains, that must reduce the number of cars on the motorways.
But to get people out of their cars, there must be more Park-and-Ride stations.
And these new Park-and-Ride stations, must be attractive to motorists.
In Was Baldrick An Essex Man?, I looked at the design of the new Beaulieu Park station.
I feel that this is almost a new type of Park-and-Ride station, so is it part of a cunning plan to attract more passengers to the trains.
- It has a high-quality specification.
- Seven-hundred parking spaces will be built with hopefully an adequate number of chargers for electric vehicles.
- There will be five-hundred bicycle spaces.
- As it appears the station will be surrounded by 14,000 houses, I expect Network Rail are hoping lots of passengers will use the station.
But what is most unusual is that the station has an avoiding line, which should increase capacity and speed on the line through the station.
I also think, that the station is not just about journeys to London and Chelmsford, but also to other places in East Anglia like Cambridge, Ipswich and Norwich.
So have Network Rail designed a station that will maximise the return on their investment?
Only time will tell!
Conclusion
I think that Network Rail are trying to see if there is money to be made in the design of Park-and-Ride stations.
Appliance Of Science To Boost Stevenage
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article in The Times.
These two paragraphs introduce the article.
Planning permission has been granted for a former TK Maxx outlet and two other stores in the middle of Stevenage to be knocked down and replaced with laboratories.
The £500 million development, funded by UBS Asset Management and designed by Reef Group, is the latest example of how Britain’s town centres can be adapted and brought up to date.
Note.
- We have a laboratory shortage in the UK, which is especially serious in Oxford and Cambridge.
- Canary Wharf is also turning offices into laboratory space.
- There was even an article in The Times yesterday about converting offices to laboratories in Harley Street.
It’s probably a sign of success!
If Stevenage is to become a worldwide centre for life sciences and medical research, it probably needs the town’s excellent rail links to London and Cambridge to be further improved.
- LNER runs two fast trains per hour (tph) to and from London King’s Cross.
- Other fast services call during the day.
- Local services include two tph to Cambridge, London and Peterborough.
Services need to be improved, especially to and from Cambridge.
ERTMS Is Being Installed Through Stevenage
Installation of full digital signalling on the East Coast Main Line could have various effects.
- LNER and other fast services could be faster to places like Doncaster, Leeds and York.
- Fast Cambridge, Ely and King’s Lynn services would have to be run by 125 mph trains to keep out of the way of the expresses.
- 125 mph services to Cambridge would reduce journey times by a few minutes and might allow the Cambridge Cruisers to sneak in a stop at Stevenage, whilst maintaining the current times.
- Will the Thameslink Class 700 trains have to stick to the slow lines?
- As the Hertford Loop Line will also be digitally signalled, it might be possible to divert some trains via Hertford North.
There will be a lot of hard thinking going on to find out the best way to run services on the Southern section of the East Coast Main Line.
High Speed Norfolk
I like the concept of running high speed trains to Ely, Norwich and Kings Lynn.
- It would open up a lot of West Norfolk for laboratory space and commuter towns for Cambridge.
- The Breckland line between Ely and Norwich would be improved for higher speeds. It could even become a 125 mph line.
- High Speed Norfolk trains would have a frequency of two tph and call at Stevenage, Cambridge South, Cambridge, Cambridge North and Ely before alternatively going on to Norwich and King’s Lynn.
- Cambridge and Norwich services would alternate with the Norwich and Stansted Airport service.
Norwich could be the overspill city that Cambridge needs.
Funding Available For Rail Construction Innovation Projects
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Railway Gazette.
These are the two introductory paragraphs.
Innovators from across the UK are being invited to submit proposals for the Innovation in Railway Construction Competition, which is making £7·44m available for ideas which could be tested at the Global Centre of Rail Excellence in South Wales.
The competition is being run by Innovate UK with GCRE and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.
£7.44m doesn’t seem much, but it is only for feasibility studies, as the article explains.
Entries for the first phase close at 12.00 on December 14, with funding available for feasibility studies of up to £25 000. This would be followed by an invite-only phase two, with successful first phase projects able to develop and demonstrate their innovations.
As Innovate UK keeps coming up with these competitions, they must be judged to be worthwhile.
Do they use the same technique in areas like Health and the NHS? If not, why not!
Is Hydrogen The Fuel Of The Future?
The title of this post, is the same as that as this article on Engineering and Technology Magazine.
The article is a must read about hydrogen.
Great British Journeys┃Beautiful Railway Journeys┃24/7 Live Stream
The title of this post is the same as this National Rail video on YouTube.
This is their description.
Sit back and relax as you enjoy a driver’s eye view of Britain’s most picturesque railway journeys, streamed in our exclusive footage.
Experience what it’s like to travel across the Scottish Highlands; watch the waves crash against the Devon coast; get lost in the pleasant green land of Wales and immerse yourself in the natural beauty of Suffolk.
The sounds and the motion of travelling by train have been scientifically proven to help people relax, which is why we’ve developed Great British Journeys; a series of the country’s most scenic train journeys – all shot from the train driver’s cab.
It looks like this could be an idea that grows and could turn out to be good marketing.
The Flying Scotswoman
I didn’t know there was a Flying Scotswoman, until I saw this InterCity 225 train, at King’s Cross station, this morning.
She was actually leaving for Leeds.
LNER Launches International Website Making Travel Simpler For Overseas Tourists
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release on LNER.
These four paragraphs describe the new website.
The new website coincides with the removal of pre-departure testing and quarantine rules for vaccinated people arriving in England or Scotland from 11 February 2022.
In a move that expands LNER’s global market, customers in 10 countries, including China, Japan, Spain, South Korea and Italy, are among the first to benefit when booking directly online.
LNER’s new search and booking engine offers international customers in those countries an option to purchase train tickets using their language and currency. The LNER.co.uk website will automatically detect those customers who are searching outside of the UK and will redirect them to the customised site to improve their online booking experience. The website launch comes as LNER reintroduces its full timetable, excluding pre-planned engineering works, meaning customers can discover destinations across the full 956-miles of East Coast route.
LNER has been working with travel tech company and rail retailer, Omio, to develop the site, which has the capability to operate in up to 20 languages and 26 currencies, including Euros, Korean Won and Japanese Yen or by using a payment method recognised in the home country.
Surely, if you run a travel company, your web site must be accessible to buy tickets from everywhere.
Does Anybody Know Of A Covid Travel Consultancy?
There are a few places in Europe, that I’d like to go for a couple of days.
I can book all the train tickets and hotels myself, but what I would like is someone to review my route for a fee and send me a pack of all the things I need to do and take.
Countries, I would like to visit include France, Germany, Hungary and The Netherlands.
More Train Companies Are Advertising Now
At the end of October, I posted Hull Trains Are Mounting A Big Advertising Campaign.
Today LNER are also advertising in The Times and these follow other companies like Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, Grand Central and Great Western Railway.
It looks like the Hull Trains campaign must have been successful.
The Anonymous Widower 