Not the best of weeks

Sometimes, despite the best efforts of those involved, things don't go to plan. My experiences with Chiltern Railways over the last couple of days lead me to believe that the management of my local railway company probably want to stop banging their heads against the proverbial Brick Wall...

Wednesday 14th July 2010

The 0629 train from Aylesbury to London usually consists of a four coach 'Clubman', with an empty two coach 165 class unit tacked onto the back. The train usually arrives at High Wycombe where the rear train is de-coupled. The front four coaches then head off for Marylebone at 0702 with the two coach train then forming the 0708 train, calling en-route just at Seer Green & Jordans and Gerrards Cross.

Yesterday the train was 20 minutes late leaving Aylesbury. The departure boards indicated that it was to terminate early at High Wycombe. When the train came round the corner there was clearly something wrong as the front four coaches were missing and the train was made up of just the two rear coaches.

At High Wycombe no announcements were made. Half the passengers got off and the platform was deserted. The platform indicator did however suggest that the train was to be the 0708, due to leave at about 0720.

While we were sat at the red signal a fast train ran through on the 'Down' line, overtaking us. When we got a green signal we then set off, again without so much as a squeak from the driver. The train was almost empty.

Ten minutes later we pulled into Seer Green & Jordans, a very small station in the middle of nowhere. The train almost filled up with all the passengers that got on. Highly unusual.

At Gerrards Cross a shoe horn would have failed to get all the passengers on board.

We eventually got into Marylebone at 0802 - on the approach the driver made the sole announcement of the journey to apologise for the late arrival.

Problem: A cancelled train will inevtably lead to overcrowding. However communication with passengers (and possibly to the driver) was terrible. Must try harder.

Thursday 15th July 2010

The 0733 Wrexham & Shropshire service from Marylebone broke down this morning and the passengers were turfed off at Wembley Stadium.

The 0736 Chiltern Railways from Marylebone was terminated early (I don't know why) at Princes Risborough. This train usually goes another two stations up the line to Bicester North where passengers have 4 - 7 minutes to cross the footbridge to connect with a fast running Birmingham train that zooms up behind it.

The 0750 Chiltern Railways (aforementioned fast running Birmingham train) today picked up the W&S passengers at Wembley Stadium and then ran non-stop but slowly to Bicester North.

Anyone who wanted to have connected at Bicester today would have struggled because the 0839 arrival didn't get there. If you are still with me, that train had stopped several miles south at Princes Risborough, with no imminent connection to the Birmingham services from there.

I was meeting a colleague on the fast service at Bicester North. Fortunately I had caught the preceding Birmingham service, so 'only' had to wait on the platform for 50 minutes for the fast train which was by then running almost half an hour late. We eventually arrived into Birmingham 24 minutes late.

Problems: Passengers from stations outside London who caught the 0736 departure today, and who wanted to connect to the Birmingham service at Bicester couldn't. This was because they were stranded at Princes Risborough. Also not a single announcement was made at Bicester North about the late running of the Birmingham service. Not good.

This Evening

A tree came down on the Metropolitan Line this evening, somewhere near Harrow on the Hill. This meant that all Aylesbury trains had to go via High Wycombe. One such diverted train (possibly the first?) did stop at Wembley Stadium. The train was then to run fast to Aylesbury on the Highy Wycombe line, but the passengers managed to persuade the driver to stop at Beaconsfield (the nearest alternative station to Amersham). A lot of passengers struggled to get home.

The 1812 service to Aylesbury from Marylebone managed to depart before the 1809 departure. The trains have different destinations and stopping patterns. At High Wycombe trains were randoly appearing and disappearing from the departure boards. No non-automated abnnouncements were made and neither staff or train drivers had a clue what was going on.

Things can and do go wrong, but someone at Chiltern needs perhaps to think about passenger experiences at a micro-level. Communications need to improve.

For much of the evening trains were backing up from Princes Risborough, presumably due to the number of trains fighting to get up the single track line from there to Aylesbury.

OK: I've got that off my chest. Boing... Off to bed. Oh and the bacon baguette sandwiches sold at the cafe at Bicester North are superb.

Geeking about Television

If I go to the cinema, I generally like to wait until the end of the production credits before I leave. Sometimes I'm worried that I may miss a bit of extra action, often it's because I am looking for the name of someone I know.

It's the same for television programmes that I watch- very often I have met or know people involved in the production of them.

I have just watched a documentary on Channel 4 about Bruce Forsyth called "Living with Brucie". The nature of such programmes is that they tend to include archive footage - that footage is usually subject to copyright. This means that as well as paying the holder of the copyright for the right to use the material, there is usually an acknowledgment in the credits at the end of the programme.

The programme that I have just watched was produced by RDF Television, part of the RDF Media Group. In the acknowledgments the name of one of the copyright holders of some archive footage was spelt incorrectly. That is just sloppy and careless.

I think I need to get a life!

Don't wind up the ticket inspectors

Last night the Chiltern Railways' ticket inspectors were out in force at High Wycombe. Tonight was the turn of the the good folk of Beaconsfield.

One guy had traveled with a 'Permit to Travel, that he had paid 5 pence for. The 'Revenue Protection Officers' were not happy. I make no observation as to the right or wrong of the situation, however.....

The passenger did have a bit of an attitude.

Observation No 1: It is rarely sensible to accuse a Chiltern Railways ticket inspector of being rude. They aren't.

Observation No 2: If you do want to try to talk aforesaid ticket inspector out of a £20 Penalty Fare, it is probably best not to refer to him and his colleague as 'Tweedle-Dum' and 'Tweedle-Dee'.

What a waste of time

I regularly have to travel over to Canary Wharf for meetings.

Today's meeting lasted 25 minutes.

I traveled for two hours to get there and it took me two and a half hours to get home.

The Jubilee Line was suspended on the way, which meant that I diverted from Baker Street along the Hammersmith & City Line to Moorgate, then took the Northern Line one stop to Bank and then the DLR out to the East End.

Coming back, I did catch the Jubilee Line, but the gaps in service were such that I missed my train.

I know that dialing in or video conferencing ought to be the name of the game (the meeting room is set up for that), but it isn't, and my boss is rather self centred.

Bottom line - I do as I'm told!

Steaming through the Chilterns

This picture is GWR King Class 4-6-0 no 6024 King Edward I trundling up through the North Western edge of the Chiltern Hills at about a quarter past nine this morning.

The train was due to have a busy day traveling out from Paddington to Worcester and then back to Paddington later, via Reading.

Quite a few people turned out to see the train which is what I would call a 'Proper' steam train.

Interestingly, while cropping the picture just now, I saw another steam train trundling up the valley with just a couple of carriages behind it. Not sure what it was or where it is going to, as I cannot find the movement detailed on any of the usual websites that show such things.

This morning's train was a few minutes late, so held up a Wrexham & Shropshire service along with a couple of Chiltern Railways' trains.

Edit: Thanks to the tip from Anonymous, I've tracked down this video of the Scots Guardsman traveling through Lancaster, on its way to Carnforth.

Confession Time - and a Thank You!

Over the last few days I have been finding it difficult to become motivated to blog. It shouldn't be because I don't have the time (I spend three hours a day comuting and can post from my phone). I have even thought about stopping my blog, but the fact is, I quite enjoy it.

I think the problem is to do with work - too much of it.

I need to snap out of my malaise and find some backbone.

Some bloggers are clearly highly motivated. One such person is Diamond Geezer who (a) posts every day with well written and researched posts and (b) clearly has a large and loyal following.

DG has appeared in my blogroll for a little while now. Every year he (?) publishes a survey of blogroll links that link to Diamond Geezer. The survey was published today and my stats have gone through the roof. It shows you (a) the power of recommendation and (b) that I must try harder to drive my own readership. So that is what I shall attempt to do.

Thank you DG for a well deserved kick up the bottom and do, please, keep up the good work.

