I've Just Blown A Gasket

I've just flipped my lid.

There is a news article on the BBC website titled "Call to stop children's drinking".

Immediate reaction... there's nothing wrong with that is there?

Next paragraph: "Parents who give alcohol to children aged under 15 should be prosecuted, a charity has said."

Grrr.

When will people realise that you cannot address a breakdown in the structure of parts of our society by way of an endless cycle of legislation?

Yes, we have a problem with alcohol in this country. Yes, many of our town and city centres are blighted by binge drinkers. Yes, alcohol is a poison (and yes I have the occasional drink).

What do you do with all the criminals created as a result of passing so many laws that we become a nation of criminals?

Answers on a post card please.

But Trains Can Also Be Good

Yesterday I went by train from London Paddington to Hanborough Train Station in Oxfordshire. Hanborough Station is a few miles North-West of Oxford.

Hanborough has one platform (it is on a single track stretch of line) and the trains I caught to and from London were a couple of carriages longer than the platform. There are not many trains- should there be any in the next couple of hours, this link will provide their details.

Fortunately my reason for visiting the area ran to time and I caught my return train fine- it was two hours until the next one!

• Both trains were on time.
• The journey from London Paddington was only 64 minutes, with Hanborough being the 4th stop.
• With my Annual Gold-Card Discount, my Cheap Day Return ticket only cost £11.35.
• The were plenty of seats and the "Adelante Class 18" were comfortable.

The ticket machine on the platform wasn't working, but the guard was perfectly happy to sell a ticket.

Now, I don't carry my camera around with me for work, so you will have to imagine the scene...

• Me, stood on small platform in the middle of nowhere. Nobody else there.
  
• Massive train train thunders into platform (two carriages too long for the station).
• Doors opened by cheery guard right by me. Nobody gets off.
• I get on.
• Guard says "Welcome to Hanborough International".

Brilliant!

It is lines, stations and services such as this that say so much about traveling around this country by train. Sometimes clearly what is being offered is, indeed, a world class public service. Well done First Great Western.

There are obviously issues about the sustainability of ongoing train services along small country lines. The existence and membership of groups such as the Cotswold Line promotion Group should, in my view, be encouraged.

After a bit of rural idyll, there were Chavs on the Line at Reading, but that is the fault of society not that of the railway company.

Why people don't travel by train...

I received a call the other evening inviting me to join some of my family in Newquay towards the end of August. The apartment we use is fantastic. It overlooks Fistral Beach, is owned by a family member and is just SO convenient.

The only problem I have is that I may have to be up in Edinburgh again, for work, over the bank holiday weekend. I don't mind- I just need somebody to tell me whether I am going to Bonnie Scotland or not.

The reality is I shall probably spend a few days in Cornwall either immediately before I go to Scotland or immediately after the weekend. At the risk of alienating any tree huggers, my transport of choice between Edinburgh and Newquay (whichever way) is to fly with Flybe.

• Flying (booking at this moment) would cost £45 and the journey door to door would take about four hours.
• Going by train (on the quickest route available) will cost, so far as I can tell, about £141 and take just under 11 hours, with two changes on the way.
• I can't book a train journey because it is more than three months until the end of August.

Now I accept that Newquay to Edinburgh is probably one of the few routes in the UK where it is absolutely more convenient to fly, but given my research this afternoon, it isn't really any surprise that people chose to fly.

New Chiltern Railways Timetable

Chiltern Railways have published their full timetable booklet for their new timetable which runs from 20 May 2007 through to 8 December 2007.

The full timetable is approximately 2Mb, so you ought really to have a fast internet connection before downloading it.

Click this link to download the (pdf) file directly from the Chiltern Railways website.

Alternatively, click here for an overview of the changes.

Observations in West London

• On two mornings last week there was a Chiltern Railways cleaner cleaning and tidying the platforms at South Ruislip. I have been traveling from South Ruislip railway station for over 10 years, and this is the first time I have seen a cleaner there.
• Sat on a First Great Western train at West Ealing, waiting to depart onto the Greenford branch, the driver apologised for the delay over the public address system. The first announcement I have ever heard by a driver on this line.
  
• The refurbishment by Metronet at Northolt underground station on the Central Line appears to be almost complete. However the waiting room on the platform remains resolutely locked. Also, despite them being locked for several years, all public literature has continued to state that public toilets are available at Northolt. Hopefully they will be unlocked sometime soon- everyone has to pee sometime. I am sure the neighbours would rather the proper facilities were available, gardens can only take so much urine. Ugh.

And the Bus Driver Shall be Named

Well, all right, I noted the number plate of the bus.....

Yesterday afternoon (10th April) on a Westbound No 18 bus, travelling along the Marylebone road at about 16:55.

I got up to get off the bus at Stop P, near the junction of Knox Street, outside The Royal Bank of Scotland.

The driver was stuck behind another bus at the stop, so only opened the front doors to let a passenger on. For those unfamiliar with the route, Route 18 is operated with very long bendy buses with three sets of doors.

Now I, along with several other passengers who clearly had trains to catch at the nearby Marylebone Station thought "No problem, the bus will just move forward to be clear of the junction and the driver will then open all the doors".

Twat. The driver ignored the 'pinging' of the bells and the clamour from behind and simply drove to the next stop several hundred yards down the road Stop EU adjacent to Edgware Road Station. I shall refrain from repeating the comments made by some of my fellow passengers.

I caught my train, but no thanks to the bus driver, who was driving bus registration number LK53FBA at 16:55 yesterday afternoon.

Grrrrr.

Whoops! I spoke too soon about Chiltern Railways

Yesterday I mentioned that Chiltern Railways ran a good service. Unfortunately today (Monday 9th April 2007) Chiltern Railways are suffering a major signal failure in the Princes Risborough/ High Wycombe area.

A special emergency timetable has been put in place, details of which are shown below.

If you intend to travel with Chiltern Railways today, I recommend that you check their website for the up-to-date position. Due to engineering works over the holiday period on the West Coast Main Line from London Euston, Chiltern are supposed to be taking the strain for passengers traveling between Birmingham and London (into Marylebone), so this is not good news.

Out to the Sticks

Both yesterday and today I have had reasons to travel out to different parts of Buckinghamshire by train.

Yesterday was to the far South of the county using the services of First Great Western.

• Number of FGW trains taken during trip: 3
• Approximate number of minutes spent traveling on FGW trains: 52
• Cumulative number of minutes FGW trains ran late: 14

Today was out to the area in and around Princes Risborough using the services of Chiltern Railways.

• Number of Chiltern Railways trains taken during trip: 3
• Approximate number of minutes spent traveling on Chiltern Railways trains: 70
• Cumulative number of minutes Chiltern Railways trains ran late: 0

No surprises there then.

I should point out that every Central Line train I have taken this weekend has also run precisely to time as well. Mind you, with only running a train every 15 minutes out my neck of the woods due to engineering work, that shouldn't be too difficult!

Happy Easter.

West Ealing - Clocks

After a period of at least six months (it seems like eight or nine, but I'm in a generous mood), I am delighted to advise that first one and now BOTH platform clocks at West Ealing have been repaired.

This is good- I find a station without clocks frustrating. However, I cannot quite bring myself to congratulate First Great Western too much- after all, they are supposed to maintain the infrastructure of the stations they manage!

Refurbishment Contracts?

It will come as no surprise to many to hear that there is a massive refurbishment programme underway, at present, at many London Underground stations. I frequently travel through South Ruislip and Northolt stations at the west end of the Central Line, both of which have been receiving the Metronet treatment for a significant number of months.

As part of the refurbishments, both stations have had new waiting rooms installed. This are glass enclosures (a bit like rectangular goldfish bowls) with draught holes at the bottom, no ceilings, lockable doors, seats and infra-red heaters.

These waiting rooms/ shelters appear to have been finished for at least two months. Indeed at Northolt back in February I saw the heating belting out heat one cold day. Maybe it was for a squirrel party, or something, because the door was locked. The doors have always been locked. That is, until this week when I saw people in the waiting room at South Ruislip. Just as the cold weather seems to have gone.

