One Law For The Stone Roses Drummer and One For Everyone Else!
Apparently, Ian Brown, the drummer of the Stone Roses, was only fined for doing 105 mph on the M6. The full report is here.
Everybody else would have been banned, but then he has to get to London to see his son and for rehearsals.
There’s nothing wrong with the train and it’s probably quicker. He could I suspect also afford a chauffeur!
Improving The Rail Ticket System
With all the tickets, I’ve been buying for my challenge, I’m starting to get strong views about how the system should be improved.
Global Account
The first thing that is needed is a global account that works for all of the train company sites.
It would be a complete profile and contain.
- All your personal details.
- Your preferred station for picking up tickets.
- Your preferred seating arrangements.
- Your credit card details.
It would of course have all of the tickets you’d ordered in a database, so you could use them for purposes like calculating expenses or rebooking a similar trip on another day.
The site would be run by ATOC and not by a company such as the trainline, which charges you a booking fee and doesn’t always give you the most logical routes.
So let’s say I want to book a London Liverpool train on Virgin similar to one I bought a month ago. I would click the Book Similar link on the previous ticket and this would put me into the Virgin site, showing me the prices I would be charged I would then book as normal, using the global preferences. It would make the process a lot simpler.
User-Defined Pick-Up Passwords
To pick up tickets you need the eight-digit reference number. Recently, I picked up seven tickets, with different reference numbers in one visit to Kings Cross. It was a nightmare, especially as my left-hand isn’t 100%. I do text the reference numbers to my mobile phone, but that only simiplifies it a small amount.
If you could define your own pick-up password, then the process would be much simpler. I might use VG1234 for Virgin, where 1234 is the last four digits of my phone number. This would mean the pick-up is as secure as it is now, but I should also be allowed at my risk to pick up the tickets on a credit card only. I would always use a simple password, I could remember.
Text Alerts
Virgin and others can text me details of my trip, but they send too much information and we need more messages.
I would just like the eight-digit reference followed say by Euston-Liverpool Lime Street, as this would then display the reference, when I held up the phone without opening the message, so it would be easier to pick-up the tickets.
But how about these messages.
- An alert if there was any engineering work or delay before the train leaves.
- An alert a specific number of minutes before the train leaves.
- An alert with the platform number. This might clear out the space in front of the departure boards.
- Alerts if the train was going to arrive late.
A Very Unhappy Bunny
Whilst travelling from Crewe to Lancaster on Day 21 on the very overcrowded Glasgow train, I came across a very unhappy bunny. She had booked the previous Glasgow train, but had then missed it because of a tube journey that took twenty minutes longer than it should. So to get to Glasgow, she’d had to buy a new ticket at £130 and stand all the way. She was saying she wouldn’t use the train again and would fly next time. But what would have happened if she’d turned up late for her flight?
The trouble is that many expect that when they use a train, they just turn up, buy a ticket at a good price and go. If I’ve bought a cheap ticket, I always make sure I get it, although in a couple of trips, I’ve bought a new ticket to get home early. It has cost me, but I’ve got to bed a couple of hours early.
I have read that a lot of people get to the station early for their trains. The trouble is that most stations don’t cater for those, who do and then have a coffee, buy a paper and have a read. It’s why you get so many people standing in front of the departure boards at stations, blocking the path for those hurrying to get on a train. So as more people travel by train, it just means that stations will get more and more congested.
I do wonder whether this congestion, meant that the unhappy bunny, deliberately delayed until the last minute to avoid the crush.
I’m lucky in that I’m a 30 minute or under bus ride from Liverpool Street, Kings Cross, St. Pancras, London Bridge and Euston, so if I watch the buses on-line through the Countdown system, I can usually have a better experience than most. It also means, I can catch the very early morning trains before six in the morning, when everything is less crowded. But if you live more than 30 minutes from the main station and there is no all-night bus, this isn’t possible in London. that it is like in Manchester or Birmingham say, I do not know.
But to return to my unhappy bunny. She was at fault for missing the train. But in her support, getting to stations early, is often not the best experience.
Trans Pennine Services
I’ve crossed the Pennines several times so far on a train. Sometimes I used the smart Trans Pennine expresses and at other times the slower trains of Northern Rail.
It would appear that a word of advice is not to use any of the expresses that go anywhere near Manchester Airport without a reservation, as they are generally overcrowded with both people and luggage. I first experienced the problems on Day 3, when getting from Horwich Parkway to Manchester Piccadilly. There also on that train seemed to be a surfeit of obese people sitting in more than one seat. A guy I talked to who was on his way to Prague for business says it was always like that.