Note to self: Must try harder.

Tickets Please!

I am on my second train of the day and have had my ticket checked twice so far.

We have just whizzed through West Ruislip and I noticed a ticket inspector stood on the platform there.

If you are planning to use Chiltern Railways today, make sure you buy a ticket. If you don't, expect no mercy...

Passport Inspection

Actually, it wasn't a passport inspection, it was an on-train ticket inspection.

First of all, I wish to make my position entirely clear. Within reason, Chiltern Railways can check my train ticket as often as they like. I pay the railway company over £3,500 per year for my season ticket and I think that fare dodgers are scum. They should be caught. sucked into as many civil and criminal justice systems as is possible and spat out of the other end, in bits.

Sorry, I rant.

Yesterday's ticket inspection was a little different. It was a woman I have never seen before, carrying none of the normal 'Revenue Protection Officer' paraphernalia. That was left to an accompanying 'regular' colleague.

She examined each and every season ticket, compared the details on the ticket with the information on the accompanying photo card, and then looked each passenger in the eye to check that the photo card was theirs. Very thorough and a trifle unnerving.

It looked and felt like a check against fraudulent travel (ie forged travel documents or using travel documents belonging to someone else), rather than the usual ticket check.

I wonder who the woman was. I wonder whether she caught anyone? I wonder whether we shall ever see her again?

Compare and contrast with this evening. I am obviously 'known'. The ticket inspector on the train tonight (more of them about than usual, probably because of the 'Green Day' concert at Wembley Stadium) walked past me quickly, saying "hello" before moving into the next section of the train. Now, even though I know plenty of the staff by name I always offer my ticket when I should - tonight I simply wasn't given the chance. Actually, I'm quite chuffed.

Have you got six and a half minutes to spare?

Should you be the remotest bit interest, the announcement referred to in my most recent post was heard at Princes Risborough station, operated by Chiltern Railways. I have no idea why other than stating that it was clearly a 'malfunction'.

Speaking of which, have a look at this YouTube clip. See if you can last to the end! Enjoy.

Strange Station Announcement

Announcement just heard:

"Would any passengers for; and Abbey Wood, please make their way to the rear of the station."

Where am I?

Not what was planned

This evening England are to play Mexico in a 'friendly' football match at Wembley Stadium.

Those who are in the know will often choose to travel from central London to Wembley via Marylebone Station.

Chiltern Railways have, this evening, been affected by Signalling problems at Leamington Spa. Unfortunately the same sort of problem is now affecting equipment in the Wembley area.

There do appear to be a small number of train cancellations. London bound trains seem to have delays of about 10 minutes, while Northbound services seem to be worse, at about 25 minutes.

I am not there, but I don't suppose that Marylebone is a sea of tranquility at the moment.

Katla is not erupting

As of 0532 GMT this morning, the Icelandic Met Office stated

"Katla is NOT erupting and there are NO indications that Katla is about to erupt."

Clear enough?

Whatever they say, accurate long term planning for airlines that fly through European airs space will be a little tricky for a while.

Hat Tip to Uncle Bill

Nails anyone?

The Rugby Union team that I support won the Guinness Premiership semi-final on Sunday. Saracens beat Northampton Away by 21 points to 19.

If I were someone who chewed my fingernails, then I would have none left. The game was a scintillating game of rugby that saw two evenly matched teams show off all that is good about the game. I got home with a bit of a sore throat.

Subsequent to the match, and following an incident eight days before at Leicester, Director of Rugby Brendan Venter has been handed a 14 week touchline ban by the RFU. This is to be appealed. The full Saracens statement may be read here. The club is appealing.

There was a second hearing in which Schalk Brits was reprimanded and warned as to his future conduct by a Rugby Football Union disciplinary panel. This is good news - It is probably fair to say that Saracens go into the Final as second-favourites, so the fact that Brits is available to play is a relief. He has made a fantastic contribution to the Saracens since he arrived at the club and now has a week and a half to work with the team to finish preparations for the Final.

I shall now jump in the car to drive to Twickenham - I may have to consider staying over a week on Saturday, just in case a sherbert or two are required. Either that, or go the long way round by train. Weekday rush hour on the M25 followed by South West Trains or the Piccadilly Line (to be decided).... Yumm!

Come on you Sarries! Or should that be "way-a/Lay-o, Lay-o, Lay-o"?

Changing the character of the game

I am a Saracens season ticket holder. We have an important match against Northampton on Sunday - if we win, we will be in the Guinness Premiership Final at Twickenham at the end of the month. I hope Saracens do well.

Last weekend, Saracens played Leicester away, and won. The win was a bit of a surprise to many. I wasn't at the match, but imagine that the Leicester supporters were not happy that their team had lost.

There were a couple of incidents at the match. The RFU have charged the Saracens Director of Rugby with ‘pushing a lady supporter from Leicester RFC’ and with ‘conduct prejudicial to the interests of the Union and/or the Game’. Brendan Venter, the Director of Rugby, is clearly a man of some passion who has been responsible in a distinct uplift in results since arriving at the club.

In my experience, Mr Venter is however a miserable git - I sat about five seats away from him at one away match and it was like sitting near a man with his own personal thunder cloud. It was not a pleasurable experience - there was certainly no bon-homie.

Sarcens have but out a statement relating to the RFU charges, which may be read in full here. It reads well and is nicely polished and full of corporate spin.

One paragraph stands out:

“Brendan was put in an impossible situation at Leicester. Imagine Arsenal playing at Stamford Bridge, and Arsene Wenger being made to watch the game from a seat in the midst of passionate Chelsea season-ticket holders. It would not happen in football, yet that is exactly what happened on Saturday."

Yes, that's the problem. Rugby isn't football. Supporters from opposing sides sit with each other. We can drink beer in our seats and yet remain reasonable human beings.

Clearly as a Director of Rugby Mr Venter has to bring out the best in his players, usually involving some aggression and adrenaline. Mr Venter, leave it on the pitch. We do not want the game of Rugby Union going the way of professional football, where the behaviour of some supporters means that those from opposing teams are segregated. It would totally change the character of the game.

I would hope that rugby clubs would deal with opposing team officials with the utmost courtesy when seating their guests - but it is always down to the individual to behave appropriately. If someone can't stand the heat, then they should get out of the kitchen. It's a lot quieter in the car park.

Sorry. Had to get that off my chest. I am now running late.

A Quotation

"The difference between a misfortune and a calamity is this: If Gladstone fell into the Thames, it would be a misfortune. But if someone dragged him out again, that would be a calamity."

Benjamin Disraeli

2010 General Election - Number Crunching

Following Thursday's General Election in the UK, there will no doubt be an ongoing debate about reform of the 'First Past the Post' voting system.

I have extracted the following two tables which aim to show;

(1) The Number of votes / eligible voters per constituency

and

(2) The number of votes it took for each party to obtain each seat.

Two observations:

• The number of electors per constituency is just a number - I don't think my table proves anything, as individual seats range from about 22,500 to as much as 105,000. Such discrepancies cannot be right.
• I absolutely understand why Liberal Democrat voters might feel hacked off.

The arguments can go any way you like - I have neither the will, nor the knowledge, to write a coherent argument either for change or for the status quo.

For me, even acknowledging the view of the Liberal Democrats is an attempt at partisan rehabilitation.

A true story

Two of my neighbours originally came from a country in the southern hemisphere.

While stood at the station this morning, one of them told me that in one local election, his mother did not vote.

The election was a dead heat.

Please don't let the toss of a coin decide who is to be your next Member of Parliament.

Volcanic Ash - The Return

According to RTE, Irish airspace (affecting airports, not the high bit) will close from 7 am tomorrow, 4th May 2010.

The Outer Hebrides are apparently already affected.

As these latest closures are in line with the new internationally agreed guidelines, one can only assume that the ash must be a bit more dense than last time.

