The first quarter of 2012

I spent this afternoon at Wembley Stadium, where Saracens hosted (and lost) to Harlequins. The result was a shame because it was a good game of rugby to watch, particularly the second half.

As the quarter draws to a close I reflect on a couple of enjoyable ski holidays, lots of rugby, 8655 miles by rail so far in 2012 and the price of petrol going through the roof.

All in all, I am fairly content - I just wish the pace of life would slow down a little.

February - Where does all the time go?

The end of the month has slowed down a bit as I am currently away skiing.

Anyhow here are the stats for this month:

Operator	Miles Travelled
Chiltern Railways	2,482.575
First Great Western	25.0875
London Midland	11.5
Southern	26.6625
Virgin Trains	258.925
Cross Country	460.125
Total for Month	3264.875

Hopefuly I shall return next week with al limbs intact, ready to rejoin the rat race.

What a load of tosh!

The Transport for London Press Office has just put out a press release saying how well TfL coped with last night's snow.

I have copied the text at the foot of this note for posterity.

• Please note that late yesterday evening. the Central and Jubilee lines were totally suspended.
• Thousands of of people struggled to get home from an Olly Murs concert at the O2 Arena last night. Roads in the area were log- jammed and, as I say, there was no Jubilee Line.
• A Chiltern Railways train was stuck behind a Metropolitan Line train for over an hour, I think out in the Chorleywood area. The Metropolitan Line was stated as being suspended North of Wembley Park, late in the evening.
• Annie Mole has captured the status of the London Underground as a whole, as at 11.30 pm yesterday evening. It was not good.

Personally I think that a piece of PR puff should include an acknowledgment of what real people actually experienced, rather than just stressing the the things that didn't break. If you read TfL's version of the truth, one might gain the impression that everything went swimmingly well with transport in London last night. Hmmmm.

---

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

TfL works to keep London moving through snow
05 February 2012

Leon Daniels, Managing Director of Surface Transport, said:

• "We have worked tirelessly from Saturday afternoon and throughout the night, gritting the Capital's main roads every few hours and running de-icing trains along the London Underground network"
• "Around 2,000 tonnes of grit has been spread by TfL and boroughs and all main roads and the vast majority of local roads are open and traffic running smoothly."
• "Bus routes are all operating this morning and there were only a few curtailments on night bus routes overnight."
• "Tube services have started well this morning, but with some issues on the outer reaches of the Central and Jubilee lines. We are woking hard to get these sections running as soon as possible."
• "So London is open for business today, but clearly people should take care on the roads and allow plenty of time for their journeys."

Milestone

I notice that the number of page hits to this little blog has just passed 30,000.

Now, I know that most visitors find themselves here by accident, usually as a result of typing some random term into an interweb thingy search whatsit, but nevertheless I am most grateful.

My feeble utterings have just passed their sixth anniversary and I appear to have written on a broad range of matters though, as it says on the tin, most posts are linked in some way to travel and transport. Please feel free to take a look at the 'Long List of Labels' to the right.

I do not chase around for readers, many blogs have masses more, and the number of comments (and therefore presumably interest?) has diminished a little over time.

Writing and musings occur when I want, and about what I want. I am not about to set the world on fire - it won't however be long before the number of hits overtakes the mileage on my car.... See some travel context!

CU

A Relatively Slow Month

Crikey, that's the first month of 2012 gone already!

At one point I didn't think I was even going to make 2,000 rail miles for the month, particularly as I was abroad for a week. I didn't even travel to the airport by train!

Anyhow, here are the numbers for January 2012:

Operator	Miles Travelled
Chiltern Railways	2,219.925
London Overground	1.9125
Southern	7.8125
Total for Month	2,229.65

Initial travel plans lead me to believe that there will be a bit more variety and distance next month.

The Light Bulb

Near where to I live, there is a light bulb. It lights the road and path under a railway bridge.

The light bulb is dead. It is an ex light bulb. It is no more.

Without light, the path under the bridge is pitch black at night. I mean dark, really dark - you could bump into somebody walking in the opposite direction.