I have yet to see the doors to the waiting room at Northolt actually unlocked. Perhaps by the time the temperature reaches tropical numbers in August someone will decide that toasted passengers are preferable to mildly defrosted ones.

Hmmm... I bet it's all down to the contracts.

Chiltern Railways - On-line Traintracker

Chiltern Railways has engineering work today between Princes Risborough and Aylesbury. Also there are no trains for most of the day between Amersham and Aylesbury.

As the Chiltern Railways website proudly announces:

"Chiltern Railways are pleased to inform you that there are no planned engineering works occurring on the Stratford-upon-Avon/Birmingham Snow Hill to London Marylebone via Banbury and High Wycombe line this weekend. Therefore, a normal service will run on this route this weekend.".

Someone has clearly confused the National Rail Train live system. Click the picture and check out the Timetabled departure times (and actuals) for the first few stations.

Happy April 1st? Not me Guv.

Technical Test - Moving Gifs

If it doesn't work, this post will disappear in a few minutes.

If you can see a spinning globe, then what I am trying to do has worked and this will stay for posterity!

PS Sorry for the lack of posts- I been away a bit and have got panda eyes (it being hot, sunny and still a bit white in the Alps). I'll try to write something moderately interesting shortly.

Military Hospitals

Totally off topic and politics, but a subject close to my heart.

I see from the BBC News site that US Army Secretary Francis Harvey has resigned amid a row over the treatment of wounded US soldiers. That got me thinking about our own military hospitals.

The hospital I was born at has long since closed. Even the one that replaced that closed in 1999.

A bit of judicious searching this morning has revealed that, to my surprise, the only remaining British Military Hospital in the UK is the Royal Hospital Haslar in Gosport Hampshire. It is due to close in 2009.

On every level this is wrong, wrong, wrong. Don't expect me to rationalise it, it is just wrong.

For the reasons (or some of them) please see this article from www.portsmouthtoday.co.uk.

On a lighter note, I forgot to mention that my Grandma and I went to a concert last Sunday evening. The concert was given by the The Heavy Cavalry and Cambrai Band from Catterick Garrison. It was just what the doctor ordered- even a deaf 90 year old could hear the music - outstanding!

So, What's Been Going On Then?

Last Saturday's post was posted 'on the hoof' from my Father's laptop while sat in my Grandmother's front room. All a bit of fun really to prove to Grandma that she was 'On The Internet'.

I needn't have bothered, because I subsequently remembered another family blog with loads of pictures. My plan was to subsequently remove the post- I then realised that that could be construed as wrong, it is however simply an example of the way that social blogging works. I have however abbreviated some specific proper names down to ensure that this remains a virtually anonymous blog.

No that isn't a challenge to 'Out' my identity (Hercule Poirot would have no difficulty in that), it is just the way I prefer things to be.

So, what have I been up to?

• Sunday: Well, following a family birthday party in the North-East of England last Saturday, the rest of my immediate family left for home on Sunday morning. After lunch with Grandma in a local hotel we went for a ride up Swaledale and Arkengarthdale (in the hire car) stopping for a couple of minutes at the Tan Hill Inn. The Tan Hill is Britain's highest pub at 1,732ft above sea level. I know it might not seem very high to those used to continental mountains, but it really is in the middle of nowhere. Swaledale is where I come from and I get quite emotional even thinking about it. I am a country bumpkin at heart and very proud of it.
• Monday: I was set to work digging up sundry rose bushes, followed by the digging, weeding and bonemealing of the raspberries. Honour done. After lunch we went on a monster drive of the North Yorkshire Moors taking in Saltburn on the way we went to Whitby, Goathland, Pickering, Helmsley and then back via Thirsk and Northallerton. Four hours and about 130 miles. Fantastic scenery.
• Tuesday saw me on a lunchtime flight from Durham Tees Valley back to Heathrow, the 140 bus home and then (via the Central Line) to the London Palladium to see The Sound of Music with my parents. This is a good week!
• Wednesday was a chill out day, though in the afternoon I went out to leafy Buckinghamshire (and also not so leafy High Wycombe) on Chiltern Railways. All will become clear in due course.
• Thursday was a day of domestics with a quick trip to Ealing (Central Line and First Great Western) thrown in for good luck.
• Friday was a correspondence day with a late shop thrown in (repeat of Thursday).
• Saturday is well... now and I'm still at home.

Well if that hasn't done enough to shake off the die hard readers, I am not sure what to do next!

Pip pip!

Pensioner Organises Rave at Golf Club

Late last month the authorities in North Yorkshire were alerted to potential trouble at a smart Golf Club in the Yorkshire Dales.

Mrs OS decided to comandeer the R Golf Club so that she and her friends ("The Mafia") along with some family could celebrate her 90th birthday.

Having already received well over 50 birthday cards, Mrs S was pleased and surprised to receive several more. Everyone enjoyed looking at an interesting collection of photographs complied from across the years.

Most of the attendees were so keen to attend the rioutous event that they arrived before the bar had even opened. The bar however soon opened and a good time was had by all.

Mrs S had received so many good wishes for her birthday that a thank you notice was placed in the R Advertiser. She said "I am totally surprised by the number of cards and good wishes I have received. How did so many people know it was my Birthday?"

Additional reporting by our North of England staff.

Naughty Blogger - Bad for the Environment

After the nesting birds a couple of weeks ago, the grass round our flats was cut yesterday. The trouble is, I think it has been cut every month and it is supposed to be mid winter. Global warming is not a myth.

Still winter is good, because winter (for now anyway) means skiing. I got back last Saturday from a week in the Italian Dolomites. Fantastic skiing and company, if slightly spoilt by the flight times meaning staying overnight at the hotel. Central Line (good), Victoria Line (packed), Gatwick Express (Expensive), Mono-rail to Gatwick North Terminal (Free), night in hotel followed by 4.30am check-in (tired), Astreus charter flight (32 breakfasts light but otherwise good) followed by three hour coach transfer to resort. Global warming is not a myth.

This morning I am flying Up North for some family stuff. The plane (an Embraer EMB-145) is the closest I shall ever get to being on a private jet. Still at least I got an email from BMI last week to tell me that they were taking more money from my credit card due to a tax increase. All because of that nice Mr Brown's sop to the environmental lobby, even though I bought my ticket an eon ago. Anyway the increased tax is nothing to do with the environment, it's just because he is like a mugger- he takes your money just because he can. Don't think we haven't noticed. Global warming is however not a myth.

Oops. I thinks I'm being bad at the moment. Naughty CentralUser.

Strange place to nest at South Ruislip

South Ruislip station, at the West end of the Central Line, has been going through the process known by some people as refurbishment.

Refurbishment involves the installation of various vertical poles for (among other things) platform lights, loudspeakers, Help Points and signs to be attached to.

Now, and you'll have to use your imagination here, the other day I saw a pair of blue tits attempt to start building a nest in a hole drilled in one of the lamp posts. The birds could barely fit through the hole and there cannot be much space inside.

A subsequent visit by me made me think that the birds had obviously continued their work as there was a slight lip of mud starting to protrude over the bottom of the hole.

I do hope that Metronet, the refurbishment contractors, have no plans for the hole. Somehow I don't think the 'Blue Tit Nest' was on the plans.

No Baked Beans

Yesterday I was asked to attend a Vendor Presentation Workshop for work. It was on the other side of town and started early. I don't usually do this sort of thing so found it quite difficult. My nominated sessions were over by mid-afternoon so I was home in reasonable time, but with a stinking headache.

I have to do it all again tomorrow. Joy.

The only problem is, my solution to a stinking headache is to drink loads of water and go to bed. This I did.

Woke up at 5.30am this morning feeling quite hungry. I have nothing sensible in at all to eat for breakfast. No bread, no milk, three rashers of bacon and no baked beans. There is half a Victoria Sandwich sponge cake in the tin, but even I draw the line at eating that after no food whatsoever for eighteen hours.