Beaconsfield on a Saturday morning

Someone was seriously assaulted late last night on or near the Northbound platform at Beaconsfield station.

It must be bad because a large area of the platform is taped off with various colours of police tape, with the British Transport police in attendance with cameras etc etc. I do hope that the victim recovers. Highly unusual thing to happen for the area.

As of an hour ago trains were stopping, though taxis were picking up and dropping off by the London bound platform.

*******************

While walking over the footbridge, I noticed that someone seems to have been having a good try at nicking the lead from the roof of the station. I have no idea whether this is new damage or old - whatever, it can't be good for the integrity of the station roof.

*******************

It may not have passed your notice that I use Chiltern Railways a lot. I do this because I live a little way out in rural Buckinghamshire and my annual season ticket enables me to let the train take the strain without spending more than I already do.

The only problem with this is that my ticket does not work the barriers at all stations, because Chiltern do not seem to be willing to upgrade the software that enables them to recognise that my ticket is valid, but being used at an intermediate station.

I've never had this problem at Beaconsfield till now.... As of this morning my ticket will no longer open the barriers there. This is going to be a nuisance for me.... I guess the station staff will just get to know me.

Cable

In the current higly politically charged environment surrounding next week's general election, I might be expected to get a bit more political in my observations.

I might be expected to observe how, yesterday, the Lib-Dem Treasury spokesman was pictured on a train from Waterloo. He is obviously a clever man but, caught off-guard, looked to me like a tired old man on his way to a charity board meeting. Maybe if we had more people like him, our politicians would be inclined to do less?

Speaking of cable, overnight some thieving scum-bags have stolen some signalling cable between Banbury and Leamington Spa. This has led to delays and some cancellations to this morning's train services, affecting Chiltern Railways, Cross Country trains and Wrexham & Shropshire.

There are currently masses of people stood on my train (last stop before London - Gerrards Cross). Throw a pebble in the pond and see how far the ripples spread...

High Speed 2

First things first.

I live in the beautiful Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, to the North West of London. Designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and part of the Green Belt, supposedly safeguarded land.

I like where I live, and moved here for some very specific reasons which include peace & quiet, natural beauty and an abundance of Flora and Fauna. I particularly like the fact that I live in an area that packs in an unbelievable number of Red Kites.

Recently the current government announced its plans for 'High Speed 2', a high speed train line to link London with Birmingham and eventually cities further North. The preferred route will head through West London before diving into a tunnel just before the M25, traveling underground for several miles before emerging to desecrate the landscape somewhere in the Great Missenden area. The line would then continue through the AONB towards Aylesbury and then on towards Birmingham.

The total width of the line and associated workings will be approximately 25 metres wide - the same as the length of a typical municipal swimming pool.

This afternoon I traveled on a Chiltern Railways train from Aylesbury to Amersham - the stretch of line between Wendover, Great Missenden and Amersham passes through some fantastic scenery. The thought of that countryside being forever blighted by a 25 metre wide concrete scar, with electric pylons and express trains passing through every two and a half minutes is not something that fills me with glee. Many people feel the same.

As the proposed route is the preferred choice of the existing Labour government, it is natural that their manifesto has the most specific detail on the proposals. Explicitly it says:

Rebuilding our transport infrastructure

Britain needs to invest in modern, high-capacity and low-carbon transport infrastructure. At the heart of our growth plan is the commitment to a new high-speed rail line, linking North and South. Built in stages, the initial line will link London to Birmingham, Manchester, the East Midlands, Sheffield and Leeds, and then to the North and Scotland. By running through-trains from day one, cities including Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Liverpool will also be part of the initial network. Journey times will be slashed – those from the West Midlands to London will be as little as 31 minutes. We will consult fully on legislation to take forward our high-speed rail plans within the next Parliament.

I am not overly keen on the proposed route tearing up and through, as it will, a relatively nice part of the South East of our Green and Pleasant Land. I will admit to breathing a sigh of relief that none of the three preferred routes in the HS2 Report cut through or near the valley where I live. Call me a nimby if you like.

The Conservative Party's election manifesto states:

We will begin work immediately on a high speed rail line connecting London and Heathrow with Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, with construction beginning in 2015, as the first step towards our vision of a national network joining up cities across England, Scotland and Wales. Stage two will deliver two new lines bringing the North East, Scotland and Wales into our high speed rail network.

What worries me about this is the directly stated intention to connect HS2 to Heathrow Airport. The reason this causes me concern is the lack of specifics on the stated route that such a line would follow - one possibility is that from being a reasonably content but unhappy nimby, I would become an "Oh my God you've got to knock my house down" nimby. That is not a good position to be in. A level of ambiguity and uncertainty that leads me to dislike a Conservative manifesto pledge.

The Liberal Democrats' transport policy is exceedingly wishy washy on HS2 simply stating:

Only the Liberal Democrats have costed plans to put the passenger first, with plans for a rail renaissance, reopening closed railway lines and new stations and building a High Speed Network to cut journey times to Scotland and the north of England.

So, I have previously been open about my political leanings. I need to cast a vote inside of two weeks. What difference will my single vote make in the context of a relatively safe-seat parliamentary constituency?

I know which political party I believe will be best for the country. I know which party's view is least worst for me on HS2. I know which is potentially the worst for me, and I know which one says nothing to help me form any opinion.

Conundrum, conundrum.

Recycling - But please use your vote!

I am not a particularly erudite blogger. By design, I tend to say things about public transport, occasionally I witter on about other things, and now and then I stray into politics.

For those who may not have noticed, the UK has a general election coming up in 11 days. A rare opportunity for some voters to make a difference.

My politics are fairly obvious to those who know me.

A can't stand Gordon Brown, I don't like the politics of the party that Nick Clegg heads up and I feel uneasy about David Cameron, the leader of the party whose policies trend more towards mine than those of the other main parties.

In September 2006 I wrote a post that I titled "This one is politics". A lot has changed in the last three and a half years, particularly from an economic perspective. Fundamentally though, I still believe in what I wrote and I think my words have stood the test of time.

If you are entitled to vote, please do. Vote for whoever you want. Vote for the party which has a leader you like, or vote on the strengths of a good local candidate. Whatever you do though, please use your vote.

If my personal views are not obvious enough, this video may help it become a little more obvious.

Interesting Routing on the way to Heathrow

In the lead up to UK airports re-opening last night, for some unknown reason I was wittering on about flight paths and made specific observations about Flight BA84 from Vancouver to Heathrow.

For the record, this image shows the merry dance that the flight made over the British Isles before becoming the first flight to land at Heathrow after 5 1/2 days.

The image is from flightradar24.com. Please click on the picture for a much larger version.

For the avoidance of doubt

Last night I was was clearly bored. There will be no repetition. I am not suddenly going to appear at an airport near you with a notepad and pair of binoculars.

Normal service will be resumed.

Very early this morning, the Central Line was suspended between North Acton and West Ruislip, due to over-running engineering work at Perivale.

All appears to be back to normal now as tfl are currently reporting a good service. A random check of the Live Departure Boards concurs with this message. Good thing really as the closure would have knocked out one of the three main train depots for the line.

So what about the flight from Lusaka?

Flight BA254 has just taken off from Barcelona and is due to land at London Heathrow at 00.50 tomorrow (Wednesday) morning.

It would appear that night time flying restrictions have been lifted tonight for the world's busiest international airport.

I have a colleague and his family stuck in Cyprus with another stuck in Madrid - I wonder how long before I see them.

It has been really quite pleasant having aeroplane free skies for the last few days. I have family who live in Twickenham, very close to the Heathrow flight path - it's back to the usual noise levels for them.

Happy flying!

I think that Heathrow Airport is about to open

I've been blogging for the last couple of hours about BA flights wandering aimlessly over the skies of North Western Europe.