• A neighbour (who originally arranged to have the light installed, and arranged the funding), says that the railway company agreed to maintain the upkeep of the light. He asked me to report the fact that the light had died, to the railway company.
• The local manager at the railway company declined to fix the light, saying they have no recollection of the agreement to fix it.
• I then telephoned the Network Rail Help Line. They tell me that as the bridge is a road bridge, the light is likely to be the responsibility of the 'Highways Authority'.
• I dig further and establish that the District Council maintain very few lights, but that the most likely authority will be the County Council.
• I speak to the County Council. A very helpful lady zooms in on her map and tells me that they have no lights, for which they are responsible, in our area.
• We live in the middle of nowhere.
• The nice lady tells me, with some conviction, that the light will be the responsibility of the local Parish Council. She even provides me with a telephone number for the Parish Clerk.
• I leave a message for the Parish Clerk, outlining the problem.
• I then see a senior manager from the local railway company (the actual person who allegedly agreed to maintain the light, some years ago). He re-affirms that there is no corporate memory of the agreement and again declines to help.
• A conversation then follows with the Parish Clerk, who confirms that the Parish is not a 'Lighting Authority' and maintains no lights whatsoever. He follows it up with an email.
• I then write to our County Councillor seeking guidance, for I know not what to do next.
• The neighbour who original told me that the light is broken, then tells me that the light is definitely wired in to the electrics at the nearby station and, indeed, is controlled by the same timer that controls all the lights on the station platforms.
• We go to look at the light and somebody decides to buy an appropriate light bulb from "Light-Bulbs-R-Us" or similar, and repair the light.

Is this a sign of the 'Big Society'?

I know who I think should repair the light. Any thoughts?

Parliamentary Train

Thanks to the tip-off by Diamond Geezer last week, today I travelled on the 10.02 Southern 'Parliamentary Train' from Kensington Olympia to Wandsworth Road.

As described by DG, it is indeed a weird feeling to board a train when the public address system explicitly tells you that the train is not in public service.

The only real difference between my journey and that experienced by Mr Geezer last week is that the train guard explicitly spoke with every passenger on board, before the train left Kensington Olympia, to make sure that they really meant to be on the train.

That would be me and a couple who like me, seemed to be on the train simply so as to make the journey that has no real purpose.

We left on time, called briefly at West Brompton and Imperial Wharf, before passing over the River Thames and then crossing a maze of railway junctions, somewhere South of the river.

We stopped for seven or eight minutes adjacent to the carriage works for the Venice Simplon Orient Express, before eventually pulling into Wandsworth Road station a minute early at 10.19.

If the point in travelling is the travel, then the journey was a short success. If the point of travel is to get to your destination, in this particular case, I wouldn't bother, but then I virtually need to use my passport when venturing as far South as Wandsworth.

I did travel North from Wandsworth Road, but back to Victoria. However I note that Ian Visits has previously made the afternoon return trip on this rather unusual, once a a weekday there-and-back train service.

The (Half) Year in Numbers

Summary figures for train travel in the second half of 2011 are:

• July: 2130mi 66ch
• August: 2002mi 26ch
• September: 3513mi 04ch
• October: 3824mi 76ch
• November: 3573mi 35ch
• December: 2683mi 59ch

This means that in the second half of 2011 I have travelled 17,728 miles 26 chains by rail, not including the London Underground.

In that time, I have spent 14 days, 5 hours and 8 minutes on trains and have been delayed by 1 day, 16 hours and 49 minutes.

I think that is quite enough of numbers for now, that is all!

December Trains

Ok, that's me done for trains for 2011.

Statistics for the month of November 2011 are as follows:

Operator	Miles Travelled
Chiltern Railways	2,657.7
South West Trains	26.0375
Total for Month	2683.75

That's the lowest in a month since August.

Sugar Rush for the End of the Year

I've had three days at work this week - as usual it was surprisingly busy (primarily because enough people were allowed to take the week between Christmas & New Year as holiday).

After work on ThursdayI had a house party to go to, which was most pleasant. So much so that I had to return yesterday evening to retrieve my car. Hic!

Tonight is off to some friends to see in the New Year. I said that I would supply the desert.

There won't be that many of us. I think I may have gone overboard.....

Happy New Year!

A line that I did not want to cross

I've just checked the new price of my season ticket. £4,008! Yes over Four Thousand Pounds!

Fortunately my ticket lasts another five months, but it is still a rubicon.

Some Chiltern Railways passengers have been moaning because they are currently only offering a 5% renewal discount until 13th January.

A 5% renewal discount applies for annual tickets if peak time punctuality falls below 92% over the previous 12 months. By my way of thinking, if punctuality has been less than 92% for the last 12 months, they will have to have exceptional performance for the figures to go above 91.9% by June. Here's hoping that my mathematics is correct, anyway.

Four Thousand Pounds!

End of holiday family evening

Tonight we had a really good (for me) end to the family Christmas.

Six of us went along to Twickenham for the Harlequins -v- Saracens rugby match.

