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<Sidelines home » Archives » January 2007

igneous
Halford and Market St are the latest streets in Leicester to be made over with granite paving slabs and granite seats. Apparently Britain, which quarried the granite for the terraces of Parliament and managed to build the world's 2nd largest granite building, no longer has granite suppliers able to supply enough for the Leicester work, so they are using Chinese granite.
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big schemes
The North East Scotland Regional Transport Strategy in its current form supports 3 major road-traffic generators: the AWPR, Balmedie dualling and the new runway; the schemes intended to "balance" these pale into insignificance: a new wooden platform at Laurencekirk, more frequent crossrail services (a good idea but still only half-hourly for the foreseeable future), vague plans for cyclists etc. Lots of people will benefit from the new runway, but how about a significant pledge: all cash spent on the airport will be matched by a similar amount spent on getting people TO the airport without their cars. There is more pie in the sky talk about a fixed link to the airport that just won't happen, but there's already a fixed link to the airport: Dyce station. It just happens to be on the wrong side of the airport. Would it be impossible to dig a tunnel under the runways and put one a moving walkway in it?
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bring on Branson
Some good things have happened since Branson started running trains in the west of Britain. The Voyagers are good, the Pendolinos are even better. The acceleration out of stations can't fail to impress. It's very quiet on board. The curved toilet area is so good that hiding in it is probably a viable option on short journies. The booking website genuinely tries to get you the cheapest fare it can, some of which are very cheap. All in all it's encouraging to see a bid from Branson (shared with Stagecoach) for the East Coast franchise.
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