I'd better go to the supermarket NOW to do some food shopping. 7.00am on a weekday morning... outrageous.

In the last week I've used Chiltern Railways out to leafy Buckinghamshire, First Great Western, the Docklands Light Railway, the Jubilee Line and the Central Line. Good for me as not a single delay or problem. Bad for blogging, hence the baked beans.

Greenford Station and the FGW line to Paddington

Greenford Station is in Travelcard Zone 4 on the West Ruislip Branch of the Central Line. It is the only station on the London Underground that has an escalator that takes passengers up from street level to the trains.

The station has a short bay platform between the two Central Line platforms, used by the 1/2 hourly (Mon - Sat) First Great Western service to and from London Paddington.

The station is operated by London Underground.

At the end of the FGW platform there are three notice boards for use by that Train Operating Company. As of yesterday (19th January 2007), one of the noticeboards had an up to date timetable, one had a notice about altered train times on 16th December 2006 and the third was a poster about engineering works between 2nd December 2006 and 1st January 2007. The departure screen for the bay platform (operated by FGW) was blank, it has been non-functioning for a while now.

Four stations down the line, at West Ealing, both platform clocks are still broken. They have been broken for several months.

A few years back I was given to understand that the FGW service to/ from Greenford was subsidised by the London Borough of Ealing. I do not know whether this is still the case, but I do struggle to see how the line can be economically viable without some kind of extra subsidy.

The lack of attention given by First Great Western to stations along the Greenford line does make me wonder whether (a) FGW management have forgotten about the service or (b) FGW are hoping the passengers will simply go away so that they don't need to run any trains.

What a sad state of affairs.

Bizarre Stopping Patterns

I've travelled a few times recently out to leafy Buckinghamshire on Chiltern Railways.

These trips have all been 'off-peak' and frequently against the flow of commuters. The services have invariably been on-time , hassle free and reasonable value for money.

I do however have a couple of observations which have niggled me recently:

• Chiltern Railways operate the weirdest stopping patterns imaginable- most train operating companies offer services that are 'fast' or 'semi-fast' or 'slow', but with some predictability. Chiltern Railways seem to offer trains that, particularly in peak-hours, have no discernible pattern of stops- they usually stop where they say they will but seem to be entirely for the benefit of passengers boarding at London Marylebone. This particularly applies to services that terminate at or before High Wycombe.
  

• Since the timetable changes early last month, it is apparent to huge numbers of commuters that Chiltern Railways have got the combinations of passenger loads, train times and train lengths totally wrong. Trains are frequently overcrowded (this was rare before December) and nobody seems to give a stuff. People on platforms, and while boarding trains, are openly discussing how their experience of the service have deteriorated over the last month. This is not good- Chiltern Railways risk plummeting down any performance league tables, which is a shame as they are usually a fairly good train company despite my occasional criticisms.
  

I don't have a full solution (maybe I should try to work one up), but would welcome any ideas.

Where is Platform 9 3/4 at West Ealing?

It came, it went and I didn't see it. Clearly my train had departed from Platform 9 3/4.

Eh?

Well the 18:36 from West Ealing to Greenford may have been cancelled for a perfectly justifiable reason this evening. The only problem is that no-one on the platform knows for sure that it was cancelled, because the half-wits at First Great Western did not see fit to tell us.

It is not particularly cold at present, but after 40 minutes stood in quite a strong wind I was, nevertheless, chilled to the bone.

Oh, and they clocks are still broken.

Two extra trains tonight from High Wycombe back to London [10 Jan 2007]

This is a direct quote from the Chiltern Railways website:

"Travelling to High Wycombe for Wycombe Wanderers vs Chelsea?

Wednesday 10th January 2006

Chiltern Railways is pleased to announce that two additional trains will run from High Wycombe back to Marylebone on the night of Wednesday 10th January. These services will depart High Wycombe station at 22:35 and 22:55 and will call at South Ruislip only, connecting with the London Underground Central line."

As I shall not be there I will not see how busy these services are. It would be good to know.

I've said (or implied) something good about Chiltern Railways... I must be building up to a rant.

Kensington High Street clearly has too many one legged people.

Sign seen in a shop window earlier today in Kensington High Street.

"All boots £10. Any two for £15".

Well... I thought it was funny.

Something about me

Apparently I've got a very experiential way of learning and a strong mathematical mind and have mastered the art and science of precision. That's what makes me a Precision Processor. For me, life is a series of equations.

My brain is naturally predisposed to intense mathematical acuity, so it's second nature for me to cut to the heart of an issue, to discover quick solutions while others get bogged down in unnecessary details. This allows me to communicate a variety of ideas to other people.

All this came about from an on-line IQ Test. The words seem fair enough to me, but I suspect that only my friends, family and colleagues will really know whether they are close to reality. I am not going to tell you my numerical score.

Christmas is officially over

Well that's it. Christmas is officially over until the next time.

How do I know? Well, it's not because the tree has gone on holiday to the attic (or mulcher), or because of Twelfth Night, or even because the card recycling boxes at the supermarket are overflowing.

No, it is because today we have the return of weekend engineering works to the Central Line.

Present indications (as of 6th January 2007) are that the following weekend engineering works are scheduled for the Central Line over the next couple of months:

• 6th / 7th January 2007 - Marble Arch to West Ruislip/ Ealing Broadway
• 13th / 14th January 2007 - Marble Arch to West Ruislip/ Ealing Broadway
• 3rd / 4th February 2007 - Liverpool Street to Woodford, Leytonstone to Newbury Park
• 10th / 11th February 2007 - Marble Arch to West Ruislip/ Ealing Broadway

As I am going in to work today, I had better set off shortly - sometimes the alternative rail replacement buses are good, sometimes they are less so.

As always, please do not use this as your official source of information. Live London Underground travel information is available on the tfl website, as is information about planned engineering works.

Great Portland Street - Customer Communications

This post relates to my personal experiences yesterday evening at specific stations on the London Underground. It is intended to be an illustration of the sort of thing that happens day in, day out, across the system. It is not a complaint about any individual or team of individuals who may or may not have been responsible.*

Station 1 (Great Portland Street)

• Automated announcement (female voice) "A normal service is operating on all London Underground lines"
• Recorded announcement (male voice) "Due to engineering works, Great Portland street Station will be closed after 10pm..."
• Automated announcement (female voice) "Due to staff shortages, delays are reported between xxx and xxx on the Hammersmith & City Line"
• Automated announcement (female voice) "A normal service is operating on all London Underground lines"
• Westbound dot-matrix train describers "Train 1: Delayed, Train 2: Delayed"
• Train then arrives.

Station 2 (Baker Street) Two minutes later

• Announcement by platform staff "Delays are occurring on the Hammersmith & City and Circle Lines. Mind the doors."

Station 3 (Edgware Road) Four minutes later

• Comment to member of station staff "Having fun tonight?"
• Response "Allow extra time for your journey tomorrow morning, it will be worse." I will not repeat the next sentence, but it referred to a member of staff and the item within which Father Christmas often carries Christmas presents.

This morning's status on the tfl website "HAMMERSMITH & CITY LINE: Minor delays are occurring due to non-availability of staff. Message received 05:59am"

1. The automated lady at GPS was clearly being inconsistent, at best, with her status announcements.
2. Do we think that 'der management' on the H&C line may be experiencing a bit of a problem with industrial relations?

*Why the big disclaimer. Simply because I wouldn't want to upset one of my regular readers... you know who you are!

You Are 24% Cynical

Generally you give people the benefit of the doubt. But there are exceptions. You buy into many of the things that mainstream society believes, but you're not anybody's fool.

How Cynical Are You?