There was a sell out 82,000 capacity crowd, a world record for a normal club rugby match. Saracens beat Harlequins 19 points to 11, breaking the Harlequins' all season unbeaten run in the Premiership. Hah! Merry Christmas!

The temperature was remarkably mild for a 1630 end of December kick-off. The ages of our party ranged from 13 to 69 and we all had a good time.

Next, we have to beat Gloucester at Vicarage Road on New Year's Day. Roll on Sunday!

How not to speak to customers

I don't do it very often, but I am going to name and shame.

This evening I went out to try to complete my usual last minute Christmas shopping.

I was in the ladies department of House of Fraser in the Eden Shopping Centre in High Wycombe.

I sought advice from a shop assistant as to style suitability for a top for my Mother. I do try not to buy vouchers every year. The response I got was:

"No, my Grandmother wouldn't like that."

Ouch!

Track Bashing the Chiltern Mainline - Again

Three months ago, Chiltern Railways launched their new 'Mainline' service and timetable, to much fanfare.

It would be fair to say that implementation was not glitch free. That is an understatement.

Since implementation of the new timetable, the Public Performance Measure ("PPM") has been below the franchise requirement of 93.75% and monthly season ticket holders have recently been receiving 5% discounts upon renewal. That is not good.

To give absolute clarity, I detail at the foot of this note the PPM measures as reported by The Office of Rail Regulation, for each of the individual 2012 industry reporting periods to date. The Moving Annual Average PPM moved up from its low of 92.6% to 92.7%, for the most recent period.

Back in September I blogged upon my experiences of the first day of the new timetable. It is probably fair to say that I stress tested the timetable and it was not a rip-roaring success.

Today Chiltern Railways had the first weekday of the new Winter Timetable. There are not many changes to the September effort, and the changes that have been made aim to improve reliability and (in the main) the passenger experience.

Today I had a couple of bimbles up and down the line and, as in September, I present the facts and figures on today's track bash.

For the record, this time my travelling today started during the morning peak and finished not long efter the end of the evening peak. The journeys were evenly spread throughout the day although, almost certainly, will not necessarily reflect a sample of every journey type.

• Total number of individual train journeys: 11
• Total distance travelled: 388 Miles
• Longest train journey: 92 Miles
• Shortest train journey: 5 miles
• Highest individual average journey speed: 77.9 mph
• Average speed of all journeys: 60.5 mph
• Cumulative delay: 29 minutes
• Number of cancellations experienced: 0
• Number of times my train was pulled over to allow a Mainline (express) service to overtake: 0

While not perfect, a comparison with 5 September 2011, shows a considerably improved passenger experience. The 11 minute delay in the morning was caused by a track circuit failure just north of Bicester North, while the final journey delay was as a result of a late start, due to waiting for a late-running Mainline service to pass through. I do know that there were problems that did not affect me - for example I saw one Londonbound train from the West Midlands pass through High Wycombe almost half an hour late.

The evening peak service from Marylebone is clearly still not fully sorted yet. There are one or two stations in the Chilterns that are still unhappy with the impact of the new timetable, and the availability of rolling stock is clearly still an issue.

Once again, all of this was made possible thanks to the good people at Chiltern Railways. No free tea today, but altogether a more pleasurable experience than three months ago. Back to normal commuting next week.

PPM: Source Office of Rail Regulation. Extracted 13 Dec 2011.

New Platform Allocations for Marylebone from 12 December 2011

The new Chiltern Railways timetable started today. This means that some trains will have had their allocated platform slots changed at Marylebone.

The table below shows the current planned departure platforms from London Marylebone, for the normal weekday afternoon / evening peak timetable.

A big thank you to Tom Cairns and his web based Timetables App via whom I sourced the Network Rail data. He is a very clever chap.

I cannot stress strongy enough that these platforms are not guaranteed, and are all subject to change at short notice!

You have been warned.