But the line from Leeds to Preston is very pleasant as it winds its way through Bradford, Burnley, Accrington, Blackburn and other places, at a fairly leisurely but purposeful pace. On one trip two freight drivers said that the driver of our train was going a bit slower than he might. So do freight drivers think themselves the Kings of the Rail?
And of course there is the Tyne Valley line that I took from Carlisle to Newcastle, which winds through almost spectacular countryside, stopping at stations, straight out of film sets for Victorian melodramas.
How much pressure could be taken of the West Coast Main Line, by doing a small amount of evelopment on these lines? The expresses need more carriages and the slower services need modern units with an extra carriage or two.
Until the 1980s, if you had done the journey I’d done from Morecambe to Newcastle, you’d have just had one change at Leeds, rather than two at Lancaster and Carlisle. Go back even further and it was electrified all the way from Leeds to Heysham. Now the electrification ends at Skipton. Such is progress!
But then on another trip across the Pennines, I sat with a guy, who used to commute on the old Woodhead electrified line from Manchester to Sheffield. A lot of that line doesn’t even exist any more.
All of this just illustrates one of the real problems of railways all over England. East-West routes have not been developed as they should have been. Try to do a journey like Ipswich to Shrewsbury or Hereford?
Virgin Trains Glasgow Services
Inevitably in the last couple of weeks, I’ve ended up on some of Virgin Trains services that have started at or are going to Glasgow. If I take Day 21, where I went from London to Milton Keynes and then from Crewe to Lancaster for Morecambe, before going from Lancaster to Carlisle, all on trains going to Glasgow. The early train had plenty of space, although, a lot of people use it to commute to Milton Keynes, but the other two were very overcrowded. I didn’t have a seat reservation on either leg and although I got a seat from Crewe to Preston, it was stand up for the rest of the way.
It almost seems that there is a division, where trains are bearable south of Warrington, Wigan or Preston, but often unbearable to the north. More capacity is urgently needed, both on the Pendolino and Super Voyager services. I think the problem is compounded, by the fact, that the trains get used by locals, travelling just one or two stops. I met one guy commuting from Lancaster to Carlisle.
There are a few TransPennine services from Manchester Airport to Glasgow that use the route, but they are short 100 mph trains, which at best add a few seats to the route and at worst make it more congested. I experienced one going south and detailed it in this post. Perhaps, there is a case for a couple of High Speed Diesel Trains to replace the small Class 185‘s on this route until the line is fully-electrified and electric multiple units arrive.
It has been announced that extra Pendolino trains will be available soon, but some seem to have been put into store, rather than service. Surely, if the sums added up four years ago, and we’ve had an increase in passengers since then, that they are better earning revenue rather than getting rusty.
Remember that my particular expertise is resource scheduling. I just think, that someone’s objective function is not comprehensive enough or there are some dark politics involved. If nothing, adding extra seats to the Glasgow services might encourage people to use them rather than flying, which would reduce our carbon footprint.
Given the overcrowding, something should be done as soon as possible.
At present all I can advise, is make sure you have a seat reservation when you travel anywhere between Warrington and Glasgow.
But the real problems of the West Coast Main Line are historic, as Wikipedia states.
Because of opposition by landowners along the route, in places some railway lines were built so that they avoided large estates and rural towns, and to reduce construction costs the railways followed natural contours, resulting in many curves and bends. The WCML also passes through some hilly areas, such as the Chilterns (Tring cutting), the Watford Gap and Northampton uplands followed by the Trent Valley, the mountains of Cumbria with a summit at Shap, and Beattock Summit in southern Lanarkshire. This legacy of gradients and curves, and the fact that it was not originally conceived as a single trunk route, means the WCML was never ideal as a long-distance main line, with lower maximum speeds than the East Coast Main Line (ECML) route, the other major main line from London to Scotland.
And this still means that for long distances north of Crewe, that only a double track is possible. So this limits the number of paths available, which means that running say a slower connecting service from Warrington to Carlisle, is just not on, even though it would remove the one or two station travellers.
And then you have the freight trains!
So perhaps the problem is not actually about trains, but is more about tracks and paths. The only way then, to get more through, would be to increase the size of the trains from nine to eleven coaches, for which many of the carriages have been built and are in store.
But at some point, the West Coast Main Line will have to have extra tracks, especially if more and more freight trains need to run to and from Scotland from the south. As I believe has been shown around Ipswich, the more freight trains you can run, the less trucks use the roads and you get greater capacity for cars and coaches.
