On Trains & Buses

A Major Switchover

Posted on February 12, 2022

Reading time: 2 minutes.

Perhaps unwisely, this website has gained a technology overhaul. It was powered by WordPress for a long time until I got fed up with its slowness. While a server upgrade would have helped, I went for something more drastic: a switch to something completely different.

It is all on a new server anyway so I thought that I would try something else: the automated building of a static website from MarkDown files using Hugo. With less happening on the server, you should see things load faster albeit with some front end scripting to enliven things a bit. In this, I am not alone but it is a more technical approach that may be for everyone. My skills fit this and it is good to try something else.

It also was a chance to reorganise the existing content and even to remove obsolete items so some old links may not work as they did. Some broken links did get fixed though and it reminded me of my mindset and situation earlier in the site’s history. Then, I was a commuter who had enough time to use trains and buses on hill walking and other excursions as well. These days, I work largely from home and the ongoing pandemic has reduced the extent of my outings. The latter hopefully will expand as things improve but there is something else too: I used to keep more up to date on what was happening in transportation.

These days, I limit my Twitter use because there is too much bad news around for my psyche to take and that curtails my learning of new developments. Still, some things come my way like the ongoing travails of rail funding and an upcoming reorganisation and there also is the new buses initiative in England that is long overdue and may prove to be a case of being too little too late.

While travels were curtailed by the pandemic, many services were cut and ceased to run altogether. Then, there was not much to say but an increasing sense of normality could change that and more travel means more experiences to relate too. Also, being out and about means that anyone should come across things that they would have learned otherwise.

After the technical changeover, it is time to keep adding content and I hope that there will be much more to come. Stories of old overseas escapades could make a start and we badly need an uptick in transportation initiatives because it all feels as if things have been on hold for far too long.