NATS made an announcement an hour ago which said

Statement on Icelandic volcanic eruption: Tuesday April 20, 2040

Response to CAA statement

NATS has received new direction from the UK’s safety regulator, the CAA, on applying restrictions to UK airspace following the volcanic eruption in Iceland.

As soon as revised accurate information is available from the Met Office on the location of the dense ash cloud, NATS will review

airspace availability and provide an update to airline operators on any airspace that has been restricted for safety reasons. We will i

ssue a further statement by 2200.

Now take a look at this image - What do you reckon?

Lost in space...

... or perhaps that should be 'How to throw the losing dice'?

This image, from the excellent radarvituel.com shows four long haul British Airways jets currently heading for Heathrow.

So long as you are not geographically challenged, you may notice a slight problem.

The planes left Lagos (Nigeria), Calgary (Canada), Vancouver (Canada) and Beijing (China).

Houston, I think we have a problem!

Whether they end up in Madrid or Paris (either of which looks possible), I think if I were a passenger, I would rather have been diverted to Newcastle or Durham Tees Valley, both of which appear to be capable of receiving flights at this moment in time.

Ho hum.

20.30 I think the most easterly of the four planes was from Beijing and that plane landed at Amsterdam's Schipol airport. The 'orange' flight from Calgary is due to land at Paris CDG, the flight from Lagos has just done a circuit over the Channel Islands and doesn't seem to know what it is doing while the flight from Vancouver is currently doing lots of circuits over the Irish Sea.

20.50 The flight from Vancouver appeared to be about to land in Dublin, but then headed out over the Irish Sea again.

20.57 I've just noticed that flight BA254 from Lusaka (Zambia) appears to have done an about turn just South of the French coast and may now be heading for Spain? This looks interesting.

21.09 I hope the B747 from Lagos has plenty of fuel - it is still doing circles over the Cherbourg peninsular. The Vancouver flight is currently over Chester at 26,000 feet and heading South East towards Birmingham (currently closed). It must be an interesting evening on both of these planes.

21.20 The fligh from Lusaka appears to be heading for Barcelona and is currently descending through 17,000 feet. The Vancouver flight got as far South as Stratford-Upon-Avon and then did an about turn and has now done a circuit over Birmingham! The Lagos flight is still going round in circles.

21.27 I can't find the Lusaka flight any more. I am getting bored. You must be!

21.33 Just a thought... I wonder whether BA are trying to bully the UK authorities into letting them land at Heathrow. Currently there is a flight from Vancouver doing circles over Birmingham, a flight from San Fransisco that did a fantastic dance off the West coast of Ireland and which is now heading for the Welsh Coast, a flight from Lagos whic is still doing circles off the French coast, a flight from Los Angeles currently over Plymouth and a further two from Abuja (Nigeria) and Mauritius which have been circling over France and which are now heading across the English Channel.

Yuck - Look away now!

Beaconsfield is a generally charming town in the Chiltern Hills. It has a train station run by Chiltern Railways.

Yesterday (Saturday) at 10 am there was a pile of something rather yucky on the Northbound platform. It wasn't pleasant and was reasonably fresh. Uggh (shudders)!

Today (Sunday) the pile of unpleasantness is still there, looking less fresh, though just as unpleasant.

To be quite frank, the fact that the mess has not been cleared up in 24 hours is just bone-idle laziness. Beaconsfield is a staffed station and I know for a fact that roving station staff (whose jobs include cleaning) were out and about yesterday and are on duty today.

I know it's not nice, but if you are paid to do a job, get on with it. Don't just hope that management won't spot a problem and then leave it for someone else to clear up.

Unacceptable. Unacceptable. Unacceptable.

Rant over... It's a glorious day in rural Buckinghamshire with droning and vapour trail free skies. I'm now going to do some gardening.

Escalator Work at Oxford Circus

London Underground have announced that from next Monday, 19 April 2010, until summer 2011 Oxford Circus station will be exit and interchange only before 10.30 am on weekdays.

That means that before 10.30 am on weekdays it will not be possible to enter the station at street level to join the Central Line, the Victoria Line or the Bakerloo Line. The restrictions may also be implemented at other times if the station gets too busy.

It sounds bad, but the reality is that these restrictions shouldn't affect the majority of passengers. The access arrangements are being implemented to allow engineers to replace a bank of three escalators.

Away we go again

Back in January I went to Stockport, to watch Saracens play Sale Sharks. Except I didn't, but I did.

The match was cancelled due to snow, but I went anyway. I went anyway, because the trains were running and I couldn't get the money back that I had spent on my train ticket.

Anyhow, the re-arranged fixture was last night. I took the day off work and traveled up in the afternoon.

The match was enjoyable. Unsurprisingly there were only a tiny number of Saracens supporters who had made the trip up North (I'm guessing, less than 40), although the game they saw had just the right amount of stress.

The final score was Sale Sharks 19 - Saracens 30, so a good result for a small proportion of the people at Edgeley Park (Stockport County's ground).

There's a football match on at Wembley this afternoon, so there were quite a few Aston Villa fans out and about on the way down from Birmingham earlier.

Again Chiltern Railways and Cross Country Trains both behaved themselves each way.

Oh yes you are. Oh no I'm not!

I am currently sat on a Chiltern Railways 'Clubman' service from London Marylebone that will terminate somewhere in Oxfordshire Buckinghamshire*.

The dot matrix screens inside the carriages tell me that the first stop will be Banbury, followed by a number of stations in the Midlands, and finishing up in Shrewsbury.

Now, let's assume that the displays are wrong. I certainly hope so, otherwise I shall be very late getting home.

What I find strange is that the driver has even been able to program the displays with a set of destinations to which I don't think any Clubman has ever run in passenger service.

I wonder whether the separately badged Wrexham & Shropshire services have anything to worry about?

W&C is of course a sister company to Chiltern Railways, with a shared Marketing Director.....

*Edit: Correction made - I didn't have my timetable with me and had assumed the train was going to Bicester or Banbury, which was not the case.

Please stick fingers in ears and shout "La La La"

Repetition... Boring.... Repetition..... Boring......

The train is short formed again today. Grrr.

Still, at least the Chiltern Railways driver has apologised.

Beautiful morning. Not a cloud in the sky. A bit of ground frost at 6am this morning. Could turn out to be the warmest day of the year so far.

Dwarfism

"Oi! Are you calling me short?", said the train to the crowd of commuters waiting on the platform at Gerrards Cross.

Dead right. A carriage carelessly dumped in some siding somewhere. Not much of a welcome to all the commuters returning from a over-extended Easter break.

No mention of train dwarfism on the Chiltern Railways website this morning. Maybe it's to be the norm and they hope no one will notice...

Back of an envelope calculation

OK, the train I am on has lost 20% of its usual seats.

Where I am sat still has 20% of the seats empty. No one else will get on.

Some people usually stand.

I guess that 35 to 40 percent of Chiltern Railways' commuter passengers have gone AWOL today.

Short Today...

The Chiltern Railways' website advises that a few trains are a carriage short today. Obviously those particular carriages never made it back from their Easter holidays.

The website makes no mention of the train that I am sat on, which is also missing a carriage.

Actually, whatever the reason it shouldn't really matter - Trains and car parks seem fairly quiet this morning.

Doom Monger

One of my work colleagues, who is of the 'the glass is half empty' type, said to me on Thursday that the London Underground was 'virtually shut' this weekend due to Engineering Work.

I sort of poo-pooed him and, as if to make a point, travelled along a bit of the Central Line yesterday morning - it was working fine.

Today is different.

At present, only the Northern, Victoria and Piccadilly Lines are operating a normal service. All other London Underground Lines are either (i) totally closed, (ii) partially closed or (iii) partially suspended.

This image above is here to mark the position for posterity, though the clickable widget to the right should show the live position.

Happy Easter!