A New Year and An Inauspicious Start to it by Network Rail

After a stormy night across the British Isles, a fantastic New Year's firework display from London (seen on the box) and a pleasant evening with friends in Abbots Langley, Network Rail have decided to scotch the best efforts of the Silverlink and Southern train operating companies at offering a good train service today, by offering a major signal failure just south of Watford Junction by way of a New Year gift. Thank you Network Rail.

I am not going to carry this on for the year, but... time lost so far in 2007 due to train delays... 60 minutes. As the song goes; "It can only get better."

Happy New Year!

Signalling problem between London Euston and Watford Junction
Time Reported:	12:18
Route Affected:	London Euston - Watford Junction - Milton Keynes Central - Northampton/Rugby - Birmingham New Street/Manchester Piccadilly/Liverpool Lime Street
TOC/s Affected:	Silverlink, Virgin Trains
Description:	Train services between London Euston and Watford Junction are being disrupted due to a signalling problem. Alterations and delays to services can be expected. There is currently no estimate for a normal service to resume.
Updates:	14:35 Train services are suspended again between London Euston and Watford Junction in both directions. Alterations and delays of up to 90 minutes can be expected. Silverlink County are running two trains per hour between Hemel Hempstead and Northampton in both directions, departing Hemel Hempstead at xx:06 and xx:36, departing Northampton at xx:02 and xx:32. Silverlink County tickets are being accepted on the London Underground between London and Watford, also on Midland Mainline services between London and Wellingborough, on First Capital Connect services between London and Bedford, and on Chiltern Railways services. Virgin Trains services are making additional calls at Tring for Silverlink County passengers travelling to/from Watford Junction. Virgin Trains are terminating services at Watford Junction. Passengers can complete their journey to London using Silverlink Metro services. Midland Mainline are accepting Virgin Trains tickets. 14:58 Southern services between Clapham Junction and Watford Junction are now starting from/terminating at Wembley Central. Passengers can use Silverlink Metro services between Wembley Central and Watford Junction.

	18:34 Train services are able to operate normally again between London Euston and Watford Junction. But residual alterations and delays of up to 90 minutes are still likely for the next 2-3 hours.
Time reported cleared:	20:29

New Year's Day Train Services from Watford Junction

I am a creature of habit and will once again be travelling through Watford Junction, towards London Euston on New Year's Day.

My second post of this blog was a rant at the timetabling of trains from Watford Junction during engineering works.

Silverlink Trains do not appear to be having to endure significant engineering works from Watford Junction this year on New Year's Day and appear to be offering a pretty good service. Good News. A link to their timetable page is here.





Have a very Happy New Year!

Happy Christmas

Best wishes to everyone. Thank you for reading my blog.

As there is absolutely no chance of a White Christmas in West London (unless fog counts), I thought I would share with you my idea of how Christmas might be in warmer climes.

I took this picture on Mt Kinabalu, Borneo, in November last year. You may spot a little bit of post production.

Do please have a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.

Year in a Nutshell

January: I'm not one for New Year's resolutions, but I thought I would at least start 2006 by starting this blog.

February: An early trip to Heathrow Terminal 4 this morning to meet my father who was returning from a five week visit to Delhi in India.

March: I was fortunate enough to be skiing last week in Kitzbuhel, Austria.

April: Having seen off the Spring downpour at lunchtime today, it turned into a pleasant afternoon.

May: A short while ago I made a post entitled 'Chavs On The Line'.

June: Central Line users will be well aware that Queensway Station has been closed for over a year for refurbishment work.

July: Sorry about the gap, almost as big as the one between the train and the platform at Bank.

August: Baker Street London Underground Station was closed today between about 09:30am and 6:00pm due to a major gas leak outside the station.

September: Following my post earlier in the week, here are the brief descriptions again, along with the names/locations of the airports to which they refer.

October: Today is the day of The Great North Run.

November: It was only after chatting about this with a former station announcer earlier this evening, that I remembered that I had forgotten to blog a recent incident.

December: Actually, what I mean is they are poo.

If you need any clarifications, please scroll down to the Archives on the right.

Thanks to The Coffee Table for the idea.

Travel Arrangements over Christmas and the New Year

I have received quite a few hits to this blog seeking information about travel arrangements in London over Christmas and the New Year, including those for the Central Line on Boxing Day.

The full tfl (Transport for London) leaflet detailing the arrangements for the holiday period is available here (411kb pdf file).

The Central Line information for Boxing Day, Tuesday 26th December 2006 is:

"Reduced train frequencies on all lines. The first
trains will run through the central area at
approximately 0830. Services finish at Sunday
times. The following exceptions apply to the Central LIne:

no Hainault to Woodford service.
Buckhurst Hill, Chancery Lane, Chigwell,
Fairlop, Grange Hill, Roding Valley,
Ruislip Gardens and Snaresbrook closed."

My research suggests that the first train from West Ruislip to Central London will leave at 08.21 am on Boxing day (and every 15 minutes thereafter). The last direct train from Oxford Circus back towards West Ruislip will leave around 23.38. You could alternatively catch an Ealing Broadway Train 10 minutes later and change at North Acton.

This would then be your absolute last chance of getting back to Hangar Lane, Perivale, Greenford, Northolt, South Ruislip or West Ruislip. As stated above, Ruislip Gardens will be closed all day, but it is a relatively short walk from South Ruislip station.

Warning: Do not bet your life on these times. They have however been obtained from the tfl Journey Planner.

Small earthquake in Chile. Not many dead.

Something strange is going on:

• Central Line: Has run to time and with no problems everytime I've been on it this week.
• Chiltern railways: Have run to time and with no problems everytime I've used them this week.

Ive got my 8 year old nephew all day tomorrow and am taking him to a Childrens' Christmas Party in Docklands. I have no doubt just put the kiss of death on the Central Line, the Northern Line, South West Trains and the Jubilee Line for tomorrow!

Now you've got to admit that the title "Small earthquake in Chile. Not many dead." is mildly more interesting than "Trains run to time".

Could I just say that I think Chile is a lovely country (I plan to go there next year) and earthquakes are not funny. Thank you.

Central Line Runs Well - Commuter Relieved

Got up before six this morning. Had proper breakfast and had 15 minutes to shower etc and catch train. Didn't feel right, went back to bed. Slept two hours more, woke up feeling under the weather, went to work.

Felt awful all day, would have come home (I don't do 'ill' well, and it was only a headache) but had a late afternoon customer meeting in the diary.

Moped around all afternoon, unproductive.

Went to meeting, should have got an Oscar for being normal. Literally seconds to Oxford Circus, first train is going home. Get seat, head in hands till home, straight to bed. Thank you Central Line!

Now... wide awake.

And, it would appear that the London Underground network has not had a good night. This image is a shrunk down version of the live tube map. If you can see a line's colour, it has a problem. See what I mean? Good night.

Travelling Home on Chiltern Railways

I know the train times all changed last Sunday.

Nevertheless I zipped up to London Marylebone tonight to catch 'my' train. As I was haring along the platform (two minutes to spare) I noticed that the monitor suggested that the train was not stopping at my prefered station. Doh!

Never mind, I thought. I'll get off at the adjacent station. It's my fault. I should have checked. Silly Billy.

Sat down on the train.

What does the rolling dot matrix say? Well, the train is stopping at my station after all. We then set off and eventually approach 'my' station. The train slowed down as if to stop and then rapidly accelerated away. It's a good thing I hadn't stood up, else everyone around me would have known I had got on the wrong train!

Back to plan B and onwards home. Thanks Chiltern for getting my hopes up.

Enough blogging for one day.

Christmas Shopping (and Blogging) Splurge

Traveled like a maniac today around North West London, Hertfordshire and Central London in an attempt to get my Christmas Shopping nearly finished. Nearly was the end result.

I travelled on a bus, Silverlink County, Silverlink Metro, Southern, the District Line, the Central Line and Chiltern railways.

All ran to time (though another mini-rant about Chiltern later).

I used to live in the Watford area 20 years ago and it is now definitely a major regional shopping centre. It has everything from Poundland (no, I didn't go in) to a John Lewis, with much else beside. It is also full of track suited, bangled and blinged up individuals.