I add the latter, as there is now a London to Glasgow coach service with sleeping berths.
92 Clubs – Day 22 – Northampton
That was all I managed, on a day, when I intended to do Northampton in the morning, then take the train to Ipswich for the match against Crystal Palace and then visit Norwich in the evening.
But I did get to Northampton on a train from Euston and a taxi from the station.
Northampton Town's Sixfields Stadium
I got back to London quickly and then my troubles started.
I thought I might get my paper at Euston, but in the end I gave up, as despite about twenty people queuing in W H Smith’s there was only one till open. The obvious way to Liverpool Street on the Circle line was closed due to engineering work, so I took the Northern line to Moorgate and walked to the station.
I tried to buy another paper and guess what. Twenty people queuing and one harrassed and very overworked assistant trying desperately to show customers how to use the automatic tills. I can’t use those, as they don’t accept my prepayment vouchers for The Times. So I left, vowing never to cross the threshold of any of their shops again in a very loud voice. I am very stubborn and never ever will.
I then got my gluten-free sandwiches for lunch in Marks and Spencer, and then knew that I could just about catch the one o’clock train to Ipswich to get me to the match on time. So instead of buying a ticket from the booking office, where I can get a cheaper ticket to Ipswich from the Zone 6 boundary, I bought a slightly more expensive one in a machine.
I then needed to look for the platform and found that the indicator board showed only a few trains. Nation Express East Anglia were advising people to go to Newbury Park on the Underground and then get a replacement bus. In other words, I might get to Ipswich in time for the second half.
But of course it had completely mucked up my day, as if they were in this state now, what was it going to be like getting back from Norwich later in the evening.
I thought perhaps that if I got to Cambridge, I might be able to replan, so using my Freedom Pass, I took a train to Cambridge via Tottenham Hale. On the train, I phoned a fellow Ipswich fan, who I thought might be going. But he wasn’t, so I got out at Tottenham Hale, intending to get a bus home, as I knew the Victoria line wasn’t running.
In the end, I walked to South Tottenham station and got the Overground to Harringay Green Lanes, from where I got a 141 bus home.
And then of course Ipswich lost!
What particulaely annoys me about all this, was that there were no prominent signs about the engineering works in the station and especially at the entrance, where London Underground always place prominent signs.
I suppose I should have checked more thoroughly, so when I got home I checked the National Express East Anglia web site and they allow you to book tickets without warning you that your journey will be on a replacement bus. The only clue on the booking page is that it was two changes between Liverpool Street and Ipswich.
After all of the disruption of Tuesday, I had hoped I would have had a better trip. But then Tuesday was much better, as we at least had a train.
My heartfelt thanks go out to National Express East Anglia for ruining my day and charging me £22.30 for the privilege.
I know I wasn’t the only person, who’d missed the disruption, as several other Ipswich and Crystal Palace fans were at Liverpool Street in a seriously muddled state.
I know it was my fault for not spotting that engineering work was taking place. In fact, I usually buy my ticket a few days in advance at the station and tried to on Tuesday, but it was impossible in the chaos that evening. And of course on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, I had better things to do than make a special trip to Liverpool Street to buy a ticket. On the other hand, what idiot decided that the best day to do engineering work, was when quite a few football fans would be travelling between London and Ipswich?
In all my travels around the country visiting the 92 clubs, I’ve never had a wasted day like this.
I should also say that I’ve never missed a football match, after leaving home with the intention of going in all of my sixty-four years.
So what would I have done, if I had been the Fat Controller at National Express East Anglia.
- I know that engineering work has to be done, but surely to organise it when Ipswich are at home to a London club is not a good idea. Especially, when the day is the first day of half-term and there will be a lot of families trvelling on the trains anyway. So I would have made sure that the work was done at some other time, or if it had to be done then, I’d have arranged for announcements and program notices at the two clubs previous home matches. I was at Ipswich on the Tuesday and no announcement was made, either at the stadium or on the train. I can’t speak for the program, as I didn’t buy one, as I was so tired and stressed after the journey up, due to the crowded train.
- I’d make sure that the engineering works were fully publicised throughout the week, with notices at the entrance to the station.
- I would have made sure that Radio London and BBC Radio 5, gave full details on the Saturday, so that passemgers were forewarned.