Igloo on Wheels

The 10.18 Chiltern Railways departure from London Marylebone is currently en-route to Birmingham Snow Hill.

Don't get on the third ("Quiet") carriage. The lights are off, plenty of people are sitting in it, and they've all got their coats on. The engine underneath the carriage isn't running and I suspect that unless the driver gets it started, the train will struggle to maintain time all the way to Birmingham.

*Perhaps Igloo isn't the most appropriate description - I understand that igloos are supposed to be surprisingly warm inside.

Over Running Engineering Works - EG3 v1.0

After a few weeks of relatively harmless week-night engineering works, the gremlins hit last night.

Early this morning, Chiltern Railways didn't seem to be able to run Up (London bound) trains between Princes Risborough and High Wycombe.

Inevitably a few trains were cancelled. Trains have been running through for the last hour or so, but there will still be some problems for a while yet, as a few trains will be in the wrong places.

Two Fridays in a Row

Last Friday evening, at about six o'clock, some poor soul lost their argument with the front of a Northbound Chiltern Railways' train at Beaconsfield. The line was closed for two hours, a family received some very bad news, and the services were completely messed up until the last few trains of the day.

I got home one train in-front so did not suffer the problems that thousands of people did.

Tonight I was a bit later coming home - a train a couple behind mine broke down on the Northbound line at Neasden, at one time trapping five trains behind it. I suspect they've managed to move it into the depot or sidings at Wembley, as trains appear to be moving again with some minor delays and just the odd cancellation.

More of the white stuff

I spoke to my Grandmother last night. She lives up in the Yorkshire Dales and is now 93.

She told me it had been snowing heavily all day. She agreed (!) that she wouldn't try to clear the snow and would stay inside. I was also told that food stocks were good.

At six o'clock this morning, it was chucking it down with rain in my neck of the woods, the North Western edge of the Chiltern Hills, in Rural Buckinghamshire.

By 6.45 the rain had turned to big white fluffy snow flakes.

I doubt it'll amount to much as the heavy rain means the ground is simply too wet and warm.

Well that's a first!

I don't get very many comments. That I can cope with.

What I don't want to have to cope with is sexually explicit comments in Korean.

Deleted. But really, such behaviour is not necessary and is inappropriate.

What Happened Next....

It was all pretty good:

• The flight took off about an hour late, partly I think due to de-icing the wings.
• We were only in the air for 95 minutes, so landed just half an hour late. Mind you, we did land so heavily that some passengers squeaked and, because the plane was going to bed, we taxied to such a far flung area of Luton airport that we couldn't even see the terminal!
• The immigration desks were fully staffed and
• Best of all, our luggage was already on the carousel by the time we got to it.

Sleep beckons.....

First Out - Last Back

Last Saturday we caught a reasonably early flight from Luton airport.

So far as I can tell, the plane then then did a couple of return trips from Salzburg to other UK airports, before making a final trip back to Luton at the end of the day.

Tonight, we are on that final leg back to Luton, before the plane goes to sleep for the night.

These arrangements meant that (a) we were able to make our own arrangements to travel to Salzburg this morning, thus having the day free to look around the city and (b) there was always going to be the possibility of our flight being late, due to the compounding effect of 'issues' throughout the day.

Having had a good day, after having checked in we were told that our flight could be up to two hours late. The good news is that all involved appear to have made up some time and our cases are now loading and a departure about 45 minutes behind schedule looks likely. Not bad.

Life without a smoking ban

Despite my continuing to babble on, I have not been in the Uk this week.

I have been fortunate enough to have been enjoying a skiing holiday in Austria.

I have always liked Austria. I probably always shall. That's that!

One thing that I have noticed is that people in Austria can still smoke in bars and restaurants. In the UK, smoking in such places is banned.

In Austria you can smell smoke on your clothes after an evening out. In the UK, you can't. The smell is horrid and I had forgotten about it.

Having said that, I am firmly against rules, regulations and the interference of the state in our daily lives. I therefore remain against the smoking ban in the UK and applaud the approach of the Austrian people towards the avoidance of the nanny state.

Back to my roots

Crikey - I have actually been back Along the Central Line.

An emergency appointment at the dentist saw me heading back towards Northolt. So it was one stop Eastbound from South Ruislip, an un-enjoyable* 30 minutes in Northolt and then 30 minutes into the West End from Along the Central Line.

I waited no longer than 30 seconds for either train, the journey times were quick and each train was quiet. If only I could always travel to work at lunchtime!

The only problem with quiet trains is that they can't last for ever. If trains are consistently quiet, due to less people traveling, then eventually the operator will cut services. One should think before wishing too much for quiet trains - regularly quiet = uneconomic.

* I don't like going to the dentist, but do try to go regularly. Upon explaining the problem, my dentist looked in my mouth and said "Oh, that's not too bad. I can fix that". In and out in 10 minutes. Fortunately, not back to my roots. Result!

The Yoof of Today

A girl was waiting outside Beaconsfield station. I guess she was about 14. She looked as though she was waiting for a friend.

Sure enough, after a couple of minutes her friend turned up - from over the footbridge on the platform side of the barriers.

It quickly became apparent the the waiting girl had neither the intellect, nor the ability, to purchase a ticket unaided. She did not appear to have what are described as 'learning difficulties'. Quite simply she was what I would call 'scatty'.

Anyhow, through the railings her friend patiently described the process of buying a ticket and the girl eventually flourished her train ticket in the air proudly saying "How do I get in?".

There are two ticket barriers to the platform. Having spent 20 seconds trying to ram her ticket into the 'way out' barrier (the one with the big RED light), she eventually gained access through the 'way in' barrier (yes, you guessed it, the one with the big green light on it).

Most Chiltern Railways stations have automatic Ticket Vending Machines. They are generally pretty straight forward to use. They are also good because if you buy tickets online, all of the TVMs will print out your tickets, provided you designated the appropriate station as your collection point.

Following some robberies, a small number of Chiltern's un-staffed stations have had their ticket machines removed. This is a significant inconvenience for some passengers. It is thought that the thieves may be currently enjoying a stay away from home at Her Majesty's Pleasure.

It would be nice if the railway company could reinstate the machines, but that is as likely as it starting to snow Smarties.

Sign of the times

Walking between Marylebone and Baker Street stations are two blocks of small shops.

Out of ten shops on one of the blocks, three have recently closed.

It may well be a particularly greedy landlord. In a way, I hope that is the case. Otherwise a 30% closure rate in the space of a month would seem to confirm that the retail sector is currently suffering a nightmare.

Unless that is you are one of the large supermarket chains.

Obviously, we want to live in a world where we are forced to shop at one of the large supermarkets. Naturally, life would be better without local independent shops and speciality retailers.

New Travel Information Call Centre number for London

About a month ago Transport for London launched a new number for their Travel Information Call Centre. It is 0843 222 1234 which is reassuringly similar to the old number (020 7222 1234).

Just be aware that this number may not be included in your 'free local call' quota if you have such a thing in your landline or mobile package. If you were previously calling from within London (or from just outside), then the old '020 ' would have been included in most quotas.

The old number is still working.

Thanks to London Reconnections for the tip (and see for more detail).

How deep can we go?

Over the last few days I've done quite a bit of driving around the bottom half of Buckinghamshire.

The state of the roads is quite shocking. There are potholes everywhere, some of which are quite big. Big as in some are wide, big as in some are deep and big as in some are wide and deep.

The potholes are on busy roads and on quiet roads. They are in the towns and in the countryside.

The potholes will have been caused by the recent long cold weather. Combined with the modern cheap and cheerful way of patching up roads, their really is an epidemic of them.

Last week the Bucks Free Press quoted the Leader of Buckinghamshire County Council as saying that the authority would not be borrowing money to fix the road network stating "Borrow £10million and look for another £1million cut in frontline services".