PS Although I have included a link to Poundland, they seem to be so cheap and cheerful that their website is currently slow enough as if to appear to be running their site off a ZX80 or similar. Either that, or my ISP is having a really bad hair day.

Mobile Phone or Smoking - Which is more dangerous?

Young man stood on platform at Harrow & Wealdstone Station smoking and using his mobile phone. Nothing unusual in that... except...

He was talking into (and listening to) his flip-top mobile phone as though it were a walkie-talkie, holding it about six inches away from his face.

Someone had obviously told him that mobile phones emit dangerous microwaves.

Petrol Prices- I Don't Usually Notice

As it's the last full weekend proper before the Christmas break I've been whizzing around on public transport a lot today (more later) and noticed a couple of petrol prices.

Normally I never notice- It's only occasionally that I fill up, when using a hire car.

Anyhow;

• Not a million miles from home, in North West London: Unleaded is 85.9p per litre
• Just off a well known shopping street just to the west of Hyde Park: Unleaded is 118.9p per litre

I know it's a free market etc etc, but an uplift of 38%? Outrageous.

District Line shows favouritism towards Ealing

Today I experienced one of those nightmare journeys that come along every now and then.

Heading from the Ealing area on the District Line, I had to change at Turnham Green to go down to Richmond for a meeting. I did not anticipate having to wait 42 minutes for a train.

I think the score was Ealing 6, Richmond 0. Eventually Richmond scored but there were a lot of seriously hacked off people, myself included.

My customer was fine (apparently she used to commute from via Richmond to Ealing), but I get embarrassed at being 1 minute late, never mind 25 minutes.

There has been some sort of track problem in the Gloucester Road area all day- roll on the era when all sub-surface lines use the same train stock. Hopefully it will then be easier for the service to recover from problems.

At least they appear to have solved the issue of the signals failing on the Richmond branch whenever it rains.

Central Line Continues to Behave

I have previously mentioned that new National Rail timetables start this weekend- as my local Chiltern Railways service is going from mediocre to rubbish in the evening peak, I have been getting used to the Central Line over the last few days.

To my surprise the Central Line service is currently fairly good.

Last night we had our work Christmas party at a hotel near South Kensington tube station. To get there involves changing onto the notoriously unreliable Circle Line at Notting Hill Gate. Door to door each way was 40 minutes (including late journey home). This is pretty good given that Uncle Ken's Journey Planner has journey times ranging from 48 to 59 minutes.

Another party today. Yippee.

Coded Manual on the Central Line

Many people do not realise that the Central Line Trains on London Underground virtually drive themselves as 'Automatic Train Operation' means that in theory trains can operate faster (and safer) than with the human touch.

As I understand it, drivers are allowed to drive in 'Coded Manual' on open air sections, on Sundays and when there are no other known problems.

I think that the driver of Train 032 currently on his/ her way from West Ruislip towards Epping is exercising the dispensation and having a practice at real driving. And a very pleasant ride it is too!

Of course, it also means that the Central Line is behaving itself, as it seems to have been for the last few days.Good news.

First Great Western have no sense of history

Actually, what I mean is they are poo. They couldn't catch a cold, are as much use as a chocolate teapot and do not deserve the word 'Great' in their company name.

Today there are some invisible engineering works which mean that the Heathrow Connect services from London Paddington have been cancelled. Also the 1/2 hourly service between London Paddington and Greenford has been replaced by an hourly train between Greenford and Hanwell plus a replacement bus service between Ealing Broadway and Greenford.

I suggest the works are invisible only because I have just spent 45 minutes standing at Hanwell waiting for a train to Greenford and can confirm that (1) all four mainline tracks are in use and (2) there is no mention of engineering works in the are on either the National Rail site or the First Great Western Site. There may well be some works going on somewhere, but goodness knows where.

The train to Greenford never arrived. Other travellers and myself ended up catching a train back to Ealing Broadway, then getting the Central Line (changing at North Acton) back out to our destinations. Not so much as a by your leave from the cretins at the railway company in charge of communicating with their passengers.

Dictionary.com has an abundance of definitions for the word Great. You may wish to remind yourself of some of them. The company has 'Great Western' in its name as a historical reminder of the Great Western Railway. There is no comparison. Anyone with any sense of railway history will know that a mention of GWR is highly evocative: Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the Box Tunnel, the age of steam and Victorian Britain. The modern day company has purple trains that run late, stations with clocks that don't function for months on end and no real evidence of appreciating that their passengers are anything other than cattle.

First Great Western should remove the word Great from their name forthwith. They do not deserve it and certainly will have no positive impact on the history of railways in this country, if my experiences are anything to go by.

I also missed out on the unusual train journey from Hanwell to Drayton Green, a very short stretch of line that does not usually carry passenger trains.

It seems that those who run Chiltern Railways couldn't run a bath

It wasn't so many years ago that Chiltern Railways were promoting South Ruislip Station as being the main interchange in West London with the Central Line. The other option being West Ruislip.

There is no Central Line in West London this weekend, so one could reasonably expect Central Line users to travel out from London Marylebone, using Chiltern Railways' so called services.

Can anyone therefore explain to me why today they only had one train calling at South Ruislip, in each direction, approximately every two hours? Crazy!

The Weather Forecast is Rubbish

For the first time ever, I have posted an image directly into this blog.

The image is an extract from the BBC Weather page with the forecast for today's weather where I live, in West London. It is now just after 10.00am. I woke up just after 7.00am this morning.

It has been persistently raining (rather heavily) since I woke up, with no sign of any break in the clouds or the weather. The forecast is, to be blunt, wrong.

I know it's not quite of 'Great Storm of 1987' proportions, but it has certainly put paid to any plans to hang washing out to dry.

Oh and, by the way, No Central Line west of White City this weekend and I am not going to mention again (today) that the replacement bus service yesterday afternoon was poor.

Later: "Doh! I've just posted a blog about the weather. Aaargh."

Yet more Vandalism at North Acton

It has happened before and now it has happened again. Apparently no service again this morning between North Acton and Ealing Broadway due to vandalism. Grrrr.

I do hope that matters are being put in hand to improve track side/ equipment security in the area (Finger in dyke?) and also hopefully find and appropriately punish the perpetrators.

Public service link: London Underground Realtime Information

And So It Continues.....

The tfl website currently states:

CENTRAL LINE: Minor delays are occurring due to signal systems failure. Message received 03:13am

Note the time- they clearly don't have a clue how to fix the 'Signal Systems Failure" that started on Monday morning.

For those who need to know, the current position can be seen here, but to be honest the way I am feeling, they might as well just have two options for the website: "Broken" or "Fixed".

Yesterday's Chaos on the Central Line

Well, there are clearly ongoing problems- there certainly appears to be a shuttle service running between West Ruislip and North Acton. Still, at least I've got home, courtesy of Chiltern Railways.

tubeprune on District Dave's message board appears to have come up with the most succinct explanation for yesterday's total chaos.

I've copied the text from the posting in its entirety, for no other reason than I cannot work out how to link direct.

" The problem started when they tried to upload a new timetable early Monday morning. It crashed the main computers and locked them up so they couldn't even reload the old timetable. They then started phoning round to get people in to operate local control panels so they could signal trains at each site. By 06:30 they had local services at the line ends but could not run a through service because the LCP at Queensway was out of service. They had to clip & scotch there for through running. They got the old timetable back into the computer by 07:15 but, of course, the crews are all still at depots waiting to get trains out at the new timetable times - result -chaos. Through service finally got going just before 09:00 when they had 50% of trains in service. They were still trying to sort out the mess with crews late into the evening. Not a good day."

Here we go again. Central Line Delays are really getting rather boring.

Apparently, this morning on the Central Line "Minor delays are occurring due to signal systems failure.". This was as of 4.02am, roughly an hour before the first passenger train of the day and is still the current position.