- I’d also set up an alternative route out of London for Norwich and Ipswich passengers. The new trains to Cambridge are much bigger and could be used to shuttle passengers to Whittlesford, which has a large parking area, from where buses could be used to take passengers to an onward station like Needham Market, where they connect to Ipswich, Norwich and Colchester. It wouldn’t be perfect, but better and faster than the current route via Newbury Park and Ingatestone.
92 Clubs – Week 3 – 16 Clubs – 28 Trains, 3 Trams, 3 Metros
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7
Day 15 Day 16 Day 17 Day 18 Day 19 Day 20 Day 21
Perhaps not as many clubs, as I would have wanted, but there was a lot of public transport.
I also had a late train, but that actually helped me at Hereford on Day 12, by giving me some extra time.
As with Week 1 and Week 2, I’ll put in a few awards.
Heroes of the Week
Everything went fairly smoothly and no-one really stood out, except for some very cheery people who sent me on my way.
Most Surprising Stadium of the Week
This has to be Morecambe in possibly the town that surprised me most. The whole town deserves an award for going from being a place berated in various papers for benefit tourists, to a place, where you’d be pleased to go for a few days.
Best Stadium of the Week
Huddersfield was the first of the new stadia to be built. It has a grace and engineering-style beauty that so many modern stadia lack. Access from the train is pretty good too. And the staff at the stadium I met, were friendly too. If the club make it to the Championship, they will be a welcome addition to the League.
Best Signposted Stadium of the Week
There wasn’t really one, but Manchester United and Newcastle with their own tram and metro stops are the easiest to find from the station. Newcastle probably wins because of the station in team colours and the fact that it’s so near to the ground.
Worst Signposted Stadium of the Week
A pedant would say Leyton Orient, as I don’t think I saw a single signpost after the Underground station at Leyton. But then you pass umpteen bus stops, all with maps showing you where the ground is located.
They could also include Millwall, but as the ground effectively has its own station at South Bermondsey and soon will have another at Surrey Canal Road, it is rather irrelevant.
So it has to be Manchester City, where there is no information at Piccadilly station and you have to get a bus from Piccadilly Gardens a short walk away. And then the bus doesn’t give any indication you are arriving at the stadium.
Best Town of the Week
Only Morecambe deserves any award. Just as with Hartlepool last week, they have done their best with very limited resources. The Town really shows up Blackpool to be the real dump it is. It was a pity I had so little time there on a very busy Day 21.
Dump of the Week
It’s a toss-up here between three places, Manchester, Leeds and Milton Keynes. I think I’ll give it to Milton Keynes because of the fact that it would be an impossible place to live without a car and even then the signposting leaves a lot to be desired.
The problem with Leeds and Manchester, is that their buses are so badly organised and totally unusable by visitors except with a guide. But that also applies to Blackpool and Bristol.
I haven’t really caught up much, but I’m keeping going.
92 Clubs – Day 20 – Liverpool, Macclesfield, Manchester City, Manchester United, Middlesbrough, Millwall
Not quite the Magnificent Seven, but I’ll take six after a total of nine trains, four buses, three trams, two taxis, one Underground train and quite a bit of walking, it was a long day well done.
I started very early in the morning by taking the 05:27 direct to Liverpool. I got another friendly taxi-driver, who took me to the ground for a discount and took my picture in front of the Anfield Gates.
Outside the Anfield Gates
I was all very quick and I was on a train to Macclesfield just after nine. I changed at Stockport for Macclesfield and as there was no information at all at the station, it was another taxi.
Macclesfield Town's Ground
I got the impression the driver couldn’t use a camera, so this is the best picture I took of the ground.
To get to Manchester I took one of Virgin’s Pendolinos, which as I had the right ticket was OK. However, it could be possible that you end up with a cheaper and incorrect ticket at Macclesfield, that is not valid on Virgin. So if you do buy a ticket there, check you have the right one for the train you are catching.
Piccadilly station at Manchester, is an information desert, so don’t do what I did and go there without total preparation. You’d think that directions to the Etihad Stadium, where Manchester City play would be displayed prominently. But you would be very wrong! Eventually, someone from Virgin, who I suspect was a City fan, suggested I walk to Picadilly Gardens, as any of the buses to Ashton would get me there. But there would be staff there, who I could ask! There was and I got a bus that passed the stadium.
One of the problems of buses in the provinces is that few announce the stops, as all London buses do. So it was try and peer out the dirty window on a typical rainy Manchester morning and see the stadium. In the end, I felt that I might have gone far enough, so I pressed the bell and got off a couple of stops early, so I could get wet in the drizzle.