London Marylebone between 1600 and 1859 weekdays from 12th December 2011
Dep		Departs to		Platform
1600		Gerrards Cross		1
1607		Birmingham Snow Hill		3
1610		Bicester North		2
1613		High Wycombe		4
1626		Aylesbury		2
1630		Birmingham Snow Hill		4
1633		Bicester North		6
1636		High Wycombe		5
1640		Gerrards Cross		1
1643		Aylesbury Vale Parkway		5
1646		Birmingham Moor Street		3
1649		Banbury		2
1653		Aylesbury		3
1656		High Wycombe		4
1707		Kidderminster		1
1710		Stratford-upon-avon		2
1713		Aylesbury		6
1716		Aylesbury Vale Parkway		5
1719		High Wycombe		2
1723		West Ruislip		5
1727		Aylesbury		4
1737		Birmingham Snow Hill		3
1740		Bicester North		3
1743		Princes Risborough		2
1746		Aylesbury Vale Parkway		4
1750		High Wycombe		3
1756		Gerrards Cross		5
1759		Aylesbury		6
1807		Kidderminster		2
1810		Stourbridge Junction		5
1813		Banbury		3
1816		Bicester North		1
1819		Aylesbury Vale Parkway		6
1822		Aylesbury		4
1825		High Wycombe		6
1829		West Ruislip		4
1833		Aylesbury		2
1840		Birmingham Snow Hill		3
1844		Leamington Spa		2
1847		High Wycombe		5
1850		Aylesbury		4
1853		Bicester North		6
1856		Aylesbury		3
1859		High Wycombe		6

E&OE

The Early Bird Catches the Worm

A few weeks ago, I blogged about my homeward bound journey experiences, using the new Chiltern Railways timetable that started on 5 September 2011.

I now tend to catch the same train to work most mornings. The general view of the recent performance of Chirltern Railways is that it has been fairly poor. My own experience is that the performance of my normal morning train has been pretty good.

Because I can geek for England, I tend to record details of my train journeys. Please see below for the detail.

The train (1H03) has been short formed twice (three carriages instead of four). I have had a seat on every day, except for one of the short-formed days.

Chiltern Railways had have had a lot of stick recently from disgruntled customers. It's a real shame that I have had to start travelling at stupid o'clock in the morning to have a decent journey to work - If everyone could have my experience, then there would be lots of contented customers around.

Date	Origin	Destination	TOPS	Dep	Arr		Delay (see note)*	Av Spd
12-Sep-11	PRR	MYB	168217	06:36	07:06		On time	72.6mph
14-Sep-11	PRR	MYB	168217	06:36	07:10		0h 04m	64mph
15-Sep-11	PRR	MYB	168107	06:34	07:05	-	0h 01m	70.2mph
16-Sep-11	PRR	MYB	168005	06:37	07:18		0h 12m	53.1mph
19-Sep-11	PRR	MYB	168219	06:36	07:06		On time	72.6mph
20-Sep-11	PRR	MYB	168215	06:34	07:04	-	0h 02m	72.6mph
21-Sep-11	PRR	MYB	168219	06:33	07:02	-	0h 04m	75.1mph
22-Sep-11	PRR	MYB	168001	06:33	07:03	-	0h 03m	72.6mph
23-Sep-11	PRR	MYB	168002	06:33	07:05	-	0h 01m	68mph
26-Sep-11	PRR	MYB	168003	06:35	07:05	-	0h 01m	72.6mph
27-Sep-11	PRR	MYB	168215	06:34	07:04	-	0h 02m	72.6mph
29-Sep-11	PRR	MYB	168001	06:33	07:06		On time	66mph
30-Sep-11	PRR	MYB	168106	06:35	07:05	-	0h 01m	72.6mph
03-Oct-11	PRR	MYB	168003	06:38	07:09		On time	70.2mph
04-Oct-11	PRR	MYB	168005	06:35	07:05	-	0h 04m	72.6mph
05-Oct-11	PRR	MYB	168001	06:34	07:07	-	0h 02m	66mph
06-Oct-11	PRR	MYB	168005	06:34	07:04	-	0h 05m	72.6mph
07-Oct-11	PRR	MYB	168216	06:37	07:07	-	0h 02m	72.6mph
10-Oct-11	PRR	MYB	168217	06:35	07:05	-	0h 04m	72.6mph
11-Oct-11	PRR	MYB	168003	06:38	07:14		0h 05m	60.5mph
12-Oct-11	PRR	MYB	168215	06:37	07:11		0h 02m	64mph
13-Oct-11	PRR	MYB	168216	06:35	07:09		On time	64mph
14-Oct-11	PRR	MYB	168106	06:37	07:09		On time	68mph
17-Oct-11	PRR	MYB	168106	06:35	07:05	-	0h 04m	72.6mph
18-Oct-11	PRR	MYB	168001	06:38	07:11		0h 02m	66mph
19-Oct-11	PRR	MYB	168002	06:34	07:05	-	0h 04m	70.2mph
20-Oct-11	PRR	MYB	168106	06:38	07:09		On time	70.2mph
25-Oct-11	PRR	MYB	168005	06:35	07:15		0h 06m	54.4mph
26-Oct-11	PRR	MYB	168110	06:36	07:06	-	0h 03m	72.6mph
27-Oct-11	PRR	MYB	168002	06:34	07:08	-	0h 01m	64mph
28-Oct-11	PRR	MYB	168216	06:35	07:05	-	0h 04m	72.6mph
01-Nov-11	PRR	MYB	168002	06:33	07:05	-	0h 04m	68mph
03-Nov-11	PRR	MYB	168109	06:35	07:06	-	0h 03m	70.2mph
09-Nov-11	PRR	MYB	168106	06:35	07:05	-	0h 04m	72.6mph
11-Nov-11	PRR	MYB	168002	06:33	07:03	-	0h 06m	72.6mph
14-Nov-11	PRR	MYB	168216	06:34	07:05	-	0h 04m	70.2mph
15-Nov-11	PRR	MYB	168217	06:33	07:05	-	0h 04m	68mph
17-Nov-11	PRR	MYB	168003	06:34	07:05	-	0h 04m	70.2mph
18-Nov-11	PRR	MYB	168216	06:34	07:04	-	0h 05m	72.6mph
21-Nov-11	PRR	MYB	168217	06:33	07:05	-	0h 04m	68mph
22-Nov-11	PRR	MYB	168005	06:35	07:06	-	0h 03m	70.2mph
24-Nov-11	PRR	MYB	168003	06:34	07:05	-	0h 04m	70.2mph
29-Nov-11	PRR	MYB	168005	06:33	07:04	-	0h 05m	70.2mph
30-Nov-11	PRR	MYB	168216	06:35	07:05	-	0h 04m	72.6mph
05-Dec-11	PRR	MYB	168216	06:35	07:06	-	0h 03m	70.2mph