I totally understand where the Council is coming from, but it doesn't help to fix the roads. If we have another cold snap, some roads will be virtually impassable at anything more than 20 mph.

On a separate but related matter, I was chatting with a fellow commuter last week. I know what he does and where he works, which is in the public sector. Most people would probably want what he does to continue, and to a high standard.

In the upcoming financial year, his department / team / function is facing having its £2.5 million budget cut by over 80%. That means job losses, site closures and significant challenges in the future.

These two examples of public finance problems are what I have heard of in the last few days. Many people simply have no idea of the scale of the economic problem that this country faces.

We are all going to have to face up to a challenging future for public finances. Please do not underestimate the scale of the problem.

Watch out if you are heading to North West London on the Underground this weekend

If you are in or are heading towards North West London this weekend, the chances are any underground journey will be disrupted.

The Metropolitan, Jubilee, Bakerloo and Piccadilly Lines are amongst those with part suspensions.

Visit the tfl website for more information (this link should always show the current position for planned weekend engineering works).

Mustn't Drive

An hour's drive to get here. A lovely meal in good company. A couple of bottles of wine, some Port and fun conversation.

Bodies spread all over the house - I am on the sofa. Fire in stove nearly out. Room warm.

Early start, lots to do. Sleep is rushing upon me. Zzzzzzzz.

Luck lucky

On a couple of evenings this week, the Central Line has had 'issues'.

Somewhat unusually for me, I have made various return journeys on the Central Line on three different days, this week.

On every occasion, the line has behaved itself, so I really mustn't grumble!

More on seat management...

Off to a breakfast meeting in town, then out to the East End, then back to Soho.

Not quite as bad as Tuesday where I had seven hours of back-to-back meetings, plus traveling from Soho (the first), out to Canary Wharf (second & third) and back again for the rest. For the record, that would be the Bakerloo, Northern & Jubilee Lines.

I am currently sat on a Chiltern Railways train that runs non-stop from Princes Risborough to London Marylebone. It started at Warwick Parkway at 0540.

Everyone who got in the back carriage at the last stop got a seat. There are no empty seats.

That takes very good planning. Oh, and luck.

A minute saved

As of a few minutes ago, Oxford Circus station was closed due to a fire brigade investigation.

My Northbound Bakerloo Line train did not stop at the station, thereby saving about a minute off the journey time.

I caught my train at Marylebone with 45 seconds to spare.

Result!

Front or back?

I usually sit in the back carriage of this train. Usually the same seat. The perk of a moderately long commute - one can choose where to sit.

At the last station before London Marylebone, Gerrards Cross, few people who get on at the back get a seat.

Today, I need to make a quick get-away when I get to London. I have chosen to sit in the front carriage.

We have stopped at the last stop before Marylebone and there are still quite a few seats available.

They will be like cattle at the back.

The usual doctrine is that passengers heading for a terminus will tend to bunch towards the front of a train

Clearly the clever folk of Buckinghamshire are far to clever for that. Shhhh. Don't tell them, there may be a rush!

Not enough seats. Again.

Continuing on the theme of my micro-rant of Saturday evening...

I am currently sat in the rear carriage of a Marylebone bound Chiltern Railways service.

The train has one carriage less than usual. That fact is noted on the Chiltern Railways website, which is usually kept well updated.

The only trouble is, there have been people standing since I got on. At present there are eleven people standing in this back carriage. It will be much busier up front.

Every one of those people will have stood for more than 20 minutes on a peak time arrival into London.

Not Good Enough

This post is about money and what passengers should expect for it.

I had some upper middle-aged relatives stay with me earlier this week. They live up in the North East of England. Like most upper middle-aged people (I have to be careful, as they may read this), they have free bus passes which work on all local bus services across the UK.

They also have annual passes for the Tyne & Wear Metro. As upper middle-aged people they pay £12 a year each for those passes.

They were somewhat gobsmacked when I told them how much I pay each year to travel to and from work. When I renew my ticket this year, it will cost me over £3,600. That is a lot of money.

Two single journeys and one return journey, between London Marylebone and my local station, cost each of my relatives somewhat more than twice what they pay, each year, to travel on the Tyne & Wear Metro. They were somewhat surprised at the cost. The journeys were not in the morning peak and all were bought with Upper Middle-Aged Railcards.

While traveling out of London the other day, a work colleague mentioned that he is seriously considering driving in to London from Oxfordshire, simply because his train and car park tickets cost so much.

The trains are all diesel and each carriage has engines. It therefore follows that every additional carriage costs more money to run. However, as I have already pointed out, passengers pay good money to use the trains.

It has been noticeable over the last week or so that Chiltern have been running shorter trains than is normal. Generally just the odd carriage here and there. The problem is that their usual train lengths are based upon very accurate records and monitoring of passenger flows.

Specific examples were on a number of evening peak trains from London last week. I know that snow caused a few issues, but there does seem to be a drip, drip, of shorter trains.

This afternoon's 16.12 train from Birmingham Snow Hill to London Marylebone was a 2 coach train. It was pretty full at Princess Risborough (a very small number of middle 'glower loudly' seats were available). At High Wycombe about 50 people tried to board, hardly any will have got a seat and many didn't even try to get on. The train was to run none stop to London with a journey time of 30 minutes.

On a weekend it really should not be necessary to stand for half an hour on any train.

The Chairman of Chiltern Railways stated publicly, only yesterday, that the purpose of the the business was to make money. I have no problem with that - that should be the aim of all businesses. He also said that this was achieved by listening carefully to what passengers wanted.

Chiltern Railways regularly publish performance and Customer Satisfaction Results. They are generally excellent, though it is noticeable that the last figures show that only 46% of customers think that their journeys are good value for money.

So, there are two possibilities:

1. The train company may be suffering from an abnormally high number of train failures, leading to shortened trains. If this is the case, Chiltern Railways should be open about this, tell their passengers, and advise what they are doing to fix the problem, or;
2. The train company is deliberately shortening trains to save money. Obviously they wouldn't want to publicise such a policy and I hope it is not the case.

Regardless, Chiltern Railways need to look at their train lengths on certain services. My observation from the last couple of weeks is that some trains are simply too short.

I am generally pretty supportive of Chiltern Railways (they are after all one of the best run railway companies in the UK), but if the current situation continues then they will start to see a drop in their recorded customer satisfaction scores.

Preparing for the weather

Nowadays, there are lots of different sources of information for the weather forecast.

Generally I think the forecasts on BBC Television channels are pretty good.

During the current inclement weather I have come to base a lot of my actions on the Severe Weather Warning pages of the Met Office website.

They consist of four colours:

• Green - Behave as normal
• Yellow - Behave as normal, make sure I am wearing a coat
• Orange - Whatever happens, it's quite likely I will notice the weather
• Red - Eeek. Could be a problem. Don't go to the supermarket, because the locusts will have beaten me to it

I must stress that these are my own interpretations. You may need to adapt to a slightly different scenario. I can walk to my local train station and Chiltern Railways seem to be unable to contemplate me not getting to work, so I go.

Except for today, because I had a day of pre-booked leave, just because we are approaching the end of the holiday year. Use it or lose it!

What a smart move

After several Millennia in charge of the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show, Terry Wogan may well have been sat ready to choke on his cornflakes this morning as his successor to the slot started at 7.00 am.

Much has been written about each of Sir Terry and Mr Evans and, in particular, the suitability of the latter to take over the former's broadcasting slot.

It was therefore very clever that the first thing Chris did was to welcome veteran newsreader Moira Stuart back to the BBC, neatly deflecting attention away from him.

Ms Stuart is a national treasure and will be brilliant. Chris Evans seemed pretty good as well. No one should be surprised. He is a highly experienced middle aged broadcaster, used to having 6 million people tune in to his old tea time drive time show.

Good luck to the new team.