It's rather strange really that so far there is no sign of any ranting anti-Metronet email on the tfl website, though I have pasted below Metronet's version of the cause of yesterday's problems. These first manifested themselves yesterday with the initial total suspension of the Central Line service followed by ongoing problems all day.

Automatic Train Operation was fully implemented on the Central Line in January 2002. The new timetable introduced at the weekend will certainly not have been the first timetable change since 2002. I am therefore a little puzzled as to what has really gone wrong. I wonder whether, just perhaps, privatisation (sorry "the introduction of PPP") has meant the loss of expertese and perhaps the retirement or departure of the person who actually knows how to reprogramme the signalling system computer?


"Metronet apologises for today's service disruptions

Metronet has today apologised to passengers and to London Underground for the delays which occurred this morning on the Central line – and the District and Circle lines. For the Central line, the loading of new computer software containing LU's revised timetabling information caused a total break-down of the systems at the start of service. Through services were restored to the Central line service at 08.45 hrs."

The Central Line has gone horribly wrong this morning.

I went to bed last night with a general feeling of bonhomie towards public transport. A jolly good weekend 'Up North'.

First thing I heard this morning on the radio was 'Total suspension of the Central Line". Aargh!

I quick rejig of the diary then followed. At about 8.15am services were resumed at the outer extremities of the Central Line, but the service is still totally suspended between White City and Leytonstone (ie the central bit of the Central Line is missing at present).

"Signal systems failure". Happy Monday.

Later: At 8.46am I believe trains started to run to all destinations. Even assuming the signalling system doesn't fail again, expect delays, alterations etc for many hours to come.

I don't generally have the technical ability to 'blog live' so there will be no more updates on this matter. Probably. There is however a brief BBC News article here.

With Clockwork Precision...

The plane touched down at Heathrow at 22:45 and got to the gate at 22:50, five minutes early.

Straight to the bus station (my toothpaste had been dutifully wrapped in a clear plastic bag), Night Bus within two minutes and in the front door 45 minutes after landing. Result!

I now have to spend £1,500 renewing my season ticket. Back to the Central Line in the morning.

A Flying Visit

Caught a flight yesterday morning from Heathrow up to Durham Tees Valley (Teesside Airport to you and me). The flight landed 15 minutes early and I was at my Grandmother's by 12 Noon.

Today we went up to Washington, Tyne & Wear, to visit relatives and to have a sumptuous tea. When I spoke to my Aunt last week she had said "I'll bake a cake." My Grandma and I turned up to be faced with a fantastic entirely freshly home baked high tea.

By the time we left at 18:35, the weather had got fairly squally. Down the A1M to North Yorkshire and then off to Teesside (DTVA) at 20:10. Appalling weather so no chance to put the speedy sporty whizzy hire car to the test (well hardly). I'm now sat in the departure lounge waiting for the 21:50 flight as the rain batters against the windows. Let's hope the flight doesn't get cancelled as the weather really is grotty.

I am so looking forward to getting back to London and to work tomorrow (NOT)!

Yesterday's Problems

Someone seems to have beavering away overnight, as the Central Line service appears to be operating a normal service this morning.

Hurrah!

Apparently it was indeed 12 signalling cables cut in the vicinity of North Acton Junction.

Vandalism at North Acton

There have been major problems at the west end of the Central Line today. This has led to extensive delays all along the line.

Official word is that it is due to vandalism at North Acton. So far as I can gather there have been no trains all day between North Acton and Ealing Broadway, with the service ranging from shuttles to 'No Service' out to Northolt.

The following is based on hearsay, observation and supposition (but not hard facts). I believe that certain toe rags have managed to cut out and remove a length of signalling cable west of North Acton, where the westbound line splits to Ealing Broadway and West Ruislip. I think that the points have had to be scotched & clipped (ie fixed into one position), which is why there have been trains on only one branch today.

As of an hour or so ago, London Underground appeared to be operating a service to White City/ North Acton and a separate shuttle service between White City and West Ruislip.

I am but a CentralUser and all of the above may be total tosh.

Lancaster Gate Reopens

According to the tfl website, Lancaster Gate Station on the Central Line reopened today, after several months of refurbishment work.

I am not sure which is worse- the fact that my journey will now take a couple of minutes longer again, or the fact that I didn't notice the extra stop on the way home today!

New Chiltern Railways Timetable

Chiltern Railways (who operate from London Marylebone Station) are launching a much revised timetable from 10 December 2006. A full .pdf version of the timetable is currently available here, it is a large file. [Edit March 2008: Link updated to the Chiltern Railways generic timetable download page. Lots of visitors still reach this particular post via various search engines.]

It is the most comprehensive timetable change that I can recall- largely because of the two additional platforms now in use at Marylebone.

For me personally, the changes to the morning peak timetable are neither here nor there and will simply become the norm. The evening peak is an entirely different story however. There will now be a gap of over an hour between trains, about which I have feelings of discontent.

I guess that the Central Line will be getting an extra home time customer. Chiltern Railways probably couldn't give two hoots - they only seem to care about long distance passengers, from whom they take big money.

When Does Four Plus Two Become Three and a Half?

It was only after chatting about this with a former station announcer earlier this evening, that I remembered that I had forgotten to blog a recent incident.

I have previously mentioned that Marylebone Station now has six platforms rather than four, as was previously the case. Yomping is optional to Platforms 4, 5 & 6.

One day last week while travelling in to London during the rush hour, we sat in the tunnels outside Marylebone for 25 minutes with not so much as a by-your-leave. An explanation was given as 'congestion at Marylebone'. Strange- that shouldn't happen with an extra 50% platform capacity.

No trains went past us, leaving the station.

When we eventually arrived at the terminus, there were two empty platforms, we pulled into an otherwise empty (third) platform and a train immediately left, totally vacating another platform.

So, within one minute of arriving there were two long full platforms, one (with our train in) half full and three empty platforms. Hardly congested.

Clearly the 'A-Team' were not on duty that morning at the Network Rail Signalling Centre. Probably nothing to do with Chiltern Railways.

I am only a passenger so clearly have no knowldge on how a railway is run, but it did seem daft that we were delayed for 25 minutes for no real reason.

Oh- And my maths may be out!

Those Pesky Engineering Works - Again!

There I was on Saturday morning, doing nothing in particular, as per usual. The telephone rings- it's work... To cut a long story short I had to go in to the office to sort out a problem.

The trouble was, I hadn't planned on going anywhere, so the fact that the Central Line was again suspended from Marble Arch out to both Ealing Broadway and to West Ruislip had completely passed me by. What's more I didn't realise that engineering work was taking place until I got to my local tube station.

No matter, in no particular order, there then followed:

• Two bus journeys
• One tube journey
• One overground train journey and
• A four hundred yard sprint

and I made it to work in less than an hour. What a waste of energy.

Perhaps I should read my own blog entries and take note!

I have to go down to Hampshire next weekend and see that the Central Line will again be suspended between Marble Arch and North Acton. Will I remember?

Wem? How do you Spell that?

I spent last weekend up in Shropshire and traveled from London to Wem by train. I bought my ticket a few days in advance at Marylebone. It made me chuckle when I was asked by the ticket clerk; "Wem? How do you spell that?". Clearly I was going to a small place.

On Saturday morning I traveled to London Euston to catch the Virgin train to Crewe. Fortunately no engineering work on the Central Line so no problems getting into central London.

The train from Euston was fine, though whoever had distributed the seat reservation tickets seemed to have lost half of them. No matter, most people were seated roughly where they should be. The train did a passing impersonation of a rush hour tube train when, between Coventry and Birmingham New Street there was some severe overloading. Long distance express trains should not have to have people standing, jammed in along the full length of each carriage.

We pulled into Crewe about 10 minutes late.

The two coach train to Wem left half an hour later. I realised I was heading to an area of small towns and villages when the guard announced that three of the first five stops were 'Request Stops' and to let him know if you wanted the train to stop.

A fun family weekend then followed.