*NB A Minus Sign (-) in the 'Delay' column indicates that the train was early.

Too Much Time on Trains - Again

Statistics for the month of November 2011:

Operator	Miles Travelled
Chiltern Railways	3,135.1875
East Midlands	252.875
South West Trains	48.675
National Express East Anglia	136.7
Total for Month	3,573.4375

Today is a Yellow Day

Actually, in this part of rural Buckinghamshire, it is really rather a nice day. As dusk approaches the sky is a clear blue and the ground is dry. All a marked contrast to the weather up in Birmingham this morning, where it was grey, misty, damp and cold.

Yellow Day?

That refers to the leaf falls expected on the railways and indicates that specialist track treatment trains may be expected out and about today.

The Network Rail waterjet train should currently be at Marylebone... If it is, then it will be leaving (or should that be leafing?) for South Ruislip in about 20 minutes (16:15). It should be at South Ruslip just after 16.30 where it will reverse back towards Greenford, will head under the Central Line down towards Ealing, past Ealing Broadway (just after 5.00pm) before heading off to bed in the Willesden area.

Unless you are in the immediate area, not much excitement there.

Chiltern Railways do also run their own Sandite train. It was trowelling around early this morning, but was tucked up back in bed in Aylesbury before most sensible people were even aware that it was Saturday.

Thank you TC for the info. To be clear - it could be that none of the above happens, but given that there are more fresh leaves on the ground now than on any other day, it should.

Here's a really ropey video of the waterjet train passing down the Metropolitan Line late last Sunday afternoon.

Birmingham Christmas Market

Earlier this week I was up in Birmingham, for work, when the receptionist told me that the annual Christmas Market was setting up. She was most excited about the prospect.

The Birmingham City Council microsite certainly bigged it up so, this morning, I decided to nip up to take a look.

I was actually quite impressed.

To begin with I walked from Snow Hill station to Victoria Square where to start with I was mildly under-whelmed. However further exploration revealed that the market also stretched the full length of New Street and there really are quite a lot of stalls.

There are unsurprisingly lots of outlets selling Germanic food and drink, but there are also lots of handicraft stalls selling everything from candles through to fruit bowls, clothing and general nic-nacs. Many of the outlets and artisans are local, but there are also plenty of our continental friends who have come over to give the market a truly authentic feel.

I recommend a visit. If possible, I suggest that you arrive as early as you can - by the time I emerged from the stalls at the bottom of New Street, it was really getting rather busy.

The market is open daily from 10.00am to 9.00pm daily from now until Friday 23rd December 2011.

Travel was by Chiltern Railway. They currently have a rather spiffing weekend offer (make sure you follow the instructions and follow the terms & conditions) enabling people to travel across their network for £10.

All in all, a good way to warm up into the Christmas spirit.

Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto

The names of the four largest moons that orbit the planet Jupiter.

This is what they looked like when viewed through the lens of my camera last night.

I am quietly chuffed.

CU