From London and Crewe to Dublin By Train and Ferry
Ireland has an economic problem, as is well known. Commentators will argue the various reasons, but something that doesn’t help is that getting from Great Britain to Eire is not as easy as to get from Birmingham to Scotland. There are lots of flights, but they are not convenient or acceptable for everyone who wants to travel.
If you go to Dublin by train and ferry there is one train at 9:10 in the morning from Euston, that gets you to Dublin at 17:15, which is a journey time of eight hours and five minutes. I looked for tomorrow and the fare is only £32 one way. But there is only one service during the day, with another overnight.
So how fast could a service be done if the line was electrified all the way to Holyhead? Crewe from Euston can be done in two hours quite easily and it is only 84 miles from Crewe to Holyhead. The fastest services now take just short of four hours. but the trains are not electric or have the smooth ride of an IC125. The fast ferries take two hours for the crossing, but the larger slower ones take three hours fifteen minutes.
If we assume that Crewe to Holyhead can be done at a similar speed as Liverpool Street to Norwich, it would appear that a time of about one hour ten minutes could be obtained on this part of the route. So this would mean a time from London of three hours ten minutes in a smooth modern electric train. If this could be paired with a fast ferry this could mean a time of under five and a half hours if the sea conditions were good enough.
But this is more than about electrifying the North Wales Coast line, which it would appear that the Welsh Assembly would probably like to do. It is about kick starting the Irish economy. And that of North Wales too!
So surely instead of spending billions of euros propping the Irish up, wouldn’t it be better to spend use of that money to connect Eire to Europe more efficiently. After all, railwise, despite what some might believe, the UK is actually part of Europe.
It would be 84 miles of electrification and perhaps a subsidy to the Holyhead to Dublin ferries to make sure that the fast service was every three hours or so. Surely, that would be a more affordable option, as it would also benefit North Wales, which is not one of the more prosperous parts of the EU.
But it is not just about London to North Wales and on to Dublin. Properly built the line would also connect Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester to North Wales. As an example Liverpool to Holyhead would be under ninety minutes, which is the magic time that makes day trips easy. I also think it would make trips between North and South Wales quicker, but it would probably mean a change at either Chester or Shrewbury.
There are also other issues on the horizon. The major sources of employment on Anglesey, are the nuclear power station at Wylfa and the aluminium smelter. Who knows what will happen in the next few years? But if Holyhead and Anglesey had a first class electrified rail line to the rest of both Wales and the UK, it would help to attract long term jobs. It would of course help tourism and would probably make the University of Bangor even better.
We Can Build Affordable Rail Stations When We Have To!
There are plenty of places on the UK rail network, where it would be advantageous to build new or replace old stations. Around Newmarket and Cambridge there are a lot of places where stations used to be and proposals have been actively pursued at Soham and Cherry Hinton, although the latter is a bit tenuous. Now that the services have been upgraded with newer trains, it would seem logical that improved stations might increase the number of passengers.
The reason these improvements are not carried out is cost.
But have Network Rail created a precedent at Workington North station? Although it had to be built to meet a need created by tragic circumstances, it proved that a working station could be built quickly and affordably. Albeit it only was in use for a year and a supreme example of what could be build with scaffolding.
So should some of the lessons learned be applied elsewhere? Of course they should! Modern Railways are talking this month, about a proposal for a simple rebuilding of Fishguard & Goodwick station to create a transport interchange for the town.
The trains are coming, but there is no station, so they should go for it!
Bilingual Signs
I’ve said before that I don’t like bilingual place names. Mainly with concern to Belgium, where they suddenly change language of the signs to the place you are going. In one case it led to a detour of about fifty kilometres.
Take this sign in Cardiff station.
Cardiff or Caerdydd
Surely, it should be in English or Welsh but not both! If the inhabitants of the city want Welsh to be the name, then so be it! An interesting example is London, where although there is a French name for the city, most French of my acquaintance, have used the English form, when speaking to me.
Obviously, where there can be confusion, like this informational sign both common languages are needed.
Bilingual Information Sign
In a few years time incidentally, this sign will be unneccessary as new regulations will mean that toilets will not be able to flush directly onto the track.
Carrot translates as Moron in Welsh
Rob Brydon said this on QI and it would appear to be true according to this page.
So what nickname do the Welsh not use for the ginger?
I always remember that Rolls-Royce didn’t call a car the Silver Mist, as mist means manure in German.
There must be others too!
Wales Get It Right on Smoking
They would appear from this report, to want to ban smoking in a lot more places, including cars with kids in them.
They should also ban smoking at bus stops.
BBC to Fund S4C
In times of cuts difficult decisions need to be made.
S4C, the Welsh channel costs about £100 million a year to run and is funding now going to be transferred to the BBC. In other words, a proportion of my licence will be used to create programmes that in many cases have an audience that can’t be measured.
If the Welsh are so keen on the Channel, then surely funding should come from the Welsh Assembly! But they are too intelligent to fund such a bloated dinosaur, when there are much more worthy projects about.
The Welsh Call-Up Their Secret Weapon
I thought they were pushing it to hold the Ryder Cup in early October, after this cold summer in the UK, but to hold it in Wales was taking real chances.
So off course the Welsh called out their secret weapon to soak the Americans and ruin their game. It seems to be working as Europe was marginally ahead when play was suspended today.
To make things worse for the Americans, their waterproofs don’t work!
Reputedly, the Americans have been heard asking, if there is a Welsh manufacturer of waterproofs!
Apparently, they ended up buying the gear from ProQuip, who would appear to be a Scottish company. But then they know about rain up there!
The First Welsh-Born Prime Minister Since Lloyd George
Julia Gillard has just become Australian Prime Minister, as Kevin Rudd has stood down. She was born in Barry in South Wales, so becomes the first Welsh-born Prime Minister since Lloyd George.
When will we have a foreign-born Prime Minister? We already have! He was Bonar Law, who was born in the crown colony of New Brunswick, which is now part of Canada.
Think Different, Think Plaid
This was the slogan for the Welsh Nationalists today. I thought plaid was Scottish!
Seriously though, the two Nationalist parties can help the removal of this Labour government. If they do, it would make negotiations interesting in a hung parliament.
How to Attract Business
I really don’t care what language people use in private, but are new powers for the Welsh Assembly to force companies and organisations to provide services in Welsh a good idea?
If I was thinking about relocating a company to Wales, I would think again, as if at some future date, I’d have to go to the expense of providing everything in Welsh as well as English. I would go to part of the UK, where things were less strict. In these days, where business efficiency is the key, then imposing rules like this doesn’t make sense for the vast majority of companies and organisations.
The Anonymous Widower 