If Manchester thinks it is an important city, it could spent a few pence on getting more information and maps for the buses and making them more user friendly. But then only the elderly, the unemployed and losers use buses. I suppose, I’m in at least two of those categories.
The stadium is impressive, but there wasn’t anybody to take a picture, which probably shows how unwelcoming and sterile many grounds have become these days.
Manchester City's Etihad Stsdium
At least I had no problem finding the bus to get me back to the city centre, although crossing the road, you were just a target for speeding motorists.
Again though, I found it difficult to find the right tram in Piccadilly Gardens, as they don’t believe in telling the punters what they need to know. There does seem to be this belief up north that public transport is for the locals and they don’t need information, as they know where they are going.
I did pass the other Old Trafford on the way to Manchester United ‘s ground.
Old Trafford on Brian Statham Way
The walk to Manchester United ‘s ground from the tram stop at Old Trafford is easy, but it does pass Trafford Town Hall.
Trafford Town Hall
And this street of healthy eating establishments.
Healthy Eating By Manchester United's Ground
Note one appears to be taking Lou Macari‘s name. But then he comes from the Land of the Deep-Fried Mars Bar. Something that is definitely not gluten-free.
Manchester United's Stadium
I did pass the stadium and took this photograph. Obviously, I didn’t want to be photographed outside, but if I had, there were lots of people about, many who seemed to be from the more eastern parts of Asia. They would probably know how to use a camera better than some I have asked on my journey.
I carried walking past the ground aiming for a Metrolink station called Pomona. However, it wasn’t signposted. I eventually found another station with the aim of getting back to Piccadilly.
Information on the Manchester Metrolink
Note the non-functioning information system, which sums up Manchester well. Eventually, I got back to Piccadilly for a train to Middlesbrough.Finding trains at Piccadilly isn’t the easiest as this board isn’t the best.
Information Board at Manchester Piccadilly
Why can’t they use the system they have at Leeds or London Bridge, which is a list of all the places served by all of the trains? This would appear to be doing something similar, but it doesn’t show all of the stations all of the time and they move about from place to place. Quite frankly, it’s one of the worst and most useless information displays I’ve seen, except for some in places like Egypt, all in Arabic.
Eventually, I arrived at Middlesbrough and walked to the Riverside Stadium.
Middlesbrough's Riverside Stadium
It is another one of those modern stadia, that are surrounded by fast roads, with no crossings for pedestrians. But at least in the only match, I’ve seen there, Ipswich won.
I walked easily to and from the stadium from the station, although I wouldn’t do it in the dark with all the fast traffic about.
I got the late train back to London from Darlington and then it was off to London Bridge to catch a train to South Bermondsey for Millwall. It was dark by now and this is the best of the pictures I took.
The New Den's Behind the Bars
I couldn’t get any closer without climbing the unfriendly fence. But I suppose it is Millwall and there might be lions loose inside.
I was in bed just after midnight, after a friendly and talkable 141 bus from London Bridge.
92 Clubs – Day 19 – Leeds, Leicester, Leyton Orient
I took the early 5:50 train out of Kings Cross an got to Leeds on time. But that was the start of my problems, as i couldn’t find anybody to ask about a buss to the Leeds ground at Elland Road and then when I found out how, I couldn’t use my free bus pass until 9:30. So that is what Welcome to Yorkshire means.
So I had breakfast in Carluccio’s and finally got to the stadium at Leeds about eleven.
Outside Elland Road, Leeds
It was another bus back to the centre and then on my way to Leicester.
Leicester had little information at the station, but I as it was a nice afternoon, I was able to walk to the ground on a signposted route, that seemed to rather go missing after the Rugby stadium. But I did find it.
Leicester City's Stadium
Despite there being a match later, it was all surprisingly deserted, as the picture shows. I had hoped to get a bus back to the station, but the stop I found had virtually no route information, so I used the most reliable transport I had to hand; my legs.
I arrived at St. Pancras and after coming home it was on to Leyton Orient.
Brisbane Road Stadium
Leyton Orient must be one of the more unusual grounds, in that it has blocks of flats at the four corners of the ground.
It is not a bad place to watch football either. Friendly too!
92 Clubs – Day 18 – Ipswich
Just one today, but it was as Wellington would have said a close run thing, as the trains were as crowded as I’d seen them on the trip to Ipswich, due to massive overhead line problems.
By Sir Alf at Ipswich
This picture shows me with the statue of Sir Alf Ramsey before the match.
At least I got home easily after the one-nil win against Portsmouth.
The Anonymous Widower 