Chiltern Railways are running their normal militarily precise service this morning. The small amount of overnight snow seems to be causing a few slight problems for the Metropolitan Line, but other than that, the London Underground is currently running well.

You are probably not that interested....

... but yesterday, I ended up in Manchester and Stockport.

It wasn't particularly planned and I certainly hadn't planned what I was going to do while I was there, not that I was up in the North West for that long.

Upon arrival at Manchester Piccadilly station just after 12.30, I did a terribly modern thing. I asked my mobile phone to tell me where the nearest galleries and museums were. It came up with one called 'Cube'. Having vaguely heard of it, and having checked its website to make sure it was open, I wandered along to Portland Street taking photographs as I went.

First of all I came across Canal Street. Now sometimes I can be a bit slow on the uptake but even though the street was deserted I didn't need a tourist guide to tell me that I had inadvertently discovered the throbbing Gay heart of Manchester, At least, that's what it looked like to me.

Halfway down Canal Street is Sackville Gardens in which there is a statue of Alan Turing who some acknowledge as the "father of modern computing". I nicked the quote from Wikipedia, so being a lazy blogger assume that that fact is 100% correct!

Anyhow, the whole area was almost deserted. I guess from the number of bars, clubs and restaurants that the area is usually humming - mind you it was 1.00pm so probably the opposite side of the clock to when the heaving throngs put in an appearance.

I then wandered along the the Cube gallery (top picture). The shop was open, but the gallery was closed. Anyhow the nice man in the shop gave me clear directions to the nearby Manchester Art Gallery, which I spent an hour walking around. Jolly good it was too.

Avoiding the trams, I then walked back to the station via Piccadilly Gardens and a rather imposing statue of Queen Victoria. The gardens didn't look like gardens - I just assumed it was a pedestrian plaza covered in snow.

I then took a 10 minute train ride to my original destination of Stockport.

I hadn't really known what to expect of Stockport, but once I found the centre, it was a surprisingly eclectic place with a reasonable shopping centre, roads and bridges at multiple levels and the fantastically imposing Plaza theatre. It was, I believe, originally a cinema - it certainly looks that way.

Unfortunately I didn't have time to visit the Hat Museum - how good an advert is that chimney!?

Unfortunately I never did locate an Aquarium. The original purpose of my visit up North had been to see some sharks - Sale Sharks were due to play Saracens yesterday. Unfortunately the match was called off mid-week. As I have mentioned, my lack of fore-sight meant that my train tickets were non-refundable, so I decided to go anyway.

I different way to fritter away a day!

Despite the weather seen across the UK over the last week, each train in each direction was bang on-time leaving every station. Well done Chiltern Railways and Cross Country Trains.

North West Passage

It's dusk. The sun is sinking over the horizon and it really has been a nice crisp winter's day.

I am currently passaging Cheshire (I think), comfortably sat in a Cross Country Trains train, heading for Banbury.

Determined not to waste any more money, since I left home this morning, I have spent the princely sum of £0.99. A cup of tea had my name on it.

I never did find an aquarium. The first art gallery I went to was closed, despite its' website saying otherwise. No, not the weather. The second was good.

I'll see what my photographs are like later. Maybe an explanation for my insanity as well.

Refund? No Way!

To qualify for a refund on today's ticket, my train would have had to have left the station at which I joined it more than 60 minutes late.

So far the train has left on time from every station. To the second. Despite a bit of snow lying around, the train hasn't needed any of the extra time built into the timetable.

It is a beautiful day up here in the Potteries. Blue sky. Snow on the ground but a lot less than in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

So far, Chiltern Railways and Cross Country Trains have done well for me.

Only an hour to go - I wonder whether my destination has an aquarium?

Pointless Journey

I think that today will be a pointless day.

Today I am going on a journey. The only point of the journey is to use the train tickets for the journey on which I cannot get a refund. It is either that, or drop them in the shredder. That would be like dropping £10 notes down a drain. I am from Yorkshire. People from Yorkshire do not do that.

There is a nice clear sky. There are no Severe Weather Warnings in place.

We'll have to see how it goes... I might even tell you what I see along the way.

Oh, such excitement!

Snow Clearance

I mentioned earlier that no Chiltern Railways' London bound trains are stopping at West Ruislip today. This is to minimise the risk of a points failure at that station during the current bad weather.

I can verify that the line running past the London platform has not been used - there are currently piles of snow delicately balanced on the rails.

I can also verify that the platform, at which no trains are going to stop, has been cleared of snow and is looking immaculate.

West Ruislip in the Snow and Ice

West Ruislip is at the western end of the Central Line and is also served by Chiltern Railways.

The published plans for today, (Emergency Timetable due to weather, 7 January 2010) state that Chiltern Railways will not stop at the station (on the way to London ONLY) but that additional trains will stop at South Ruislip.

This will be a bit of a nuisance for a relatively small number of passengers. However further research makes it a sensible course of action.

The London bound platform at West Ruislip is built in the manner of a passing loop - only trains due to stop there actually use the line - all through trains whizz down the fast middle line.

By removing the need to use the points, a significant risk of mechanical failure is eradicated. Quite sensible really.

Splitting up is never easy

Every weekday morning there is a London bound Chiltern Railways train that arrives at High Wycombe just before 7.00am.

The back two carriages are empty - Usually what happens is that they separate into a new train, which follows the front four carriages after a gap of six minutes.

This morning the two parts of the train were split only with great difficulty and some delay.

The consequence is that we are now running 10 minutes late, it was standing room only from Beaconsfield and I yearn once again for the Yuletide solitude on the trains.

They might as well have joined the two trains back together. Actually, I've just remembered that they can't. The four Clubman coaches rapidly turn into the 0750 fast Birmingham service from Marylebone, so they wouldn't want two slow carriages stuck to the front.

I guarantee we'll be fighting off Birmingham bound passengers as we try to get off in London.

Ho hum.

Staying in the North

May 2003 saw me enjoy a five day break in Iceland, timed to be at the same time as the Annular eclipse of the moon that occurred in the early hours of 31st May.

Five days is enough to see most of the usual touristy things that one can do from Reykjavik. We did manage to get up onto a glacier, though that was the only ice we saw. We saw some stunning waterfalls and also had a most enjoyable day trip with "Mountaineers of Iceland" in their 'Super Jeeps.


Don't worry - they are most definitely not into animal cruelty. One particular lamb seemed to take a particular liking to our white vehicle while driving down a river. It would seem that it's mother wasn't as big as the one with four wheels that had suddenly made its day. The only way to get it out of danger from being mangled was to scoop it up and deposit it a couple of hundred metres away!

By the time we left our hotel in the early hours of 31st May 2003, the weather had taken a bit of a turn for the worse, so eclipse viewing from South West Iceland seemed improbable.

Fortunately our contingency plans included a chartered Fokker 50 aircraft which took off from Reykjavik Domestic City Airport at 2.45am. After a fantastic flight that involved flying round in circles 60 miles north of the Arctic Circle (and some champagne), we eventually landed back to a rain sodded airfield at 5.15 am.

Not the most environmentally friendly holiday ever, but still great fun!

Retrospective Number 4 - The Faroe Islands

August 2002 saw me on a brief walking holiday in the Faroe Islands, an autonomous province of Denmark and located in the North Atlantic roughly half-way between Norway and Iceland.

The tourist season is short - only about six weeks long. Partly because of the weather and partly because the population and infrastructure is such that it makes sense to concentrate on using school buses and student accommodation during the school summer holidays.

I refer to the first picture as my 'Floating Island' shot. It is a picture of the island of Fugloy, the eastern-most of the Faroe Islands. I never did get there.

This second picture is of the harbour at Gjogv, a small settlement in the north of the islands.

Edit: I have just remembered that I have previously shared another picture of Gjogv, here.

The most memorable thing about the Faroes, for me, is how remarkably photogenic the landscape is. If you are lucky enough to visit the islands in good weather, the landscapes are stunning and the walking not too challenging.