Lesson for the Day: How to Turn Sheep into Wolves

Last night. Going home time. Pouring with rain. Central London.

Delays on the Central Line. Problem at Mile End or Newbury Park, depending on source of information. It happens.

Passengers prevented from entering Tottenham Court Road Underground Station ("TCR") due to overcrowded platforms, caused by aforementioned delays. Sensible course of action- I am sure it is all planned for, risk assessments will have taken place etc etc.

One of the entrances to TCR Station consists of a long foot tunnel runing from Charing Cross Road and underneath fountains by the side of the Centrepoint, a landmark tall building. At the end of the tunnel are concertina style gates at the top of the steps into the underground station.

Yesterday evening at about 17:40 the gates at the end of the tunnel were closed by London Underground staff and regular tannoy announcements were made apologising for the delay to journeys.

No passengers were being allowed through the gatelines and by 18:00 a queue of approximately 200 people were waiting at the concertina gate at the Charing Cross Road tunnel entrance.

It then became apparent, certainly by about 18:05 (vision was a little restricted) that passengers were being allowed to enter the station. A reasonable number of people had by this time been waiting 25 minutes, like good little sheep waiting patiently to get home.

What happened next?

A member of staff (clearly a reject from any London Underground school of Customer Service) wandered round the corner and looked up to see the dozens of faces peering through the closed barrier. We politely queried (and it WAS polite) when the gate would be opened. Rather than saying "now" or "in a minute" he then produced a temporary canvas barrier belt and placed it across the foot of the stairs. We told him that there were a couple of hundred people waiting to come down the stairs- he shrugged his shoulders and simply said "You'll have to use entrance three."

In the space of two seconds the oaf employee managed to turn 200 queuing london sheep commuters into 200 extremely hacked off commuters, I suspect many of whom would have gladly chewed his head off.

By the time I had negotiated the busy road junction above the station, the concourse was about the quietest I have ever seen seen it during peak hours, the half wit member of staff had disappeared, the Central Line platform was thankfully uncrowded and the train that appeared within seconds was only half full.

Absolutely no evidence of a sensible reason for the entrance at which we had waited, needing to remain closed for Health & Safety reasons, or indeed for any other reason.

Another member of staff in the ticket area did at least appear to take on our concerns at the total lack of empathy with waiting passengers displayed by his colleague.

The man concerned is a twat.

This rant, even in its current incoherent form, has been severely moderated for intemperate language. This is in the knowledge that my words are occasionally read by members of my family.

A sensible bus driver

There was an accident at the Target Roundabout late this afternoon. A car had caught the back-end of one of the aforementioned rail replacement buses. The struck bus had a few passengers on and the accident, though apparently minor, had all the signs of causing absolute gridlock with two lanes blocked.

What did our driver do? He pulled infront of the stranded bus and then escorted the handful of passengers to our bus- we were on our way within seconds.

This action shouldn't be worthy of a mention, but it is. Why? Because in my experience there are very few bus drivers in my part of London who demonstrate any sense of empathy with their passengers- tonight's should be applauded for having good, perhaps old fashioned, customer service values.

If London is so good, why do those who can, escape?

As I have already mentioned, there has been no Central Line in my part of London this weekend. Late this afternoon the A40 Western Avenue was choc-a-bloc, exactly how I imagine it is during the weekday morning rush hour. Except this was Sunday afternoon and the bulk of the traffic was going towards London.

Reversing the journey (ie me heading westwards along the A40) a short while later, the road was still jammed going in and free-running going out. My guess would be three times as much traffic heading into London at the end of the weekend as there was leaving.

I have a very simple (rhetorical) question:

If London is all it is cracked up to be, why do so many peole choose to leave it and spend the weekend elsewhere, only returning when they have to (presumably to go to work)?

How to go to Greenford by bus from Hounslow?

Why would you want to?

Hounslow covers a fairly large area to the east of London's Heathrow Airport while Greenford appears to be a poorly defined area (based on state of the public transport infrastructure) in the London Borough of Ealing, neatly bi-sected by the A40 Western Avenue.

While I say 'Why would you want to?', I am not questioning anybody's desire to leave Hounslow, or their desire to get to Greenford. I am simply questioning the rationale for limiting the transport options to bus only as, so far as I can see, there is no direct bus link between the two towns.

While I am no fan of Uncle Ken, the Journey Planner on the TFL website is a useful tool to answer this sort of question.

Now, I am not going to start acting as a travel consultant to the rich & famous (or indeed to anyone else) but, to answer the question:

• Catch a 120 Bus towards Northolt and then, after about 40 minutes change onto an E6 to Greenford.
• Personally I would go at least part of the way by tube- I get really frustrated by the traffic snarl-ups in the Southall area (which is where the 120 bus usually gets stuck).

Weekend Engineering Work on the Central Line... Again!

This weekend, for the umpteenth time this year it is not possible to catch a Central Line train from West London into the heart of this glorious city. Forthcoming closures across the network can be viewed here- at least they've managed to avoid doing too much in the run up to Christmas.

Actually, the replacement bus services are fairly good. I've caught a couple over the Summer where I was the only passenger- a bit like having your own huge private taxi. When trains are replaced by buses, there are definitely only a tiny fraction of the usual number of people traveling. What happens to everybody? Where do they go?

Twenty Years Ago...

Today is the day of The Great North Run. Good luck to all the runners who will be crossing the starting line in Newcastle shortly.

What was I doing 20 years ago? Yes, you may have guessed it.... I was participating in the 1986 Great North Run. I completed the run (a half marathon) in something around 1 hour 37 minutes. I was considerably fitter then than I am now and was really rather chuffed with my time.

Burning the Candles at Both End

I had to go to Glasgow earlier in the week. Up at 04:45 to catch a bus to Heathrow Airport. Caught the 07:00 flight to Glasgow. Hung around for an extra hour because the colleague I was meeting's plane had been sat on the tarmac at Stansted for an unexpected extra hour and then we were off to a day of customer meetings.

The return flight touched down at LHR at just after 21:00 and I was home by 22:00, absolutely shattered. Travelling for work is NOT glamorous.

It became apparent the next morning that I had sapped too much energy, because I woke up with the begining of a cold. Grrrr!

Fast forward to last night. Straight from work to babysitting my Niece and Nephew in the Richmond area. Little darlings... eldest one (10) did eventually snap out of being half a nightmare, took herself off to get ready for bed and then read me a six page chapter from her book, really well.

Younger one (7) is very wearing. I have no parenting skills and didn't manage to get him off to bed (and to stay there) until 22:15. Dinner then went in the oven.

My little sister and her husband got back well after midnight but I chose not to stay over.

Sometimes... public transport in London can be brilliant...

Bus at 00:30 to the Piccadilly Line, very late train to Heathrow airport, Night Bus home. No longer than a two minute wait for anything (one connection was five seconds!) and home by 01:25. Result!

Dose of Nightnurse. Woke up at 11:00. Washing machine on. Haircut later.

This one is politics

My blood pressure started to increase when I read the headline "Brown in pledge to devolve power" on the BBC News site this morning.

Until that nice Mr Brown came along, we had a private pensions system in the UK that was the envy of the world. Gone.

Until that nice Mr Brown came along, most people took responsibility for themselves, with Society helping those who couldn't. Now, through the tools of tax credits and means testing, we are in a position where more and more people rely on hand outs in some form or other to pay for life and its many luxuries. A fundamental relationship change.

Until that nice Mr Brown came along, we were beginning to get a grip on public sector costs. The proportion (%) of all workers employed in the public sector has gone up slightly since 1997 (Source: Office of National Statistics), but as the total number of people in employment has significantly increased. This increasing proportion is a sign of how inefficient the public sector is and how wasteful it is with our money.

Until that nice Mr Brown came along (and his mate next door, Tony), we had a governmental system in place that worked. Responsibilities were clear and extra layers of government (ie cost) were kept to a minimum. We are now in a position where devolution has occurred for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland [See: The West Lothian Question], and there has been pressure placed to have locally elected mayors, though thankfully the population seem to have seen through the sham.

