During my daily commute I congratulate myself on transferring away from London to the local branch of my company and replacing an expensive, overcrowded, uncomfortable and unreliable train journey with a 5-minute walk, and even more so on strike days. Mind you, I hear that even non-strike days are now pretty dreadful and for the […]
Entries Tagged as 'Railways'
Solving the Southern Fail problem
October 19th, 2016 · Comments Off on Solving the Southern Fail problem · Life, Politics
First-class councillors
February 22nd, 2010 · 9 Comments · Politics
The comments of Nicholas Winterton this week certainly wound a few people up for various reasons. For once I find myself in total agreement with the official Tory party line that this represents “the out-of-touch views of a soon-to-retire backbench MP”, although I do wonder it it also represents the out-of-touch views of some MPs […]
Back through the tunnel
November 26th, 2009 · Comments Off on Back through the tunnel · Life
Got back from another quick trip to France tonight. There were a couple of meetings today, but the first was at 10:00 so I went out yesterday. Back in the old days I could have done it all in a day – when you could still fly from Gatwick to Orly and could turn up […]
Long day
June 8th, 2009 · Comments Off on Long day · Work
For a change I had a work-related trip abroad that even I couldn’t wring a bit of enjoyment out of. I like to arrange schedules so that there is a little scope for sightseeing, photography, shopping or museum-visiting but this time it all went horribly wrong. Started at Crawley station just after 6:00am. Met my […]
Something for nothing
March 9th, 2009 · Comments Off on Something for nothing · Life, Work
There might be a catch but I haven’t found it yet: just a few limitations.  Today there was a stall at work manned by people from something called Easit. They gave us photocards that we can use to get 20% discounts on rail travel.
Near Misses
February 11th, 2009 · Comments Off on Near Misses · Life
I saw these on teh news last night and could hardly believe how stupid/lucky these people were. A couple of the clips were so unlikely I just had to hunt them down on Youtube.   Unlikely as in: if a Hollywood film featured such a close shave you would think it too close to be realistic. […]
Blue sky thinking
January 19th, 2009 · 4 Comments · Life, Technology
Having had some small involvement in aviation, rubbing shoulders with fellow members of the LGA’s aviation special interst group and the Gatwick area consultative committee, I am on nodding terms with the theory of hub airports. As a result I can sympathise with notion that Heathrow as it stands will not be able to compete […]
Parisienne Walkways
November 14th, 2008 · Comments Off on Parisienne Walkways · Life, Work
I’ve just got back from a little trip to Paris. I can’t even call it a flying visit because I took the Eurostar again. They are up and running after the fire, but not so frequent and the journe takes even longer. It was another visit to our French offices for a union-related meeting where […]
Tags: France·Paris·Photos·Railways·Trade Unions
Firestarter
September 11th, 2008 · Comments Off on Firestarter · Life
A fire in the Channel Tunnel is once of those disaster scenarios we didn’t want to see, but it looks like it all got handled pretty well. Personally I find it quite reassuring that whatever systems they have in place worked to detect the fire, extinguish it and evacuate staff and passengers without loss of […]
Tags: Railways
Who would have thought it?
July 7th, 2008 · Comments Off on Who would have thought it? · Life
According to a survey by Barclaycard and reported in today’s papers, business travellers are in favour of airport-style security at all rail and tube stations. Just trying to get my head around this… people who predominantly travel at somebody else’s expense and probably in ‘company time’ ((and probably in first class with a guaranteed seat)) […]