Traveling by road often includes using tunnels (an integral part of the limited transport infrastructure), a half-adventurous tourist will certainly make use of ferries and the flight in to Vagar Airport can best be described as interesting! The airport is built on the only piece of land in the Faroe Islands that is flat enough.

The final picture in this episode of my self-indulgent retrospective shows me stood on a cliff on the island of Vidoy with Fugloy & Svinoy behind.

Q & As

Q: Can I get the Central Line from Baker Street?
A: No. There are many possibilities, but the easiest ways to get to the Central Line from Baker Street are to catch either the Southbound Bakerloo Line to Oxford Circus or the Southbound Jubilee Line to Bond Street.

Q: Is the Central Line running on Sunday 3rd January 2010?
A: According to the tfl website, the Central Line is running a normal service this weekend.

Sourced from an analysis of the Google searches used to find this blog today.

Numbers

Just got home from my New Year celebrations. A really pleasant dinner party with some (7) of my oldest friends.

Nicely rounded off this morning with bacon sandwiches and a drama with a fish (15) tank.

I started this blog four (4) years ago. It is not the most widely read blog in the world - a couple of days ago it clicked over the 20,000 page hits milestone. I am not going to brag about the number, because some of the blogs I read get that many hits in a week.

This is the 350th post I have made - 2009 saw me post twice as much as in any of the previous three years. I post what I want, when I want. Sometimes I struggle to write anything, other times I prattle on about anything.

Whoever you are and however you got here, may I wish you a very Happy New Year.

There's just no stopping me... Yet

Number three in the series takes us to 2001.

The long haul flight towards the end of that year took me to the island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean.

Reunion is a French Department. Basically, if you go there you are in France. You spend Euros, if you fly in from Paris you on an internal flight, and it appeared that everyone drove French cars.

It was October 2001 - The Euro didn't yet start for another 10 weeks, but all the shelves in the supermarkets and stores were already dual priced in French Francs and in Euros. Not what I had expected when so close to the Equator.

This picture was taken very early in the morning approaching the summit of Piton des Neiges (at 3,070 metres above sea level, the highest point on the island). It's a reasonably tough walk, involving an overnight stay at a mountain gite.

This is another image taken on my pre-digital point and click camera. My SLR was in my rucksack - at approaching 3,000 meters I realised the sun was rising over the Indian Ocean, but had neither the time nor the energy to do anything other than point and click with my baby camera.

Each of the pictures I share is special for some reason. This one because (a) just getting that far up the mountain was hard work (the views from the top are spectacular) and (b) because it captures a moment in time that I simply had not planned.

Ghost Busters

For the last two mornings, I've had the station platform to myself.
This morning, someone else joined me for the lonely journey to work. The front two carriages of the train were totally empty, so our ghost busting skills were needed before it was safe to sit down.
I can only assume that solitary passengers had got on at each of the previous stations, to be quickly subsumed by the apparitions. [Either that or they had decided to stay in bed.]
Always travel in numbers! We have since been joined by a few more people, so I think we are safe now.
On a BAU front, Chiltern Railways are running a good service at present, with extra late night trains home tonight.
If you want a copy of the special timetable, do ask at your local staffed CR station, they've got loads. I think this is because the paper versions only arrived from the printers just in time for Christmas.
After some very early morning niggles, the London Underground service now appears to be running to plan.
I can also report that the M25 motorway is quiet and running well near the roadworks in the Junction 17 area.

Elf and Safety

This is the next in my series of memories from the last ten years.

The Autumn of 2000 took me to Central America. Specifically to Belize.

What a fantastic country! Belize is unexpectedly small. It has beautiful beaches and islands. It has wildlife in abundance. It has Lord Ashcroft. The country holds memories for many people who have served in the British Military and is an absolute treasure trove of Mayan Ruins.

I well remember the comment made by my Grandmother, having gallantly waded through a couple of hundred photographs. She looked up and said wistfully "I'm all templed out".

This picture was taken at the top of 'El Castillo', at the ancient Mayan site of Xunantunich, near the town of San Ignacio in the West of Belize.

The drop was as precipitous as the photograph might suggest. Can you imagine our elf and safety zealots allowing tourists to visit such a place without all manner of risk assessments and safety paraphernalia? I don't think so.

Stepping back in time

As we approach the end of the first decade of the Twenty First Century, it seems that many people are taking stock of what has happened to them over the last ten years. Please indulge me while I do the same.

Ever since I was at school I have enjoyed photography. I used to spend hours in the darkroom developing black & white film after black & white film. Hardly anything got printed - I remember that film cost about a penny a frame whereas it cost at least five times that much for a sheet of photographic paper.

Moving forward to the last couple of weeks of the Twentieth Century, I learnt an important lesson about modern technology. Anything that needs power needs power. I know it's obvious, but I spent those weeks in the mountains of Nepal - a long way from electricity or any source of replacement batteries.

My old Minolta SLR camera sucked the juice out of AAA batteries like you wouldn't believe. Combine that with huge contrasts in temperature between day and night, and my camera quickly became all but inoperable. My little APS camera, with it's funny shaped film cassettes, just about lasted the course, though I did have to make sure that I kept it as warm as I could.

So, all in all, while a great trip, photographically speaking the holiday was not a resounding success.

This picture was taken on Christmas Day 1999. It was scanned from a long lost print on a scanner that came out of the ark.

It does however mean a lot to me. The peak with the cloud blowing off the top is Mount Everest. You will see many better pictures of the tallest mountain on the planet, but as far as memories go, it was a great place to spend the last days of the previous millennium.

Woops!

I know that the description block at the top of this page is not the most exciting in the world, but someone (including me) should have spotted the spelling mistake - it had only been there for four years!

It has now been corrected!

B.N.M.

I hope you had a good Christmas. I did, though I suspect that far too much turkey was consumed than was strictly necessary.

Back to the grindstone for me today.

I note that the Bakerloo Line is closed until 3rd January 2010 between Queens Park and Stonebridge Park for engineering work. It may slow my journey to work, we'll just have to wait and see.

Chiltern Railways are running an amended timetable today. The station car park was totally empty this morning and I was the only passenger on the platform.

Billy No Mates.

Just the two of us

Yes, that's just the two of us - in my carriage of what is usually the busiest commuter train into London from my local station.

Merry Christmas!

The morning after the night before

Chiltern Railways appear to have pulled 'Contingency Plan Z' off the shelf this morning. There are a number of pre-planned cancellations this morning, you can get details from the usual sources (sorry no mobile linking).

I suspect the issue is with drivers who can't get to work rather than problems with the infrastructure or trains.

Trains very quiet.

High Wycombe no longer grid-locked.

Please see widget to right for current status of tubes. As at 0735, all are running OK except for the three sub-surface lines running through Baker Street.

Long time no see...

So I'd better talk about the weather!

There has been quite a bit of snow in the Chilterns this evening. More is forecast.

High Wycombe is currently grid-locked. Apart from one central valley, as the name implies, the town is a series of hills. Two wheel drive vehicles cannot currently get up any of the hills. No sign of any police or gritters.

The temperature briefly rose, but a sharp frost is now due, with more snow forecast. It will be bedlam in the morning.

Chiltern Railways have had a small number of cancellations this evening, but are generally running a good service. Trains are busy as people have abandoned their cars and are letting the train take the strain.

I have spoken to two friends who are having to sleep at work tonight - one in Camden and one in Slough.

This image of the local Tom Tom traffic report grabbed just now speaks volumes.

Quote of the day...

Very loudly: "Stand clear of the doors please!".

The train then pulls away..

"You have now delayed this train by one minute. This is not a taxi service."

Bravo.

Says a lot about Chiltern's approach to puctuality.

Source: 1228 AYS to MYB via HWY, Sun 6 Dec 2009. Start of journey.