How To Recycle A Roof
This story on the BBC, tells how the old station roof at London Bridge station, is going to be given to the Vale of Rheidol railway in Wales to help build their new museum.
It wasn’t many years ago, when this structure would have been reduced to scrap, so Network Rail are to be congratulated. Hopefully, the new museum in Aberystwyth will bring tourists to the town and create some new businesses and jobs.
I think too, that this story illustrates how intelligent recycling might be slightly more expensive, but properly done, it can save lots of money elsewhere. The new museum in Wales is reported to be costing ten million, but how much more would it cost without the recycled roof.
How To Make A Big Hole In Solid Concrete
This video will be one of the most watched news stories tonight around the world and the Independent seems to have got there first.
The BBC are also running it this lunchtime in the local news.
Completing Kings Cross
I took these pictures this morning, as they were completing Kings Cross station.
The new Great Northern Hotel looks particularly impressive.
Should Crossrail Go To Reading?
According to this article on the BBC, a Reading councillor is wanting Crossrail to terminate at Reading rather than Maidenhead.
It has always struck me, that Reading as a bigger town might be a better terminus. If Crossrail terminated there, it would also be easier to get to Heathrow from the West Country and Wales, although plans are in place to allow direct trains from the west into Heathrow.
But then I haven’t got access to the passenger numbers and costs.
I suppose you could also make arguments for the terminus of Crossrail to be on a large Park and Ride on the M4.
But then you could probably make arguments for the two eastern terminals to be stations other than Abbey Wood and Shenfield.
What Effect Will Crossrail Have On The Dartford Crossing?
I asked yesterday, if we needed another crossing of the Thames.
Looking at the Crossrail web site, I see that from Shenfield to Whitechapel will take 39 minutes and Abbey wood to Whitechapel will take 25 minutes. So to do that into London and out again will take 54 minutes plus a couple of minutes for the change of train and direction at Whitechapel. the current journey incidentally takes around 90 minutes, but you can do it in a car in just under 50 minutes, assuming you get a good run over the bridge.
So it would appear that the Crossrail route would be about the same time as a car, which might or might not be enough to persuade travellers to go by rail.
There will also be opportunities to change at Stratford to HS2 to get into Kent. This won’t help the journeys such as Abbey Wood, but it would be a great help to such journeys as Colchester to Canterbury.
All of these options, might cut the number of car journeys over the Dartford Crossing. It would of course be helped by adequate car parking at the Crossrail stations.
My First Encounter With Swiss Trains
Arriving at Geneva Airport, I found it difficult to find the information for the trains to the City. I eventually found the station and bought a ticket that I hoped would take me to the centre.
But finding the right platform was difficult, and eventually,a whole party of us, led by a Russian translator from Chelyabinsk, where the recent meteor landed, got on a train to the city.
Incidentally, she’d managed to get a free ticket, as opposed to my one, which cost three or so Swiss francs.
More information or someone to ask, would have helped. Gatwick, for instance isn’t perfect, but at least there are a few staff to help. Remember I can make myself understandable in French and can read it pretty well, except in Montreal. But that is another story.
Behimd all of this was my worry, that I’d heard that Swiss ticket inspectors, were rather hard in dealing with supposed fare dodgers. They don’t use the approach I found on Southern.
The Southern Way To Do PR
I flew to Geneva from Gatwick on easyJet on an early afternoon flight, as that way, I got to have a good lunch in Jamie’s Italian in the North Terminal. I always prefer to arrive in a strange place well fed, as I can’t be sure of the food I can get there.
To get to Gatwick, I generally go using the Overground to Clapham Junction and then get one of the many trains to the airport, from there.
Together with quite a few other passengers, I piled into one of Southern’s Class 377 trains. I’ve written about these trains before, and Second Class is so good, I never bother with First. At £6.85 from Clapham Junction to Gatwick, it’s definitely good value, especially as they are well-tabled trains.
But we all piled into a First Class section of the train!
Before the first stop at East Croydon, this was discovered by the ticket collector, who very politely asked us to move on, or buy a simple upgrade. A few jokes were exchanged and I think we all moved, although one guy did buy the upgrade.
I never saw the ticket collector again.
I do wonder though, whether with these trains, the comfort in Second Class is not perceptibly below that in First. The only difference is you have a big table in First and a few signs.
The inspector had handled the situation impeccably and he had warned us about revenue protection officers, who aren’t so pleasant.
I suspect that the whole incident, got Southern a few more returning customers.
Buying British Rail Tickets From Outside The UK
I just bought a ticket on Southern Railway. As ever, I will pick up the ticket from an automatic machine, before I travel.
I noticed that it said on the site that the method I chose was the preferred one for UK and Overseas customers.
If this is true and I’ve no reason to doubt it isn’t, then say an Australian booking a ticket in the UK, should do the following.
1. Ascertain the train company, who handle the route he wants to travel. The National Rail Enquiries web site, tells you this, when you check train times.
2. Go to that company’s web site and book your ticket, paying for it with a debit/credit card. Note that the actual company seems to always give the best price and often, you’ll find a special deal. Using an intermediate company is inevitably more expensive and they all seem to be generators of unwanted e-mails to your Inbox.
3. When booking, elect to pick up the ticket, any time before you start your journey. you need to chose a station, but it’s not important as tickets can be picked up at any station with a machine.
4. Make certain, you note the 8-character booking reference, the card you used and the journey you booked.
5. As you can pick up the tickets two hours after booking, probably by the time you arrive in the UK, that limit will have expired, so perhaps it’s a good idea to go and get all your tickets at a quiet time soon after arriving. Even if the company you specifically want doesn’t accept foreign credit cards, it certainly looks that some do.
The Shape Of Trains To Come
The replacement trains for the sub-surface lines of London Underground, show a lot of clever thinking to deliver effectively two different but identical trains.
For the Metropolitan line, an eight car train is needed, with a generous proportion of seats, as the line goes a long way into Metroland.
For the Hammersmith and City, District and Circle lines, a seven car train is needed, with longitudinal seating.
Bombardier came up with the S Class train, which satisfies both these requirements. It is a unique design for the Underground, in that it is through-gangway train, where you can walk from end-to-end.
The replacement trains for the rest of the Underground, will probably borrow heavily on this design.
I travel on these trains about once a week or so and feel they are a great improvement on the previous trains. I first used them, during the Olympics to get back from Wembley Stadium, where they were able to move 1,500 or so people a time away from the stadium, in an air-conditioned train. The A Class trains they replaced had more seats, but a smaller capacity and a ventilation system from the 1960s.
The Anonymous Widower 