Why does all this matter? Well, with Power comes responsibility.

• If you destroy the future hopes and aspirations of millions, you must take responsibility.
• If you increase peoples' reliance on state handouts you must be doing something wrong and must take responsibility.
• If you increase the number of people YOU employ in the public sector, but choose to forget that everyone else has to pay for them, you must take responsibility.
• If you crave power but pretend to devolve responsibility while retaining control of the purse strings, you are not only being irresponsible but you are hoaxing the British people. For this you must take responsibility.
  

I, for one, do not want Gordon Brown to be the next Prime Minister.

(Now, I'll get off my soapbox and back to writing about trains and stuff)

Extra Platforms opened at London Marylebone

The two new platforms (4 & 5) have now opened at London Marylebone as part of the Chiltern Railways Evergreen 2 project. [Chiltern Railways: Please update your website]

Hopefully it will mean fewer occasions of the late notification of platform numbers at Marylebone. Mind you, the new platforms 4, 5 & 6 at London Marylebone are so far from the concourse that two or three minutes has to be allowed to get to them, with hiking boots optional.

The platform barriers look as though they are having a significant upgrade and increase in numbers, though if my experience with the new gates is anything to go by, they need a bit of tweaking. My perfectly valid and otherwise functioning Oystercard received the flashing red eye of doom last week.

A New World Record, Two Lives Gone... and Chaos for Thousands

I saw earlier in the week that a new World Record had been confirmed for travelling to every station on the London Underground. The record beat, by five seconds, the previous one of 18 hours 35 minutes and 43 seconds set by Geoff Marshall and Neil Blake in May 2004.

So, on Thursday I though I was on course for my own record. From street level on Charing Cross Road outside Tottenham Court Road to setting foot on the Central Line platform at Ealing Broadway took 27 minutes. Now as the journey is only timetabled to take 27 minutes, even with Lancaster Gate closed, that's about as good as it gets!

At Ealing Broadway it was however absolute chaos. No-one was being allowed onto the First Great Western platforms, there were stationary trains in both west bound platforms and all passengers were being advised to use alternative routes. For those going to Reading that would involve going all the way back into London and catching the alternative Reading Line from Waterloo.

I subsequently found that the cause of the total suspension was an apparent killing and subsequent (linked) fatality on the line at Hanwell. How do things get that bad?

For me it only meant shopping at Marks & Spencer on Ealing Broadway rather than going to my original destination. For many it was an extremely long jorney home and, of course, two people never got there. It puts life in perspective!

How The Heck Does Google Work?

I added a web counter to this blog last week. The number of visitors goes up (ever so slowly) every day and none of the hits are mine!

What I find incredible is that:

1. The most popular word that drives Google users to my words is "Leprachorns" and
2. If you type "Leprachorns" into Google this blog is top of the list.

I can only assume that I've spelt the word wrong!

A Common Theme - Public Transport Seems To Be Working

You may have missed it, but according to a poll conducted by the TripAdvisor company, London had been voted the best city in the world for public transport (and is also considered to be the most expensive).

Here's a log of my recent journeys:

• Saturday: Two buses to Feltham then one stop on the train to Twickenham to watch the rugby. Same trip back. All absolutely fine- the thousands of people piling on to trains at Twickenham after the matches did make us all give passable sardine impersonations.
• Sunday: Some minor travelling locally on the Central Line.
• Monday: Central Line to Tottenham Court Road. Then return trip to Canary Wharf using Central Line and Docklands Light Railway, then home via Shanks' Pony, No 27 Bus, Chiltern Railways and the Central Line. Not a blip.

Hurrah!

Airport Security Checks (Part 2 - The Answers)

Following my post earlier in the week, here are the brief descriptions again, along with the names/locations of the airports to which they refer.

All opinions are mine and are non negotiable unless negotiations include offers of free flights or similar!

• a) Hi-tech (digital photo taken, barcode placed on boarding pass). Small queues. Efficient. (Durham Tees Valley)
• b) Massive queue but well managed. Loads of tourists getting stuff confiscated. Grave danger of missing flight if extra time not allowed. (Edinburgh)
  
• c) Ten Minutes from getting off bus to being in departure lounge. No queue. Efficient and effective. (London Heathrow)
  
• d) Officious. Over the top. Plenty of staff. (Newquay, Cornwall)
  

I've Gone Off Chiltern Railways

On a number of occasions in the last few weeks, I've dashed up to Marylebone to find that Chiltern Railways have cancelled the 18:37 High Wycombe service.

It's quite annoying when this happens as my next train is not until 19:03.

Chiltern Railways don't seem to make a habit of cancelling many other trains. Just the 18:37.

It was particularly annoying today as I'd had to go to Cardiff today and had left London Paddington at 7:00 am. After a long journey back to London, to say that I was peeved at having half an hour added to my journey unnecessarily would be an understatement,

Grrr.

PS Cardiff was good - I even managed a side-trip to visit Llandaff Cathedral.

Airport Security Checks (Part 1)

For reasons I won't bore you with, I have travelled through four UK airports in the last week or so.

In alphabetical order, those airports are:

1. Durham Tees Valley (Teeside)
2. Edinburgh
3. London Heathrow
4. Newquay

Now, see if you can match the following descriptions of my experiences of the security checks at each airport:

• a) Hi-tech (digital photo taken, barcode placed on boarding pass). Small queues. Efficient.
• b) Massive queue but well managed. Loads of tourists getting stuff confiscated. Grave danger of missing flight if extra time not allowed.
• c) Ten Minutes from getting off bus to being in departure lounge. No queue. Efficient and effective.
• d) Officious. Over the top. Plenty of staff.

I'll provide the answers in a day or so.

I Like Chiltern Railways

Baker Street London Underground Station was closed today between about 09:30am and 6:00pm due to a major gas leak outside the station. Trains were running through (but not stopping). Baker Street is a major interchange so this will have been a major pain for many people.

When I got home tonight I noticed the following on the Chiltern Railways website. Chiltern operate from nearby Marylebone Station:

"Baker Street LUL station closure:

Due to temporary closure of Baker street station we will be operating a shuttle service during the peak to run between Marylebone & Harrow.

Marylebone - Harrow departure times: 16.10, 16.50, 17.35, 18.30 & 19.10.
Harrow - Marylebone departure times: 16.27, 17.07, 17.55, 18.50 & 19.27.

Update 18.20 hrs: Baker Street station has reopened, we will still be running the shuttle services as advertised."

I think this is a great example of Chiltern's approach to customer service. I have no idea of the economics of doing what they did, but it can have been no mean feat finding rolling stock and track capacity like this during peak hours.

Credit where credit is due!

Time to take a Chill Pill

Ealing Broadway... Again. West bound Central Line, wait 4 minutes outside station. Departing train goes past in opposite direction. Pull forward into station- both Central Line platforms empty... grrrrr.

Then, half an hour later, First Great[?] Western decided to cancel my train from West Ealing although at least this time they did announce the cancellation. I think the hot weather must be getting to me.

Central Line - Trainee Controller in Evening Peaks?

Sorry about the gap, almost as big as the one between the train and the platform at Bank.

Ealing Broadway, end of the Central Line. Two platforms.

Imagine... train in one platform. Another train arrives into second platform, train in first platform departs. New train arrives in first platform, train in second platform departs. And so on. It is not difficult and it's how any four year old child would organise their toy trains.

So [rant] why can't the Central Line Control Centre get it right?

In the last two weeks I have travelled into Ealing Broadway on three occasions in the evening peak. Twice, our train has sat outside the terminus while BOTH trains in the platforms have been allowed to depart. When it happened this week, not only did I miss my connecting train, but may I point out that standing for five minutes in direct sun, with an outside temperature of over 30 Degrees is not my idea of fun. [/rant]

Even the train driver mildly rebuked the line controller for causing an unnecessary delay. Ho hum.