On Trains & Buses

A quick trip to the National Rail website reveals that it has undergone a marked change in appearance. Of course, it’s the algorithm that does the journey planning that really matters and only time will tell on that score. Even with just an initial look, I already have noticed one omission and it’s something that I have used a lot. The feature in question is the ability to find either the first or last journey of a given day by selecting from a drop-down box. It was something that I found very handy when planning day trips. Getting the same information is now going to be less slick so this is a step backwards. It may not have been a feature that many used and there is a workaround so it looks as if I’ll have to get used to a new way of doing things. Even so, it is a pity to have lost it.

Update: The facility is still there, albeit not where I would have expected to have found it. For what it’s worth, it’s in the leaving/arriving menu.

Last weekend saw me take the Caledonian Sleeper from Crewe to Fort William. After a none too restful return from Aviemore in August, I booked a berth to make sure of a better night’s rest (being able to turn off the lights helps). It wasn’t the first time that I travelled by Sleeper to Fort William and a January 2006 escapade saw me arriving in Fort William feeling reasonably refreshed so I knew that my plans had some form, to use an expression from horse racing. Since that 2006 journey, memories have faded a little and I had forgotten how little floor space there is to be found even in a first-class berth and the corridor wasn’t very wide either. Yes, I did travel first class on both occasions with the second outing costing less than the first with my getting an advance purchase fare the second time around. That’s never to say that it was cheap at £136 so it has to be a once in while extravagance and the standard single ticket is around £184, which is even more forestalling. Even the standard class fare isn’t cheap either and having two in a berth sounds restrictive.

The reason for the title of this piece is that there was more audible noise than I’d expected though it was nothing like the brake roar of a Mark II carriage like the one(s) on which I was travelling when going to and from Aviemore. The carriage in which I was travelling was immediately behind the locomotive on the way to Edinburgh so that may have been part of the reason for this along with the general turning of wheels that is unavoidable. Even so, I did manage to drop off to sleep even if it was to be interrupted from time to time. In keeping with the general lack of space, the bed wasn’t the widest but I discovered a duvet that either remained unfound or was absent on my 2006 trip. That was a bonus on a cold night and put a stop to any recourse to coverage with an outer jacket.

It was beyond Bridge of Orchy that I arose and opened the window blind to be greeted by the sight of snow-topped summits with the sun struggling from its slumber. That awakening was later than in 2006 when I looked out at Tyndrum Upper station and the tops were devoid of the white stuff too so that was one previsualisation put out of its misery. Breakfast duly arrived within a few minutes of the agreed time (included in the fare for first-class and costing extra for standard class) so the pull-down tray shelf allowed me to down the allotted portions while gawping at what lay outside my window. In the event, I was left wondering when the glorious sights were to ease off to allow for ablutions (you get a covered sink in the berth) and collection of belongings but there was to be time for those necessities too.

All in all, it was a good journey and I went out into the frosty Fort William air not feeling the worst for wear after the night’s travelling. If I ever get to do it again, I’d bring earplugs to make getting to sleep easier but you cannot do anything about awakenings caused by jolts as the train changes tracks at a junction. Even so, you do arrive feeling far better than you would after travelling overnight on a coach. On the surface, there are issues with value for money but a look at daytime fares helps to put that in perspective. Travelling mid-week helps too and there are bargain berths if you book ahead, especially if you are starting from London. Even with the cost issue and the fact that there are no Saturday night services, it probably is the best way to travel overnight to Scotland. While you could always fly and avoid overnight travel altogether, you’d miss out on those early sights of the hills and lochs and that has to be better than worrying about environmental consequences and luggage considerations. That the airborne option is not always cheaper either makes it less sensible to miss out on those visual delights.

Mobile ticketing has been with us for a little while now with Scottish Citylink and National Express offering the option to text tickets to any GSM-enabled phone. Arriva seems to be taking things a step further with GPRS and allowing the opportunity for users to download an application onto their phone that is then used to buy a range of tickets. Following registration, it is the phone that does the work and has the required payment details. It’s all secured with a PIN and nothing is stored on Arriva’s servers. However, you do need a compatible phone and cheapskates like me with old bricks (I have my old Motorola from 2000 in mind here) or even recently acquired inexpensive bog-standard phones (like my Nokia 1661) are outside the loop for this means of buying day, weekly and monthly tickets. You’d think that every smartphone would be part of the offer too but that’s not so. In a way, it’s understandable that iPhone users are not served with Apple’s iron grasp of its App Store but Blackberry users are still waiting too. What this implementation illustrates is the need for a more standard computing environment for mobile phones because their platforms are even more diverse than the desktop PC world that gives me the machine on which I am writing these words. Arriva’s idea is a good one but it’s partly stymied by diversity in technology but that’s not the fault of any transport company.

Two nights ago, the A34 was reduced to gridlock after a digger was left in the northbound lane by Bollington Lane. To be fair, it was guarded by temporary traffic lights but that in itself was the cause of havoc. Not only did they back up traffic by themselves but they must have caused trouble with the permanent lights at Monk’s Heath as well as those around where the Alderley Edge bypass is to join the A34. That roundabout should be complete by December 17th though the bypass exit from it will not be operational until 2011. However, both sets of temporary lights stopped everyone in their tracks those few evenings ago with their reduction of passage to one way progress. Thankfully, Birse Civils learned their lessons and the Bollington Lane lights were gone within 24 hours though it might have been better for them to have realised the potential effects beforehand. My guess is that they will not be seen again until after the completion of the roundabout though I do wonder if they have gone to the A537 instead because the 27 (Knutsford-Macclesfield) was heavily delayed tonight. As if all this weren’t there apparently have been another set of temporary lights in Alderley Edge and their acting up has caused its own troubles. All in all, motorists might need to consider avoiding the A34 at rush hour for the next year if these experiences are any sign of what lies ahead. Buses don’t have that luxury so public transport users will have to make do and put the bus tracker to good use.

It seems that rail engineering projects aren’t being stymied by the downturn that seems to be the case in Éire as much as it is in other places. Today saw the announcement of further efforts towards putting the DART Underground in place for Dublin. It should be remembered that the original above ground DART was constructed in the middle of another recession in the early 1980’s so it looks as if history is set to repeat itself. Naturally anyone living above where the tunnels are to be going will be concerned but tunnel construction has happened in Ireland (and Dublin too) before without any above ground consequences so that should give a little reassurance. That there are forward thinking projects like this in progress in a country in public sector borrowing reduction should be some cause for optimism for the future, especially when there’s always the temptation to scale back these very things in the short-term.

The U.K. still retains a more expansionary approach with all of the excitement surrounding HS2. However, that will won’t be in place for a good while so enhancing what we already have might be a better idea. Thankfully, Manchester’s rail congestion is coming to notice and there’s London’s Crossrail and other such schemes in the offing too. With all of this and what is happening in the Middle East (Dubai) and with high-speed rail in the U.S.A., you have to say that railways are seeing something of a renaissance at the moment. Hindsight nearly always is 20-20 vision but it now very much appears that a transport strategy based around private motorised transport only was going to get us so far and we now have the congestion to prove it. Add the threat of global warming (has it been overplayed even if it’s real?) and the need to cut down on carbon footprints and it seems that we live in an interesting age when the benefits of public transport are there for all to see. Let’s hope that it stays that way.